2020 has been a wild year. As little as six months ago, we had no idea what was in store for us. Brands continued to plug away with their social media campaigns and everyone was in ignorant bliss.
And then Covid-19 happened.
It changed the way we live completely, from the way we work to the way we consume media and interact online.
For many brands, it was an incredibly difficult time. Trying to find the balance between promotion and sensitivity was near-on impossible, but the best brands managed to find their way pretty quickly.
We’ve seen some incredible social media campaigns emerge this year, both pre-Covid and post-Covid.
Here, we take a look at some of our favorites.
Pre-COVID Campaigns That Rocked
1. Amazon’s Customer Content Campaign
Amazon prides themselves on being “for the people”, so it was no surprise when they started sharing customer comments across their social channels.
The campaign is an excellent example of leveraging user generated content (UGC) in a witty and fun way while staying on brand.
It was such a simple idea, too.
The brand basically responded to user’s posts or Tweets and shared them across social media platforms to create a conversation between brand and buyer.
Not only was this a prime example of UGC in action, but it leveraged humor, too – something consumers really rate in a brand.
Finally, Amazon tapped into that all-important need for consumers to feel heard by the brands they use. Answering comments and responding to feedback was the perfect way to make people feel special and create a deeper connection.
Why Amazon’s Customer Content Campaign Worked
Did we mention that this campaign idea is so incredibly simple? Yet it does the job. It shares Amazon’s sense of humor, incorporates their users and makes people feel special. It does a little bit of everything all in one neat little campaign.
2. Pantone’s Color Commentary
The Super Bowl is prime time for advertisers to get social with their messages. Over the years, we’ve seen many brands take on this major event with weird and wonderful social campaigns.
This year, the spotlight was on Pantone.
Their one-day campaign lined up perfectly with the much anticipated 2020 Super Bowl as they Tweeted a live play-by-play account of the game – with a twist.
Dubbed #BigGameColorCommentary, the brand provided commentary throughout the day using Pantone hues and colors.
Not only did this heighten awareness of the brand, but it created a connection between sports fans and design-lovers. We’re willing to bet that a lot of people who didn’t know about Pantone before the Super Bowl were much more interested in it afterwards.
Why Pantone’s Color Commentary Campaign Worked
Pantone managed to seamlessly connect their brand with one of the world’s biggest sporting events. They tied into consumer needs during this time (a.k.a. needing to know what’s happening during the game) with content related to their own brand to create a completely unique take on the Super Bowl.
3. Dove’s Show Us More Women Like Me Campaign
Dove is a stickler for socially-aware campaigns, and their latest is no different. Social causes are often the key driver behind their ads, particularly women’s empowerment, inclusion, and diversity.
Off the back of their Real Beauty campaign, Dove launched their #ShowUs More Women Like Me campaign. They used this platform to share pictures of women from all over the world and highlight what makes them unique.
And it worked.
The campaign also encouraged women to share their own pictures and stories to create a united front against standard beauty stereotypes.
As a result, the brand racked up more than 5,000 user generated images to use as part of the campaign and created a loyal community of fans in the process.
Why Dove’s Show Us More Women Like Me Campaign Worked
The campaign celebrated women from all walks of life, which provided an inclusive platform for women to get involved with.
By encouraging women to share their own pictures, Dove created a safe place for women to celebrate their beauty while building awareness of important social issues.
4. Starbucks’ What’s Your Name Campaign
At the start of this year, Starbucks tackled a major social issue at the time. They partnered with Mermaids, an organization that supports transgender and gender-diverse young people to launch their #WhatsYourName campaign.
The aim of the campaign was to not only support young transgender people but to highlight Starbucks’ social standing on the issue. Research has shown that consumers often choose to buy from brands they share the same values as, and Starbucks was keen to tap into this.
Combining both TV ads and social media content, the campaign honored the chosen names of young transgender people. We all know that having your name written on the side of a coffee cup is a stalwart part of Starbucks tradition, and this campaign enhanced this part of the brand’s culture.
Customers were also encouraged to purchase a mermaid-shaped cookie and share a photo of it on social media to raise awareness and funds for Mermaids.
Why Starbucks’ #WhatsYourName Campaign Worked
Starbucks expanded its ongoing campaign that encourages people to share photos of their coffee cups on social media to tie into current social issues. By exposing its positioning on the topic and raising awareness for a challenge faced by a lot of young people, Starbucks cemented their brand values and built trust as a result.
5. Daniel Wellington’s Where’s Wellington Campaign
Watch brand Daniel Wellington has broken away from the traditional social media content of watch companies – how many more times do we have to scroll past pictures of well-lit watches on a white background?
Instead, the brand has leveraged UGC and turned it into a fun game for its social media followers.
As well as regularly reposting content shared by their customers to cement peer trust and increase social proof, Daniel Wellington have taken it a step further and are sharing pictures taken in beautiful locations and asking their followers to guess where the photo was taken.
This adds an extra layer to their social strategy and encourages even more engagement by adding an element of gamification to content. By turning it into a fun guessing game, followers feel like they’re involved with the brand and are more likely to become loyal customers.
Why Daniel Wellington’s #WheresWellington Campaign Worked
UGC is always a hit with social media users.
It establishes trust and social proof for brands and creates a community around their products and services. Daniel Wellington tapped into this and took their usual strategy of sharing UGC one step further. Gamifying the posts by turning them into a fun guessing game increases engagement and makes sure the brand is memorable.
Post-COVID Campaigns That Rocked
6. The World Health Organisation’s Bid for Official Information First
A pandemic as big as Covid-19 was bound to unleash some false narratives and made-up information. The World Health Organisation knew this; tech brands knew this, and so the race began to push official information higher up search engines and social media channels.
