The 2010 World Cup. Brings to mind the gathered hopes of the nation, the inevitable near-misses, the good performances and the bad, and a whole lot of shoulda, woulda, coulda.

….And Paul the psychic octopus.

That’s right; the surprise star of the World Cup was a cephalopod mollusc with a penchant for picking match winners. Residing at Germany’s Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Paul had a handy knack of pointing his suckers in the right direction (in this case a team’s national flag inside a box), and it wasn’t long before his predictions became ‘breaking news’ on Sky and he had spawned (sorry) a faithful following online. A Wikipedia entry was quickly assembled; a legion of dedicated Facebook groups (this one has 58,000 plus fans) sprang up overnight; ‘Paul the octopus’ became a trending topic on Twitter and on YouTube racking up millions of views the words on everyone’s lips was, ‘Has Paul got it right again?’ Rather inevitably, death threats from slighted football fans flooded in. I’d recommend typing the phrase ‘Paul the octopus’ into Google to have a marvel at just how far this goes. Hell, just typing in ‘Octopus’ creates much the same in the way of results.

So why the online love? Was this just a lucky by-product of a popular sporting event or something more? Just how exactly did those people not even interested in football (myself included) end up talking about Paul in the excited tones of those that are? Do sporting superstitions run so deep that the opinion of an octopus is now taken seriously?

However it happened, Germany’s aquarium created an engaging and interesting character that powerfully unleashed the ‘Did you hear about…?’ effect. His star rose quite organically, without knock-you-about-the-head branding or any undignified prodding of bloggers or the noisy who-ha of celebrity endorsement. This was an exercise in simplicity. He was an octopus. Who happened to ‘predict’ World Cup matches. In doing so he captured the nervous hopes of fans all over the world. Genius.

It’s not easy creating a non-human brand ambassador that has such a natural takability factor, and even harder to create one that requires so little in order for people to want to interact with it.  Perhaps creative professionals are scratching their heads at Paul’s success and wondering just how on earth he became a worldwide sensation. They’d do worse than to look to him for inspiration, but the thing about trying to re-create a little magic is that it’s never as good as the first time around….

Only time will tell if this flurry of viral activity translates into lucrative visits to Germany’s aquarium, but in the meantime they’d do well to recognise a nifty little crowd-puller when they see one.

Follow Rachel Clark on Twitter.