Social media is becoming increasingly a necessity for businesses who wish to receive significant returns on investment through a medium that has the potential to take a message global. There are papers and articles galore on what makes one social media campaign more likely to be shared, or viral, than others. However, as you’ll see from the five we’ve chosen, entertainment is a strong driving force in social media marketing campaigns.
Hunger Games
The most recent social marketing campaign to hit the headlines and one that’s been notably successful was one for The Hunger Games. Based on a notoriously popular children’s book, interest in The Hunger Games movie arose from some seriously innovative and engaging marketing. From snippets of faded video released via teaser trailers, to freebies offered to those in the US city that could hastag #Hungergames the most each day, the movie really engaged users in some of the most innovative ways seen yet in a social marketing campaign.
Obama
On the eve of the US Presidential Election, we must return to the last one in 2008 to see how social media was used to create a buzz not seen in an election since. This of course is vital in an election like America’s, which is often decided by very small margins. Take for instance the fact Obama had 3m Facebook followers, as opposed to John McCain’s 600,000, or that there were 8.5m visitors to his site, many of which came through social media. Obama also had 115,000 twitter followers, as opposed to McCain’s 5,000 and over 117,000 subscribers on YouTube as opposed to McCain’s 3,000. In a world where small fractions matter, social media can be the leverage needed to get you the job as the most powerful man in the world.
Blendtec
Will it Blend? Well that was the question Blendtec, a kitchen blending accessory company asked. From feeding their machines everything from baseballs, to iPhones and showing the results on YouTube – they managed to increase sales of their product by 700% since 2006 and all through something brilliantly silly. This social marketing campaign shows how something simply bizarre can be the necessary trigger for viral video.
Old Spice
Self depreciation is something lauded the world over and Old Spice played to the crowd with its Isaiah Mustafa TV commercials. By creating nearly 200 videos of their spokesman touting the credentials of Old Spice in a humour filled manner it became popular. However, when Old Spice followed this up with Q&A time with Mustafa answering questions on Twitter and other social media platforms, it became a phenomenon. Mustafa even found a fiancé out of the whole social marketing campaign after he proposed to a fan’s girlfriend.
Blair Witch Project
This small budget horror movie pulled in the punters through some innovative use of social media way back in 1999. Using the never underestimated powers of suspense, intrigue and the dark forces, it made over £175m in revenue. Though, it didn’t use modern social media, it set the precedent for viral marketing and used the social mediums of the day to create intrigue. The marketers used fake newspaper clippings and pictures of empty cars near the woods and posted them online. Forums and chat sites were awash with suspicions about whether the story about the documentary makers was real, or not. In turn,the movie was a runaway success
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