With people spending a considerable amount of their days scrolling through feed after feed (more so than usual since they were stuck at home under new government guidelines), conspiracy theories quickly became rife and exaggerated stories started to overtake real, science-backed findings.
So the WHO launched a Google SOS alert to ensure their information appeared first before any other weird and wacky theories. But they weren’t the only ones to take a strike at fake news.
Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok were all quick to put steps in place to remove misinformation. The WHO partnered with Facebook to target specific populations with hyper focused ads and brought Asian influencers on board to spread the word about the latest Covid-19 news.
Why The WHO’s Campaign Worked
The goal of the campaign was simple: to stop the spread of misinformation and ensure the general public were kept in the loop with real-life facts.
And it was successful.
Social media channels were able to mute a lot of conspiracy-led content and instead bring scientific findings to the forefront.
The WHO knew that a lot of people would get their Covid-19 information from social media and preempted the inevitable surge of misinformation.
7. Buzzfeed Tasty’s Saturday Night Seder
Let’s talk about Live video for a hot minute.
This form of communication has reaped huge benefits for brands that are able to communicate with their audiences in-the-moment and create a more human connection with their customers.
Buzzfeed Tasty (most commonly known for its delicious short and snappy recipe videos) tapped into the medium to encourage their audience to connect online when they couldn’t connect with others in real life. At the same time, they added another layer to the whole proceedings: charity.
The Live Seder event brought together musicians, comedians, and celebrities as part of a fundraiser to help people who had been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The event was promoted across several different social media platforms and aired Live on YouTube and Facebook at the same time.
Why Buzzfeed Tasty’s Live Seder Event Worked
Live video was the perfect medium for reaching people while they were stuck at home. Not only did it make them feel a part of something, but Buzzfeed Tasty’s audience could get involved in something bigger than themselves.
The brand knew that a Live video would hit the spot with viewers – especially since video forms a crucial part of their everyday content strategy.
8. Netflix’s Wanna Talk About It Campaign
Sticking with campaigns that succeeded during Covid-19, let’s move on to Netflix’s contribution to social media during this time.
They used Instagram to connect with their audience on a deeper level than simply sharing show spoilers and TV-related memes.
They recognized what a tough situation their viewers were in and leveraged their large platform to produce something meaningful.
The “Wanna Talk About It” campaign launched on Instagram Live and connected users with mental health experts to ask questions and discuss any problems they were facing.
The personal nature of the campaign forged long-lasting relationships with users and showed Netflix’s audience that the brand really does care about them. This was a smart move from the streaming giant; they identified what their audience might need during this difficult time and adapted to tie into those needs.
Why Netflix’s Wanna Talk About It Campaign Worked
Unlike some brands that chose to ignore the global pandemic ripping through the world, Netflix sat up and took stock of the changing needs of their audience.
During a time when Netflix was in high demand (because what else is there to do when you’re stuck at home 24/7?), they didn’t push their latest show. Instead, they put their audience first to cement brand loyalty and improve their brand image.
9. Hello BC’s Explore BC Later Campaign
Tourism took a real hit during the Covid-19 pandemic (air travel dropped by 95%).
Tourist boards around the world were flummoxed at how they could continue to raise awareness of their destinations without coming across as insensitive and tone deaf.
Many simply did nothing.
But that wasn’t an option for Hello BC.
Instead, the brand launched their #ExploreBCLater campaign that highlighted the need for social responsibility during trying times. It was a twist on their usual #ExploreBC hashtag that created a space for travelers to share their stories of BC and live vicariously through user images and videos.
As well as UGC, Hello BC also shared posts from industry partners and kept BC front of mind so that when travel restrictions are lifted, it’s the first place people want to go.
Why Hello BC’s #ExploreBCLater Campaign Worked
The pandemic was never going to be an easy time for tourism boards.
Promoting a destination that’s not accessible is an almost impossible task, but Hello BC managed to get the tone just right. They continued to celebrate the beauty of BC through traveler pictures and industry partners to keep the love for BC alive.
10. Zoom’s Virtual Background Competition
Zoom has had a run of it this year.
Who knew that this little known video platform would blow up so much in 2020?
It’s difficult to find a single person that hasn’t used Zoom for work meetings, family gatherings, or simply for enjoying a virtual coffee with a friend.
Despite the difficult circumstances, Zoom promoted itself as a portal for connection. Their fun Virtual Background Competition shared the fun side of the platform. It encouraged users to share pictures of themselves with the most outlandish Zoom backgrounds (don’t tell us you haven’t played around with backgrounds on Zoom).
Each month, Zoom announces three winners who can get their hands on a branded prize. The campaign is ongoing, which means that each month presents a new opportunity for Zoom users to get some goodies.
Why Zoom’s Virtual Background Competition Worked
First and foremost, the campaign was fun. There was always the horrible possibility that Zoom would advertise itself in a stuffy way (it was, after all, a corporate tool to begin with). Instead, it chose to tap into the features users love the most.
By incorporating a UGC element into the campaign, it managed to spread the word about the brand and its cool features while increasing brand loyalty. The prizes were a nice touch, although we reckon the campaign would have done just as well if it wasn’t pitched as a competition.
2020 Was a Great Year for Social Media Campaigns
It’s fair to say 2020 has been split into two halves: pre-covid and post-covid.
For a while, it was minefield for brands that didn’t want to come across as insensitive or playing the Covid card too much.
But we think the brands here got it just right. From Live video events to gamified UGC, this year might have been the most creative year yet when it comes to social media campaigns.