How WD-40 successfully launched an indie marketing campaign with only $2750

WD-40 is never financially recovering from this

Man, there are people raking in hundreds of thousands, to millions, doing exactly the same thing on youtube.

They have tens and tens of (list) channels where all the vids are generated, AI voiceover, AI script, AI images, etc. - don't think OP hacking his way through a contest is too bad.

How do you figure? They wanted people to make videos demonstrating what WD-40 can do, he made videos doing just that.

What about this do you consider a scam?

It just got to the front page of HN, which includes a large percentage of users who buy and use WD-40 [1]. That alone might be worth the price of admission. You could also think about this as a collab between WD-40 and Javascript, which is pretty funny.

The author is presumably posting this video and blog everywhere, which only further amplifies WD-40's outreach. And they themselves now have a positive brand association with WD-40.

[1] I just used WD-40 last night. I'm actually shocked the author had to go and buy a can of it.

I had a little tiny can in the garage, but it didn't show as well on camera

Smart use of a prop!

I also didn't think about how an older can might not look as good on camera as a brand new can.

Maybe he just needed to buy a small can to open up his normal can of WD-40 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9PFZTPSOkdY

> I'm actually shocked the author had to go and buy a can of it.

Some fancy people are on the Ballistol team, I'll have you know!

Do you know what a marketing firm would cost to generate this kind of footage? OP is the one getting fleeced. At least they had fun with it.

More like "How a guy took a non-guaranteed one-off freelance marketing gig for WD-40!"

The rules explicitly state that multiple entries are allowed.

Please explain how wd40 is the victim here.

The WD-40 Company made $53m in income in 2017

If anything, they should be derided for using free labor in the form of a contest to produce marketing content.