Social Media Campaigns – 10 Of The Best From 2015

Social media has become an incredible tool over the past few years for companies to promote themselves or a certain product.

If a campaign is creative it can spread like wildfire. PR & Social Media teams are constantly battling it out on the Internet to ensure their content goes viral and sometimes they hit the nail on the head.

We take a look at some of the best creative social media campaigns of 2015 so far.

10.) KitKat’s ‘Have A YouTube Break’

We all have those days at work where time seems to move slowly and the only possible thing to relieve this is to watch several pointless online videos.

KitKat decided to take advantage of this common occurrence by releasing over 600,000 limited edition bars rebranded as ‘YouTube break’.

It was one of 72 different types of rebranding for the famous chocolate bar and came with added interactivity – if you say ‘YouTube my break’ into Google Voice Search, you are given a KitKat advert along with the top 3 trending videos on Youtube that day.

9.) If Carlsberg Did Luggage

Are there many moments in the year that are lower than waiting for your luggage after being on holiday and knowing that reality is just around the corner?

Back in July, Carlsberg decided to cheer up those waiting for their luggage at London City Airport by rewarding commuters with free crates of beer on the carousel.

London City Airport: home of a mythical baggage claim giving people free cases of #carlsberg ! Many happy travellers! pic.twitter.com/30CbZ181az

— krossetti (@krossetti) July 19, 2015

Nobody likes unpacking and it seems by the reactions on twitter Carlsberg did cheer up those gloomy holidaymakers!

8.) Penguin Books – ‘#yourmum’

Known for printing classic tales and not classic playground insults, Penguin Books launched a ploy campaign to promote their Mother’s day initiative.

Followers were encouraged to tweet @PenguinUKBooks with the name of a book their mother would like to receive, along with the hashtag ‘#yourmum’.

Ensuing hilarity followed from various Internet pranksters and judging by Penguin’s responses they knew exactly what they were doing and received plenty of publicity.

7.) Hostelworld – ‘Youth Hosteling With Chris Eubank’

The video we were all waiting for – ‘Youth Hosteling with Chris Eubank’ hit the Internet this year, some 18 years after it was jokingly suggested as a TV show in ‘I’m Alan Partridge.’

Eubank seems to be delighted with the ‘extraordinary’ rooms and free wifi in a spoof video promoting Hostelworld.com, a real website that will definitely have felt the effect of this excellent PR.

Months before this video, Chris Eubank replied to a fan on twitter pondering his connection with Youth Hostels having never seen the BBC comedy series, so it’s fantastic to see that some celebrities don’t take themselves too seriously.

6.) Dominoes Pizza – ‘Pizza Emoji Delivery’

Emojis are increasingly replacing writing down our actual feelings as we become more modern as a society, but pizza straight to your door with just one tweet? Thumbs up emoji.

Only available in the U.S, once customers had signed their twitter up to an Easy Order account all they had to do was send a single pizza emoji to @dominoes and their order would be immediately dispatched.

Patrick Doyle, CEO of Dominoes said, ‘It’s the epitome of convenience, we’ve got this down to a 5-second exchange’.

Not all heroes wear a mask it seems.

5.) OneLogin – #ILookLikeAnEngineer

Stereotypes can be harmful for those trying to work in an industry not traditionally associated with their gender and one woman had enough this year.

Having been featured on an advert for software company ‘OneLogin’, Isis Anchalee was upset by the close-minded feedback it received and decided to tweet a picture of herself holding up the slogan ‘#ILookLikeAnEngineer’.

The hashtag received over 75,000 different uses from women all across the world in all types of engineering sectors, effectively banishing the stereotype that there can only be one type of engineer.

4.) First Direct – ‘No. Thank you’

Banks have come under heavy criticism in the last few years, so why not reward those who take the time out to thank those who send their praise?

First Direct returned the favour to some of their most satisfied customers by sending them personalised videos and gifs, for example, ‘No. Thank you @stephodgon.’

.@stephodgson Remember this tweet? We felt like we could do better than just a reply. https://t.co/8HL0lEc0mp

— first direct (@firstdirect) July 8, 2015

Helen Warburton, customer marketing manager at First Direct, highlighted the company’s gratitude, ‘This is just a small gesture of thanks to both the staff who make this happen day in, day out and our fantastic customers who have helped make this campaign possible.”

3.) Various companies – Royal Baby ‘News jacking’

The art of ‘news jacking’ is interpreting a current news story and using it to promote your product and what better major event then the birth of a royal baby.

In May this year, Princess Charlotte of Cambridge was the second child of William & Kate’s children and several companies took to the challenge to creatively combine the story and their product.

Let’s toast to the new royal arrival! #RaiseaToast #RoyalBaby pic.twitter.com/iBkVfgN464

— Warburtons (@Warburtons) May 2, 2015

Twitter highlights include British Airways tweeting a picture of an arrival board announcing the birth with the exact time and Warburtons raising a royal ‘toast’.

2.) Harvey Nichols – ‘Love Freebies’

Department stores are usually known for having adverts with mushy Christmas songs in, but Harvey Nichols decided to go down a tongue-in-cheek route.

A video showing CCTV footage of shoplifters with a cartoon-heads poked fun at their love for all things free, all to promote the freebies available on Harvey Nichol’s new app.

We love free things too, but please don’t be inspired by this video and steal a shirt for your big night out this weekend.

1.) Juventus FC – #LoveJu

One of the biggest football clubs in the world proved earlier this year that fan power can affect people’s lives on social media as well as have an impact on their real lives.

Juventus’ social media channels asked fans to ‘choreograph’ the stadium into a design that reflects the club and they were not short of submissions. 3,000 designs were received on Facebook and over there were over 18,500 tweets with the #LoveJu hashtag.

The eventual winner was 16-year-old Steven Kem from France who had his design turned into a sea of 12,700 coloured cards for the whole stadium to look on in awe and be beamed to over 10 million viewers.

Social Media has given football a new lease of life in the way the fans now feel closer to the sport than ever before. Juventus captain, Giorgio Chiellini, even praised the importance of the choreography in inspiring his team to a 3-1 victory that night!

Social Media Success – Creativity Is Key

These social media campaigns went viral and were greeted with unanimous positivity all because they thought outside the box but still kept their customers at heart.

Admittedly, not everyone has the budget of super club like Juventus FC to get thousands of people to participate in a stadium design, but with the right thinking and approach, your social media campaign can be a hit and get the right message across.

We here at Forever Digital pride ourselves on creativity and innovation and being one of Manchester’s top social media agencies, so if you want us to get involved with your social media campaign or simply want to find out more about our services don’t be afraid to get in touch.