Did you see this graphic?
Perhaps you only saw a reference to it. It must have been retweeted a bazillion times this week.
The graphic was by Andrew Barr of the National Post of Toronto. According to Post blogger Chris Boutet, Andrew drew the piece Monday to run with a Reuters story posted on the Post web site.
From where it quickly went viral. Chris writes:
Once released into the Tumblr wild, the graphic was immediately reblogged by influential humour sites The Laughing Squid and The Daily What. From there, the graphic continued to spread outwards through user shares and word of mouth on Tumblr and Twitter, eventually making catching the attention of other major sites across the web, including the Huffington Post, Gizmodo, Buzzfeed, Digg and Slate. It was even made into an e-card by influential humour site Some E-Cards, who then shared the graphic with their 1.6 million followers on Twitter.
And then, the ultimate. Chris writes:
The National Post “Trenta” graphic became so ubiquitous online that it caught the attention of CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who discussed the graphic on his show… [Many Post staffers] were surprised to hear Mr. Cooper refer to us as a “website called the National Post” rather than a newspaper.
Cool graphic, but one small problem. Trenta is only available for iced drinks. So you have to comper to an iced Venti, which has 24 oz. (or 710 ml) vs. 20 oz. (591) for hot drinks. But still cool.
The use of Tumblr is really interesting, by the way. The way they did it was well-targeted and well-timed. It literally hit just before it was a huge story, they targeted it well, and sites like SFB and The Daily What reblogged it, leading to it becoming a hugely viral thing.
This is how to engage readers. They friggin’ nailed it.
As a National Post subscriber, I can say that this did appear in print.
Love the blog, as always. I’m not in or related to journalism (outside of friends who are journalists), yet your blog is one of only a half-dozen non-friend-feeds in my Google Reader.