Creating Interactive Social Media Campaigns
If there is one thing we love it is a creative social media campaign! They serve as a way to engage with your audience, get them laughing, and take a break from normal social media content. Some of the best social media campaigns seek to get viewers to pause and truly look at the message on their screen. Think of brands like Old Spice with the “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign, or when the restaurant chain Qdoba let fans vote in real time to see which one of the queso options would stay on the menu, or when Ford picked 100 bloggers to get a free Ford in 2009 for their Fiesta Movement Campaign. The truly remarkable campaigns make the audience feel connected and included in the conversation about the brand, which in turn allows the consumers to become the champions of the brand in word of mouth marketing. We have found a few favorites that are great examples of how an idea can turn into the best PR for a brand.
Potato Parcel: This company is thinking outside the box when it comes to the greeting card market. How many times have you sent a greeting card to a friend or relative but thought it was a bit bland? For me it is hard to find unique options in the greeting card department that are also fun. This is where Potato Parcel comes in, they will send the recipient a potato with a fun message written on it! These hot potatoes are just begging to be shared all over social media, they have amassaed an impressive Instagram following that loves the quirky nature of sending potatoes by mail, and most importantly users are willing to share, post and become champions of the brand about their spud experience. The users are reaching far more people with their posts than the brand could ever hope if it had used paid promotions.
Volvo: The 2015 Super Bowl holds a special place in my heart, not for the score of the game but for the incredible feat of genius that Volvo was able to pull off. Instead of running an expensive ad during the game they came up with another idea. They wanted Twitter users to tweet during other car ads by tagging a friend and using the hashtag #volvocontest, in what was called “The Greatest Interception Ever” to give users a chance to win a new Volvo XC60 crossover. This took the spotlight off of the other ads on the screen and made sure that even though Volvo didn’t shell out the big bucks for a Super Bowl Spot that they were still being talked about.
It’s a Tide Ad: Sticking with the Super Bowl theme this year Tide was the winner for the best ad in my opinion. Tide took other classic ads and parodied them into a message that aligned with the Tide brand. Since every ad that runs is perfect and spotless why not get the consumer to think about how those clothes were cleaned. This ad had me on edge for the remainder of the game thinking “is this ad going to be another sneaky Tide ad?”. Tide made sure that their message would always be at the front of my mind with their clever and creative ad, the best ads make you question and pay attention, and Tide did just that.
What each of these campaigns did well was use their own unique voice to direct their message, each message was consistent, engaging for the audience, and had a creative flair that can be utilized on any level of business. Taking these lessons forward is a great way to cement a solid social media campaign!
