Whamageddon: How our TikTok ended up on the Today Show

What is Whamageddon?

Wikipedia classifies Whamageddon as ‘A game played during the 24 days before Christmas in which players try to go from 1 December to the end of Christmas Eve without hearing Last Christmas by Wham!. If the player hears the song between those days, they are out of the game and have to post “#Whamageddon” on social media to indicate that they have lost.’

The social media frenzy started amongst a group of friends in Denmark nearly two decades ago. Thomas Mertz, creator of the craze said he never could have imagined it picking up this much steam. “I don’t think a game like this could exist without social media”.

Our involvement:

I’m always trying to keep a keen eye on current trends to get our name and brand out there. This is when I saw the social media hashtag #Whamageddon had over 12.5 million views on TikTok and decided to join in on the fun.

I just so happened to have lost Whamageddon earlier in the day by putting my first Christmas playlist of the year on shuffle and immediately ‘Whamming’ myself. It was this dismay I posted in a dramatic TikTok with the caption ‘If I get whammed, you get whammed’. Admittedly cruel, but a great way to get a conversation going and engagement up 😉

You can watch our video here.

How we caught America’s eye:

Due to the global virality of the challenge, and my clever use of hashtags, our TikTok caught the eye of a researcher from the Today Show (owned by NBC).

NBC (The National Broadcasting Company) is America’s leading ad-supported television network, with an average viewership of 5.15 million daily (Statistica.com).

Whereas the Today show racks in a whopping 2.76 million daily viewers and 48 million monthly unique online visitors.

Keeping a watchful eye on NBC News and the Today show channels we waited patiently to make an appearance. When at last we were featured in an NBC News article, a Today Show live and online segment, and linked to in this Forbes article!

The takeaways:

I often feel I have to momentarily put my dignity to the side when uploading TikTok’s at work… however, this story just goes to show the impact of social media in gaining coverage in 2023/4. You never know what will work and what won’t, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on trends and throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks!

Have a very Merry Christmas and check out our social media channels on the right hand side of the page!