Direct mail, inserts, and to some extent, even TV and magazine advertising. What do all of these things have in common? If you answered, “They’re largely relics of the past," you’ve won this round. While many older forms of advertising do survive in some form, the real heart of contemporary marketing lies in online content strategies, which have the potential to deeply engage followers and create unique and loyal relationships with greater rapidity and effectiveness than any other medium...

1. Direct mail, insert s, and t o some ext ent , even TV and magazine
advert ising. What do all of t hese t hings have in common?
If you answered, “They’re largely relics of the past," you’ve won this round. While
many older forms of advertising do survive in some form, the real heart of
contemporary marketing lies in online content strategies, which have the potential
to deeply engage followers and create unique and loyal relationships with greater
rapidity and effectiveness than any other medium. But a successful online
marketing campaign requires more than speed typing a three line blogpost. To
receive, you’ve got to give—notably, more than your competitors both in your
industry and in the online space. The following 6 creative and engaging marketing
campaigns are great examples of how to do just that. Let’s take a look for a little
inspiration.
1. Simply Business’ Small Business Guide to YouT ube
Sometimes, the best tool in your marketing box is knowledge. No, not knowledge
about your product, but knowledge that fills any information and skills gaps your
customers may have. That’s just what small business insurance provider, Simply
Business, does with its Knowledge & Community Center, which features in-depth
resources like this YouTube guide. Here, small business owners can find guides
and tips to answer any number of questions and arm themselves with skills they
can actively apply to their businesses.
The YouTube guide is largely representative of the resource center, providing
extensive resources within this modular, flowchart guide, without sacrificing
functionality or becoming too dense. This resource center is notable not just for
the wealth of helpful information it provides, but also because it’s constructed
around what its customer base wants, not what the company wants to impose on
its customers. This builds trust and respect as well as an expertise reputation, as
it will make followers feel the company really knows what small businesses need.
Lesson Learned: Provide your customers with helpful, in-depth resources, and
they’ll reward you with loyalty, engagement, and evangelism. [Tweet this]
2. Sharpie’s T witter Campaign
6 Creative and Engaging Marketing Projects We
Can Learn From
blog.activatemedia.com /post/55178204461/6-creative-and-engaging-marketing-projects-
we-can-learn

2. What do you do when you discover an untapped market of young users, looking for
creative stimulation? Head to Twitter, of course. Or at least, that’s what the ever
dynamic and engaging brand, Sharpie, did with their recent Twitter campaign, which
invited users to share their creative work as well as their conversations about
creativity by adding the hashtags #sharpie and #uncapwhatsinside.
The company spread the word first through promoted tweets and then used the
hashtags to promote their equally engaging “Get Inspired" YouTube playlists, which
featured interviews with artists using the brand.
Before long, the company was gaining 1,000 followers per day, for a 6-fold
increase by the end of the campaign.
Lesson Learned: People want to create; be their excuse to do so [Tweet this],
whether through a strategic hashtag or a contest calling for user submissions. And
for the greatest benefits, don’t forget to fold these activities into your wider
marketing campaigns, a la Sharpie’s YouTube videos.
3. SimpliSafe’s Digital Security Quiz
Oftentimes, to get buyers interested in your product, you need to tell them why
anything you say is of use to them. Try to do that through an ad, and potential
buyers can feel like you’re that one child in the room dancing around and shouting,
“Look at me, look at meeee!" Do it, on the other hand, through a device that
reveals something about the customer, and you’ll sustain interest for much greater
periods of time. That’s the logic behind SimpliSafe’s engaging digital security quiz,
which tells users about their company through the lens of their individual digital
habits.
Step by step, question by question, quiz takers examine their online habits and
receive expert answers to fill in the blanks. In this way, the quiz is helpful and it
establishes the company as a knowledgeable industry expert. And who wouldn’t want
to share this on social media?
Lesson Learned: Provide customers with helpful and revealing information by
focusing on them first [Tweet this], and by tapping into all of the intrinsic motivation
associated with gamification. This way, customers will much more actively engage.
4. Etsy’s Guest Pinners
While most businesses know they should have a presence on Pinterest, they often
don’t know what they should pin, especially if they don’t fall in the lifestyle or food
category. Just follow the lead of Etsy, the online marketplace for small, independent
craftspeople. The company pins both features of its own products and a wide
range of pins from guest pinners. This keeps pins fresh, engaging and unique, and
fits with Etsy’s goal of using Pinterest not just for sales but for inspiration. That
said, when the company is pinning products for sale on the site, they make sure to
include proper attribution, so the product creator will be more likely to make a
sale.
Lesson Learned: Sure, with their crafty focus, Etsy and Pinterest make a natural fit,
but you can have just as much success with a guest pinning program, which is
almost a visual form of guest blogging [Tweet this]. The more you develop
relationships with guest pinners, the more they’ll promote your brand in turn, and
you’ll have a proper Pinterest content strategy.
5. Columbia Sportswear’s Great Moments in T rying Stuff Video
Campaign
There’s product testing, and then there’s product testing. One is run of the mill,
the one is so hilarious and epic, it’s got to be its own video campaign. The
Columbia Great Moments campaign is firmly the latter, featuring ridiculous product
tests, like how well beans drain through a shoe. The tests are always relevant to
the product—the shoe, for instance, is specifically designed to drain sweat—they’re
just tested in a clearly silly manner. This demonstrates the company’s down to
earth nature and willingness to poke fun at itself, the perfect formula for promoting
brand loyalty and evangelism. Of course, the company promoted these videos
very well on social media using the hashtags #greatmoments and #tryingstuff to
further engage users.
Lesson Learned: Don’t be afraid to poke fun at your own brand with silly product
tests, or other creative approaches [Tweet this]. Just make sure whatever you
produce is within your brand voice and style.
6. McDonald’s Canada’s Our Food. Your Questions

3. Social media is a gateway to your customers, but what lies on the other end of
that gate isn’t always a public relations specialists’ dream. No brand knows this
better than McDonald’s, whose #McDStories Twitter campaign was met with
widespread derision online. The negative stories far outnumbered the positive
ones, with customers reporting finding fingernails in their food, seeing rats in the
kitchen, and gaining weight.
That, however, didn’t stop McDonald’s Canada from launching a much savvier
campaign called, “Our food. Your questions." The concept was simple: Customers
were allowed to ask or search for any questions, and the company would respond
as frankly as possible. The campaign was a massive success, with thousands of
questions submitted so far, and a great boost to the company’s image. Note that
the key difference here was that the company directly asked for their customers’
true experiences and responded in kind, rather than tweeting overly nostalgic and
clearly commercial tweets like, “‘When u make something w/pride, people can
taste it,’ - McD potato supplier."
Lesson Learned: While you may not be able to afford to hire a team of customer
service representatives to answer a slew of questions, you can still take the
message of transparency to heart. Why not hold an hour long, Reddit style AMA on
social media? Alternatively, you could host a regular event on your company blog,
like, “Your Questions Tuesdays" and tackle one important question at a time. The
more you respond to all questions, good or bad, the greater the trust you’ll build
[Tweet this].
T he T akeaway
Today’s world of marketing brings with it countless new platforms and sources for
inspiration. Embracing these tools will allow companies to get creative and reach
formerly untappable markets, while also cementing customer loyalty. What will your
next creative campaign entail? Let us know in the comments below.
About the author
Luke is a Seattle based writer and internet marketer who specializes in content
strategy. Follow him on twitter @lukeclum
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