Reviewing profitable digital advertising and marketing campaigns can generate concepts and techniques to your personal model.

Here’s a checklist of excellent advertising and marketing campaigns from established firms in 2023. The campaigns function generative AI, celeb spots, uncommon partnerships, retrospectives, appears to be like to the long run, new audiences, mission-led content material, bodily pop-ups, and user-generated content material.

McDonald’s: Grimace’s Birthday

McDonald’s: Grimace’s Birthday

In the summertime, McDonald’s ran a marketing campaign to have fun Grimace’s birthday. Clients might order a Grimace Birthday Meal that includes a limited-edition purple shake. McDonald’s additionally launched an unique online game and Grimace-inspired merch, and followers might go to McDonald’s Instagram story and share an image of their favourite birthday reminiscence by way of the “add yours” sticker. For each picture shared, McDonald’s donated $5 (as much as $200,000) to Ronald McDonald Home Charities.

In response, marketing campaign follower Austin Frazier created a easy 10-second video on TikTok of him making an attempt the shake, then a minimize to him mendacity on the bottom with the purple shake throughout his mouth. Then Gen-Z took over, posting a viral assortment of Grimace shake horror scenes. In keeping with Guillaume Huin, McDonald’s head of social media advertising and marketing, the marketing campaign and ensuing user-generated content material created billions in attain, thousands and thousands in engagements and mentions, a prime pattern for at the least eight days on X, and the highest three hashtags on TikTok. To reply all of the questions from marketing campaign followers, Huin posted an insider’s view from the social media staff of what occurred.

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Dunkin’ with Ben Affleck

All through 2023, Dunkin’ created a collection of comedy spots with Ben Affleck and his manufacturing firm, Artists Fairness. Within the spots, Affleck celebrates the Massachusetts-based model and his reference to the world. The spots are a reminder of the ability of the easy, humorous video on social media with younger audiences.

The marketing campaign additionally highlights Dunkin’s skill to capitalize on a possibility, because the origin for the collection seemingly stemmed from a Saturday Night time Reside parody of a Dunkin’ business starring Casey Affleck as an precise Boston buyer.

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Heineken’s ‘Not All Nights Out are Out’

Heineken launched this yr the “Not All Nights Out are Out” advertising and marketing marketing campaign, its first focused on the gaming tradition. Celebrating on-line leisure and gaming socialization, its major video spot, “Simply One other Night time Out,” tells the story of 4 people navigating end-of-day obstacles to a enjoyable social evening of multi-player gaming and their shared digital house.

In one other installment, Heineken unveiled “TH3 G4M1NG FR1DG3,” a custom-made PC designed to chill each the {hardware} and bottles of Heineken inside so players can get pleasure from a chilly beer whereas preserving the PC efficiency excessive. Whereas it isn’t really on the market, the fridge-PC hybrid highlights Heineken’s perspective on the significance of socialization throughout the gamer tradition, connecting players with the model.

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Coca-Cola’s ‘Create Actual Magic’

This yr, Coca-Cola joined the generative AI dialogue when it invited digital inventive professionals to generate unique paintings with iconic belongings from the Coca‑Cola archives. Constructed completely for Coca‑Cola by OpenAI and Bain & Firm, Create Actual Magic leverages GPT-4, which produces human-like textual content from search engine queries, and DALL-E, which produces photographs primarily based on textual content.

4 AI artists kickstarted the crowdsourcing marketing campaign by creating {custom} artwork utilizing the platform and Coca‑Cola belongings. Artists might submit their work to be featured on Coke’s digital billboards in New York’s Time Sq. and London’s Piccadilly Circus. A bunch of 30 creators had been chosen to journey to the corporate’s international headquarters in Atlanta for the “Actual Magic Inventive Academy,” a three-day workshop curated by Coke’s International Design and Inventive groups in partnership with OpenAI.

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Pepsi: 125 Years

On August 28, Pepsi kicked off 125 days of promotions main into New Yr’s Eve to have fun the 125 years of the model’s founding. Followers acquired free Pepsi merchandise for texting “PEPSI125.” The marketing campaign consists of nostalgic advertising and marketing spots from the previous, such because the Pepsi Problem, and a glance to the long run with the disclosing of its new emblem.

Pepsi deployed conventional spots, social media content material, SMS promotions, and an experiential element. In October, the model opened The Pepsi 125 Diner in New York Metropolis, which served a hybrid Pepsi-milk beverage known as Pilk and a soda-infused condiment known as Colachup.

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Patagonia’s ‘What’s Subsequent?’

For its fiftieth anniversary, Patagonia ran the “What’s Subsequent?” marketing campaign, utilizing the event to look ahead to life on Earth and prioritize objective over revenue to guard the planet’s ecosystem. The marketing campaign additionally featured a montage of moments from the model’s mission-led historical past.

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Heinz + Absolut: Tomato Vodka Pasta

Heinz + Absolut

In one of the vital sudden partnerships of 2023, Heinz and Absolut Vodka launched a limited-release Heinz + Absolut Tomato Vodka Pasta sauce. The marketing campaign celebrated the 2 iconic manufacturers combining to create a much-loved pasta sauce.

The marketing campaign is an instance of how manufacturers can be part of a social media dialogue. The current consideration on pasta and vodka started in 2020 when influencer Gigi Hadid shared her recipe for the sauce, which went viral. The response created an natural alternative for the Heinz-Absolut collaboration.

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Barbie’s Selfie Generator

Barbieselfie.ai

Forward of the discharge of the Barbie film, Warner Bros. partnered with PhotoRoom, an AI photo-editing app, to create the official filter that allowed followers to show themselves into Barbie characters.

In keeping with PhotoRoom, the interactive software Barbieselfie.ai, used over 13 million occasions, took lower than an hour to implement and supplied followers with an immediate, sharable Barbie-aesthetic picture. Followers, influencers, and celebrities corresponding to Rihanna and Pedro Pascal participated within the occasion.

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Dove: #FreeThePits

Dove: #FreeThePits

In 2004, Dove established the Self Esteem Venture to make sure the following era grows up with a optimistic relationship with their look. The corporate additionally created the Dove Actual Magnificence Pledge, vowing to painting ladies truthfully and respectfully as they’re in actual life.

This yr, Dove continued its mission to construct a optimistic physique picture by launching a #FreeThePits marketing campaign, a collection of initiatives encouraging ladies to reject underarm stereotypes and embrace their pits in all types. Dove ran advertisements on New York Metropolis’s subway strains after which ran a Dove “Pit Cease” pop-up store throughout vogue week to have fun underarms and provides away Pit Kits containing Dove deodorant, free MetroCards, and different gadgets to assist ladies really feel assured.

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Apple’s ‘Shot on iPhone’

Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” marketing campaign started in 2015 to spotlight the upgraded 8-megapixel digicam on the iPhone 6. Photographs from 77 customers throughout 25 nations and 73 cities highlighted the digicam’s capabilities and customers’ various experiences with the iPhone.

In 2023, to showcase the capabilities of the brand new iPhone 15 Professional, the Apple launch occasion was shot on that iPhone and edited with a Mac. This behind-the-scenes video exhibits the director, colorist, and editor sharing their manufacturing experiences with the iPhone. Extra importantly, it conjures up customers to provide their very own movies and share their imaginative and prescient.