Digital marketing has become a crucial step towards generating leads and promoting the brand among the audience. The past year had witnessed various innovative digital marketing campaigns. Let us have a look at the six of our top picks, below.
Heineken – Worlds Apart
https://youtu.be/8wYXw4K0A3g
Heineken launched one of the most effective campaigns as of 2017, attracting worldwide acclaim. The 4 and a half minute video demonstrated a social experiment, wherein people were grouped into pairs and each pair was given some furniture to assemble, into a bar counter. Post this, they were shown videos through which it was revealed to them that the person they had been paired with, had vastly contrasting opinions. The feminist had been paired with a man who believed in patriarchy, a climate change denier with an environmentalist and a transgender with a person who did not support this notion. They are then offered an option to walk away or have a discussion over a bottle of beer. All of them choose to do the latter. Though the ending was evident (being an advertising campaign of Heineken beer), the content kept the audience hooked. It had 3 million views, during the first 8 days of its launch and was largely praised for tackling social issues properly, something which the Pepsi ad, launched at the same time, failed to address.
Airbnb – We Accept
Another ad which had the notion of diversity and acceptance, and was a memorable campaign of 2017.The ad depicted faces of people with different nationalities, races and gender, including immigrants, disaster survivors and refugees, along with textual slogans saying ” No matter who you are, where you’re from, who you love, or who you worship, you deserve to belong,” The campaign was a direct attack on Trump’s discriminatory immigration policies which had come to light during the same time.
The New York Times – The truth is hard to find
‘The truth is hard to find’ was a full-fledged campaign to showcase the importance of journalism, in today’s era. There were print ads and various versions of short video ads which targeted the liberal audience. The video ads were a series of photos along with a narration by the photojournalists who captured them. Video ads depict extreme conditions including ISIS bombings and Syrian refugees, depicting the hard work and dedication the journalists put in. Simple, yet very effective the NY Times campaign was an instant hit among the viewers.
Apple – Shot on iPhone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpUa7YvhUJo
Whether or not you are an Apple lover, you cannot deny the fact that the ‘shot on iPhone’ ad campaigns, made an impact. Among them, ‘The Earth’ ad touched many hearts. With beautiful, high – quality nature-themed photographs, and a narration from the book Pale Blue Dot, this was a reminder of taking our planet more seriously. This was an extremely memorable ad of Apple’s ‘shot on iPhone series’, in the past year.
Worldwide Breast Cancer – Know your lemons
The #KnowYourLemons was a light-hearted campaign which was aimed at spreading awareness about the serious issue of breast cancer. It had a catchy hashtag, and adopted a visual approach, in order to inform women regarding symptoms of breast cancer. The campaign gave women critical information about catching the disease in its early stages, and a common forum at Facebook to discuss issues regarding the same. The pictorial depiction, using a tray of lemons, would even help illiterate women understand the symptoms. This donation campaign became very popular and exceeded their fundraising by 317%.
IKEA – Place
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xxOvsyNseY
IKEA is an augmented reality brand, which launched an App ‘Place’ utilizing Apple’s ARKit. It lets the user visualize and place furniture in his room ( or any other place), at a real scale. Apart from having some fun placing random furniture here and there, the app actually helped make people sound decisions while buying furniture.The campaign soon became a hit, and the idea appealed to people instantly. IKEA has become one of the leading names in the AR industry, post this ad campaign.