5 Social Media Marketing Campaigns that Exceeded Expectations in 2017

Written By: Florian Hieß

In the world of digital marketing, social media has almost limitless power. As a brand, you need social media to communicate better with prospects and customers, increase awareness and exceed expectations.

In the social media realm, creative ideas matter a lot. This 2017, the following 5 social media marketing campaigns blew us away. Check them out and use them as inspiration to help you craft a killer strategy for your social media campaigns.

 1: “KnowYourLemons” campaign by the Worldwide Breast Cancer Charity

At the start of 2017, the Worldwide Breast Cancer Charity came up with an interesting idea for a social media marketing campaign. #KnowYourLemons was designed to raise awareness on different signs of breast cancer. It was aimed at reminding women that they should look beyond lumps and bumps when getting checked up.

The charity used actual lemons in the social media campaign to depict the 12 different signs of breast cancer. Cleverly adhering to the required censorship rules. The #KnowYourLemons campaign reached a whopping 7.3 million people. The charity encouraged people to interact with their campaign with questions that compelled the audience to take action.

Lesson learned: When crafting a social media campaign, use questions to compel your audience to like/share; but also invite them to take some sort of action.

2: Shake Shack new opening location campaign

Burger joint Shake Shack used Instagram’s Carousel feature to tell a story. The restaurant leveraged the power of social media by providing insightful details on the opening of a new Shake Shack branch in Downtown Detroit.

The campaign’s core social media marketing strategy focused on posting high-resolution photos and phone-shot videos. The new location was made to look hip and interesting on Instagram. Compelling lots of followers to share their photos and insights too.

Lesson learned: Shake Shack used the power of immediacy to define their campaign: as soon as Instagram released the Carousel feature, they implemented it.

3: Airbnb #LiveThere campaign

Airbnb has taken the hospitality sector by storm. Providing excellent marketing and customer service on social media. The #LiveThere campaign was targeted at encouraging people to try living like a local on their next travel destination.

The campaign had tremendous success on Facebook, where over 11 million viewed it (more than 5,200 comments and over 56,000 likes). Airbnb partnered with several professional photographers to craft awe-inspiring images and messages.

Lesson learned: The right message, sent at the right time, wrapped nicely in smart design (and some advertising budget) can be all you need to entice your audience and make them want to take action.

4: #SaltBae campaign

Turkish chef, Nusret Gökçe, became an overnight sensation. His fancy slicing and salting techniques took social media by storm. His video got 2.4 million views and over 8,700 comments in 48 hours.

On Twitter, users started making jokes. Lots of parodies emerged overnight, with people making fun and having fun using the hashtag #SaltBae.

Lesson learned: The #SaltBae campaign turned heads because it focused on the creative process of a social media campaign. Rather than allotting a big budget for marketing, Chef Gökçe’s videos were cost-efficient. They had traction because the approach was new, fun and enjoyable to people fond of fancy cooking.

5: #MeetTheBakers Campaign – Ted Baker

British fashion brand, Ted Baker, is well-known for its ambitious content and excellent storytelling on social media. The brand’s most recent social media campaign, #MeetTheBakers, had a fictional soap opera at the base: “Keeping up with the Bakers”.

In partnership with Nexus, the campaign created digital window displays that connected real-life activities to virtual social activities. Instagram Stories were used to share updates on the alleged sitcom, with fresh new content being released for 8 days in a row.

It was a very cool idea to engage an audience with behind-the-scenes content. Ted Baker’s campaign also featured a shoppable 360 film, to allow shoppers to test the waters before making a real purchase.

Lesson learned: Ted Baker’s social media campaign took a narrative approach. The brand was already known for its great content. That’s exactly what they did to hype up their strategy: They used excellent content to create a story that kept their audience related to.

Conclusion

In the world of digital marketing, you can’t stand out without a killer social media strategy. The key is to get creative and do things differently than your competitors. Compel your audience with questions, insightful calls-to-action, and excellent visuals.

Get a hashtag of your own to gather followers in a single place, and don’t underestimate the power of outstanding content.

Which of the above-mentioned social media campaigns would you use to exceed the expectations of your prospects and customers?

About the author

Florian Hieß is Head of Digital Marketing at Swat.io, a Social Media Management solution that’s helping companies to improve their content management and customer support on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and others. As well as for Walls.io, a Social Media Wall to collect and display all interactions using your hashtag on more than 15 platforms.