A Study of Innovative Marketing Campaigns

An innovative marketing campaign can set a brand apart from its competitors and leave a lasting impression on consumers. In researching various innovative marketing campaigns, a common theme among them was that they were not actually about the brand itself but rather customer engagement and a feeling the consumer could connect with. Storytelling techniques are used to help create the narrative. The focus is the feeling and it then ties the brand info that feeling. It is also important to take into consideration timing as well as looking for ?content that is already available and try to give it a spin that benefits someone else, as well as your brand? (Antevenio, 2019).

Three Innovative Marketing Campaigns

Campaign #1: Mastercard Priceless Surprises

Created by: McCann

Image Credit: mastercard.com

Goals of the campaign: (1) Connect with avid (and long-suffering) Cubs fans and everyone else rooting for the underdog, (2) Become a part of the conversation in what was a very high-profile World Series.

The Protagonist- Cub Fans
The Antagonist- Player from the rival team that accused Wrigley fans of not being loud.

Mastercard developed a decibel reader app that was placed around Wrigley field that allowed them to catch the sound of Wrigley Field when fans were able to celebrate 108 years of pent up anticipation of their team winning the World Series. When the Cubs won game 7, MasterCard released a 108-second video celebrating the victory.

It added up to:

1.33 MM impressions
879 K engagements an
MasterCard?s most retweeted and shared video after nine hours of going live.
18% of the total reach was organic and earned, which was more than 2x their average

Campaign # 2: Always #LikeAGirl Campaign

Image credit: prezi.com
Created by: Leo Burnett

Directed by documentary filmmaker Laura Greenfield

In this campaign, MasterCard not only did their job as the sponsor of the game but built a positive relationship between the fans and their brand.

Always is one of the biggest makers of feminine care products. While these products are necessary and useful, it?s doesn?t typically make a good commercial or content that you really want to share on social media. In 2014, Always decided to dig a little deeper and the result was a groundbreaking campaign based on an age-old phrase meant to be an insult and turned it into an empowering message. Typically, with these types of products the message revolved around product performance. Always competitors had moved on and were working on connecting on a more emotional level which caused Always to lose relevance with the 16-24 age group. The company had long been committed to empowering girls through puberty education however they realized that their purpose wasn?t apparent to the new generation of consumers and they needed to find a way to connect with them.

The Protagonist- Girls
The Antagonist- Puberty and the drop in the confidence that girls experience

A Study of Innovative Marketing Campaigns

The campaign was set up like a social experiment where they held fake casting calls with young women, men, boys, and girls. They asked them to do things ?like a girl? and in response they behaved silly, acting out an insulting stereotype. When they asked prepubescent girls to do things ?like a girl? they had a completely different response. They ran as hard as they could, with confidence, pride, and self-belief.

The goals of the campaign were to drive relevance with an emotional connection to the brand, drive brand awareness so that they were at the top of people?s minds, and create a cultural change.

The results of the campaign:

The brand?s positive sentiment reached 95% in three months.
90m+ views, number two viral video globally.
1100+ earned media placements
44+ billion media impressions in the first 3 months
YouTube Channel subscribers grew by 4339%
Purchase intent grew more than 50% among their target audience
177,000+ #LikeAGirl tweets in the first three months, including some from many

celebrities.

In a December 2014 survey, almost 70% of women and 60% of men claimed that the

video changed their perception of the phrase ?like a girl.?

This campaign was highly successful because it was authentic, positive and made an emotional connection with consumers. People connect with and buy brands that share a similar view or?have similar values as they do (dandad.org, n.d.). Having the hashtag helped to cover the essence of the idea and encouraged people to take part in changing the meaning of the phrase.

Campaign # 3: Coca-Cola: Share a Coke

Image credit: https://www.ogilvy.com.au/our-work/share-coke

Campaign Creator: Ogilvy

The Share a Coke campaign was first introduced in Australia in 2011 and made a US debut in 2014. During the first campaign, Coke swapped out the logos on their 20oz. bottles of Coca- Cola, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero for 150 most popular first names. Because the names were so limited, Coca-Cola emphasized purchasing for someone else hence the term ?share.?

Protagonist: The Consumer Antagonist: Unhappiness

On sharable 1.25-2 Liter bottles they had group names such as ?Family? and ?Friends,? and on their 12 oz cans, there were nicknames such as ?BFF,? ?Bestie,? ?Wingman? and more. Fans?were encouraged to go to www.ShareaCoke.com to personalize virtual bottles and share them on social media with friends. By using the #ShareaCoke hashtag to share stories and photos fans could win the chance at being featured on a Coke billboard across the country.

The campaign grew Coke?s sales for the first time in 10 years (McQuilken, n.d.). This campaign is unique in that it was never meant to be a permanent campaign, but it has grown and expanded every year since being introduced. It gave consumers the opportunity to express themselves through a bottle of Coke and share their experiences with someone else. The campaign has grown from just names to song lyrics, to shared experiences with others.

Coke doesn?t position itself to sell consumers a soft drink or something that tastes good. The brand positions itself as being ?designed to sell happiness. (Medium, 2016)?

This campaign was successful because Coca Cola understood their target market, connected with their audience on a personal level, and allowed consumers to drive the success by using a successful hashtag and allowing them to create personalized virtual Coke bottles. They not only connected with a primary consumer but encouraged them to ?share a coke? with the people in their lives.

Campaign Results:

More than 500,000 photos were shared using the #shareacoke hashtag.
Consumers generated and shared more than 6 million virtual coke bottles.
The brand gained 25 million Facebook followers as a result of the campaign.

Whether your brand is large or small these same concepts can still be applied to make you successful. ?When you are able to make an emotional connection with your audience it deepens the relationship that you have with them.