Lessons From Helping Create The Viral 'Ice Spice Starbucks Munch' Picture

Keep iterating and then share the love.

One of the images I helped make at ONE37pm went viral. I’ll give you the context and some lessons from this past week.

At ONE37pm, we have a meeting where we brainstorm ideas for our social pages. Earlier in the month, we brainstormed around brand collaborations we wished would happen. One of the first ideas was “Ice Spice & Starbucks.”

For those who don’t know, Ice Spice is a musical artist who hit the rap scene in late 2022 with the song Munch (Feelin’ U). She has the famous tagline, “You thought I was feeling you?”. Her most recognizable physical feature is an orange afro.

With that context, I tried using AI to make a cup of coffee with whip cream that resembled her curly hair. I wanted it to look like a luxury brand campaign with nice lighting. Luckily, pretty quickly, I got this picture.

Side note, but not really a side note: The Midjourney AI Gods rarely bless you with the perfect image you’re looking for in under five tries. Keep trying new things with your prompts in Midjourney.

I added a few details, like the Starbucks logo & the text on the bottom, and Tweeted it from ONE37pm’s Twitter.

The engagement wasn’t as good as we thought it could be. If we at ONE37pm really believe in an idea, it’s encouraged to keep iterating on it and try putting it out again. I thought the Tweet’s copy was too long and wanted to try a more punchy version.

The next day, we posted this.

As you can see, it got fewer views than the first one. That doesn’t mean the original idea isn’t good. We just had to find a new way to present it.

I was talking to Brandon Shamy, who oversees content going on our pages. He said something like, ‘It’s hard to tell it’s supposed to be Ice Spice’s drink. It needs her face on it.”

So, we added her headshot and Tweeted a third version.

The third one got more views and engagement than the first two combined!

But still, it wasn’t viral. A lot of us really believed this would be a viral hit.

When we posted it on our Instagram (which has a larger audience than our Twitter), it quickly became one of the top 5 posts of the week.

We tagged Ice Spice & Starbucks, hoping they’d talk about it. The main goal is that this collab becomes an actual drink from Starbucks, and we can hang our hats on being the ones who came up with the idea.

Honestly (and maybe I need to reframe my definition of success), since it was a top 5 post of the week, I was happy with the outcome, and I took it as a win.

Then, on Saturday morning, I got this Slack message from one of our graphic designers, Loveleen.

A creator on TikTok reacted to our picture with the text this can’t be real, and it got 4.2 MILLION VIEWS.

Not only that, the term ‘Starbucks The Munch’ was trending on TikTok for a few days.

That’s amazing and all, but I have to be honest. Even after multiple iterations, I made a mistake.

The FIRST thought that went through my head after seeing the viral video…

Nobody knows we made it. There’s no ONE37pm branding on it AT ALL.

And to be honest, that’s ok. I talked with leadership, and we took note of it for next time. We’ll have more viral hits in the future. We know to add a watermark next time, so people know where it came from.

One of the highlights of the weekend was on Saturday night. Because I’m moving to New York next Saturday, my friends threw a surprise going away party at my house. The part happened the same day the picture went viral.

One of my friends asked, “How was your day?” and I said something like, “Amazing, I made a picture that went viral!”

When I told them it was the Ice Spice coffee, they realized they had seen it on their socials and thought it was real. It’s so fun to see something you make get a crazy amount of reach. And to have it come all the way back to my very close circle of friends… Small world.

I also got great advice from Tyler, who runs the business’s daily operations. He said, “Less I, more WE.” I think that’s totally fair. Besides my AI and Photoshop, a lot contributed to that picture going viral.

The chain of events went something like this…

Derek Siskin decided to set up the brainstorming meeting, and then the idea of coming up with brand collabs popped into someone’s head, then the Ice Spice and Starbucks collab idea came from Aaron Dukes, then I made the image, then it didn’t go viral, and then Brandon Shamy told me to add her headshot, then we posted that version, then another creator found our picture and remixed it on their page, then the stars had to align for that video to go viral.

Yes, it feels good to say, “I made an image that went viral,” but the truth is, ten or more people contributed to making the image get some real traction.

A more accurate phrase would be, “I helped make a viral image”.

I guess I’m trying to say that the world is more complex than boiling anything down to “That was me” or “I did that.” To apply this idea to society as a whole, saying, “This company did this” or “This politician did that” simplifies things too much.

Life is more complex than boiling it down to just one person or event that caused something else to happen. Let’s approach life with a bit of curiosity and healthy skepticism by going beyond headline reading (yes, we’re getting metaphysical with this newsletter about a viral coffee inspired by a rapper).

Ok, so back to the main point. None of this would have happened without a team of people collaborating. Many of us felt it would hit, so we kept posting a slightly different version until one finally hit.

For individuals, I want to say when you get those once-a-year amazing ideas that make so much sense to you, don’t be afraid to test the idea out and iterate on it. If it flops, good. Take notes, change something, and post it again. Nobody cares that you’re on your tenth try. They’re too worried about their own stuff.

For leaders, I want to say foster an environment where collaboration across the team is encouraged. Let creators try things they’re passionate about. It doesn't need to be perfect. Test. Try. Get input from the team. Luckily at ONE37pm, we can run free with our ideas without fear of judgment if it doesn’t get views or engagement.