A still from a YouTube video by City of Miami Beach TV called "Miami Beach Is Breaking Up With Spring Break."

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We’ve all seen content for how to go viral. But virality isn’t always the main goal for brands. Instead of crafting a plan with the intention of creating viral social media campaigns, they have other goals in mind, whether it’s building their brand story or promoting a new product line. For Miami Beach, it was finally breaking up with the infamous spring break mayhem.


We spoke with Madison Brown, Digital Media Manager, and Melissa Berthier, Director of Marketing and Communications for the City of Miami Beach to get an inside look at the “Breaking Up With Spring Break” campaign. They gave their advice for what brands should do after gaining widespread attention for highly shareable content. In this article, we’ll share the story behind the Miami Beach spring break up. And we’ll highlight some of Sprout’s favorite viral social media campaigns to inspire your own strategy.

What makes social media campaigns go viral
There isn’t a perfect recipe for massive attention online, but at its core, virality is driven by emotion–our need to connect with others, our desire to be part of something bigger and our insatiable hunger for shareable content that makes us feel something.

When campaigns trigger strong emotional responses—be it laughter, empathy, intrigue or outrage—they strike a chord that compels people to share. Campaigns that resonate transform audiences from passive viewers into active participants in a brand’s story. These posts become cultural phenomena that people talk about and share with their friends and family.