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How Brands Use Profile Pic Jacking for Viral Growth
And turn users into brand ambassadors
Tom Snyder
April 03, 2025
Howdy, marketer!
Word-of-mouth is widely considered the best marketing. And it’s free!
But recently, one more trick is emerging with brands using technology to hack organic shares from the users.
It’s called “Profile Pic Jacking.”
And this happens when users voluntarily change their social media profile pictures to an image related to a brand, campaign, or cultural trend.
So, your company can get its branding spread across social platforms – without paying for it!
It’s the same reason people wear band t-shirts or put stickers on their laptops.
It signals who they are and what they stand for.
Today's Treasure Trove
How Profile Pic Jacking Organically Boosts Brand Awareness
Profile pictures are personal. They sit at the core of every social media identity.
When someone changes their profile pic, their entire network sees it – friends, family, colleagues, and followers.
Users might scroll past ads, but a profile picture stays visible in every interaction: comments, messages, stories, and feeds.
This means brands get repeated exposure without lifting a finger.
Every time someone interacts with that user, they see the brand’s presence.
A changed profile picture stays for weeks, or even months for free, compared to paid ads that stop when the campaign is paused.
When more people join in, it turns into a viral movement.
Why It Works for Marketing
1. Psychological Factors
People love belonging to a group. When they see their friends changing profile pictures in a similar pattern, it triggers FOMO (fear of missing out).
Social validation plays a big role here.
For instance, there was a trend some years ago where people were changing their profile pic to their original Facebook pic (oof).
The beauty of profile pic jacking is that it spreads naturally.
One person changes their picture, their network sees it, then some of them do the same.
Repeat this cycle a few times, and suddenly, thousands of people have joined in.
For instance, during the Paris attacks of 2015, people used a French flag overlay on their profile pictures in solidarity.
(Source)
It’s essentially a viral loop – each new participant fuels further growth.
Even on instagram, people used pride filters on their profile picture to show support for the community.
3. Brand Recall
Repetition builds familiarity. When someone sees a logo or campaign image across multiple profiles, it sticks in their mind.
Over time, the brand becomes more recognizable, even if people don’t consciously realize it.
They don’t feel intrusive, so the brand gets absorbed naturally.
This is the major reason for Notion Faces.
People can create B&W profile pictures that resemble themselves and use it across socials.
This creates higher visibility and brand recall for Notion.
4. Low-Cost, High-Impact
This is one of the rare marketing tactics that costs very little but delivers massive exposure.
Instead of spending tens or hundreds of thousands on paid media, brands let their audience do the work.
The only real cost is building a tool that makes it easier for people to customise and change their pictures and then making sure some key power users or influencers kick off the campaign organically.
With ChatGPT’s new image generator, everyone has been making Studio Ghibli versions of themselves, but what’s the branded version of this?
Stellar Examples of Profile Pic Jacking
Apple’s Memoji Movement
Apple has always been about personalization.
When they launched Memojis, people flooded their profile pictures with custom avatars.
Some camera shy people even use it on social media and others choose to dance with it!
The company didn’t have to push it - users did it on their own because the product was fun and shareable.
Snapchat’s Avatars
Snapchat has an in-built feature that allows people to customize their profile picture avatars.
A common thread among these examples is uniformity - your avatar style should be unique to your own company and not a rip-off.
If you copy styles of others, you’ll end up promoting other brands instead of your own.
NFT Profile Pics
In the NFT boom, profile pictures became a status symbol.
Owning a Bored Ape or CryptoPunk was about belonging to a (very exclusive and expensive) club.
(Source)
People flexed their ownership by making these NFTs their profile pictures, and their social media presence turned into a walking billboard for the brand.
Though some called it a “gimmick”, the trend successfully played on people wanting to be associated with a high status.
Wrap up
Profile pic jacking is a low-cost, high-impact marketing hack that taps into social behavior.
But if every brand starts pushing profile pic changes, the tactic loses its novelty.
Sure, not every brand can pull it off either, BUT Notion is a productivity app. Bored Apes were NFTs. Memojis are for iPhone users. This profile pic jacking doesn’t work for just one type of product or industry.
✌️,
Tom from Marketer Gems
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