Buying airtime during the Oscars: Estimated price tag $20 million.
One viral selfie that crashed Twitter: Priceless.
Oscar host Ellen Degeneres took a selfie with a Samsung Galaxy Note during the 2014 Oscar ceremony, tweeted it, and promptly crashed Twitter briefly.
With more than three million retweets as of 4th March 2014 – making it the most retweeted photo in history - its safe to say that Samsung was delighted by the resulting publicity.
So delighted, in fact, that they are donating $3 million to two charities -- St. Jude's Children's Hospital and Humane Society of the United States -- slightly less than $1 each for the three million-plus retweets.
Samsung claimed that Ellen's stunt was not pre-orchestrated, but appeared to have arisen organically.
I love the way Ellen used simple mobile technology to create a seemingly spontaneous authentic moment that spread like viral wildfire.
But I love even more how both Ellen and Samsung followed up on it the next day to create even more buzz for their respective brands.
Watch what happened on Ellen's show the next day here.