Thoughtful 2016 Marketing Campaigns & Brands to Learn From

CoreBanner_ThoughtfulMarketingCampaigns.pngWe love blurring the lines between art, entertainment, and marketing, so when we catch wind of a brand that manages to do just that, we sit up and pay attention! Although these major brands most likely have much larger budgets than our fellow fresh produce marketers, we believe it is still important to make note of their smart strategies and apply the thought process to our own work. Take a look at these campaigns and appreciate the creativity, artistry, and strategy behind all of these efforts.

 

Thoughtful 2016 Marketing Campaigns & Brands to Learn From

Spotify’s Data Driven Outdoor Ads

If this campaign doesn’t serve as a sign of the times, we don’t know what does. Spotify’s end of the year outdoor campaign is fun and it’s strikingly personal and human. People love learning interesting facts about themselves, their community, and discovering interesting stranger-than-fiction tidbits. Spotify capitalized on this and used its own data to create outdoor ads that would get everyone talking. One of our personal favorite ads is one that creates an amusing personal link between strangers: “Dear 3,749 people who streamed ‘it’s the end of the world as we know it’ the day of the Brexit vote, hang in there.” We applaud their approach in finding humor amidst the huge amount of data at their disposal.

Morton Salt Walk Her Walk

Morton Salt partnered with indie rock band, OK Go, to create a visually impressive and artistic music video. We admire the seamless collaboration that features Morton Salt imagery subtly and tastefully—you won’t find any clumsy or heavy handed logos to distract from the visuals. At the end of the music video, a call to action to learn more about Morton’s philanthropic initiative, Walk Her Walk, is featured. Salt is not a particularly exciting product in and of itself—but Morton Salt is clearly making a beautiful effort to increase other positive associations beyond just the utility of their product.  We love how this entertaining this music video is and applaud their marketing for reaching beyond the confines of their product.

H&M Wes Anderson Short Film

H&M is a seasoned champion of stellar associations, sponsorships, and collaborations with celebrities and artists alike. This past Christmas, they brilliantly partnered with esteemed film director, Wes Anderson, to create a holiday-themed short film. The film itself is aligns seamlessly with H&M’s brand because of the distinct artistic flair that belongs to Wes Anderson. We admire how perfectly targeted this collaboration is; lovers of fashion and style, H&M’s target consumer, are likely to appreciate the unique style that Wes Anderson can bring to a holiday short film.


Starbuck’s Red Cups

While Starbucks’ holiday red cups have evolved into a beloved tradition for the past 19 years, we loved how they sourced this past year’s designs. Starbucks is a poster-child for a cultivating and nurturing a large and loyal customer base. It only seemed natural that they would reach out to those artistically inclined fans to create 2016’s red cup designs. Not only did this strengthen relations with their customers by involving them and consistently featuring their work, but it also generated millions of free impressions and advertising through its fans posting on social media.


Bud Light’s Golden Can Sweepstakes

Willy Wonka was on to something when he created the golden ticket promotion to visit his chocolate factory, and Bud Light had a similar idea. What we love about this marketing campaign is the nostalgia behind this type of promotion—who doesn’t love an old fashioned, luck-of-the-draw, sweepstakes? The grand prize is “Super Bowl tickets for life,” – an attractive prize to generate plenty of hype among their target audience. Those who do find gold cans get to take pictures and tag #SBTix4Life. Not only does the type of marketing create plenty of buzz and hype around their brand, but it also generates a more direct impact on sales.

Understanding successful marketing efforts from major brands can tell us what works, what people want, and serve as inspiration that we can apply to our own marketing efforts in the coming year.

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