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Lessons From 5 Brilliant Social Media Ad Campaigns

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The social media landscape is constantly evolving for brands. While Facebook and Twitter remain cornerstones of many people’s social media routines, platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Periscope are gaining more and more traction.
What that means is that it’s getting increasingly difficult for brands and businesses to cut through the noise of social media to engage consumers in a meaningful way. Still, marketing teams are managing to do just that, creating smart and savvy social media ads that get buzz going around their brands.
Here are five recent and brilliant social media ad campaigns from major brands, and what any business can learn from them.

1. Airbnb: Live There

(Airbnb’s 2016 Live There campaign pushed the idea of living like a local while traveling. Credit: Airbnb)
Airbnb’s Live There social-media campaign was inspired in large part by research showing that 86 percent of travelers that use Airbnb do so because they want to have the experience of living like locals. People — particularly millennials — want their trip to go beyond a typical tourist experience.
The success of #LiveThere came primarily on Instagram. Airbnb partnered with professional photographers for the Instagram campaign and encouraged users to also post their own #LiveThere moments while staying at an Airbnb. The campaign was also effective on YouTube, where its promo video got nearly a million views.
Moreover, #LiveThere posts on Instagram encouraged people to click through to additional Airbnb website content about living like a local, such as maps and neighborhood guidebooks. Finally, Airbnb utilized carousel-ad functionality on Instagram, allowing the company to showcase a series of ads about a destination, tailored to what each user might want as a future travel experience. The campaign generated 53.5 million impressions on Instagram, with 4.9 million Instagram video views to boot.
(Airbnb published a series of photos accompanied by the #LiveThere hashtag as part of its campaign. Credit: OnlyPult.com)
Takeaway  The core of what made the #LiveThere social-media campaign so successful — not just on Instagram but also YouTube and Facebook — was that Airbnb listened to its customers. The brand recognized the nuances of why people stay at Airbnb, and created content that resonated with those who like to live like locals. The lesson here is twofold: 1) Know your customer as much as you can before any social campaign, and 2) When you do create the campaign, partner with creative professionals like photographers, video producers, and so on to create content that will really energize people’s imaginations.

2. John Lewis: Buster the Boxer

One of the most brilliant social media campaigns of the 2016 holiday season came from British upscale department-store brand John Lewis. The campaign centered around a YouTube video about a dog named Buster that has a passion for bouncing on a trampoline, even though it was intended as a Christmas gift for a little kid.
The scene of Buster the boxer jumping on the trampoline in slow-motion tested as the most effective scene ever produced in a John Lewis ad. And using the hashtag #BusterTheBoxer, the ad gained 1.9 million shares across all social platforms, making it one of the most shared ads of 2016. But what was most unique, and savvy, about John Lewis’s social strategy for #BusterTheBoxer was its use of Snapchat. Users could apply a custom filter that add Buster-like dog ears and a nose to selfies, with an animated squirrel flying in the background.
(John Lewis’s Snapchat filter. Credit: Wired)
Takeaway John Lewis’s successful Buster the Boxer campaign illustrates how brands can effectively bridge the gap between traditional social platforms like YouTube and Facebook, and newer ones like Snapchat. It shows that great creative content, no matter what platform it originates on, can be extended and re-purposed a number of ways on social media with a little imagination and marketing savvy.


3. Disney + Make a Wish: Share Your Ears

(Disney asked fans to #ShareYourEars and many people (and animals) happily obliged. Credit: Disney.com)
For this campaign, Disney promised to make a $5 donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation for each photo tagged with #ShareYourEars, relying on user-generated content marketing to make it happen. Fans were asked to post a photo of themselves to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram of them wearing a pair of iconic Mickey Mouse ears. The campaign was so popular that Disney doubled its donation cap from $1 million to $2 million.
A major part of what made the campaign so successful on social media was the participation of influencers and celebrities who already champion the Make-A-Wish mission. The #ShareYourEars campaign received a huge boost with endorsements on Twitter and Instagram from widely liked personalities like Neil Patrick Harris.
(Neil Patrick Harris helped drive the #ShareYourEars campaign. Credit: InStyle.com)
Takeaway The #ShareYourEars campaign shows that successful social campaigns don’t just have to be geared towards millennials. Disney and Make-A-Wish created a campaign that had a wholesome, family-friendly mindset — and the result was incredible participation by people of all ages who feel a connection to the Disney brand. Disney also showed the right way to leverage known personalities on social media by using something visual and fun to promote a cause pretty much everyone can get behind.

4. L’Oreal: Worth Saying

Centered around the Golden Globe Awards, makeup giant L’Oreal’s #WorthSaying social-media campaign was designed to engage their target demographic by encouraging women to share the issues they care about using the hashtag #WorthSaying. The hashtag itself is a play on L’Oreal’s trademark slogan, “Because You’re Worth It.” The #WorthSaying campaign also effectively leveraged an influencer, Jennifer Lopez, to kick off the campaign during the Golden Globes.
A great deal of the campaign’s success was somewhat counterintuitive; as a makeup brand, L’Oreal sells products focused on improving personal appearance, and did so on visual social-media platforms like Instagram during an entertainment event for which celebrities take great care to look good. However, the #WorthSaying campaign took the conversation away from beauty, and got people talking about other (presumably more important) issues on social media. Even months after the campaign, the #WorthSaying hashtag is still being used when people discuss women’s issues online via social media.
Takeaway The #WorthSaying campaign showed how influencer marketing can be combined with a live event to create an immediate impact on social media.

5. Under Armour: Run Camp

In an attempt to break into the already crowded field of running shoes and equipment, athletic brand Under Armour began rolling out its Run Camp social media campaign last year. The Run Camp campaign centers around videos where runners share personal running stories about some of the most challenging running experiences they’ve had. The videos also serve to promote, and encourage attendance to, one of Under Armour’s various Run Camp events, in which the brand pits professional runners and athletes against extreme conditions to test their ability, and passion, for running.
For example, one installment in the Run Camp series was a video entitled “It Comes From Below,” which featured footage from a two-day Run Camp event where 30 athletes were tested at 10,000-foot elevation in the Colorado mountains. Under Armour then encouraged runners to post their own stories to social media, using their custom hashtag #EarnYourSpot. Under Armour also created apps that integrate map, route, and biometric data that runners can use to share their running experience on social media.
Takeaway  Under Armour’s Run Camp content series illustrates the power of long-form video content in social-media marketing. It also breaks new ground with “experiential” marketing, as runners vie for spots in upcoming Run Camp events. And finally, its running apps pushed the envelope in how athletes can interact with brands and share their experiences on social media using data collected during their workout.
These are just five recent social media campaigns that used unique strategies to help them stand out from the crowd. Campaigns like #ShareYourEars and #BusterTheBoxer show that there are brands out there that take the time to understand their customers, and use social media to engage them in more meaningful ways than ever before.

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