Yo is a phenomenon. When it launched in mid 2014, chances are you either thought it was remarkably brilliant, or remarkably stupid, but you had an opinion because everyone was talking about it. When we started working with Yo, we had no budget, so we knew we needed to be extremely efficient while using only free tools. We also came to the conclusion that Yo was something to be experienced, not talked about, so we decided to try and get it into influencers’ hands. We were able to get super-blogger Robert Scoble to try the app out and post about it on Facebook. The app caught fire and went up to one million downloads within two days, while being covered by no less than 3,600 publications!

What we achieved for Yo was more than just getting the name out there. We created a brand cult. With no advertising, we were able to secure thousands of mentions on TV, traditional and digital media. Harnessing the social influence of Robert Scoble, we created a whirlwind of coverage, social sharing, and public online debate. The net result of these efforts was a record-breaking rapid-climb to the top of the App Store charts, reaching a total of 1 million downloads in 48 hours.

We invited Scoble to our Tel Aviv offices, introduced him to Yo founder Moshe Hogeg, and let him experiment with the app. He thought it was, in his words, “stupid and addictive.” Following his experience, he posted a status update on Facebook, where he has more than 600,000 followers, including the aforementioned influencers.

Once placed on Product Hunt, Yo was upvoted by a number of key players in the valley and was soon afterwards covered by the Financial Times. However, since the FT is paywalled, not many people got wind of the story.

One person who did see it was The Next Web writer Paul Sawers, who posted a quick article about Yo. We quickly issued a press release to various targeted media outlets as soon as we could, and worked to fan the flames of a quickly growing media firestorm. Yo’s simple story was about to go viral!

Our combined efforts resulted in around 3,600 articles covering the app, including top-tier tech and financial publications, mainstream outlets, and top television shows such as The Colbert Report.

The main message of simplicity was clearly conveyed across all platforms. Additionally, the app was covered by a wide array of media, including TV, blogs, mainstream online media and print. In this case, NPS isn’t the most relevant metric. Yo is a free download readily available from the App Store. For that reason, the highly visible online discussion and debate lead to a massive audience interested in trying the app, regardless of whether users were detractors or promoters. Part of our strategy was to allow for negative responses in order to keep the debate going.

Yo reached the top of the Social App category on iTunes and was downloaded by one million users in 48 hours - an all-time record!