I spend a lot of time identifying (and enjoying) various online phenomena, and I thought it would be fun to test something out: how well do the most popular memes compare to the most popular marketing campaigns brands have to offer?

Nintendo's "Wii would like to play" marketing campaign was by all measurements a success— the light-hearted (and award-winning) program generated plenty of online attention, and along with Nintendo's casual-friendly waggle console itself, they certainly had a hand in sparking the company's industry-leading sales.

During the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, a budding YouTube personality named Chris Crocker decided to launch his own marketing campaign...and 2 minutes, 11 seconds later, "Leave Britney Alone" spawned multi-millions of views, gifs/macros aplenty and a media feeding frenzy that left Spears' actual performance in the dust.

Even with a $200 million armament of communications resources behind it, "Wii would like to play" was obliterated (as you can see with the highly-scientific graphic above) by a kid with an everyday camcorder, a “cry moar” personality and a little too much mascara.

Eventually, all brands, regardless of their success in birthing creative out of thin air, will have to come to the realization that in the end, quite simply, people are always more likely to talk about what they are already talking about. 

Don't worry about creating the next buzz-inducing phenomenon, because 9 times out of 10, brands and marketers will fail...just be ready to respond to it when you see it.