Viral Food Creation Formulas
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A breakdown of proven formulas that make food products go viral, particularly in trendy urban areas like New York and Brooklyn.
1. Make Side Ingredients the Main Focus
- Take traditional toppings or secondary ingredients and make them the star
- Examples:
- Cookie dough served like ice cream
- Fondue bars focusing just on cheese
- Captain Crunch "Just Berries"
- Lucky Charms with only marshmallows
2. Change Colors of Normal Foods
- Take familiar foods and present them in unexpected colors
- Examples:
- Rainbow bagels
- Rainbow kettle corn
- Green ketchup
- Cloud bread (blue and white)
3. Dramatic Size Changes
- Create extremely large or miniature versions of regular foods
- Examples:
- Huge pizzas that don't fit through doors
- Giant sundaes ("kitchen sink" style)
- Sushirito (uncut, long sushi roll)
- Giant KitKat bars (size of a loaf)
- Bob's giant donuts
- White Castle mini burgers
4. Unique Serving Containers
- Present food in unexpected vessels
- Examples:
- Sushi boats
- Beer served in boots
- Punch bowls in fishbowls
- Kitchen sink sundaes
5. Combine Different Foods
- Merge two distinct food items into one
- Examples:
- Cronut
- Pancake cereal
- Ramen burger
- Fairy bread (bread with sprinkles)
- Doritos Locos tacos
6. Fancy/Casual Inversions and Dietary Alternatives
- Make casual foods fancy or create allergy-friendly versions
- Examples:
- Upscale tater tots
- Fancy mozzarella sticks
- Banza (chickpea pasta)
- Vegan ice cream shops
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.