If you can build a memorable brand, you can gain mindshare from your audience, resulting in more referrals and closed business. That is, of course, assuming that you’ve created a positive lasting impression of your brand in your audience’s minds. Social media has quickly become an invaluable tool for helping brands create stand-out marketing campaigns and gain exposure at a much faster pace. This is probably why you and many other SMB owners out there prioritized social media marketing in 2016. We can all think of some brands that used social media to leave a lasting impression on us in 2016, and naturally, some did a better job of this than others. Here is how some brands became known as the most memorable brands on social media in 2016 (for the good and bad):
Marketing Success: Doritos #CrashTheSuperBowl Campaign
Even though the 2016 Super Bowl is now an event of the distant past, pretty much everyone knows what I’m talking about when the #CrashTheSuperBowl hashtag is used. Doritos embraced the concept of fan-generated content and asked fans to create their commercials for the brand, with the motivation being that the winner would have their commercial aired during the Super Bowl.
So how did this benefit Doritos’ social media marketing strategy? Most of these homemade videos were uploaded onto YouTube and shared on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. This created several opportunities for fans to vote for and share their favorite commercials for the contest, all while using the designated #CrashTheSuperBowl hashtag. The results from this campaign were extremely positive for Doritos, making this one of the most powerful ways that a brand used social media in 2016 to be memorable with its audience.
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Marketing Success: Burger King’s “Motel King” Campaign
This year, Burger King introduced its new Chicken Tendercrisp burger, but there was just one problem: it was a direct competitor of Burger King’s staple, the Whopper. To encourage this fast-food restaurant’s audience to “cheat” on the Whopper and try this new Chicken Tendercrisp burger, the brand created the official Burger King Motel, complete with Burger King towels, robes, and toilet paper. Fans were asked to check into this virtual motel on social media and share their experience with the newest addition to the Burger King menu. As you know, this campaign went viral on nearly every major social media platform, and people are still discussing it today.
Marketing Fail: #myNYPD Campaign
To honor the New York Police Department for all the daily hard work, Twitter users were encouraged to share photos of themselves with the NYPD using the hashtag #myNYPD. Sure, people did this, but many took a different approach with the hashtag and shared pictures and videos of alleged police violence. As you can imagine, this went viral on the web, but not in a way the NYPD wanted.
So what is the lesson learned here? Always research hashtags before assigning them to a social media campaign. And two, consider ways that the hashtag could become easily abused. While the #myNYPD sounds like a great hashtag at first, it’s just asking for people to flip it the other way and use it for sarcasm.
What creative social media marketing strategies your brand has in store for 2016 to set yourself apart from the competition and become memorable with your audience? These are just three ways that brands and organizations used social media to become extraordinary in 2016 (in both a positive and negative light). To learn more about using social account optimization to become a unique brand with your audience, Qd Tricks shares some valuable tips for managing your company’s social network strategy to drive sales.
