The 20 best social media campaigns

The 20 Best Social Media Campaigns August 2010

From the Forbes Magazine article entitled “ The Best-Ever Social Media Campaigns ” Author - Victoria Taylor August 17, 2010

#20 Career Builder “ Monk-e-Mail ”
This popular CareerBuilder promotion, created in 2006, allows users to send personalized, primate-themed e-cards for all occasions. According to Oddcast, a viral marketing company, more than 100 million Monk-e-Mails have been sent since the campaign launched.
From the Forbes Magazine Article entitled “ The Best-Ever Social Media Campaigns ” Author - Victoria Taylor – 8/17/2010

#19 Bing – Farmville
To monopolize on the widely popular "Farmville" Facebook game, Microsoft's Bing search engine bribed players with Farmville cash, used in the game to buy more crops and farm animals, if they clicked on a sponsored ad for the search engine in early May.
A Microsoft spokesperson said the results showed the campaign's success, as Bing acquired 425,000 new fans, a 360% jump in less than one day. Seventy percent of the fans visited Bing in the following month.

#18 BMW “ 1 Series Graffiti Contest ”
In honor of BMW's "1 Series," in 2008 the German carmaker created an online graffiti contest where participants answered the question "What drives you?" through designs on the outline of the car.
Participants submitted about 9,000 drawings, which garnered about 500,000 total votes. The winners received car models rather than actual vehicles.

#17 Cadbury “ Gorilla ”
This 90-second video ad, created in 2007, features a person in a gorilla suit drumming to the music of Phil Collins before it directs viewers to Cadbury's website. Reportedly, Cadbury Schweppes sales jumped 7% between 2007 and 2008.

#16 Quicksilver “ Dynamite Surfing ”
A 2007 video for the surfer clothing manufacturer shows surfers making waves in a lake with the help of some explosives. The staged video, which consists of grainy footage to make it appear more authentic, has been viewed 35 million times. It developed something of a cult following, leading to the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters investigating the legitimacy of dynamite surfing.

#15 The Dark Knight “ Why so serious? ”
This alternate reality game was created by California-based 42 Entertainment to promote the Batman movie. Players took to the streets dressed as the Joker, the movie's villain, and campaigned for a new mayor of Gotham City. More than 10 million people in 75 different countries participated, and the film went on to become the highest-grossing movie of 2008. However, one of the Forbes judges questioned whether the high development cost needed for an alternate reality game this extensive yielded strong returns given the initial investment required.

#14 Smirnoff “ Tea Partay ”
The Diageo-owned vodka brand launched this viral rap parody music video featuring preppy white guys promoting Smirnoff's Raw Tea drink in 2006. The Web video, which directed viewers to the drink's Web site, was supplemented with billboard and radio ads.

#13 Vitaminwater “ Facebook is now homepage ”
The beverage made the risky move of having its Facebook fan page double as the brand's official website. It also embarked on an interactive campaign that allowed Facebook fans to create their own flavors of Glaceau Vitaminwater. The creator of the wining flavor received $5,000. The Forbes judges concluded that what made this effort successful was its commitment to getting the brand name out there and promoting this social component through TV and online ads.

#12 Target “ Bullseye Gives ”
This social media campaign empowered its Facebook fans by putting $3 million in their hands. Over two weeks Facebook users voted on which among the 10 selected charities would receive the greatest proportion of the money. St. Jude's Children's Hospital received 26.6% of the votes, so Target donated $797,123 to it. The effort attracted 291,399 votes from 167,000 fans. That's not a staggering number, but it helped raise awareness for Target and its charitable efforts.

#11 Whopper “ Sacrifice ”
This Burger King campaign wasn't afraid to ask the tough question: What do you love more, your friends or the Whopper? The Facebook application bribed consumers to "unfriend" 10 people from their Facebook friends list in exchange for a free burger. Ad agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky says the application terminated some 234,000 "friendships." Ultimately, Facebook decided that letting its users know that they had been let go contradicted its business plan, and the application itself was sacrificed.

