Lessons in IM through bacon

This article just popped up on a friend's Gmail Chat, I saw bacon in the title and figured I'd check it out. Read the article here.

Warning - if you keep kosher you will be totally grossed out. In fact, if you don't keep kosher you will probably also be grossed out.

So aside from the combination of that many calories and lots of bacon, I find the viral campaign they created exemplary of the possibilities for marketing now. The groundwork was already in place for this recipe to go viral, it is not dumb luck and not something you can just decide to replicate.

1. They already had a website with active traffic.
2. 1,200 active Twitter followers is a pretty large audience to communicate with.
3. It was an outrageous post. Of course, we all see and do outrageous things. Might as well use them to build our brand.
4. They used the tools that are out there to increase traffic and expand to new audiences: StumbleUpon, Digg, Del.icio.us, etc.

This is a great read for all you marketing buffs. It also makes you think about how you could create even more hits for an internet marketing campaign. HARO's advertisers regularly get 1,000's of hits after advertising. Facebook is an avenue. Are there groups that are bbq enthusiasts already set up? Google Reader isn't just for blogs, you can set up a feed so people can subscribe to your website and get updates when you post new content (increasing the number of people who regularly visit your website and know what you're up to).

Anyone else have any ideas?