The Most Creative Marketing Strategies

Contents · 7 sections

1. The “Share a Coke” campaign
2. ANAR and the coded message for abused children
3. Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty”
4. Dropbox’s “Get free space” button
5. Groupon’s meteoric rise
6. Old Spice
7. The “Will It Blend?” campaign

When we talk about marketing (good marketing, that is), we’re really talking about creating a lasting effect. Whether it’s a strong emotional bond between customers and a product or service, or simply the “wow” factor, a successful campaign has to grab people’s attention instantly. But how do you pull that off? There are plenty of ways, but the best one is to learn from the best. So here are some of the greatest marketing campaigns ever made, along with how and why their creativity paid off. Enjoy!

 

The “Share a Coke” campaign

You can’t talk about successful marketing without mentioning the market leader, of course. The creative marketing Coca-Cola has done over the years is amazing (and it gets real results all over the world). I still can’t figure out how they got us to link Coca-Cola with Christmas. And that’s not all! The Santa Claus we all know and love, the cheerful, chubby old man with a red suit and a white beard, owes a lot to Coca-Cola. Its holiday ads, starting in the 1930s, did more than anything else to fix that image in people’s minds. Without them, the bearded old man might look quite different today. But let’s look at one of their more recent campaigns, “Share a Coke.” You have to admit it’s pure genius. Coca-Cola used the simplest marketing principle there is (involve the customer) and printed people’s names on its bottles. The result? They won back old customers and gained new ones. They even got people who never drink cola to hunt for their name and buy the red bottle! On top of that, the campaign went viral, because everyone was snapping photos of bottles with their names on them and posting them to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, making the brand more recognizable by the minute!

 

ANAR and the coded message for abused children

This campaign by Spain’s ANAR Foundation is simply heartbreaking. It’s a brilliant idea aimed at a very serious problem: child abuse. Its genius is that the poster shows a different image depending on the angle you view it from. An adult sees a healthy child next to a line that reads: “Sometimes child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it.” A small child, though, sees a bruised child, a helpline number and the words: “If somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you.” What’s amazing is that the creators found a way to reach children who feel threatened without putting them at risk in front of the people abusing them.

 

Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty”

Let’s face it: soap is soap. Beyond a few bubbles, a nice scent and shiny packaging (at best), there’s not much to tell one bar from another. So how do you make one soap stand out in the ocean of soap ads that floods our screens every day? Easy: convince women it isn’t really about the soap. Convince them it’s about them, and you’ll win them for life (and by the way, that works for a lot more than soap). By challenging ideas about female beauty and the standards that come with them, Dove got people talking all over the world and spread the campaign’s message globally at lightning speed.

Dropbox’s “Get free space” button

I have a confession: I love Dropbox. In a digital world, it’s so convenient to have everything you need in one place. I use it on my laptop, my tablet and my phone, so all my important files are right there whenever and wherever I need them. The app is easy to use, it syncs files across all my devices automatically, and it’s FREE. Better still, there’s a button that says “Get free space.” Click it, and you can add free storage to what you already have by taking a few simple steps, like connecting your account to Facebook and Twitter, managing your email with Mailbox (another product from the same company) and, of course, inviting friends. You get 500 MB for every friend who joins. After Dropbox started using this strategy, its signups grew by about 60%, and today around 35% of new users come from friend referrals!

 

Groupon’s meteoric rise

While we’re on the subject of sharing, Groupon’s marketing strategy deserves a close look. The secret of its success is a referral program that clearly works. Every time you buy a deal, you get a bonus offer: $10 for every friend you invite, once that friend makes a first purchase. A strategy that adds value for both sides turned Groupon into one of the fastest-growing companies around, valued at an impressive $13 billion! No wonder its dazzling success inspired a wave of Bulgarian websites that tried to copy the same business model.

 

Old Spice

This is one of my favorite campaigns. Getting people to actually want to watch a TV commercial is priceless. Very few companies manage it, and Old Spice is one of them. Their campaign entertains men and women alike: it’s funny, memorable and it makes you curious. Every company dreams of a campaign that spreads like wildfire. So what helped Old Spice get there? They focused on short, memorable (even absurd) content, added a big dose of humor and squeezed everything out of the campaign by taking it from TV to the internet. There they launched a series of social media campaigns, including video replies to fans’ questions and challenges, starring the famous macho man from the Old Spice TV ad. Is it the cleverest ad campaign ever made? Absolutely NOT! Does it work? Absolutely!

 

The “Will It Blend?” campaign

The last campaign on our list is also the most memorable. “Will It Blend?” seems to have everything it takes to succeed: short, action-packed videos that pull viewers in, a memorable concept and authentic content. This series of hilarious clips, in which all kinds of objects go into a blender to see whether it can grind them up, succeeds because it takes a completely different approach to advertising: it creates content instead of interrupting it (the way a standard TV commercial does).

 

So what can we learn from these examples? Never stop being creative. How do you win customers? Give them more than high-quality products. Stay close to them, give them real added value, and they’ll stay loyal to your product and your company!

What’s your favorite marketing strategy? Tell me in the comments!