#10 Windows Hotmail
The judges were strongly divided on this campaign, which started in 1996, with one ranking it as the top social media campaign and another placing it at the very bottom. The debate was over whether the groundbreaking technique of running ads like "get your free email at Hotmail" at the bottom of every email message qualifies as a social media campaign.

#9 Ikea “ Facebook Showroom ”
To promote the opening of a new store in Malmo, Sweden, Ikea had the store manager post pictures of the the new showrooms on Facebook. The first people to tag the items won them. Awareness spread rapidly from participants to their Facebook friends. The campaign won a 2010 Gold Cyber Lion at Cannes. "[This is] a great idea that not only is highly viral but gets consumers engaging with actual merchandise," says Brandon Evans of social marketing agency Mr. Youth.

#8 Evian “ Roller Babies ”
The Guinness Book of World Records says this YouTube megahit, which features computer-generated babies on roller skates breakdancing and backflipping, is the most viewed online ad in history. This one is purely about the numbers, with the effort, from Euro RSCG in Paris, receiving more than 54,000 comments and tweets to date, as well as more than 60 million views.

#7 OfficeMax “ Elf Yourself ”
For its 2006 holiday campaign, the office supply retailer encouraged Web users to upload pictures of themselves. An elf, with those faces, would then dance. The campaign, created by New York-based independent agency Toy and San Francisco-based EVB, led to the creation of more than 122 million elves during that holiday season. It increased site traffic and generated a number of wannabes and spin offs, driving sales and brand awareness, according to the judges.

#6 VW “ Fun Theory ”
This social experiment campaign looked to see if making things more "fun" would influence consumer behavior. This included Volkswagen transforming a Swedish subway staircase into a giant, functioning piano, which resulted in 66% more people choosing the steps rather than an escalator. Created by DDB Stockholm, the campaign was awarded a 2010 Cyber Grand Prix Lion at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

#5 Pepsi “ Refresh ”
While Pepsi's Refresh campaign, which gives people the chance to get funding for philanthropic and charitable ideas, is ongoing, the Forbes judges highlighted the use of "Refresh" as a way for Pepsi to push toward a new identity while still maintaining its youthful image.

#4 Burger King “ Subservient Chicken ”
With the help of a person in a chicken suit, dubbed the "subservient chicken," Burger King and agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky's campaign was created in 2004 to promote the chain's TenderCrisp Sandwich. According to the ad agency, the Web site, where a participant can still type in commands like "moonwalk" and "make a sandwich" and watch the chicken obey the order, received 15 million hits in the first five days.

#3 Old Spice “ Smell Like a Man, Man .”
Old Spice spokesman Isaiah Mustafa was popular in TV commercials, but what really made this campaign an interactive hit was the recent Web-based element with Mustafa responding to questions submitted by fans on Twitter and other social media outlets in as many as 180 Web videos this summer. He proposed marriage to one fan's girlfriend. She accepted.

#2 Blendtec “ Will it blend? ”
Web videos for the Blendtec Total Blender show the kitchen accessory destroying just about everything from a baseball to an iPhone. Our judges unanimously ranked this series of destructive shorts as one of the best social media campaigns. According to Jeff Robe, Blendtec's director of marketing, the videos have done more than boost awareness of Blendtec blenders. Home sales of blenders have increased 700% since November 2006.

#1 The Blair Witch Project
This is considered the best-ever social media campaign and one of the first viral marketing efforts. The marketers behind this horror flick were able to generate big buzz for a movie with a teeny budget by using Web sites and message boards to stoke interest in the flick months before its release in the summer of 1999. Was the story of young documentary makers lost in the woods true or false? Fake newspaper clippings about the disappearance of the movie's main characters and police photos of their missing car were posted. Movie site Box Office Mojo reports that the film made more than $29 million during its first week of wide release. It has generated about $249 million to date worldwide.

If you’d like to find out what we can do to help you build a social media campaign or have some interesting case studies of your own to share, please contact – Paula Murgia VP, Digital Strategy – Palio [email_address] or Mike Myers President, Palio [email_address]

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The 20 best social media campaigns

by Palio on Aug 22, 2010

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