Examples of Successful Social Media Campaigns

So when I stumbled across an article by Patrick Stafford about some top social media success stories I wanted to share it with you.

These five case studies below are great examples of how companies have used current and popular social media platforms to drive people to interact with their brand. These examples were cost effective to implement, and have all been successful in achieving their desired social media goals.

If you want to see the full article visit the Smart Company Website “Top social media campaigns & what you can learn from them” by Patrick Stafford.

IKEA

The Swedish DIY furniture chain is known for its simplicity in design, and its successful Facebook campaign was no exception.

In 2007, IKEA started its Facebook page and was opening a new store in its home country. Like any other corporate page it listed the company, various products, corporate information, etc. It also provided a method for users to comment on particular posts.

Without much money to market the new store, the company used Facebook. It posted photographs of about 200 popular items – couches, tables, lamps, kitchen accessories, etc. Then, it gave local Facebook users an offer – ‘tag’ your name on a photo, and that piece of furniture is yours.

Within minutes, all of the furniture was gone. These experts say the idea was successful because it incorporates one of the most popular features on Facebook, tagging and uploading photos. The target users already know what to do and how to do it, so the campaign was clean and simple – and who doesn’t like free furniture?

Crust Gourmet Pizza

Every Friday, Crust runs a competition where users only have to tweet the words ‘Crust Free Pizza Friday’ to enter a draw for five free pizzas worth up to $100.

Initially, the campaign was only meant to last for a few weeks. But Crust chief executive Michael Logos says it was so successful the company has continued the competition, turning it into a weekly event.

“At the moment, we have over 3,000 followers on Twitter and 5,000 on Facebook, and that’s pretty good considering we were amateurs in the online space six months ago,” he told SmartCompany.

“The earliest signs of success we saw was just the sheer amount of conversation being generated. We saw the recruitment rate rise, in terms of people on our pages, and we found people were not only commenting on the competition but on the business in general and we have continued to converse with them. It’s gone beyond the competition.”

Logos says the campaign delivers an ongoing benefit in that it continually gains the company new followers, who spread the brand all over the network. The power of word-of-mouth, he says, shouldn’t be ignored for such small a cost.

Nando’s

Nando’s is known for its low-cost publicity stunts, but the speed of its social networking has allowed it to get the edge on competitors as well.

Earlier this year, burger chain Grill’d launched a campaign allowing university students to grab two burgers for the price of one. But the print-only coupon went viral on the internet, and soon the company was swamped with requests. It cancelled the coupon offer.

Nando’s took notice of this and eyed an opportunity. A new blog post on the company’s site promised to fulfil the Grill’d offer, saying “we’ll make sure you’re well fed, not fed up!”

“Following Grill’d's decision to pull its latest university two-for-one promotion, Nando’s has stepped up to the plate so to speak… Anyone who brings in a copy of the Grill’d voucher to any Nando’s restaurant nationally will be able to buy any burger or wrap and receive one of equal or lesser value for free.”

Grill’d apologised and promised to offer the coupons, but Nando’s had already done enough to secure some new business.

Virgin Blue

Some social media analysts suggest you shouldn’t try and push too many sales on Facebook or Twitter – users will become tired of being on the wrong end of a one-sided conversation and will quickly dismiss you. But if you’re offering an exclusive deal, customers will feel like they are being recognised and will be more likely to buy.

This was the direction taken by airline Virgin Blue, which started its social media campaign as an experiment. It set aside 1,000 tickets on four different domestic routes, and then sold them off for $9 each.

They sold out almost immediately, taking only three minutes for all the 1,000 tickets to be gone.

Since then, the airline has expanded its Twitter account, using it to connect with customers individually and solve problems, and continues to offer exclusive deals.

BlendTec

Before it started its social media campaign, BlendTec was less than a household name, as barely any consumers had even heard of the company at all. It manufactures high-end blenders, running for about $US400 each, and is certainly not the obvious first choice for an exciting viral campaign.

One day the company’s marketing director, George Wright, noticed in the company’s factories a number of workers took part in an exercise they called ‘extreme blending’. In this instance, he noticed chief executive Tom Dickson was blending a 2×4 piece of wood.

Realising the potential for this type of activity, Wright started the ‘Will It Blend’ series of videos, each featuring a BlendTec executive attempting to blend a number of different, popular products. The most popular, by far, was its iPad blending experiment. At the time of writing, it has over 7.6 million views.
Griffin says art of the campaign’s success is due to its immediacy.

Whenever a new, popular product is released, BlendTec takes advantage of the buzz and simply asks the same question – “Will it blend?”

And these aren’t just entertaining videos designed to promote the company’s name – they’ve gained over $US50,000 in advertising revenue.

If you have seen other great examples of where Social Media has been used effectively to help promote a brand or company, please share it with us!

Image by Matt Hamm