Facebook is the world’s biggest site for social media marketing. It claims to have 350 million active users in 180 countries – and 50% of them log onto it every day. Advertisers are scrambling for ways to make their clients stand out in this vast network. Here are ten recent Facebook marketing campaigns that worked. They are original, they cut through the clutter and they created a buzz. You will also see that most of these promotions did something creative with their product or service that engaged the user.
Sad Friends
McCann Erickson Advertising in Israel created a great Facebook application for Yellow Retail, a provider of online games and novelty items. This app searched for your friends and found “Sad Friends” with status updates like “I’m depressed”, “I’m lonely,” “I’m bored,” etc. Then it sent them a notification with a coupon for a free game at Yellow Retail. It’s cool – and it tied in a Facebook feature with a product benefit.
This campaign was for a new Ikea store that used the default “tagging” tool on Facebook to help create excitement for a contest. People were told to tag their name on any item, and the first one who did would win that item. The moment you tagged something, everyone in your network knew about it and soon thousands of people were flooding the Facebook page looking for free giveaways. The campaign was an instant hit.
V Australia - a division of Virgin Airlines - launched a clever campaign that let you nominate a “frenemy” (a combination of “friend” and “enemy”) who could be sent to the destination of their choice anywhere in the world. But there was a catch – it was a one way ticket. This served as a great promotion for a new airline and it also helped to grow V Australia’s Facebook fan page from 1,200 to over 11,000 in only a week. V Australia is off to good start with their social media marketing and it will be interesting to see what they come up with next.
The idea behind “Whopper Sacrifice” was simple enough - delete ten of your Facebook friends and get a free Whopper. It caught on like wildfire because by the end of the campaign over 50,000 friends had been deleted.
But deleting friends isn’t what Facebook is about. Facebook wants people to make connections, not cancel them, and Burger King was eliminating more friendships than the giant social media site was comfortable with. All good things must come to an end – and ultimately the Whopper Sacrifice was sacrificed. Although some people are now wondering if it was worth losing a friend over a hamburger.
This is not a campaign per se but it deserves to be mentioned. The Red Bull Fan Page is one of the most exciting places on Facebook because it breaks out of the stereotype and offers content that is fun and funny – and it encourages fans to interact and connect with the brand.
The Red Bull “Boxes” section is great. One application called “Drunkish Dials” lets people rate “drunk dialing” phone calls. Another section is the “Procrastination Station” – where you can learn how to waste precious time. There are tie-in’s with snowboarding and surfing – but let’s get real – a lot of people like the way Red Bull ties in with vodka.
This is a brand that knows its audience and their kind of honesty goes a long way in social media marketing.
The latest product from Canada’s favourite tortilla chip didn’t have a name so last year Doritos called on consumers for help A promotion was held on Facebook last year for Canadian residents. Doritos Canada enlisted young snackers to help name a flavor of a new product and create a television commercial. The turn out was huge. Submissions were made in a 30 second video format and any kind of showcase was acceptable – dance, music, comedy, digital or animation.
On May 1st Canadian’s voted for “Scream Cheese.” The commercial aired on TV and online, and the winners walked away with $25,000 plus 1 % of net sales. The people who won the prize screamed – not for cheese – but for joy.
Adobe had a challenge – how to increase awareness among college students for the launch of Adobe Student Editions, a new multimedia software product. They wanted students to know that they could purchase these products at an 80% discount. The solution was a promotion called “Real or Fake” using the Adobe Facebook Fan Page.
Users had to decide whether a photo was real or a “fake” one edited with Photoshop. The game lasted for 4 weeks with 5 photos being posted each week. If a photo had been edited with Photoshop, a tutorial showed how it was done. At the end of the game, users were presented with information about Adobe Student Editions. The game
was a success because it tied-in neatly with Photoshop – a product Adobe is famous for.
H&M, the big Swedish clothing company, has an innovative and engaging Facebook Page and a community of almost 1,500,000 fans. What are they doing right? They focus on keeping their page current and their content fresh. They use page tabs and constantly update their page with current promotions, grand openings and new designer launches. They take advantage of all of the newest engagement ads, including Become a Fan, Polling and Event RSVP. Most important - they create an interactive dialogue with their most avid fans, instead of just posting information. H & M seems to understand what social media marketing is all about – it’s about making friends.
Adidas Originals is a line extension of Adidas that celebrates originality. The Adidas Orginals campaign celebrated 60 years of originality with a campaign featuring top athletes and celebrities like David Beckhan, Missy Elliot and Run DMC. The Adidas Originals Facebook Page encouraged two-way conversations with Adidas consumers and motivated them with stories about artists, musicians and celebrities. The David Beckham video was very popular. Today the Adidas Originals Facebook Page has over 2,000,000 fans.
The Facebook Fan Page for this potato chip doesn’t grab you like Red Bull but the videos are great. They are low budget productions of people singing silly songs. There is very little editing or props but thousands of people “like” the videos and share them with their friends. This gives Pringles a chance to promote their product without having to a resort to a paid ad. That’s good business by itself because the average cost of producing a TV commercial today is over $400,000.
Videos are easy to consume and they are one of the most popular types of shared content online. This is why many businesses try to make videos that will go “viral” - in other words - get seen by an exponentially growing number of people. This is not an easy feat and when you’re successful it can be a goldmine.
Pringles gets a thumbs up for doing this. They have nearly 3,000,000 fans now - not bad for a potato chip that got its name out of a Cincinnati phone book.
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