Social media provides marketers with a wealth of powerful tools. Being global, it has the potential to connect your brand to the whole world, and it's free.
Businesses often have entire teams dedicated to social media marketing, and use multiple platforms and techniques to reach their target audience. If an advert hits that sweet spot and goes viral, it can totally transform a brand. That's why marketers have started to cater specifically for the social media scene and no longer treat it as an after-thought. We've seen some impressive social media campaigns this year - but here are some of the best.
Samuel Adams #April Fools 'Heliyum' Beer
This is a really good example of a video that reaches a wider social audience because of its simple, storytelling method. In this advertisement, Samuel Adams new beer has apparently been made with 'Heliyum'. It was silly yet watchable and you weren't quite sure if it was real or not. Most importantly it was shareable and in any case it certainly made you want to try it.
Mashable #VineChallenge
Throughout the whole of 2014, internet site, Mashable encouraged viners to take part in weekly creative challenges. Vine is a social media platform that allows users to create 6 second videos. The Mashable challenges included making a spooky Halloween videos, shooting something in slow motion and most recently, making a greetings card that bent the rules. Not only is this creative and gets their audience interacting with the brand, it also gets' them sharing content and having fun in the process. The key aspect to this was the length of the campaign - as more and more content gets shared, more and more people start participating, and it's still going strong. User generated content is a win-win for brands.
Samsung #Oscars #Celebritweet
The best thing about this campaign was that nobody realised it was a campaign until it was shared across the world. Actress Ellen DeGeneres, who hosted the Oscars, used a Samsung smart phone for a group selfie with the likes of Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, and then tweeted it. It has now been re-tweeted over 3 million times. Groups of friends everywhere have tried to mimic that group selfie, so much so that selfie sticks have now been invented (coincidence?)
Pepsi - London #LiveForNow
As part of its LiveForNow campaign, Pepsi created a bus shelter ad that made it appear as though something crazy was happening in the street. Things like UFO sightings and meteors hitting the ground made people jump or run away. Once they realised it wasn't real they took pictures and videos of the advert and interacted with it, then shared it on social media. After that, the reactions from passersby were the selling point, and are what made the videos go viral. Everybody enjoys watching people get pranked. Great idea from Pepsi!
ALS #Icebucketchallenge
How can we forget the ice bucket challenge? Everybody who's anybody took part in the campaign that raised awareness for the disabling illness. Even celebrities got involved, and it spanned as far as Asia and Australia. The format was simple - somebody had water, often full of ice cubes, dumped over their head. They then nominated people they knew to undertake the same challenge. They also vowed to donate money to the ALS foundation or the Motor Neurone Disease foundation in the UK. The campaign was very successful and not only raised awareness but raised £2.7 million for the charity.
Coca-Cola's #ShareACoke
Judging by the success of the shareacoke campaign by Coca- Cola, there's a lot to be said about a name. Thousands of people flocked to the shops to find their own name, and if they didn't like coke, they simply took a picture of it and shared it online. Personalisation is key in this campaign, and it made us realise that there's a little self-obsession in all of us. Coca-Cola's website even had a feature allowing people to type their names on virtual cans which could be shared across social media, and it seems the novelty of personalised coke bottles has still not worn off.
Cancer Research #NoMakeUpSelfie
This was the year of the charity campaigns. Another hugely successful one was the nomakeupselfie campaign that raised money and awareness of Cancer. The campaign struck a chord with people everywhere, and encouraged solidarity amongst women. The concept was this: Take a photo of yourself wearing no makeup, share it, and encourage your friends to do the same. Participants were also required to make donations. Cancer Research UK reported £8million in donations in just 6 days. This was definitely one of the stand-out campaigns of 2014.
Burger King's #MotelBK
When Burger King announced its new Chicken tendercrisp, it had to convince people to "cheat" on the whopper. So Burger King decided to create a Burger King Motel, complete with BK bathrobes and toiletries, where consumers could check in and share their experiences using the hashtag #motelbk. This resulted in a huge viral campaign that spanned across many social media platforms. The concept evoked real feelings of guilt in consumers who had been loyal to the Whopper in the past. Great thinking from Burger King, who gave a new meaning to the term 'guilty pleasure'.
Marks & Spencer's #FollowTheFairies
This Christmas, Marks and Spencer ditched celebrities in favour of social media, employing two fairies to lift festive spirits by performing random acts of kindness. M&S generated chatter on social media in recent weeks with small events such as creating real snow outside a primary school in Cornwall, giving gifts to night shift workers and creating fairies made of lights above Newcastle's Tyne Bridge. These acts were all unbranded and were only linked to the Twitter hashtag #followthefairies and @thetwofairies, allowing people to share pictures and videos. This campaign was successful in bringing Christmas cheer and giving us that warm fuzzy feeling inside, not to mention raising awareness of the brand without shoving it in our faces.