1. Delicious BuzzFeed – Saturday Night Seder- Campaign
What They Did Right – Organize cross-channel ads for compelling live videos. Live videos are trending these days because they help people stay connected online while practicing social media campaigns distancing in real life. Many brands use live video to connect with their audience. However, BuzzFeed Tasty went beyond this tactic by turning it into a charity event. They invited several musicians, comedians, and other celebrities to a live event in an effort to raise funds to help those affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Not only that, but they also promote the event on different platforms and simultaneously stream it on YouTube and Facebook. It combines all live video, cause-based marketing, and multi-channel advertising. Now is a good time to start using live video if you haven’t already. Choose a platform where you have a large following and engage them with live videos where you invite influencers and industry experts.
2. Zoom – Virtual Fundraiser- Campaign
What they did right – They held a contest to get people to try their product.
Zoom is a platform that allows users to hold virtual meetings and conference calls from anywhere. It has been used by many businesses for work calls but has become more relevant during the coronavirus crisis as more people start working from home. Their goal at this point is to build brand awareness and get as many free trials as possible. Both of these goals are achieved through their virtual fundraising contest. The way it works is that Zoom users need to share images or videos using its virtual background feature. This is a recurring contest, and each month, the three winning entries receive branded items as prizes. It’s a great way to get people to try their platform and use their features because you don’t need a paid plan to join. This encourages people to sign up for a free trial to enter the contest only if nothing else.
3. Harvard Business Reviews- Campaigns
What They Did Right – Offer free access to resources as a way to attract new leads.
HBR has adopted the same strategy as many other brands during this crisis. They provide free access to resources that can help people cope with the difficult situation caused by the coronavirus. They used social media to advertise this offer and drive traffic from their social media accounts to their website.
It’s a great way to attract new customers and get them used to your platform. Once they sign up, brands can encourage them to access other resources by subscribing to their plans. This is similar to a “try it for free” strategy, but works for media and publishing brands that offer paid content.
However, you can also replicate this for product-focused businesses by offering freebies to entice customers and then promoting other products to them.
4. Star-Bucks #ExtraShotOfPride Campaign
What did they do right? Based on the popularity of an existing trend. Starbucks is known for its groundbreaking social media campaigns that are engaging and attention-grabbing. In June 2019, they launched a campaign to celebrate Pride Month and support the LGBTQ community. As part of their campaign, they post colorful photos of people in the community and showcase them to us. They then asked people to watch their stories/highlights to learn their stories. They used both Instagram posts and stories for this campaign and used eye-catching visuals to entice people to click on them.
The best part of this campaign is that it hits the current social psyche of those who are celebrating Pride Month. People talked about it and posted related content, so it was easy to connect with the audience.
For their hashtag strategy, they used the branded hashtag #ExtraShotOfPride and the industry-popular hashtag #Pride for their posts. Create a branded hashtag that encouraged customers and their employees to share their photos with that tag. The popular and trending use of hashtags in the industry has given them the desired visibility and reach they could not achieve on their own.
5. Dove Campaign #Show Us
What they did right – focus on the purpose of resonating with their audience
Dove is a brand that has always focused on social causes in its social media campaigns. And these are specifically focused on empowerment, inclusion, diversity, and breaking stereotypes about women’s beauty. Women are their primary target customers and that’s why Dove’s marketing campaigns are primarily aimed at women.
In its latest campaign, Dove featured photos of women from all walks of life and highlighted their unique qualities and characteristics. The idea is to accept and love everyone, no matter who they are and how they are different from us.
This campaign aims to promote greater acceptance of diversity and make people more inclusive when they see people who are different from them. The beauty of this campaign is that it went viral and asked women around the world to share their photos, showing how different they are. The brand has built a library of more than 5,000 images and is still growing. Along with the use of strong social messaging, the campaign also captures a lot of user-generated content for the brand.
6. Daniel Wellington Campaign
What They Did Right – Using Video Games to Drive Engagement
Daniel Wellington is a brand that has learned the secret of leveraging UGC for its social media content. People often repost photos of customers wearing Daniel Wellington watches and encourage them to post more such photos for referrals. They recently changed their social media content strategy by posting photos taken in beautiful locations and asking people to guess where the photo was taken.
They are still doing the same thing as before, which is reposting photos taken by their clients. However, they added an element of gamification by turning it into a fun guessing game. This strategy has given them higher engagement on their posts than usual, as people comment on these images along with their replies.
