In March 2015, social media buzzed with photos of a tourist who went to Puerto Rico, but had a miserable time. It turns out the images were uploaded to Reddit by a user named Widget Dude, claiming that he “didn't have a single second of fun” because he won a trip to the island but couldn't bring his wife along.

Even though the headlines made the story sound worse than it actually was, pretty much everyone in the Internet found it hilarious. That is, everyone except Puerto Rico. For the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, articles of a tourist having a miserable time in the island spreading like wildfire, no matter how silly the story, are not good news. And while it wasn't the country’s fault that Widget Dude didn't have a great vacation, Puerto Rico wanted to make things right.

So two weeks after the original post, we invited Widget Dude back to Puerto Rico, but this time along his wife and his daughter. We took them all back to the places he had to visit by himself, and retook all of his pictures, making new memories that were significantly less miserable.

Wigdet Dude then uploaded the new pictures back to Reddit, when in a matter of hours they went up all the way up to the top of the front page, quickly accumulating over 2 million views and receiving all sorts of international organic media coverage, this time with much better headlines.

Two weeks after the original post, we invited Widget Dude back to Puerto Rico, but this time along his wife and his daughter. We took them all back to the places he had to visit by himself, and retook all of his pictures, making new memories that were significantly less miserable. Wigdet Dude then uploaded the new pictures back to Reddit, when in a matter of hours they went up all the way up to the top of the front page and received all sorts of organic media coverage, online and on national TV, this time with much better headlines.

For an entire day, the photos dominated Reddit, a viral content catalyst that’s been notoriously tough for brands to crack. The story was covered by over 15 online media outlets and by major TV stations in the United States, including The Huffington Post, Good Morning America, ABC, FOX, CBS, Headline News, The Daily Mail, Mirror, INSIDE Edition, Cosmopolitan, PopSugar, Elite Daily, and SomeEcards. With an $8,000 investment and zero media buys, 14 photos generated over $5 million in earned media, sparked millions of conversations on social networks, and have helped the country increase its hotel occupancy rate by 5.5%.