Her success with the company was so great that it prompted many of Wendy’s competitors to start employing the same strategy, to horrible effect. The feedback was so poor that it inspired its own genre of meme, mocking brands for trying to appear less corporate than they are.

So, why was there such a difference in success? It all comes down to how natural the execution is. The corporate brands trying to replicate Wendy’s success were doomed to failure simply because of their duplicative efforts. Wendy’s, on the other hand, happened relatively naturally. Sure, the social media manager has a job to do, but she didn’t try to force any results. She injected a little bit of personality into the posts, and it worked marvelously. Specifically, it worked marvelously with younger demographics that appreciated that level of sincerity and could recognize when it lacked in the attempts of other corporations.