Digital Marketing Campaigns That Made It To The Spotlight
The study of some digital marketing campaigns that made it to the spotlight can be a digital marketing lesson in itself. In a constantly evolving digitalized global world with cut-throat competition, is the transformation, adaptation, and success from the change easy? Not really. Though there are more and more channels replacing conventional marketing channels, the competition is tougher than ever. It can be a daunting task to differentiate between what works and what does not in terms of digital marketing campaigns. Numerous questions need answers before deciding and implementing a digital marketing strategy. Is video the best way to launch a campaign? Is social media sufficient to launch a campaign?
Should marketing have a serious tone or a humorous tone? Should it be linked with a social cause to strike a chord with the masses?
Is a single-channel approach better or a multichannel? The questions are many. The answers depend on what you want out of your digital marketing strategy for your company.
A digital marketing campaign serves to connect with a bigger audience base, improve connections with the existing audience, increase brand awareness, reduce cost, and enhance revenue. Good campaigns are those that create experiences with engaging content, leave a lasting impression, and promote brand awareness and loyalty.
A good way to implement digital marketing when unsure is to evaluate the campaigns that are making an impact, be inspired, and analyze what worked for them and how.
With the internet being an integral part of our lives, access to social media being routine, and increased mobile usage, marketing has seen a shift to all modes digital. Most brands create awe-inspiring digital marketing campaigns.
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Below, we will review some digital marketing campaigns from established companies. You simply cannot ignore these mind-blowing campaigns. They can perhaps be thought-provoking, encouraging you to spin some innovative campaigns for your digital marketing.
ZAPPOS:
A customer service digital marketing model:
Zappos is an online shoe and clothing retailer that has set a standard apart in customer care. With its base in Las Vegas, United States, Zappos has made a name for itself by leveraging digital technologies, social media platforms, and focusing on customer service.
Over the years, they have raised the bar when it comes to engaging with customers and providing them with valuable experiences. They are the social media trailblazers who believe in connecting with consumers, gathering feedback, and improvising their digital marketing strategy.
Keeping customer satisfaction as a core, they offer appealing policies like a 365-day money-back guarantee, free shipping both ways, and customer care availability 24/7. They dominate the social media platforms not just to market but build relationships with their customers.
Being an early adaptor of new technologies, Zappos embraced social media channels like Facebook, Twitter (as early as 2007), blogs, and YouTube videos.
On Twitter, Zappos’ CEO, Tony-Hsieh, has approximately 1,571,987 followers. The employees often tweet about offers, customer satisfaction stories, and company culture. On Facebook, they have a whopping 2,353,550 followers! They also have blogs written by their employees, which further reiterates how much they love their job and how passionate they are about Zappos.
Zappos comes up with short valuable tweets, striking images of people wearing their shoes, and videos that reveal the company culture. Creative videos of ways to up-cycle their shipping box, customer stories, and curated Pinterest boards depicting the customer-centric attitude of the company or trending styles, Zappos is always on top of the game.
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The lesson to learn from Zappos’ success is to provide value to the customers. Their success is not the result of special pricing or extraordinary products but customer service that is extraordinary and phenomenal. Happy customers increase word-of-mouth marketing value bringing in more customers.
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SWIGGY
#SwiggyVoiceofHunger Digital Marketing Campaigns:
The thing with digital marketing is, it provides you with multiple channels, yet only creativity and innovation can take you to the place you aspire to be. We will now talk about the insane and quirky, yet phenomenally successful digital marketing campaign by Swiggy.
Launched in 2014, Swiggy is a food delivery platform. It has to its credit 75k+ restaurant partners and spans across 100+ cities. Swiggy’s fleet pampers its hungry customers with a host of valuable services like fast delivery, no minimum order value, 24/7 customer support, and tracking.
In February 2019, Swiggy came up with this fun and splendid Instagram interactive campaign, #SwiggyVoiceofHunger.
