We previously shared tips on building an online presence, creating social content and building brand reputation. Those explored the ingredients (and methods) for a flavoursome campaign. In this post, we celebrate some of the digital marketing campaigns that have stood out in recent years, and break down just what made them the winners they are. Here are 3 of our favourite examples of successful digital marketing campaign:
1. Gillette – We Believe: The Best Men Can Be
This campaign launched in January 2019 with the digital release of a short film that addresses the #MeToo movement as well as other problems in society.
Entitled We Believe: The Best Men Can Be, it marked an update of Gillette’s 30-year-old slogan The Best a Man Can Get. It addresses the negative behaviour among men, including bullying, sexism, sexual misconduct, and toxic masculinity. By promoting a new kind of positive masculinity, the campaign immediately went viral. It scored more than 4 million views on YouTube in just 48 hours.
More importantly, it doesn’t simply capitalise on the attention surrounding the #MeToo movement, but also highlights Gillette’s commitment to the cause.
What is the #MeToo movement?
The Me Too (or #MeToo) movement, with variations of related local or international names, is a social movement campaign against sexual abuse and sexual harassment where people publicise allegations of sex crimes committed by powerful men.
With the debut of their ad, Gillette also announced that they would be donating $1 million per year for the next three years to non-profit organisations with programmes “designed to inspire, educate and help men of all ages achieve their personal best, and become role models for the next generation”.
Bernice King, daughter of the late civil rights legend Martin Luther King, wrote, “This commercial isn’t anti-male. It’s pro-humanity. And it demonstrates that character can step up to change conditions.”
2. McDonald’s Singapore – Ramadan
McDonald’s Singapore celebrated the Muslim holy fasting month in 2018 with a 2-minute Ramadan ad. It follows a McDonald’s delivery rider who wakes up before dawn and has his suhur (pre-dawn meal) with his family.
The camera then follows him on his day as he makes deliveries, overcomes difficulties and helps a man whose car has broken down. Towards the end of the ad, he makes a delivery to a man who looks at the time and stops him from leaving.
“Adik,” the man says, using the Malay term for “younger brother”. “It’s time to buka puasa (break your fast), right?” He then offers him a McDonald’s happy sharing box and the ad ends with the tagline Share the spirit of Ramadan. Cue the waterworks.
What is the spirit of Ramadan?
Ramadan is a time of spiritual reflection, self-improvement, and heightened devotion and worship. Muslims are expected to put more effort into following the teachings of Islam.
Though the ad involved a Singaporean context, it captures the human essence of kindness and celebrates multiculturalism, sharing and togetherness in a very relatable and succinct way.
A tweet featuring the clip went viral with more than 23,000 likes and 26,000 retweets. The YouTube clip has been watched more than 1,220,266 times. This viral digital marketing campaign was also featured on several popular blogs.
Now that’s a job McDone well.
3. Heineken – Back to the Bars
If you live in a country that’s made it through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic and can revisit the bars, the rather unusual new experience would be quite relatable: contact tracing protocols, hand sanitisers everywhere, people wearing face masks and red tapes marking where you can’t sit or stand to maintain social distancing.
But that’s life in the new normal as we know it. And it sparked Heineken’s new digital marketing campaign, which encourages people to #SocialiseResponsibly without compromising on the fun elements of a night out.
The campaign ad film shows people in bars, socialising via air hugs, elbow bumps and 1.5m cheers. It ends with “There’s one thing better than a night out. Another night out” and a message encouraging people to socialise responsibly in order to keep bars open as lockdown measures continue to ease.
It’s brilliant because it captures the joy and awkwardness of the new normal, is 100% relatable and promotes social responsibility, which is something Heineken is a bit of an expert on.
Heineken has a long history of being a responsible brand. In the past, the brand has used its world famous creativity to develop campaigns such as Enjoy Heineken Responsibly and When You Drive, Never Drink.
