4 Outstanding Examples of Social Media Marketing Campaigns
- It spreads word of mouth.
- Social media campaigns can be used to inspire, outrage, entertain and sell a lot of things.
- Even in what has essentially become a paid channel, marketers continue to find innovative ways to increase their visibility and reach, while delivering their brand message. You can measure the buzz around your social media campaign with the social listening tool.
- It’s easy to see how many people are talking about your campaign and what they think about it.
So, which brands succeed in meeting the wants and needs of their target audience on social media? This article gathers 4 outstanding examples of social media campaigns that you must see. Some are fun, some are creative, and some promote worthwhile causes, but all do a great job of helping the company’s bottom line.
Vegansausageroll By Greggs
Communication: Twitter
When:2019
Campaign overview
Greggs is a famous British bakery chain. In January, they introduced their new vegan sausage roll, complete with a clever video ad parodying an Apple ad. However, it was not the ad itself, but the events that followed that made the campaign so memorable. Piers Morgan, a controversial public figure, retweeted Greggs’ announcement and expressed displeasure at the existence of a vegan sausage roll. This spurred both pro-vegan and anti-vegan Britons to join the social media battle of the year!
Greggs responded to Piers Morgan along with more than 9,000 other Twitter users. As a result, the vegan sausage roll became one of Gregg’s most popular offerings that year.
Number
On Twitter alone, the conversation about Greggs Vegan Sausage Rolls has had more than 516 million impressions, according to Brandwatch.
Greggs saw a 9.6% increase in sales in its first seven weeks of launch.
Why does it work?
While the campaign’s success was partly due to organic shares and not planning by Greggs, it once again shows us the power of influencer marketing. Even a negative opinion expressed by an influencer draws incredible attention to your brand. Also, if it’s an influencer that most people hate, you only win by that retweet. Another lesson learned from this campaign is the benefits of being witty on social media.
Yearwrapped By Spotify
Communication: the Instagram story
When:2019
Campaign overview
Late last year, Spotify launched a campaign where users could see the most important musical highlights on their site. The Spotify Wrapped website specifically shows you the most listened-to artists, genres, songs, and other interesting data finds.
You can even see how the music you listen to matches the events of your life that year. Once you’ve gone through all the data analysis, Spotify suggests you share these highlights on social media, especially Twitter and Insta Stories, and tag your favorite artist of the year.
Number
More than 60 million users have joined the story experience in the app. There are already nearly 3 billion Wrapped playlist streams.
Why does it work?
Spotify has incorporated two major psychological triggers in this campaign:
personalization and FOMO.
First of all, the app provides a personalized story for each user – you can see how your musical taste has evolved over the year and what songs have accompanied you in life.
Second, by enabling and encouraging social sharing, Spotify amplified the reach of the campaign.
Whatsyourname From Starbucks UK
Communication: Instagram
When:2019
Campaign overview
Starbucks UK has partnered with Mermaids, an organization that supports transgender and gender-diverse young people, for a #WhatsYourName campaign focusing on transgender rights.
The campaign builds on a well-known aspect of the Starbucks experience — having your name written on your mug — by pledging to honor the names customers want to be called.
On top of that, Starbucks started selling mermaid tail cookies to raise funds for mermaids.
Social media users are encouraged to use hashtags on Instagram to talk about their experiences with the genre. Number
The YouTube ad has garnered over 605,000 views (with less than a thousand YouTube subscribers).
The Instagram post attracted over 1,000 comments with the average comment rate for Starbucks UK Instagram profiles being around 40 comments.
Why does it work?
The team behind the campaign created a simple and clear campaign hashtag.
And they led with their values, which allowed this campaign to have a real emotional impact. Specifically, they want companies to be at the forefront of diversity and community issues.
WWF’s #Endangered Emoji
Communication: Twitter
When:2016
Campaign overview
Seventeen animals included in the emoji index have been identified as representing endangered species.WWF used this idea to launch a fundraising campaign to protect the species.
The idea is simple but effective:
For each retweet of an animal emoji shared by the Twitter account @WWF, users are encouraged to donate 10 cents.
Every animal emoji’s retweets are tracked, and at the end of each month, users receive a summary of their activity, along with their matching donation total.
This timely campaign, launched on Endangered Species Day (May 19), adds an element of urgency.
Number
The launch tweet was retweeted more than 36,000 times with 11,000 likes and 38,000 replies.
Over a million tweets use the campaign’s hashtags. WWF gained over 200,000 new subscribers and over 59,000 donations in just the first two months of the campaign.
Why does it work?
WWF facilitates participation in the campaign and effectively exploits the emoji craze.
Interestingly, the suggested donation is minimal, and the emoji usage is tied to the campaign’s goal, rather than feeling like a forced attempt to hijack a trend.
There’s no harm in having celebrities like Richard Branson and Jared Leto join in. In addition, the WWF campaign was covered by major media outlets, including the Huffington Post and The Guardian.