Swiggy believes hunger has a voice and designed a campaign around the same. This digital marketing campaign called out to foodies, inviting them to use the voice note feature of Instagram and recreate the shape of their preferred food. This campaign aimed at increasing customer engagement in an unprecedented way.
Swiggy rolled out five challenges for its foodies, to recreate the shape of a Kebab Skewer, Fish, Nacho, Shawarma, and 21-stack Pancakes.
The consumers completing all five challenges stood a chance to win the mega prize in the form of a year’s worth of food vouchers! Slurp!
The campaign sent Twitter into a flutter. Over ten days, the challenge acquired 1.5 Lakh+ entries. Swiggy’s Instagram followers increased by a phenomenal 30K! Brands like Netflix and Airtel and many famous influencers took to the campaign popularizing it to new heights.
The voracious response sent the internet crashing. The Instagram handle crashed 11 times over those ten days! Some unbelievable consequences, indeed!
Swiggy redefined creativity and innovation in contests. As a stupendous result of their exceptional digital marketing campaign, it saw an increase in sales, customer base, and brand loyalty.
JETBLUE
Just Alright Doesn’t Fly Here
JetBlue is a major American low-cost airline. It is the seventh-largest in the United States in terms of passengers carried. It is yet another example of a brand that cares about its customers.
Over the years, they have gained popularity not just for being a low-cost airline but for their thoughtful, engaging, and compelling content across social media that expresses the brand values.
They know how to make their passengers happy, be it free unlimited snacks, or the discounted offers, or the recent in-flight music selection.
In May 2019, when the BTS concerts were on, JetBlue played a BTS number. This move got them some immediate love on social media from fans onboard. A simple gesture such as this got JetBlue instant appreciation from passengers.
Their most recent digital marketing campaign is, “Just Alright Doesn’t Fly Here,” a huge step to ensure comfort in travel. They encourage their passengers via this campaign not to compromise on comfort or service. JetBlue acknowledges the customers’ concerns and is committed to solving these issues, going “above and beyond” for their passengers.
This campaign is multichannel and launched via videos across social media, TV, radio, and other streaming devices, digital displays, and billboards. The campaign features the fictional Alright Brothers (Wright brothers, pioneers in aviation), who have brought down the standards of the airline industry. In contrast, JetBlue passengers get extraordinary at ordinary rates.
JetBlue recently ranked highest in customer satisfaction among low-cost airlines. It is also touted to be the best in passenger comfort in the 2019 TripAdvisor Traveler’s Choice Awards, facts that reiterate its customer-centric approach.
KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK
811 Campaign #IndiaInvited to open a digital account, digital marketing campaign.
Kotak Mahindra Bank, an Indian private sector bank, has its headquarters in Mumbai, India. It offers banking and finance-related products like investment management, insurance, and loans through multiple channels.
When the digital revolution was taking India by storm, Kotak Mahindra took advantage of the change. Capitalizing on an increase in smartphone and internet access, it launched the Kotak 811.
With 811, people can open a zero-balance digital bank account. The account gives up to 6% per annum interest. The account opening is through an app without actually visiting the bank itself.
This campaign enticed a huge audience base, especially first-time hesitant customers who find conventional banking setup intimidating. There is also a fear of being judged.
Popular Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh became the face of the campaign of inclusivity, #IndiaInvited. It is a campaign that invited every Indian irrespective of his gender, caste, and creed to open a digital account right from where they are.
The concept was engaging with the audience keeping in mind the diversity of Indian culture, ruling out any indiscrimination. It was to promote the concept of no judgments and no discrimination.
The #IndiaInvited campaign launch was across various touchpoints. The customizable AR filter on Facebook allowed users to click a picture alongside Ranveer Singh and share it.
People were invited to share their perspectives on the campaign. It gathered 500+ video entries judged by stand-up comedians, Sourabh Pant and Sonali Thakker. Bharti Singh and Geeta Phogat also provided momentum to the campaign
The campaign garnered 2.5 Lakh Indians. The estimated brand reach during the campaign was 9.56M, 15M on Facebook, and a 47% growth in engagement rate.
