Branded entertainment is fairly commonplace in the United States, especially around major holidays like Valentine’s Day. Marketers everywhere spend millions promoting their messages.

But for a brand like McKinney, restricted by a tiny budget in comparison, we needed to cut through the clutter in a creative way. We needed to create something that our audience actually wanted to share.

Creating a live, uncensored “Anti-Valentine’s Day” event on our very own Ustream channel was the perfect vehicle to do just that.

Armed with a printer, shredder and our own cynicism, McKinney was able to hijack one of the most commercialized holidays in the world — Valentine’s Day.

In the days leading up to Valentine’s Day, McKinney created a live online event inviting bitter singles around the world to “Shred Your Ex.”

Users could simply tweet or Instagram pictures of their ex and watch them print directly into our commercial-grade shredder in real time on ShredYourEx.tv.

The idea took the Internet by storm, garnering 197 million PR impressions with a budget of just $5,000. Tens of thousands of visitors from 114 countries around the world participated, spending an average of 2.5 minutes on the site, which eventually landed at #3 on the front page of Reddit.

One user called it “Brilliant.” Another said it “Wins Valentine’s Day.” And in the end, all of these singles were no longer alone.