5 Incredible Social Media Campaigns of 2016

Last year, Coca Cola’s #ChooseHappiness campaign proved that a little bit of creativity and the right social media channel can drive engagement really fast. This year too, so far, has proven to be good for brands. Some created hype by engaging followers through worthy causes while others did so by launching exciting offers. How did these brands run their social media campaign and what were the results? Last spring, we picked 5 campaigns that performed remarkably well. Here are our top 5 picks of social media campaigns since then!

1) #ShareYourEars – Disney & Make-A-Wish Foundation

Disney used social media to raise funds for a good cause. The campaign was carried out in partnership with the Make-A-Wish foundation with the intent to raise funds for terminally ill children.

The campaign invited fans to take pictures of themselves with Mickey Mouse ears on social media. Participants could share their photos with the hashtag #ShareYourEars on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Each submission unlocked a $5 donation from Walt Disney Parks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation with a total cap of $1 million.

The Results

The campaign was a resounding success. Not only did it create a huge buzz on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, it also doubled Disney’s pledge to $2 million!

2) #BallotBriefcase – PwC

Earlier this year, auditing firm PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) created a stellar social media campaign that can’t be ignored. The firm, which has managed ballots for the Oscar ceremony for 82 years, created a social media campaign that traced the Oscar ballot briefcase as it travelled across the coast towards its final destination in Hollywood, California.

PwC’s platform of choice for this campaign was Snapchat. The goal of the campaign was to create a buzz and increase awareness of their efforts related to the Oscars and to reposition the brand of the firm to appeal the millennials. PwC used the hashtag #BallotBriefcase across other social platforms and had celebrity appearances in their Snap Stories to create a buzz about it.

The Results

The campaign increased PwC’s social impressions by almost 136x on Twitter and won them the Shorty Award for the best B2B campaign on social media. Apart from 12.3 million impression on Twitter, this campaign also gained over 126,000 impressions on Instagram!

3) #PlusIsEqual – Lane Bryant

Around 67% of women in the US are plus size and are underrepresented on billboards and other marketing mediums. Lane Bryant is a recognized name in the plus-size clothing industry that believes every woman should feel amazing and confident in her own skin. The brand launched a campaign #PlusIsEqual to promote this message.

In order to facilitate this campaign, a web application was designed where women could upload their photos and be seen on a virtual billboard in a location of their choice. Once the branded image was generated, women were allowed to share them on social platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The campaign also promoted images and videos which featured plus size models, each of whom is carrying an outfit from the brand’s collection confidently.

The Results

The #PlusIsEqual campaign had over 4 million impressions on social media. This campaign was launched near the end of 2015, but it has been so successful that women are still using the hashtag to talk about issues regarding body positivity and other related topics to this day.

4) 12,000 Mini Miracles – WestJet

WestJet’s “Mini Miracles” social media campaign was launched during the last days of 2015, but it still deserves a place on this list. For the campaign, around 12,000 employees from WestJet’s network were asked to perform 12,000 mini miracles, or random acts of kindness, over a 24 hour period.

The campaign was carried out across the WestJet network from London to Hawaii. Employees who participated in the campaign were required to wear blue Santa hats while carrying out these acts with a team that captured these moments on video. The mini miracles could vary from giving away blankets and jackets to cookies or flowers to travellers. The employees were also encouraged to share their experiences on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #WestJetChristmas.

The Results

The campaign generated a grand total of over 31,000 mini miracles which was a huge increase from its initial 12,000 cap. It earned media from 2359 outlets across 214 countries and had approximately 2 billion impressions combined on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

5) #EsuranceSweepstakes – Esurance

A few days before the Super Bowl 50 this year, Esurance released a 30 second commercial announcing their “Passing it on Sweepstakes.” The commercial promoted a contest in which participants could win up to $1 million in exchange for retweeting messages from Esurance’s Twitter account with the hashtag #EsuranceSweepstakes.

Every tweet automatically entered a participant into the sweepstakes and closer to winning $50,000. Esurance announced a winner every quarter and gave away a total of $1 million in cash.

The Results

The commercial generated over 9,000 tweets per minute right after it aired. Esurance’s Twitter mentions also climbed to over 375,000 tweets during the first quarter of the Super Bowl. That is a pretty big number!

In Conclusion

If social media platforms have anything to teach businesses, it is that there is more than one way to run their campaigns and reach out to people. The past 12 months have been great for brands running social media campaigns and great ideas have come forward to engage users and creating a buzz.

So, these were our top five picks so far. We are sure to witness some exciting social media campaigns in the coming months as well!