In the attempt to make available to every Indian, digital banking product and services, the Kotak Mahindra bank campaign was unique with great results.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
#Planetorplastic Campaign
A campaign with social responsibility, this initiative is a multi-year campaign launched by National Geographic that aims at awareness and resolution of plastic disposal in the oceans. An estimated 9 million tons of plastic are found dumped in oceans and remain un-retrieved.
The goal of this campaign is to reduce single-use plastics and their detrimental effects on our ocean beds and marine life.
The campaign encourages its audience to take a pledge to drive a positive change and choose the planet over the convenience of plastic use.
This has led to consumer awareness and engagement that spanned multiple platforms and is still on the rise. Many like-minded notable companies and NGOs have partnered with Nat Geo to further this cause. The reach spreads across 172 countries and 43 languages.
As a global brand with its roots in science and discovery, National Geographic has taken its social responsibility a notch higher. It attempts at making people aware of the problem in the best way it does, through science and storytelling.
To practice what they preach, they have an internal commitment and now have their magazines across the globe wrapped in paper instead of plastic.
When it comes to the returns of this campaign, their social media reach is a stupendous 760 million. Leveraging their global reach, they encourage at least 760 million to drive the change.
The impressions so far for the #PlasticorPlanet campaign are approximately 881 million across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and YouTube.
NIKE:
Never Stop Winning Ad
Nike is an American multinational corporation. It deals with the design, development, manufacturing, and sales of footwear, apparel, accessories, and globally.
Nike is a known household name and brand. Nike’s digital marketing strategy predominantly taps into the power of influencer marketing. They are not afraid to take bold stands on social issues via their digital marketing campaigns.
What is it that makes Nike’s digital marketing so popular? They focus on telling a story relatable to the masses, a story about driving a change, a story about creating new and positive habits, rather than focusing on the brand itself.
They use platforms that the consumers use to broaden their horizons of marketing. Nike even gave its audience the power to design their shoes to suit their comfort and style, making them feel valuable and important.
For Nike, social media is a conversation with its audience. All of their videos strike an emotional chord with the viewers, increasing brand loyalty.
They have a stupefying array of influencers on board, Colin Kaepernick, Athletes Justin Gallegos (with cerebral palsy), and Serena Williams, rappers Kanye West and Travis Scott, fashion designers Virgil Abloh and Tinker Hatfield, and more. Nike even comes up with bold and quirky designs like that of the SpongeBob SquarePants collection.
The most notable Nike campaign of 2019 dates back to July 2019. Nike capitalized on the Women’s World Cup, sponsoring 14 out of 24 teams, and when the United States beat the Netherlands,
Nike was all set to capitalize on the victory as well. They released their ad moments after the match celebrating the triumph of the US Women’s Team.
Takeaway:
What did this campaign result in in terms of ROI? Well, wait till you read the stupendous figures!
- 3 million views on the @nikewomen Instagram profile
- 5 million views on YouTube
- More than 22.5 million views and tweets on Twitter.
- Nike jersey sales went 500% up in 2019.
Nike campaigns teach us how to capitalize on emotional moments (timing) and the importance of standing up and giving a voice to social causes.
DORITOS
No name and logo campaign.
While most brands leverage different modes of digital platforms to promote brand awareness, Doritos took a radically different approach. Yes! It took branding to another level and dropped its name. It joined the league of “Anti-Ad” to alleviate the skepticism about marketing in the eyes of Gen-Z and to better connect with them.
Doritos (by Frito-Lay) is an American brand of flavored tortilla chips since 1964. In recent years, Doritos has gained popularity through its digital marketing campaigns, most notably from ads aired during the Super Bowl.
On August 26, 2019, Doritos started the campaign, “Another Level” that read, “No logos, no jingles, no gimmicks,” because “it’s the chip so iconic, we don’t need to name it.” Across its social channels, there were triangular images without a name. They even added in a Snapchat lens, inviting viewers to be in the Doritos-shaped triangular frame.
