5 Innovative Social Media Campaign ideas

Do you run social media campaigns for your brand? It's great for increasing engagement, isn't it?

Almost every brand runs social media campaigns every now and then.  But not all campaigns catch the desired -- or needed -- attention.

The reason is lack of innovation and uniqueness. In other words, it fails to create the "Aha! moment" for your audience.  

Many brands launch a social media campaign without thinking ahead. First of all, ask yourself what you want to achieve with this campaign. Set a goal and then start brainstorming. Running campaigns for the sake of running campaigns will not work in 2019.

3 reasons we run social media campaigns:

• To engage more
• To create a buzz
• To generate leads

It's important that you choose your campaign based on your objective. Now let's look at some innovative and inspiring social media campaigns.

1. Simply ask: Asking never gets old.

Simple contests while generating UGC (User Generated Content) still works. Let's look at an example from KFC.

They asked their audience to participate in a simple contest, where they need to submit photos. However, there is a unique angle to it which gave the campaign an amazing twist.

The campaign was officially conducted on the website with a customized landing page, where all the information about the children needed to be submitted. The winner was announced at the end of the contest as well.

Why the campaign worked:

• KFC was straightforward in its approach.
• It was an easy to enter campaign yet targeted to a specific group of people that makes it exclusive.
• The contest offered a lucrative reward for the winner that intrigued the target audience (in this case parents) to submit their entries.

2. Data-driven campaign--Why not?: We all know that customer data is something a company should protect and preserve. This is not something that the brands can share with anyone. But Spotify's New Year campaign may change your ideas on that.

They have utilized user data in a jaw-dropping manner to add a fun factor to the campaign.

Spotify did nothing on their own on social media. The celebrities shared the posters on their social media pages. Their fans shared them on their social media profiles. The people whose data were used shared them on social media profiles.

One simple yet innovative idea helped Spotify create one of the most viral campaigns of 2017.

"2018 Goals" is an extension of the “Thanks 2016… It’s Been Weird” and both of the campaigns are massive hits.

The campaign is excellent at so many levels.

• This campaign is an ideal example of viral social media campaigns that started offline.
• The brand used data super-intelligently in such a way that it added personalized touch along with a fun element to each poster.
• Spotify never disclosed the identity of the person whose streaming data was being shared.
• On the other hand, they associated a celebrity with the user streaming data.
• Above all, it showed how much the audience means to the brand.

It's, however, a risky idea to share user data on social platforms. Doing it smartly, however, can work wonders for you, just like Spotify.  

3. Stun and make them awe: If you think that there are other ways to engage your audience on social media apart from contests and giveaways, take a cue from KFC, again!

KFC's recipes have always been a topic of discussions for chicken lovers. But the team has managed to keep it a secret for a long time until late in 2017, when the food giant followed 11 people on Twitter: the 5 Spice Girls and 6 men named Herb.

Immediately after the Follows, the action received a lot of attention from the Twitterati.

While everyone was perplexed, a clever soul, known as @edgette22 on Twitter, decoded the puzzle.

Freddie Powell, the creative director at Wieden+Kennedy, shared his thoughts on the plan, noting, "Frankly, we weren’t sure if anybody was going to find it,” he said. “Sometimes you just have to put stuff out into the universe and cross your fingers that the internet will work its magic.”

@edgette22's tweet got huge exposure. In return, KFC honored @edgette22 by featured him alongside Colonel, which did not get unnoticed too!

Here are the things which made it an epic campaign:

• KFC did something drastic and subtle and waited for the netizens to talk about it.
• The campaign did not cost them a penny yet earned them superb recognition.
• They rode back on the never-ending curiosity of their recipe that made it a sure-shot success.
• At the end of the campaign, the rewarded @edgette22 for his intelligence.

4. Jump into the discussion: Talking about what everyone else is talking about is always a solid core for a social media campaign. And Kellogg’s has shown how to do it with élan.

Tapping into the Eggo connection with Eleven, the protagonist of the viral Netflix series Stranger Things, Kellogg’s launched a campaign on social media.

The brand included images and GIFs that showcases Eleven's love for Eggos in the campaign as well as launched a YouTube video series with scenes that show off the waffle connection.

In order to keep the online buzz going, the brand even released a nine-course menu to help the audience make Eggo recipes. And they continue to create content based on the hashtag #StrangerThings.

Here Kellogg’s did three things right:

• They jumped into a pop-culture conversation
• 2. They launched the campaign with a variety of content
• They didn't stop with just one campaign. Instead, they have done and are still doing everything to be on the top of the Stranger Things fans' minds.

5. Think big: We all get our share of opportunities to do something good. A Social media campaign is an excellent tool to do good effectively. The Ice Bucket Challenge is one example.

Another example, which raised $1 million to help Puerto Rico after the Hurricane Maria, makes the point.

It started when Stephen Colbert and Nick Kroll asked celebrities to share their awkward puberty photos on social media with the hashtag #PuberMe in one of the Late Show episodes. In exchange, the duo promised to donate money to the relief fund.

Just after the announcement, celebrities started pouring in their embarrassing puberty photographs on different social networks. The campaign not only became viral on social media, but it also encouraged celebrities and common people to donate for the cause.

Why #PuberMe was a big hit:

• The campaign was associated with celebrities. And once celebs are there, the millions of fans are there too.
• It was all about posting awkward puberty images of celebrities that attracted the world's interest at once.
• The campaign added a fun side to a serious cause that made the audience connects with it easily.

Conclusion: Social media campaigns have been a fad ever since its invention. But gone are those days when a simple "Comment below" or "Share a selfie" would earn you the desired engagement. We hope these 5 social media campaigns would give you ideas for your next one.