Gone are the days when a few carefully curated words coupled with beautiful imagery would do the trick. Today, the customers have gotten smarter and more demanding than ever. They wish to be a part of the brand story, and respond very well when marketers engage with them directly. Here are 5 best Digital Marketing Campaigns that exemplify the Internets ability to act as one of the most powerful tools for marketing.

Teaching Without Preaching: Dumb Ways to Die

The Metro Trains in Melbourne, Australia wanted to find a way to promote rail safety. The challenge was an audience that really doesn’t want to hear any kind of safety message. For this purpose, Digital Marketing came to the rescue. A catchy tune was developed. This was combined with an animated video that featured 21 characters killing themselves in increasingly stupid ways. The last three characters are killed by trains due to negligence which are labelled as the dumbest ways to die. On being uploaded, the video garnered 2.5 million views within 48 hours. As of 1st of May 2017, the video has over 148 Million views. In 2013, a game was released for iOS which involved the players performing a series of quick actions to prevent their character from dying.

The result, it is estimated that within two weeks, the digital marketing Campaign had generated at least $50 million worth of global media value.  In addition to that there were more than 700 media stories, all for a fraction of the cost of one TV ad. According to Metro Trains, the campaign resulted in more than a 30% reduction in near miss accidents in 2012.

Marketing with the Customer as the King: Doritos Superbowl

Companies have spent millions in creating and airing some of the most creative ads during Superbowl. Rather than hiring the biggest directors and Ad gurus for their commercial, Doritos had a unique approach. They held a competition where users were asked to create commercials for the chips. From the submitted entries semi-finalists were selected and uploaded online. Viewers were then asked to vote and the winner’s commercial was aired as the coveted Superbowl spot.

What makes this entire campaign especially stand out is that it keeps the most important player for a brand at the center of the campaign i.e. the customer. The user generated content given such a high distinction and opportunity of being aired during Superbowl.

Imbibing confidence for Social Change: Always

The video released by Always surely would have managed to bring tears to the eyes of many of its viewers. It portrays how a girl’s confidence takes a nosedive after they hit puberty. With this commercial Always launched a massive effort to help teach confidence to girls and young women.

After uploading this video on YouTube, they partnered with TED to create a series of educational videos on confidence that were shred with teachers and students worldwide. They even went on to create the ‘Always Confidence Curriculum’. Leslie Sims, chief creative officer at Y&R New York, said: “‘Like A Girl’ elegantly shines a light on a cultural sleight. It’s pure emotion, executed immaculately — and is a perfect fit for the brand, since girls usually start to struggle with confidence right around the time they get their periods.” The brand was able to garner a sense of confidence and belonging in the minds and hearts of its target consumers.

Bringing Superheroes to life: Deadpool

During the time of Deadpool’s release, it is said that it was just impossible for an online viewer to miss out on Deadpool’s marketing messages. In the true Deadpool fashion, the content was always kept crass and utilised dark humour to mirror the character. On social media, the team created custom emojis based on characters in the film. They went as far as to even fabricating a twitter feud between Deadpool and Wolverine.

This kept fans hooked on what looked like an actual war of words between the two of the biggest superheroes from the marvel universe. Short videos on Deadpool’s shenanigans which were released regularly on social media which gave a feeling the hero was posting it himself.

The Buckets that changed world: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

This is one campaign that truly exemplifies the power of the internet. What started as a small social media push from three men turned quickly into a global viral sensation in the summer of 2014. From Mark Zuckerberg, to President Obama, to Justin Bieber the biggest influencers took part in the challenge generating in total more than 17 million videos which were viewed 440 million times. Not only that, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge raised $220 million for the charity.

Scott Donaton, chief content officer at DigitasLBI, said: “There isn’t much science behind marketing vitality, but the ALS Association’s ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ is a case study in what happens when all the elements line up.” At the end of the day, the campaign was successful because it relied on friends (rather than a cause or corporation) to get people to act, and to do so by doing something fun. It was fun to do, fun to watch, fun to share. Which, it turns out, is a pretty good way to approach a serious issue.

While this is by no means an exhaustive list.  It outlines that biggest and best campaigns that I have come across, and tries to explain why they may have worked. Know of any more such campaigns that deserve a mention?. Do let me know in the comments below.

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