7 Great Social Media Campaigns & What You Can Learn From Them

Just being present on social media is not enough today. Potential customers are bombarded with numerous posts every day, and it takes a great deal of work to get their attention. Big brands have embraced social media as the best place to market their products and the safest way to get people to talk about their products.

Here’s a list of 7 great social media marketing campaigns:

Tasty videos

People at BuzzFeed rocked the internet world when they decided to tap into a seemingly oversaturated niche – food. It seems that most searched queries today are related to food and recipes. However, BuzzFeed stepped up with a fresh approach that completely changed the world or food and recipe videos today, by creating Tasty. They abandoned the standard format for recipe videos which were longer and featured cooks explaining the process. Tasty presented videos that were short, only about a minute or two, where there was no talking. The fast-paced videos quickly attracted millions of views and shares on Facebook. Not long after, their YouTube channel skyrocketed, and it currently has over 13 million subscribers.

IHOP to IHOb

One of the most famous pancake franchises, the International House of Pancakes, shook the social media by briefly changing its name in 2018. A mysterious change from IHOP to IHOb prompted a series of tweets. People were trying to figure out what the B represented. There were more than 30 thousand tweets with various guesses. When IHOP finally revealed that the B stands for burgers, followers retweeted over 15 thousand times. The company increased burger sales, selling 500,000 a week during this campaign.

Blendtec - Will It Blend

Blendtec is responsible for one of the most famous social media marketing campaigns in the last few years. Also, its premise was straightforward. In 2015, they released a series of videos showing various objects getting destroyed in a blender. These videos were accompanied by the title: “Will it blend?”, which soon became an instant hit. People were eager to find out what would iPhones, camcorders or action figurines look like after a spin or two in a blender. Executives at Blendtec admitted that this campaign enormously raised awareness about their brand, and increased sales worldwide.

Airbnb experiences

In 2016 Airbnb launched its Facebook Live campaign, to show their customers all the potential tourist attractions and activities. Airbnb posted live videos over a period of 24 hours so that the potential visitors could get the feeling of what it would be traveling to different locations. Six videos were posted, ranging from the art scene in Paris, streets of Tokyo, surfing in LA, cooking in Miami, and others. This stream gathered over 6 million views over 24 hours, with the majority of viewers ranging from 25-35 years old. 

Starbucks Unicorn Frappuccino

In April 2017, Starbucks launched a social media campaign named Frappuccino Happy Hour. During this campaign, they released a beverage called Unicorn Frappuccino. Even though this drink got some not so favorable reviews, the whole campaign was a hit on social media, with over 150 thousand posts on Instagram only. It is safe to say that the quality of the new Frappuccino was never the priority. They released a colorful, unique beverage that was in short supply, for a limited amount of time. This way, Starbucks tried to attract younger customers who were impatient to buy and post photos on social media. They decided to follow up with similar campaigns, such as Zombie Frappuccino, but with less success.

Deadpool DVD/Bluray release

When 20th Century Fox wanted to release its smash hit Deadpool on a DVD/Bluray, they decided to use its unique style of humor. Deadpool is a character known for his explicit, rude and often inappropriate behavior, and that’s what the audience likes the most about him. So, before releasing the movie on DVD/Bluray, social networks were flooded with posts that were full of Deadpool’s wisecracks. His personality and unique voice made the film stand out on social media.

Eggo and Stranger Things

Anyone who’s ever watched Stranger Things knows what Eleven’s most favorite food is. There’s a scene in almost every episode where Eleven eats Eggo waffles. Since the first season was a grand slam, Netflix and Eggo used social media to promote the second season. Before the season premiere, on Halloween, people from all over the world were tweeting about the show, by posting various recipes that use this treat. Now, Eggo waffles and Stranger Things are inseparable from each other.

Even though these brands are worth billions of dollars, this list shows that when it comes to social media campaigns, money can’t always buy success. Knowing your audience is one of the key factors when creating these campaigns if you want to successfully talk to your prospective audience. Simple social media announcements can bring you thousands, if not more, new users, and drastically increase your sales. That’s why taking time and effort when creating a social media campaign is one of the most crucial steps.