Why Viral Comments Are Becoming One of the Most Powerful Brand Awareness Channels for Consumer Brands - Example Tide from Procter & Gamble (P&G) 🧼

For years, brand awareness in consumer marketing has been dominated by paid reach. Brands buy impressions, run video ads, and compete for attention in increasingly crowded feeds. But there is a quieter, frequently underestimated channel that consistently outperforms expectations: viral comments.

When done right, a single comment can generate more engagement than a full paid campaign and stay visible far longer, because witty comments and brand association imprint in the human brain stronger than a face-forward paid ad.

Flaca Intelligence automates such Engagement for you. 👈

The Tide Rescue Example: Visibility Without Interruption

A strong example comes from Tide Procter & Gamble (P&G).

A user posted a nostalgic video about rediscovering an old invisible ink bottle and playfully squirting it all over her clothes. The video itself went viral, reaching around 1.5 million likes. But what turned it into a brand-awareness moment was what happened in the comments.

Tide Rescue joined the conversation with a clever, timely response. That single comment rose to the top of the thread and generated almost half a million engagements on its own. Likes, replies, and shares focused entirely on the brand’s presence.

No ad placement. No interruption. Just additional relevance, timing, and tone.

Why Comments Outperform Ads in Brand Memory

Comments live where attention already is. When a post goes viral, people don’t just watch the video, they scroll the comments. This is where reactions, humor, and cultural context are processed.

A strong brand comment benefits from three things ads struggle with:

1. Context

   The brand appears naturally inside a moment people already care about.
   

2. Social Proof

   High engagement on a comment signals relevance instantly. People trust what others react to.
   

3. Longevity

   Unlike ads, comments don’t disappear when spend stops. They remain visible as long as the post circulates.

For consumer brands, this means awareness that feels earned rather than bought.

Viral Comments Create Familiarity, Not Just Reach

Brand awareness isn’t just about being seen once. It’s about being recognized the second, third, and fourth time someone encounters your name.

When brands consistently show up in viral conversations:

• Audiences begin to recognize the name

• The brand becomes associated with cultural moments

• Engagement shifts from curiosity to familiarity

Over time, this creates a presence that paid impressions alone rarely achieve.

From Opportunistic Wins to a Repeatable Strategy

The challenge is that viral comments are often treated as lucky moments. Someone on the social team happens to see a post early, reacts quickly, and it works.

That approach doesn’t scale.

This is where Flaca Intelligence comes in.

Flaca Intelligence turns viral comment placement into a structured, budget-driven activity. It uses AI to identify high-performing posts early and generate context-aware comments that feel native to the conversation. For brands, this means viral visibility becomes something you can plan for, not hope for.

Why This Belongs Next to the Ads Budget

For consumer brands, viral comments are not a replacement for ads. They are an addition. Just like ad spend:

• Budget controls volume

• Consistency increases impact

• Performance compounds over time

But unlike ads, viral comments build organic presence. They strengthen brand recognition without interrupting the user experience and continue to generate awareness long after they’re posted.

The Takeaway for Consumer Brands

Modern brand awareness isn’t only built in ad placements. It’s built in moments, inside feeds, inside conversations, inside comment sections where culture actually happens.

Viral comments turn attention into recognition.

Recognition turns into familiarity.

Familiarity turns into brand preference.

And with tools like Flaca Intelligence, this is no longer accidental. It’s a channel. 🎯 Learn more, and book a call here.