5 Marketing Campaigns that Killed it

Digital Marketing

April 3, 2017

“Historians and archaeologists will one day discover that the ads of our time are the richest and most faithful daily reflections any society ever made of its whole range of activities.” –Marshall McLuhan

Our industry is an exciting one; something new to learn at every step. Before you get used to a certain style of work, the industry trend changes so swiftly that you’d find yourself always on your toes! But even with so much new information coming in, there are days when your brain sort of gets ‘idea-deprived’. Yup, it’s true. Days when an entire week feels like a long Monday which refuses to end. And no, even coffee doesn’t help. These are the days when you feel like “Chal yaar, Goa chalte hain.”

Since we all know how that plan never works out, here are some campaigns that will provide you with inspiration to get your sass back. These are the campaigns (arranged in no particular order) that are not just out-of-the-box but also gained success in connecting with the audience. I am sure they’ll put a BIG smile on your face and make your bored brains go “Oh yeah” Let’s take a look:

1. Game of Thrones Season 3:

Game of Thrones Season 3

It does not happen by coincidence that Game of Thrones wins advertising every year. If you’re a Game of Thrones fan, then you probably know about this brilliant campaign already, but to all the novices this is one campaign that is undeniably too cool to handle.
In 2013, to get the fans excited (like they weren’t already!) GOT went a little crazy when it made its fans literally searching everywhere for dragons. It printed silhouettes of dragons near the HBO building in LA and in newspapers, buses, train as well as billboards.

As it turned out, it wasn’t just LA that was hit by the campaign. People all over the world were overwhelmed by that. It was definitely a huge hit and created a lot of buzz around the world as people couldn’t wait to watch the upcoming season!

2. Dove Real Beauty Sketches

Dove Real Beauty Sketches

You’re more beautiful than you think.
Dove has always been known to have gone to the next level as it really knows how to appeal to people’s emotions.
“If someone asked you to describe yourself, what would you say?” This is what Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches campaign started off with. The company went with the assumption that in today’s world, who looks better and how can you look like somebody else and in the process what we are doing is becoming extremely critical of ourselves. We have forgotten to appreciate our own beauty.

So Dove went with a very interesting approach. It asked a number of women to describe their appearance to FBI-trained forensic artists, who then drew their sketches based on the information. And the result was insightful. It found that most women had a distorted self-image. This was eventually converted into a video.
About 50 million people viewed this video in less than 12 days of its release. Since then, It has been viewed more than 180 million times over social media and inspired thousands of women. Now, wouldn’t you call that a success?

3. #LIKEAGIRL by Always

LIKEAGIRL by Always

Campaigns with a social message often work and this is what happened with Always.

We have all grown up listening to things like ‘stop acting like a girl’ or ‘don’t throw like a girl’, haven’t we? The entire campaign by Always was based on exactly that- changing how ‘Like a girl’ phrase is used as an insult and how that isn’t cool at all. It created a number of videos where girls performed a number of actions “like a girl” and in the process proving how fierce, independent, hardworking, strong and persistent a girl can be, very unlike the perception.

The campaign was a huge hit. In fact, during the campaign, the hashtag #LikeAGirl was mentioned as much as one every 90 seconds. The campaign did not stop at this as it went on to transcend borders and the video was viewed by around 80 million viewers across 150 nations. Now, wouldn’t you call that a success?

4. The Oreo Eclipse

The Oreo Eclipse

Wondering what that is? In 2015, when the Solar Eclipse was about to happen (first time in 16 years) there was a lot of excitement around it. And guess who did not miss the opportunity to jump right in! That’s right, OREO!

Although the real Solar eclipse was nothing but a disappointment because it was all covered in clouds. It was Oreo that became the real star when it started creating its own eclipse videos all over the nation!

When people opened their newspapers one fine morning, they woke up to a translucent image of the Oreo biscuit. This was not all. It even created real time eclipses on billboards everywhere!

Don’t even get us started on how successful it was as the video was seen by more than 20 million people each day and since the campaign, there was a 35% increase in Sales. Woah.

5. Johnnie Walker — Keep the Flame Alive

Keep the Flame Alive

It was a time of conflict for the Lebanese people and this was exactly the time when Johnnie Walker, the popular whiskey brand, decided to show support. They began with the #KeepWalkingLebanon and what they did win many hearts. They put all strong messages on the ground and not in any other way but by a fire calligrapher. This calligrapher traveled the entire country, supported by an entire crew and rewarded participants each night!

The brand saw an overall growth of 19.99%. In fact, they were also featured in one of Lebanon’s most popular talk show. The entire campaign had around 40,400,000 impressions. We are truly impressed, are you?

Did we miss out on any of your favorite campaigns? Tell us in the comment section below. We’d love to hear from you!

Request A Quote
Have a Project?

Ready to speak with a marketing expert? give us a ring

+91 9499 399 914

You Might also like

Explore More Topics

Further Reading

14 Years

When it comes to e-commerce, we’ve seen it all.

100% In-house

All of our team are in-house. We don't outsource.

500+ Projects

Helping some of the best brands succeed online.

phone icon

Ready to speak with a marketing expert? give us a ring

+91-9499399914

  • 13 YEARS

    of Web Development

  • 1,014+

    Websites Launched

  • 96%

    Retention Rate

whatsapp icon