… and the Hidden Costs of Virality: Lessons from the #NotionFaces Campaign

If you’d told me last year I’d be talking about cartoon versions of myself, I’d have raised an eyebrow and politely moved on.

But here we are, with #NotionFaces - a campaign from workspace-giant Notion that turned personal avatars into shareable content gold.

It’s clever, it’s calculated, and yes, it’s the marketing equivalent of accepting an award at the Cannes Film Festival: perfectly polished, yet somehow making you think, ‘I could do that too.’

But there’s always more to the story, isn’t there? Behind the applause, there’s planning, logistics, and—let’s be honest—a lot of grunt work no one talks about on LinkedIn.

So let’s pull back the curtain on why it worked, how it came together, and the parts people would rather leave out of the post-campaign highlight reel.

Welcome to ComCom #6.

Why: A Purpose-Driven Campaign (With a Side of Strategy)

At first glance, #NotionFaces might seem like just a fun diversion. But peel back the layers, and you’ll see a campaign meticulously engineered to hit multiple objectives. Here’s what Notion aimed to achieve:

• Celebrate Individuality: Giving users the ability to create personalized avatars wasn’t just charming—it positioned Notion as a brand that gets you. Even your cartoon likeness matters to them.
• Reinforce Brand Aesthetic: Notion’s minimalist, approachable style was seamlessly embedded in the avatar design. It’s like they handed users a paintbrush but still managed to control the color palette.
• Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC): Viral content doesn’t just happen; it’s engineered. By making users both participants and promoters, Notion multiplied its reach without paying for every post. Smart, right?
• Drive Product Awareness: The campaign wasn’t just about avatars – it was an invitation to explore Notion itself. The avatars became profile pictures, nudging users to deepen their engagement with the platform.
• Boost Subscription Sales: Timed alongside initiatives like community-created templates for goal setting, the campaign subtly encouraged users to upgrade to premium plans for more features and tools.

Olga Andrienko ’s take summed it up: “Notion just turned their brand identity into a viral moment.” Translation: It’s not just a productivity tool; it’s a vibe.

How: Execution That Deserves Its Own Whiteboard

Great campaigns rarely hinge on luck, and #NotionFaces is no exception. The planning behind this initiative is a case study in controlled creativity. Here’s how they seemed to have pulled it off:

1. Building an Accessible Tool

Notion launched faces.notion.com, a free avatar creation tool so simple even your technophobic uncle could figure it out. It offered:

• Diverse customization options (skin tones, features, accessories) without overwhelming users. Think inclusivity, not choice paralysis.
• A seamless user experience that feels effortless, because friction kills virality.

Try it out, and you’ll end up with something similar to this (but hopefully you are able to try some of their hairstyles).

2. Drafting Influencers as the Campaign’s Vanguard

Notion partnered with influential creators, likely drawing from their 90 ambassadors, covering niches from tech gurus to design aficionados, to help amplify the #NotionFaces campaign. As Andrienko put it: “A UGC campaign needs a boost. Influencers were essential.” Translation: You can’t start a fire without a match—or 90.

And yes, even Snoop Dogg joined the party, sharing his personalised avatar on LinkedIn. (Because if Snoop can’t sell it, who can?)

3. Social Media’s Role as Amplifier

The genius wasn’t just in the tool but in the invitation to share. LinkedIn, Instagram, and X were flooded with avatars tagged #NotionFaces, creating a self-sustaining wave of content. Every post was both a user’s creation and free advertising for Notion. Vanity, after all, is one of humanity’s strongest driving forces – and these cartoon avatars look good!

... But, There’s a Pretty Boring and Big Cost No One Is Talking About

Of course, it wasn’t all viral glitter and effortless success. Behind every viral campaign lies an underappreciated army of marketing operations – and a price tag no one brags about on LinkedIn.

This I think is doubly true for UGC campaigns, where marketers depend on non-marketers to execute parts of the work. Getting influencers and everyday users to align with your brand’s vision takes more than charm; it takes hours of coordination. Follow-up emails, troubleshooting avatar tool glitches, monitoring posts for brand consistency – it’s the kind of invisible labor that doesn’t make the highlight reel.

Then there’s the hidden operational cost: staff time. Salaries for the team managing this, software licensing for tracking UGC, late-night Slack messages coordinating across time zones – all this adds up. Sure, influencers might grab the budget headlines, but the real money is spent on the logistics that make their posts possible.

And yet, when ROI is calculated, these costs are often absent. Why? Because most people – even within marketing – aren’t eager to bring up the less sexy line items like “staff hours allocated to influencer wrangling.” But make no mistake: without those hours, campaigns like this would collapse under their own complexity. And why is this caveat on Marketing Ops and true marketing costs important to you, a reader of ComCom? Because you’re at risk of being the executive who gets inspired by Notion’s UGC campaign, drops it in the lap of your marketing team, and says, “Let’s do like Notion – but without the budget.” Or worse, you’re part of the marketing team, bracing for the inevitable ping on Slack that reads, “Let’s do like Notion – but without the budget.”

The Results: Metrics That Earned the Applause

So, what did all this effort yield? Numbers that, if they stand the test of time, are sure to be copied and pasted into countless presentations:

Social Media Impact:

• Over 11,000 reactions and 1,900 comments on LinkedIn within 24 hours.
• 40,000+ impressions on X, with 450 engagements.

Brand Visibility:

• Darren McKee estimated influencer posts delivered 1.4–4 million impressions, further boosted by users making the avatars their profile pictures. Viral and sticky.

Revenue Potential:

• Even a 0.1% conversion rate from campaign exposure to Notion’s basic plan with AI add-ons could generate nearly $1M in days. Add upsells from existing users, and you’re looking at serious revenue.

Why It Worked: The Recipe for Success

#NotionFaces worked because it hit the sweet spot of creativity, execution, and strategy. Here’s what made it sing:

1. Leaning Into Strengths: Notion’s minimalist design is a brand hallmark, and this campaign was a natural extension of that identity.
2. A Brand Built to Last: Notion knows exactly who they are, how they sound, and—importantly—how they look. This isn’t just guesswork; they’ve put in the branding hours. (Case in point: they designed 47 cartoonized eyebrows, all unmistakably Notion. That’s commitment.)
3. Strategic Influencer Partnerships: Launching with influencers ensured an initial wave of attention that snowballed into broader participation.
4. Simplicity Breeds Virality: The avatar creation process was easy and fun, lowering barriers to entry and maximizing shareability.

Or, as Andrienko succinctly put it: “Remove any of these elements, and it fails.”

Takeaway: A Blueprint for Marketers

The #NotionFaces campaign isn’t just a case study in marketing; it’s a mirror held up to the industry. It reminds us that the best campaigns aren’t just creative; they’re operationally sound. They don’t just engage users; they make it effortless for those users to amplify the message.

Most importantly, they prove that “viral” isn’t magic – it’s the result of meticulous planning, relentless execution, and strategic brilliance.

So, the next time you see a campaign like this, remember: behind every million impressions are a million details that someone (like you? Like me?) had to manage. The results are worth celebrating – but let’s not forget the invisible labor that makes it all possible… and, yes, a little help from Snoop Dogg.