Nestlé India recently released a rap video featuring none other than animated super babies extolling the virtues of breastfeeding. This charming video has already captured almost 2 million views on YouTube and each of the individual characters takes on a personality and life of their own. For example “Lil Wiz” talks about brain and vision development, “Germ Stoppa” talks about his immunity gain from his mother’s milk, and “Baby Luv” talks about the strong bonding between a mother and her child developed through breastfeeding. At the same time, the animated videos are a powerful lesson in effective social branding.

Here are three reasons why this campaign has proven so effective:

Celebrate your customers’ well-being: Too often it is tempting for brands to tell a purposeful message and yet still talk about it in a self-directed way. Yet, here Nestlé has managed to stay squarely focused on the benefits to their customers and the well-being of their children.

Content should be innately shareable: Much like the viral Evian sensation with roller skating babies, these animated videos deliver educational content in a form that people want to share. Not only are the babies charming themselves, dancing around in their diapers, and rapping in rapid-fire style, but the films are strategically designed with a number of different characters for parents and children alike to identify with and inspire them to share the film with their friends.

Amplify through influencers: The two-minute launch video titled, “Superbaby” was scheduled to coincide with Nestlé ‘Start Healthy Stay Healthy breastfeeding week,’ which garners enormous community support and media exposure throughout India. The video provides a link to the brands signature community site, ‘Start Healthy Stay Healthy,’ which then provides additional information as to the benefits of breastfeeding and also provides a feedback loop as to the positive impact that is being created. For example, on the website you will see that to date there are 10,500 doctors on board with the program, supporting over 45,000 babies. This feedback loop is critical to inspiring influencers in the health industry and mothers alike to share the videos, because they know it is making a tangible difference to the lives of young children.

One of the final aspects that make this campaign so successful is that the content can take on a life of its own, beyond the videos themselves. Each of the characters can be used to provide further education to mothers through the community platform, the rap tracks themselves can be used to promote breastfeeding education, and the larger Nestlé platform can serve as a stage for the next iteration of the Superbaby campaign. Such efforts may seem simple and self evident, yet viral success is always driven by sound strategy, the right intentions and the powerful dynamics that flow from them.

Do you know of any other great campaigns that have exhibited similar strategies and generated viral success? If so, we would love to know about them.