10 Best Social Media Campaigns

in Facebook,Facebook,social media,Social Media

Social media has been gaining a lot of importance in recent times and everyone has been trying to have their piece of the cake. However, here are a list of social media campaigns that have made the cut. These are some of the campaigns that have stood out since the advent of social media.

1. The Blair Witch Project: Considered one of the best social media campaign ever, it is one of the first of its kind viral marketing efforts. This was conducted for the movie that was released in 1999. Different gimmicks in the form of fake newspaper clips about missing characters and so on were used to create intrigue viewers about the movie. Reports suggested that it had mode more than $29 million just in the first week and has generated total revenue of over $249 million.

2. Old Spice: Smell Like a Man, Man: Old Spice used its spokesman Isaiah Mustafa for a campaign that was web-based. As part of the campaign close to 180 web videos were made, that were provided online and on YouTube. Additionally, he was also active on Twitter to respond to questions that his fans and enthusiasts had.

3. Burger King: Subservient Chicken: This campaign created in 2004 was the brain child of Burger King and agency Crispin, and Porter + Bogusky’s. This campaign was created to promote the Burger King’s TenderCrisp Sandwich. This campaign received over 15 million hits in just the first five days after launch. When the participants typed commands like ‘moonwalk’ and ‘make a sandwich’ a person dressed in a chicken suit would follow orders.

4. Ikea Facebook Showroom: When Ikea wanted to open a new store in Malmo, Sweden. Ikea went the social media page and created a Facebook page that displayed pictures of the different of the news showroom’s products. They ran a campaign where the first people to tag the photos won the items that they tagged first. This campaign went on to win the 2010 Gold Cyber Loin at Cannes.

5. Blendtec: Will It Blend?: Blendtec when it was launched, created videos that showed the kitchen accessory blend a array of products. The kitchen accessory blended from a baseball to an iPhone. The sales, post this campaign, was reported to have increased by 700% since November 2006.

6. Pepsi Refresh: Pepsi went beyond itself and created the Pepsi Refresh project that focused on getting the global community to support and nominate projects that needed funding within their local communities. Participants could update videos and post pictures of different causes. This was a campaign that caused Pepsi to create a new identity while ensuring that they retained their youthful image.

7. VW: Fun Theory: Volkswagen took the fun route to transform the subways in Sweden. It pained the staircases into a giant, functioning piano. Reports suggest that this resulted in 66% people using to use the stairs instead of escalators. This campaign was awarded a 2010 Cyber Grand Prix Lion at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

8. Evian: Roller Babies: This campaign featured computer-generated babies that were on roller skates break dancing and back flipping. These videos were posted on YouTube. The Guinness Book of World Records considers it the most viewed online ad in history. This campaign from Euro RSCG in Paris received over 54,000 comments and tweets. It also had over 60 million views.

9. Hotmail: This campaign starting in 1996 is considered one of the first social media campaigns. The campaign used groundbreaking technique of running ads like ‘get your free email at Hotmail’ in the bottom of every email message. This campaign had humor, competition, and curiosity. Despite many users going to extremes on how they evaluated this campaign, it none the less remains a case study to learn from.

10. Office Max: Elf Yourself: Created as a 2006 holiday campaign, the office supply retailer encouraged Web users to upload pictures of themselves. Using the faces of the users an elf was created that would then dance. This campaign was created by New York-based independent agency Toy and San Francisco-based EVB. During the holiday season, over 122 million elves were created.

BMV – The Hire

The Hire was the campaign strategized for the internet which consist of series of short films.
Time frame: 2001 and 2002
The plot: Each of the shorts differed, but each one starred Clive Owen playing ‘The Driver’, a suave character behind the wheel of multiple BMWs, hired by various people to act as a transporter for their various needs. The short films also featured a multitude of other famous actors, including Madonna, Forrest Whittaker, Gary Oldman and Mickey Rourke.(Thanks to Brad Jordan for recommending this campaign)