This move is very different from conventional campaigns. It is indeed a well-targeted marketing move to boost the brand’s social media presence. It is easier for an established brand to do something such than it is for a brand trying to create its presence.
This campaign served to freshen up and pep up the social media platforms with a little fun to garner better engagement from brand-weary consumers. A twist in the monotony, adding the much-required zest and zing!.
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TESLA
Tesla is one company that has $0 spent on advertising. Thanks to Elon Musk, of course! It is among the very few companies where brand awareness is directly proportional to the popularity of the CEO. Tesla’s Elon Musk aims at revolutionizing transportation on earth and beyond (space travel).
Most popular for SpaceX, and controversial tweets, this high-profile billionaire has a gargantuan Twitter audience, of approximately 29.8 million!
In February 2019, Elon Musk teamed up with Swedish YouTuber and comedian, PewDiePie to co-host the increasingly popular “Meme Review” segment of the show.
With his witty commentary and rating of memes, he increased engagement on his social media handle multi-folds. The video received 20 million views, making it one of the most viral posts in association with Tesla.
Having a social media active CEO undoubtedly favors a brand’s awareness and popularity. The more the engagement, the better is the reach.
The hitch here is being creative and consumer-centric, being able to engage the audience in positive ways. Controversial posts and tweets can land the company itself in a bad light. Hence, there are pros and cons to this strategy-a damage control plan of action to avoid problems, if any, is advisable.
LAY’S
Smile Deke Dekho Digital Marketing Campaign
Lay’s (Frito-Lay) of PepsiCo since 1963 is a potato chips manufacturer offering snack products in a variety of flavors. An unquestionably favorite brand of snacks, Lay’s is proactive when it comes to digital marketing.
It has recently come out with a product packaging campaign, #SmileDekeDekho, in association with 750+ influencers and casting Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor for their TVCs.
This campaign brings the “smile “alive in various flavors, comparing a smile to be the ice breaker and conversation starter, scaling any barriers, just as a pack of Lay’s can be.
The idea is that just as a smile is a universal language, so is Lay’s universal choice of consumers globally.
The new Lay’s packaging (limited period) features six different smiles interpreting different emotions through its variety of flavors. It also drives in a point about how Lay’s is the chosen travel partner for the Indian consumers.
The teaser came out on social media on World Smile Day. Post the teaser started an influencer outreach program with 750+ influencers, with personalized packs mapping an influencer’s smile to the flavor that fits best.
The objectives here are getting the brand closer to the consumers, create joyful and extensive engagement, strengthening brand love. Many celebrities organically volunteered to share the #SmileDekeDekho campaign posts, leading to enormous consumer engagement.
Quantifying the success of this campaign, it received 185 million impressions, 8.2 million engagements, and 1300+ social media features, truly an exemplary example of influencer marketing.
CONCLUSION:
Traditional and static marketing is passé. Creating a marketing strategy on the digital platform (platforms that consumers use) and weaving it around current events and trends is the thing that works.
Consumer engagement and attention are of paramount importance for any company. To survive and prosper in today’s digital-frenzied world, digital marketing is the way to move forward.
Stay abreast of the latest campaigns that make a splash. Keep yourself up-to-date with developments across social media handles and leverage the power of social media.
Evaluate your challenges, be proactive with the solutions, and align your digital marketing strategy with your brand value.
Multiple channels of social media, mobile apps, quizzes, podcasts, infographics, humorous memes, niche influencers, or celebrities, the choices are many.
Capture the mind and heart of the consumers in an authentic, creative, out-of-the-box manner and increase your market share and brand value.
Understand your audience and cater to their expectations. Optimum use of the digital platform will serve to create a digital marketing strategy that can be a game-changer for your company.
The above campaigns can give you a good insight into ideas never considered before. They are sure thought-provoking, so put on your thinking caps and get your brain cells working!
I am sure the above digital marketing campaigns across varied industries with varied digital platforms are inspiring enough. Is your marketing strategy digital ready?
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