New technologies and trends seem to be coming thick and fast these days. With access to instant information, changes and updates can feel pretty rapid. Every week, and sometimes every day, brings fresh news.
Because of this constant excitement, brands and businesses have to keep up the pace, evolving alongside the changes and keeping up to date. This practically forces companies to be creative and innovative in order to capture the attention of an audience that is being constantly bombarded with ads and content already.
Over the years there have been some great digital marketing campaigns that stood out and stayed memorable, even today. With the help of a digital marketing agency, or a creative in-house team, brands, products, and companies have been able to get themselves into people’s hearts and minds.
Here are examples of some of the most interesting types of digital marketing campaigns.
F*ck Oatly’s Anti-Marketing
Let’s start off with something recent, a stand out campaign from earlier this year. Oatly are a Swedish company that sell oat drinks, mainly meant as an alternative to dairy. As well as marketing from the sustainable angle, the brand has decided to advertise themselves using a witty attitude and tone of voice.
In 2023, they decided to go one step further and delve into anti-marketing by launching a new website called “F*ck Oatly”. The website acknowledges and highlights various negative news stories involving the company, including lawsuits and social media criticism. Additionally, you can click a button to confirm your dislike of Oatly and, if you REALLY hate Oatly, you can click through to FckFckOatly and then FckFckFckOatly and so on.
Why do this? Well it’s different for a start. Anti-marketing can be a breath of fresh air when compared to most marketing campaigns that are positive, cover up any negative stories and just tell you the incredible benefits of a product. It allows Oatly to stand out and be entertaining, it can also make a company look humble, transparent or self-aware.
Another example of an anti-marketing campaign, and perhaps one of the most famous is Marmite’s “Love it or Hate it” slogan. It acknowledges that some people don’t like its taste and uses that to their advantage with successful advertising. Even people who hate your product can be used to boost your brand visibility, so utilise that if you can. It all depends on the product, and if it can be done in a fun, tongue in cheek way.
Old Spice Gets Weird
When talking about weird, wonderful, and interesting marketing campaigns, there’s one company that almost always gets a mention – and that’s deodorant and fragrance company Old Spice. Their TV and YouTube adverts, beginning with “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” went viral for being surreal and random. Things went further and became occasionally intense when they started getting Terry Crews involved in later videos.
The original “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign was quirky and quotable, featuring the character of “Old Spice Guy” (Isaiah Mustafa) quickly delivering a monologue that included lines such as “look at your man, now look back at me” and “I’m on a horse!”.
There have since been many parodies, as well as copycats who try to emulate Old Spice’s humour and creativity with similar products. But not all of them have succeeded on the same level. The tactic was so successful for Old Spice that they still keep the same vibe many years later in further adverts and social media campaigns.
With this campaign, Old Spice very effectively rebranded itself from a traditional, older man’s product to a more modern, youthful, and humorous brand. It showed how powerful humour can be, if done right. The videos are also incredibly shareable, once one person sees it (and possibly has a reaction that one can only describe as “lol wtf”) they’ll send it to friends and family via social media. This in turn increases brand recognition and sales.
The Christmas Advert
Certain times of year give the opportunity for a new marketing campaign, whether it’s New Year’s, Easter, summer, the general change of a season, back to school, Halloween, Black Friday or Christmas.
Some seasonal adverts such as Coca Cola’s “Holidays are Coming” campaign have become so successful that they still run the same advert every year. On the other hand, other companies use the season as a chance to innovate.
One of the biggest examples is the John Lewis Christmas advert, something that people eagerly await every Christmas, wondering what the concept will be this year. People will then share the advert from YouTube to social media. The advert usually tells some sort of emotional story, and other companies have started to follow suit with similar adverts. Some have even parodied this, with Lidl’s animated parody from 2020 being a particularly amusing but good natured stand out.
Final Thoughts
Advertising done right can transcend marketing and invoke emotion. These are just a few examples of the many creative and interesting campaigns out there, what’s your favourite?
