11 Social Media Campaign Ideas to Inspire Your Next Campaign
Businesses turn to social media channels for different purposes including increasing brand awareness and brand affinity, boosting sales and gaining visibility in a crowded business landscape. Over here we discuss how some of the popular brands have leveraged the power of social media marketing to meet their business objectives.
Before you take a look at the campaigns, here’s a quick note from our team. We are a team of storytellers, illustrators, marketers and designers working together to create quality, relevant and engaging social media content. If you are looking for a social media marketing agency for your next campaign, get in touch with us.
1. WestJet’s 2019 Christmas Miracle: Uniting Through Traditions: Prior to this social media marketing campaign, WestJet had already completed 7 successful Christmas campaigns. For 2019’s campaign, the low-cost domestic carrier sent Blue Santa to sixteen different countries across six continents. Shot in documentary-style, the video captures different traditions in which Christmas is celebrated across these countries. The video features heart-warming reunions of family members – from parents meeting their far-away daughter or long-distance couples meeting each other. The airlines in this very emotional ad campaign sends out a simple but powerful message: no matter where you are from, the holidays are about being together with family and friends. The campaign shared on the WestJet Facebook feed generated $11 million in direct sales and received 438 million earned media impressions.
2. Starbucks ‘Tweet-a-Coffee’ Campaign: Starbucks through its ‘Tweet-a-Coffee’ Campaign gave ‘catching up for over a cup of coffee’ a new meaning. The ‘Tweet-a-Coffee’ social media marketing campaign let the users send a digital gift coupon to their friends and which the recipient can avail at the designated Starbucks outlets. The innovative campaign changed the way people looked at the microblogging website. Within 2 months of its launch, the campaign prompted $180,000 in purchases.
We’re excited to announce @Tweetacoffee, a new way to share the gift of Starbucks: http://t.co/E9OKYKYyV8
— Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) October 28, 2013
3. Domino’s Lost for Words: There is nothing like the joy of eating a sumptuous pizza and Domino’s captured the feeling in one of the best social media marketing campaigns. In 2016, Domino’s launched custom Snapchat Lenses to capture the reaction of the people when they see a pizza. The reactions resulted in emojis and videos with silly sounds effects.
4. LEGO’s new guaranteed shatterproof truck: As people thought that memes from brand accounts are passé, Lego with its ‘ shatterproof truck meme’ proved them wrong. The world famous toy company trolled the electric car company Tesla by sharing a picture of a ‘Lego truck’, calling it shatterproof. The tweet was a play on Tesla’s new pickup truck which had its windows smashed during its launch.
The evolution of the truck is here. Guaranteed shatterproof ? pic.twitter.com/RocTEkzzwI
— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) November 27, 2019
5. Burger King ‘s ‘Order from McDonald’s’ ad: Fast food chains Burger King and McDonald’s are known for engaging in Twitter banter. And, it was, therefore, quite surprising for people to find Burger King to call on customers to order from McDonald’s. The tweet was sent out to support Mcdonald’s local fast food outlets in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Other foods chains like Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Papa John also got a mention. Such positivity, in the midst of a global pandemic, garnered a lot of attention.
We know, we never thought we’d be saying this either. pic.twitter.com/cVRMSLSDq6
— Burger King (@BurgerKingUK) November 2, 2020
6. KFC ‘Ain’t No Small Fry’ campaign: If you want to learn how to impress your critics, take a lesson or two from KFC. KFC’s french fries were the most complained about product. However, instead of getting defensive, the food chain launched ‘new fries’ with the campaign – ‘Ain’t No Small Fry’. They also amplified the campaign by using not just social media but also national press. This is how you shift perception with a solid marketing campaign!
7. Coca-Cola #RefreshtheFeed: To generate buzz, Coca-Cola cleared its social media accounts on November 9, 2018. The followers were quite taken aback by this move, all the social media accounts remained blank till November 12. On November 13, on the World Kindness Day, the company shared content that was all about positivity. The company used this occasion to reboot its social media presence and emerge as a positive brand.
Choose kindness. ❤️️ #RefreshTheFeed #WorldKindnessDay pic.twitter.com/cJ6S3Dwmbo
— Coca-Cola (@CocaCola) November 13, 2018
8. Oreo’s daily twist: There are very few brands that are as iconic as Oreo. So when in 2012, Oreo turned 100, it called for a celebration. The brand launched a 100-day series of cookie designs centered around each day’s news. The most creative thing about this campaign is that it put the product in the centre and weaved content around it. The campaign invited the public to suggest news pegs and select the winning campaign. What an amazing way to keep your audience engaged not for a day or week but for months.
9. IKEA UK store sleepover: Famous for their unique in-store experience, IKEA’s sleepover campaign is one of the best examples of experiential marketing whilst using the power of Facebook fans. Inspired by a Facebook group titled ‘I wanna have a sleepover in IKEA’, the furniture brand in the UK, randomly selected 100 Facebook fans and invited them for a sleepover in IKEA.
10. #WendysBreakfastBattle: The best defence is a good offence. Taking this adage to a whole new level, Wendy launched a campaign asking its Twitter followers to roast its competition including McDonald’s. Both the companies took the battle seriously. While Wendy posted the most popular tweets on a video billboard in New York City’s Times Square. McDonald’s offered a free Egg McMuffin on the day of the Wendy’s breakfast launch.
#WendysBreakfast #WendysBreakfastBattle
Yummy breakfast taters and egg bacon biscuit with …move over #Starbucks..Frostachino so delicious! pic.twitter.com/erY7v84b9Y
— HazyThoughts ???? (@bluegrasshaze) March 2, 2020
11. Project #ShowUs by Dove: If you want to tell a powerful story with real people, Dove’s Project ShowUs is one of the best examples. Shattering beauty stereotypes, the campaign gives a fresh look to stock imagery and sets a new standard for authentic representation of women. Basically, #ShowUs is a collection of 10,000+ images that break away from beauty stereotypes and present a more inclusive perspective on beauty for all media & advertisers to use. The campaign urged women to share their images with no photoshop or filters. They have to share the images with the #ShowUs hashtag to become part of the collection on social media platforms. The brand leveraged the power of Instagram/Facebook and Youtube to spread awareness of their body positive campaign. Since the launch, 100,000+ women across the globe have supported the collection. 900+ companies from different countries have downloaded 7,500+ images from the collection and the campaign has garnered 100% positive sentiment.