Every day, brands try to connect with consumers on their level, running campaigns on Twitter, Vine, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Snapchat. Whether it's starting that conversation on a tablet, mobile device, or a computer — it’s not necessarily where you reach them, it’s more about how you engage them with your brand.
Here are some of the best social media campaigns that I’ve found produced by larger brands and exactly how the did it.
1. Bend The Rules: Hewlett-Packard (HP)
HP has followed up on their highly successful 2014 #BendTheRules campaign and have taken transmedia to another level on Vine, Twitter, and TV. The campaign was done in collaboration with Niche, a talent agency, bought by Twitter in early 2015, which matches web celebs with brands.
Using Vine Stars, they have created content around the use of their products, transcending social media networks and interacting with consumers on multiple mediums. In the 2015 edition, content creators are “Going Epic” and are given big budgets to pull off stunts, ranging from monster truck trick shots to being set on fire to breaking through glass.
In explaining the idea behind the social media campaign, Rob Le Bras-Brown, HP’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, said, “The idea was to find creative people in social media, particularly ‘vine-ographers,’ give them the machine and invite them to be creative with it in six seconds.”
The reason this social media campaign works is that it speaks to its desired audience as part of HP’s recent focus on revamping its brand to attract a younger demographic. Another reason it was so effective was it used influencers within its campaign to do the influencing for them.
2. Refreshingly Honest: Honest Tea
Honest Tea posed a provocative question: Which city scores the highest on the National Honesty Index? The company tapped Influential, a mobile first enterprise technology that pairs top brands and influencers using demographic data to execute the social portion of this hybrid on-site and social campaign.
The brand activated this campaign via 27 pop-up stores in several major cities to find the answer. This digital and experiential activation connected with consumers, both via social media (Instagram and Twitter), and locally in their neighborhoods. It’s been an ongoing social media experiment that the company has used periodically since 2011 and revamped it for 2015.
According to Ami Mathur, Brand Director for Honest Tea, “Honest Tea is doing a social experiment, in cities all across the US, to see how #RefreshinglyHonest consumers in each city are by giving them the opportunity to donate $1 when they take a drink from our pop-up Honest Store.”
As the brand director noted, a successful social media campaign is about using influencers. In this case, by tying a physical pop-up location with an online platform, the company has been able to use local influencers to nationally influence the target audience with “brand-safe content around our activations.”
3. The Last Selfie: World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
As one of the winners of the 2015 Webby Awards, the Snapchat campaign for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) pulled on the heartstrings of animal lovers everywhere. WWF used Denmark agency, UncleGrey, and Turkish agency, 41? 29!, to create and run the campaign on Snapchat.
WWF used the idea that selfies disappear off Snapchat after 10 seconds to illustrate the disappearance of endangered species around the world. The result was worldwide branding and sharing that led to increased donations for the month in only a matter of days.
According to Tuba Ugur, Communications Officer for WWF, “The urgency to act and Snapchat’s dynamic were the perfect match to disseminate our message for species. The continuity of our conservation work is vital for success. For this to happen, we have to clearly and creatively explained our reason for existence to current and prospect supporters. Millennials are targeted for this campaign and that’s why we chose to use Snapchat, which is mostly used by them.”
The factors that made this one of the best social media campaigns in 2015 to date included the ability of the campaign to create buzz, relate to its audience, engage through emotions and utilize creativity to make a strong social statement that people can get behind.
Final Thoughts
These three best social media campaigns so far in 2015 illustrate that best doesn’t have to involve anything overly complex or elaborate in its presentation, visuals, or messaging. Instead, it just has to focus on that authentic feel rather than screaming, “Hey, we’re marketing to you right now.” These three campaigns leverage many different human emotions that instantly get a reaction from their audiences that have resulted in sharing and re-sharing as well as increased revenue for the three companies represented in these social media campaigns.
What are some social media campaigns you've liked so far in 2015, by any sized brand - big or small?
