Digital has been growing from strength to strength throughout the recent years and new platform, products and services are appearing daily. Obviously some gather momentum due to the early adopters and some fall by the way side. These new platforms (in particular social) In my view this is partially due to the embracing of smart phone and mobile technology allowing consumers to interact with brands and businesses on the move and at their convenience, outside of the one way communication which previously dominated in the form of advertising.
Some brands and retailers have been very creative and innovative in their use and adoption of some of the social platforms as a method to promote their business, products or services. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and Snap Chat have all played a part helping bands go viral with their offerings.
The use of creativity to push the technology or standard use has been really challenged by innovative agencies and brands. The use of free social platforms means that the agencies are able to pitch work and services, whilst keeping costs lower than a print or TV campaign etc. The other benefit to using digital is that everything is measureable and therefore quantifiable.
The analysis and measurement capabilities of Digital have meant that businesses have backed the digital channel significantly, allowing the business to see key reporting information and return on investment for their marketing. KPI’s such as how many people viewed the content, how many interacted with it and ultimately how many purchased something because of the content. Analytic tools have allowed stakeholders to see the holistic effect of their activity on any part of their business.
This article highlights some great campaigns which have caught the consumer’s attention and in some cases have become award winning examples.
5 Examples of innovative campaigns
The Co-operative Electrical: Snap Chat Vouchers
The Co-operative was the UK’s first retailer to use Snapchat for marketing purposes. The business launched a laptop promotion (30% off) to students that would also be shared/seeded amongst themselves. In keeping which Snapchat , the promotion would disappear shortly after they have been viewed. So students had to be quick and screen grab the promotion to benefit.
This fashion label has been innovative in it’s use of Vine and one of the first early adopters of the platform to “live stream” and share loops of their catwalk shows.
A simple but amazingly executed campaign where they encouraged their communities to take an egg, transform it with sweets, sprinkles, icing or anything that took their your fancy. The users then had to share a pic for a chance to WIN a year’s supply of chocolate.
KLM : Twitter Customer Service
KLM a Dutch airline’s approach to customer service on Twitter is to give followers and users an SLA (Service level agreement) and every five minutes, they update with the new estimated “hold times.” This makes it easy for transparent for customers, and offers real-time insight.
Macmillan Cancer Research: Twitter # hijack
While most Londoners saw the tube strike as nothing more than a giant inconvenience, Macmillan Cancer Research hijacked #tubestrike to highlight the charity and get some brand PR from it. There answer to the strike was promoted with some fun highlighting that whilst the tube lines were closed, its own support lines remained open.
I hope this article gives you some ideas of how you can apply creative thought and little budget to create compelling campaigns to increase social interaction.