6 Wildly Successful Digital Marketing Campaigns

In order to keep up, companies must be well aware of digital marketing trends early on, and fully utilize this forward-thinking knowledge to reach their business goals. And it’s not all just about analyzing big data (although this is important!); sometimes, it helps to take a look at what the world’s industry top dogs are doing, and aim to emulate their strategic thinking.
Below are SOAP Media’s top six picks of wildly successful digital marketing campaigns from around the globe. Shaping the future of digital marketing by engaging audiences on social media and beyond, grasping future trends and utilizing new technologies, read on for how and why they work.

1. Airbnb – ‘Never a Stranger’

Airbnb: Never A Stranger from TBWA\London on Vimeo.

The concept behind Airbnb’s 2015 ‘Never a Stranger’ campaign is to unite the world through travel and homestay rentals. Although launched last year as a video advertisement, the campaign is ongoing, with the running hashtag #OneLessStranger. Appealing to our human nature to feel at home when we travel, Airbnb’s ethos is to connect the world with its digital services, a philosophy evident in all of their digital marketing campaigns.

Another interesting feature of Airbnb’s digital marketing strategy is to collect community stories and turn them into ads, making the company seem more people-oriented and focused on customer satisfaction. A strategy which, we at SOAP Media believe, is the key to long-term business success.

2. 20th Century Fox – ‘Become a Kingsman’

Kingsman - The Secret Service - Case Study from UNIT9 on Vimeo.

The joint effort of 20th Century Fox and Google, ‘Become a Kingsman’ is one of a rare few
digital marketing campaigns to fully utilize gamification to create core engagement, despite gamified content one of the key digital marketing trends of the decade. The campaign is an interactive trailer that allows users to ‘Become a Kingsman’ and take part by connecting their smartphones to their desktop to control action on screen, take part in fight scenes and find hidden intelligence.

Featuring Google Street View, Maps, Chrome and YouTube content, the campaign worked well to promote not just the film but also Google’s leading technologies.

3. GoPro: Didga the Skateboarding Cat

The most timeless of all digital marketing trends is ‘the cat’, that much is a given. And so, when GoPro teamed up with YouTube sensation, Didga the Skateboarding Cat, for this consumer-generated video, it was clear they were onto a winner.

Like Airbnb, GoPro’s campaign is another example of how consumer-generated content is shaping the future of digital marketing. And, to highlight this fact, GoPro earned itself a higher engagement on Instagram with this one video than any other post in 2015. But, personally, Seagull Stole My GoPro gets my vote.

4. Buzzfeed – ‘Tasty’ food channel

If you haven’t found yourself drooling to at least one of these instant-playing 1-minute recipe tutorials in the past week, you probably don’t spend enough time on Facebook (we envy you).

Garnering 14,000,000 Facebook followers and many more views for each video posted, Tasty is just one channel in a long list of Buzzfeed’s incredibly successful social media campaigns which prove they know where the future of digital marketing is heading. The digestible and well-cut video format, as well as their punchy and consistent style, is what makes these videos stand out above the crowd, showing the keen awareness Buzzfeed has of the millennial mindset (short attention span, big appetite).

5. Dove – ‘Choose Beautiful’

The concept of Dove’s ‘Choose Beautiful’ campaign is one of female empowerment and follows a long line of their campaigns made in a similar style and vein. While more heavy-handed attempts to cover the same subject can be embarrassing to watch, Dove’s insight into their audience and the use of real, diverse women in their campaigns sets them apart from the rest.

What is particularly resonant is the common way in which modern women struggle to call themselves beautiful. In drawing attention to this, Dove is offering an recognition of all women, in turn, widening their market and promoting a feeling of self-acceptance.

Although subverting traditional marketing techniques of making people want to better themselves, Dove fronts the wave of digital marketing trends which aim to empower their market while promoting their brand as both liberal and progressive.

6. Mercedes Benz – Build Your Own GLA

Instagram, while easy to dismiss as a photo-sharing site, provides a huge audience of 400 million active users (75 million of which are daily users) for digital marketers to target. Back in 2014, Mercedes Benz knew that the future of digital marketing lay with Instagram and so created the ‘Build your Own GLA’ campaign, a campaign which really came into its own last year and continues to be a success.

Allowing users to customize their own car – altering the color, wheels, rims, windows and more – before posting it to their own Instagram accounts, Mercedes Benz succeeded at significantly expanding their organic reach while allowing millions to interact with their products without them ever having to leave Instagram – crafty but ingenious.

About SOAP Media

With our fingers on the pulse of global digital marketing trends, SOAP Media offers marketing solutions and SEO services to companies who wish to compete and keep up with the future of digital marketing. For our clients, we provide social media expertise, search engine optimization, data analysis and up-to-date marketing strategies.

If you are interested in working with us, contact us here.