It was just days after the Super Bowl in 2013 and everyone was sharing their fave spots from the big game. One of the most popular was a simple Dodge Ram spot. It featured right-wing radio legend Paul Harvey delivering his famous God Made a Farmer speech in 1978, over the top of shots of hardworking farmers. It wasn’t long before the Interwebs turned this spot into a meme and spoofed it with remakes like God Made a Liberal, God Made a Banker and, of course, God Made a Cat.

At about the same time, we were launching Crew, an online magazine that goes beyond the usual sex and politics of gay media to examine all elements of a sophisticated, modern lifestyle – gay or straight. We needed a big content marketing idea to amplify our message about the launch. If we’ve learned anything in this age of content marketing, it’s that a great meme is a terrible thing to waste, especially when you’re working with a shoestring budget. Memes come armed with social momentum, and the Dodge Ram one was too good for us to pass on.

So for just under $2,000 we produced God Made a Gay Man. We did it in just 7 days (from concept to posting on YouTube). By portraying the myriad of challenges that gay men face, and celebrating the contributions they make to modern society, we leveraged the popularity and format of the original Dodge spot to create a moving homage to modern gay life.

In content marketing, you can succeed by tapping the zeitgeist, moving fast and producing as cost-effectively as possible.

The result?  A bona fide content marketing hit with over 160,000 views, almost 5,000 Facebook likes, thousands of retweets, and just under 20,000 new site visitors in a single month.  We even got noticed down under, and did a live interview with Joy FM in Melbourne, Australia.

Strategy: Peter Coish

Copywriter: Terry Levine

Art director: Kyriakos Alexopoulos

Producer: Clare Cashman

Engineer: Ed Zych, Marmalade Music

Voice Direction: Phil Bucchino, Marmalade Music

Voice: Tim Keele