You may have heard about the TikTok #Dreamschallenge after a man from Idaho named Nathan Apodaca, known to his fans online as @420doggface208, posted a video of himself cruising on a skateboard. You see him swigging from a bottle of Ocean Spray and lipsynching to the song "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac. The video went viral, and thousands of people posted their own versions...including Mick Fleetwood himself. It also got the attention of Massachusetts-based, Ocean Spray, who after hearing that the genesis of the video came from Apodaca's car breaking down, inspiring him to hop on a skateboard to get to work. GBH Morning Edition host Joe Mathieu spoke with CEO of Ocean Spray, Tom Hayes, to get more background on how it came about. The following has been edited for clarity.

Tom Hayes, Ocean Spray CEO: So when the team talked about it, we got on a video call, and we said, so what can we do? This gentleman has certainly, you know, done us a solid by representing our product in a very exciting way. And, we said 'He's probably in need of some support.' The teams came up with, in the spirit of continuing the theme on cranberries, let's buy him a cranberry-red pickup truck. His car broke down -- but there's no need to worry about that anymore. We loaded it with cran-raspberry into the bed of the truck. And it came together really quick. I was really proud of our team, our PR team and connecting with the finance group and making things happen quickly.

Joe Mathieu That must have been a whole process of locating him and letting you know who you were.

Hayes He actually has an agent, you know, because he's got over two million followers or something on TikTok. We reached out to his agent that way and they started to coordinate because we had to make sure that it was also a surprise.

Mathieu So that was a real surprise when you showed up at his home, he didn't know you were coming.
I'd love to talk to you about the world we're in now, this virtual world where something like this, frankly, Tom, is probably a lot more effective than buying a commercial or putting up a billboard. Our lives have changed. Our habits and routines have changed. You and I are talking about a happy story, but we're also talking about your product. That's kind of the perfect world for any corporation that that wants to reach out and have some public facing message. This is the stuff you can't plan. That's the good stuff, right?

Hayes Yeah, it really is. And, the consumer is, I think, more trusting of other consumers today than they are of companies. We're not a big company by any means, but our brand is is is very well known. So to have an endorsement, somebody that's just a real person that's that's making their way in life really does mean a lot. And frankly, you know, it's well-deserved because the brand is 90 years old and it's supported by 700 family farms. But you're right. I mean, traditional marketing is just not as effective in a lot of cases because consumers so sort of prewired to be skeptical. And so to have something that resonates so deeply and so emotionally with people was was definitely a gift to us.

Mathieu Well, pretty interesting, too, that it's it's likely had a greater effect than a celebrity endorsement, would it?

Hayes It could very well be. I will say, though, you know, connecting him and then Mick (Fleetwood), you know, coming behind that and saying, well, he had my tune. I'm going to, latch onto that and do the sort of the imitation, to have that combination together, then you could really sense that, "Wow, there's something something's going on here. We want to be a part of this." And we wanted to do it the right way. We didn't want to sort of jump in and do a cannonball in the middle of the pool. So we just wanted to be respectful of the whole vibe and make sure that we carried that through in a way that was preserving what he had intended.

Mathieu I guess when you force Mick Fleetwood onto TikTok, you've broken through here on a mainstream level.