A post to the Woolworths Facebook page has gotten “ridiculous traction” after a shopper praised the supermarket’s home brand biscuits as “miracle workers”.
Last Friday, cookie aficionado and Woolworths shopper Peter Seehusen took to Facebook with a lengthy spiel in relation to the supermarket’s ‘Dreamy Choc’ cookies, which come in a pack of five and retail for $3.00.
“On what I thought was a just a standard casual Friday at the office, I wandered into your Woolworths Metro on the corner of Bourke and King street in the city of Melbourne. My colleague and I were scoping the shelves for a treat to lift the uncharacteristically flat Friday vibes back at the office,” writes Seehusen.
“After much deliberation and discussion, we ventured over to the bakery section. Here we uncovered a 5 pack of “Dreamy Choc” cookies that we thought would fit the bill.”
Seehusen said the 290-gram packet of “little miracle workers” turned the Friday in his office into “one of the best days we have ever had. Period”.
Dubbing the cookies both “moist, but not too moist”, and “rich, but not too rich”, Seehusen even pitted the treats against a cup of tea, saying they came up strong against the “dreaded dip”, a test which reportedly many other cookies had failed.
“Since the purchase of the cookies, office morale has been at an all time high. Employees are now even talking about accepting payment through “Dreamy Choc” cookies,” he said.
“For me, these cookies should be renamed fortune cookies as I feel as if they’ve foretold my future. From now on, these little miracle workers will become a staple part of my diet with an overall aim to consume 3 or 4 a day.”
The post has received more than 22,000 likes and 6000 comments, which Michelle Gamble, director at Marketing Angels, says is a “ridiculous amount of traction” and a “marketer’s dream”.
“There’s nothing better than word-of-mouth when it comes to a product,” she tells SmartCompany.
“When something goes viral and it’s taken zero effort or advertising budget, it’s the nirvana.”
While some commenters questioned whether Seehusen was secretly employed by Woolworths to spruik their cookies, Gamble believes it “doesn’t smell of that”, describing it as “very authentic”.
Responding to Seehusen, Woolies shot back with a thankful and pun-filled response, saying it was “so glad that could help turn your casual Friday to an amazing Fri-YAY!”.
“We’ll make sure that your kind words are shared with our Bakery Team in store so that they’re aware that they’re DOUGH-ing the right thing here,” the company said on Facebook.
Woolies also offered to send Seehusen some extra cookies to make up for not having them on the shelves nine years ago, when he did work at the supermarket as a cashier.
While he hasn’t received the cookies yet, Seehusen told SmartCompany the post going viral was totally unexpected.
“[We] didn’t think it would blow up like it has as it was just a little bit of fun between myself a couple of other co-workers. We thought that it might gather some legs as it took on a positive view compared to a lot of other posts that go viral! ” Seehusen said.
A positive response from customers is less likely than a negative response to go viral, warns Gamble, who believes there can definitely be a risk for businesses in these scenarios.
“A positive post like this is such a rare thing, so that’s probably why it went viral,” she says.
“Be a bit funny and respond to the post, maybe even share it on your own page to breathe a bit of life back into it. It certainly doesn’t hurt to keep it rolling.”
SmartCompany contacted Woolworths but the retailer said there was “nothing further to add”.
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Dominic Powell is a journalist at SmartCompany and a tech and music geek. When he’s not writing, you can find him reading or browsing record shops.
