Social media campaigns from established brands can generate ideas and strategies for your own marketing efforts.
Here is a list of recent social media campaigns from large brands. Several of the campaigns revolve around broad social and cultural issues, such as climate change and the #MeToo movement. Other campaigns elicit, reward, or celebrate the support of followers.
Pantone – #GlowingGone
Glowing.org
Pantone Color Institute announced that the color of 2019 is “Living Coral,” raising awareness on the decimation of living coral reefs due to climate change. Pantone and Adobe have teamed up on the expanded campaign, #GlowingGone. Creatives are being challenged to use the colors in codes #0029fd (blue), #FFFF05 (yellow), and #9007f9 (purple) to raise awareness of the threats to coral reefs. Creations are shared on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #GlowingGone and tagging @GlowingGone in the description and image. The challenge ends on September 3, 2019. Entries are also showcased in the Glowing.org gallery.
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Dove – #ShowUs
Teaming up with Girlgaze and Getty Images, Dove created “Project #ShowUs,” a large photo library created by women and non-binary individuals to shatter beauty stereotypes. The project is powered by women from 39 countries, in front of and behind the camera, with true-to-life depictions and no digital distortion. With over 5,000 images, the project will offer a more inclusive vision of beauty to all media and advertisers. Women share their images through the #ShowUs hashtag to become part of the collection and help expand the definition of beauty.
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Adidas – She Breaks Barriers
Adidas’s “She Breaks Barriers” initiative began from social media. Using the hashtag #CreatorsUnite, Adidas asked athletes about the challenges and barriers that they face. The responses helped shape She Breaks Barriers. Adidas has launched a series of partnerships with three areas of focus: (i) provide access, (ii) remove stereotypes, and (iii) address the inequality for female athletes at all levels and ages. Partners include the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University, Pharrell, the Women’s National Football Conference, the NFL’s first female coach Jen Welter, and Texas A&M. Adidas is also partnering with Twitter to live stream female high school sports.
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NASA – #Apollo50th
This Week at NASA – #Apollo50th.
NASA is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing by distributing an array of historical content across social media channels and NASA.org. It’s also using the increased attention to promote its current projects, particularly the #Artemis Program to return to the moon in 2024 and, also, explore Mars.
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Nike – Dream Crazier
Ahead of International Women’s Day, Nike launched its “Dream Crazier” campaign to dispel sexist assumptions about women and encourage them to dream crazier. A direct follow-up to the “Dream Crazy” campaign from 2018 that was narrated by Colin Kaepernick, the initial video is narrated by Serena Williams. Additional videos feature professional athletes such as Simone Biles and Simona Halep, as well as amateur athletes such as Daysha DelValle, The Honeybeez, and Freedom Prep Rugby. The campaign centers on inspiring and powerful stories like Manal Rostom, striving to become the first Egyptian to run the six major marathons and climb the seven highest mountains.
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Essie – #essielove
#essielove on Instagram.
Essie is a nail polish brand for salon professionals, fashion icons, and beauty fans. Along with images of nail art and polish, Essie’s Instagram page features a simple call-to-action, telling fans to share and tag their nail shots for a chance to be featured. Along with over 2 million followers on the official page, #essielove reveals the success of the call-to-action, with nearly 300,000 images posted by users. Instagram is a good platform for Essie, as each fan gets to show her creativity with the product.
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NHL – NHL Highlights
NHL Bitmoji.
The National Hockey League has expanded its multiyear partnership with Snapchat. The NHL, in association with Disney Streaming Services, will produce a weekly show called NHL Highlights. The NHL will also produce a minimum of 15 curated stories every season and coverage of select games and marquee events. The partnership includes Bitmoji outfits for all of the league’s teams and geofilters for every team’s home area to add custom stickers to Snapchat posts. The NHL is the first pro sports league to use Snap’s third-party curation tools.
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Game Of Thrones
We’re breaking records over here! Last night’s episode of @GameOfThrones was the most Tweeted about episode of scripted television EVER with nearly 8 MILLION Tweets. 🐉📺 https://t.co/D5IVk8R9LX
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) April 29, 2019
The final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones generated record-breaking activity on Twitter. According to Variety, on April 28, the third episode of the final season generated nearly 8 million tweets, the most ever for a television episode. (The premiere of the final season produced over 5 million tweets.) In 2019, there have been over 50 million tweets about Game of Thrones, indicating that HBO also has done an excellent job of promoting the final season discussion and providing plenty of content from the cast and crew.
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Gillette – #TheBestMenCanBe
“Boys will be boys”? Isn’t it time we stopped excusing bad behavior? Re-think and take action by joining us at https://t.co/giHuGDEvlT. #TheBestMenCanBe pic.twitter.com/hhBL1XjFVo
— Gillette (@Gillette) January 14, 2019
For 30 years, Gillette has used the tagline, “The best a man can get.” This year, as the #MeToo movement raised attention on male behavior and sexual harassment and assault, Gillette joined the dialogue and commitment to drive change with #TheBestMenCanBe. The campaign focuses on men who are advocates, mentors, and leaders in their communities, actively demonstrating what it means to be a good man, every day. Gillette is also distributing $3 million over the next three years to nonprofits focused on helping men of all ages to achieve their best.
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MoonPie – #MoonPieToTheMoon2024
Change.org – MoonPie Petition to NASA.
With the increased attention on the Apollo 11 anniversary and NASA’s return to #Moon2024, MoonPie has launched its own campaign, #MoonPieToTheMoon2024, to try to get NASA to take the snack-treat along on the lunar odyssey. In addition to the hashtag campaign on social media, MoonPie has created a petition to drive the grassroots campaign. #MoonPieToTheMoon2024 is a good example of how a brand can capitalize on current events and creatively insert itself into a discussion, particularly when the brand isn’t afraid of a little irreverent humor.