2019 Marketing Campaigns — 4 of the best (so far…)
I’m a sucker for a good campaign, especially one that makes me think ‘Damn, why didn’t I think of that?’. So here are four that have caught my eye so far this year.
- Innocent Drinks — ‘Bolt From The Blue’
April saw the launch of a new Innocent Drinks smoothie; Bolt From The Blue. Anyone that knows me knows that I think Innocent can do no wrong. Their branding, their copywriting, their social media — everything is a lesson in marketing excellence. Plus their smoothies are super yummy.
The launch of the new smoothie focused on one thing — the colour. A new Twitter header was added with an image of the new drink simply stating, ‘IT’S BLUE’, the bio was updated to “We make healthy drinks. One of them is blue.” and posts were made to introduce the public to the new product.
This is all well and good, apart from one glaring problem. The drink is green. Innocent spent the next few days correcting anyone who dared to suggest that Bolt From The Blue is actually green, which of course caused a social media storm in the best possible way.
Innocent do lots of things well, but one of them is community interaction. They have aced the art of conversation, and they know that in the world of social media, personality beats product 99% of the time. I haven’t seen Bolt From The Blue in the shops yet, but when I do I will most certainly be buying one as a ‘hats off’ to this excellent campaign.
2. Carlsberg — ‘Probably Not’
Carlsberg probably has one of the best-known brand slogans in the world. It’s been the staple of multichannel campaigns for years, and made way for other campaigns based on the ‘If Carlsberg did…’ strap.
Recently, Carlsberg launched its new and improved beer. The campaign went beyond addressing negative customer feedback, and actively pushed content that trash talked Carlsberg in a series of Mean Tweets videos.
Taking it a step further, Carlsberg issued an apology to customers saying that over the years they’d lost their way, and were brewing quantity over quality. They openly admitted they Carlsberg probably wasn’t the best beer in the world. Of course, making a play on such a well-known strap drew national attention, which is exactly what Carlsberg would have been hoping for. Not only did the campaign give the brand a ton of attention in the lead up to the new product launch, but it’s also probably helped to build a little bit of trust. Transparency and honesty go a long way in today’s market and admitting your product isn’t the best, or you’ve fallen off the wagon a little bit, is way more valuable to brands and customers than incessantly proclaiming your brand is world-leading, number one and unbeatable.
3. Bloom and Wild — Mother’s Day
This campaign didn’t catch my attention for being smart or funny. It wasn’t the sleek design or clever copywriting. It caught my attention for just being thoughtful.
As one of the country’s best known online florists, Bloom and Wild has already got a good reputation. In the lead up to Mother’s Day, easily one of their busiest times of year, Bloom and Wild sent a simple email to their subscribers giving them the option to opt out of any future emails about any Mother’s Day related campaigns. They didn’t dress it up with any plugs for their products or bright colours, it was a simple email to help ensure the mental welfare of their customers. This kind gesture earned Bloom and Wild heaps of praise online, particularly from those whom the email was most aimed at.
Not every campaign needs to be clever, funny or super complicated for it to win. Sometimes, it just needs to be human.
4. Nando’s — Giant Billboards
In March, Nando’s launched a series of billboards in London and Manchester. The teaser ‘coming soon’ ads were soon replaced with giant Nandos gift cards. And by giant, I mean 3m x 2m.
The campaign, as well as being genius, hoped to remind people of the millions of unclaimed meals sitting on Nando’s loyalty cards around the country — 1.8 million to be exact.
The challenge was simple. Find a gift card, a big enough group of friends to help you get it down from the billboard, and carry it to your nearest Nando’s to claim your free meals.
This campaign is great for so many reasons. I can’t recall another campaign bringing gamification to billboards in such a fun way. It’s such an innovative way to make the most of a channel the majority had half written off.
The only thing I’m disappointed about? I didn’t find one!
