Our pick of the four best creative marketing campaigns we’ve seen on the internet recently, to get you inspired.
The marketing industry is always evolving and in the wake of changes in privacy data, cookies and buying trends, we’ve noticed many brands getting more creative with their marketing campaigns. And we love to see it!
In a recent panel discussion, The Drum stated that over a third of adults feel “creeped out” by brands tracking their data. As a result, CMO of L’Oréal UK & Ireland, Lex Bradshaw-Zanger, said that advertising and marketing needs to become more: human, “useful and non-invasive.” We couldn’t agree more, and clearly neither can a lot of brands who seem to be using this opportunity to think outside the box.
So what companies have caught our eye with their campaigns lately? Who is striking the balance between campaigns that are innovative and eye-catching, as well as human-centred and non-invasive?
Here’s our top pick of some of the best creative marketing campaigns we’ve spotted recently, why we love them, and key takeaways to get you started.
1. Specsavers “Should’ve gone to Specsavers”
Opticians brand Specsavers has been killing it recently, with an integrated marketing campaign highlighting the need for good quality glasses.
Starting with their OOH ads:
Followed by their subtle paid social ads:
We love it because:
First off, you wouldn’t expect an opticians brand to be on a ‘best creative marketing campaigns’ list. But that’s exactly why it’s so great. Specsavers think outside the box, when it comes to OOH creatives and paid social strategy.
Their OOH ads catch the public’s attention, make people stop in their tracks and figure out whether they have read that wrong or not. The creatives are actually really basic, but the concepts behind them are extremely well thought out and attention grabbing. It shows that for campaigns to be creative, designs don’t need to be crazy and obnoxious.
The promoted Twitter posts are genius! Instead of shouting from the rooftops, the use of musings from everyday Twitter users as promoted tweets is so subtle that you might miss it. But for the demographic of Twitter users who notoriously never miss a detail and are averse to blatant advertising (hence the lack of it on the platform), Specsavers have hit the nail on the head.
Key takeaway:
Specsavers have taken pain points of their target audience (those who need help seeing, or reading, which is a large portion of the population) and made that the focus of their campaign. They’ve demonstrated tangible before and after effects of their products and probably highlighted issues that many members of the public didn’t realize they needed help with, but do now. Which is the point of marketing!
Consumers are much more aware that they’re being marketed and advertised-to these days. Take a leaf out of Specsavers’ book and think about how you can be subtle and clever with your marketing creatives, to emit emotion from your audience, whether that’s a laugh or an ah-ha moment. Additionally, consider creating an integrated marketing campaign that reaches your audience online and offline, to build trust and reliability in your marketing.
Wondering how you can measure both online and offline marketing and advertising campaigns? Mediatool has you covered. Easily merge all results data into one platform. Find out more here.
2. Ikea’s “Fresh at Ikea” Summer Campaign
To show off their summer collection, Ikea worked with Uzina to create their “Fresh at Ikea” marketing campaign promoting their summer bedding.
We love it because:
Did you do a double take? We did too. And that’s what’s great about this campaign. It’s an innovative take on Ikea’s bedding products, while making you hungry at the same time. Which is a double whammy for Ikea who sell both duvets and ice cream!
The designs don’t need much copy but the “fresh” concept is clear, they’re promoting new summer, lighter bedding using ‘fresh’ connotations linked with ice cream and bright summer colors. Also, the feeling of a ‘fresh’ summer ice cream is nostalgic to most who see it, building instant relevance with their audience.
Key takeaway:
Like Specsavers, Ikea has thought outside of the box with this campaign. They’ve made duvets more interesting, and drawn attention to their products by doing so.
If you struggle to make your marketing campaigns resonate with your audience, you might not have found that pain point or emotional connection with your audience. Everyone can relate to nostalgia, consider incorporating it into your campaigns like Ikea.
Enjoying this blog? You might also like to read Why You Need to Align Your Marketing with Consumer Values.
3. Goldfish Crackers’ “Goldfish Focus Face Off Lens”
To launch their new crackers that targeted a teenage audience, Goldfish found that their target audience spent a lot of time online gaming and using Snapchat. In this highly creative campaign, they combined both to create a gamified Snapchat AR lens that challenged user’s attention spans; the Focus Face Off Lens. Using eye movement technology, the game tracked if a user became distracted or not. If they could focus on their new cracker moving slowly on screen for longer than 9 seconds, they unlocked a special discount. The more they played, the better their score and players received a score card to share with their Snapchat friends.
We love it because:
Many brands have struggled to get to grips with how to implement AR technology into their marketing campaigns, but this is an excellent example of a brand that really tapped into this technology to make a creative campaign that reached a new audience.
We love the gamification of this marketing campaign, from a brand that isn’t in the gaming industry itself. It builds brand awareness with their audience whilst encouraging repeat use of the game through the incentive of the discount. Goldfish really understood their audience with this campaign and tapped into the competitive side of the online gaming audience.
Key takeaway:
Goldfish used completely new technology for this campaign, which paid off. While not every company needs to do that for a campaign to be creative, think about how you can use different, interesting, content formats to build an immersive experience for your potential customers.
Another key takeaway from this campaign is knowing the importance of audience segmentation and building campaigns around different audience groups. This was a new target audience for Goldfish, so they had to launch a creative campaign that used different strategies to previously and that’s exactly what they did well.
Measure the impact of your audience segments, by tracking the data in Mediatool. Not happy with the results? No problem, use your data to make changes to your campaigns as you learn.
4. TikTok Star Francis Bourgeois X Gucci X The North Face “Full Steam Ahead”
Francis Bourgeois shot to fame on TikTok in the past year from his endearing trainspotting TikTok videos. It’s safe to say the whole world has become obsessed with him. So when North Face and Gucci were launching their latest partnership collection, they chose Francis as the face of their ad campaign.
We love it because:
Francis Bourgeois isn’t your average influencer, and this isn’t your average influencer marketing campaign. While Francis might seem like an unlikely match for Gucci and North Face, the campaign is about discovery and exploration, exactly what Francis’ TikTok’s embody. The collection also has a vintage theme, much like Francis himself, with his love for old school locomotives and vintage outfits.
Francis has a huge following, (2.4m on TikTok and 1.5m on Instagram) most of his videos receive between 1 million to 13 million views, and he’s loved by people all over the world. We think it was a clever strategy for Gucci X North Face to use him as the face of their social media campaign, to help them make an impact on TikTok and with Francis’ large audience. The campaign and the collection garnered much more attention than we think it would have had they used anyone else.
Key Takeaway:
There has been a shift in social media recently, with users preferring more authentic people and content. Users now choose to follow real, non airbrushed people like Francis Bourgeois over influencers who portray seemingly perfect lives. Influencer marketing can hugely benefit companies in all different industries, and this is an example of how influencer partnerships don’t have to be one dimensional. When done right, like in this campaign, companies can shift public perception and tap into new audiences that they otherwise might have struggled to.
Think outside the box to launch your best creative marketing campaign yet
The best creative marketing campaigns use emotion and relatability to create a human connection with the audience. Campaigns don’t have to be crazy complicated in order to be creative. Whether you’re stuck in a creative rut or looking for inspiration for your next campaign, we hope these examples and tips help you forge genuine interactions with your audience.
Need help getting creative and producing your best marketing campaigns yet? Work collaboratively with your team and use your data to determine tactics, in one platform. Download our ebook where we explain how, or for more info book a tour with a member of the team.
