The Best Social Media Campaigns of 2014
One of the most annoying aspects of the industry is having to explain to people the power that social media can have, both with impressions and ROI. Let’s take a look back and remember the hashtags the best social media campaigns of 2014 and examine how these campaigns were successful.
#ALSIceBucketChallenge
You would have had to be living underneath a rock this year to not be tagged or see the Ice Bucket Challenge hosted by the ALS Association that challenged people to either donate to the society or video themselves dumping a bucket of icy water over themselves and post it to social media. The virality of this campaign began thanks to every participant challenging three more friends to either donate or dump with the ominous end line “You have 24 hours.” Some people did neither, some just dumped icy water on themselves, some did both. While it may have gotten a tad bit irritating toward the end, The ALS Association raised over $100 million in just one month. Incredible.
#BreaktheInternet
While you may not be a fan of totally useless celebrities, Kim Kardashian’s attempt to break the internet with the nude cover of Paper Magazine inspired a variety of reactions. One noticeable reaction is that everyone now knows what Paper Magazine is and as if it could be forgotten, you know who Kim Kardashian is. In the first 30 hours of the magazine cover leak, Paper Magazine’s site experienced 5 million unique visitors. While they did not actually break the internet, they did break their Google Analytics.
#OnlyintheApp
Taco Bell is one of the biggest players in the fast food industry and they proved their staying power this year with their #OnlyintheApp Social Media Blackout campaign. We know, it seems like a counterproductive idea. Blacking out your social media accounts so that you can boost sales? Why did they do this? To promote their new ordering app that lets users order from Taco Bell through this app. The company’s Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr pages are still out of commission, diverting all traffic to the app. The result: 24 hours after launch, 75% of all stores had already processed an app order.
#EverySimpsonEver
Simpsons fans rejoiced when news hit the Internet that FXX would be showing every, single episode of the 25 year running animated show. That is 522 episodes,
or 261 hours of Simpsons (with commercials)! Needless to say the hashtag #EverySimpsonEver was the right call. The marathon gained about 1 million viewers and the Twitter account offered real time questions, prizes and replies to their many fans. Engagement at an all time high and a massive number of impressions sure sounds like success to us.
#StoptheWedding
When you first saw this story hit the internet, fury was unbounded. At first, all you see is a 12 year old girl getting ready to be married to a 37 year old man. In Norway, Plan International brought attention to the estimate 40,000 children forced into marriage everyday through this clever campaign. Outrage sparked thanks to the blog that showed “Thea” picking out cakes, trying on dresses, and getting her hair and makeup ready (all sans smile) for her big day. As the “wedding” was streaming online 3.5 million people on social media commented #stopthewedding. Effective and hard to ignore, the two perfect ingredients for an effective social media campaign.
#GoodellMustGo
When video leaked of Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice beating the daylights out of his wife, there was outrage. When it was revealed the NFL Commission had the video for at least a year prior, Commissioner Roger Goodell’s head was on the chopping block. Making matters hard for him was cosmetic conglomerate Covergirl re-issuing one of the advertisements for the Ravens with a “re-touched” image of a model sporting a black eye with the alliterative hashtag #GoodellMustGo. While this campaign wasn’t pretty, Goodell is still Commissioner, but he best watch his p’s and q’s.
#BringBackOurGirls
African violence and war has always been an intermittent problem in the eyes of American social media. Think back to #KONY2012, the character assassination of the African warlord Joseph Kony. Earlier this year, 273 schoolgirls were kidnapped from their school in Nigeria by Boko Haram terrorists. When news broke, #BringBackOurGirls went viral, especially as celebrities began to chime in. Even Michelle Obama became involved in the social media frenzy and the onslaught against the Muslim terrorist organization. The result: the US Government became involved and about 50 girls were returned home (they escaped). However, there are still over 200 girls missing and as with #KONY2012, something new and disturbing caught our attention and that was pretty much the end of that.
#CometLanding
Sorry to Mrs. Kardashian-West but her attempt to #BreaktheInternet did not succeed, in fact, her posterior photograph was trumped by the Philae Lander landing on a moving comet. This is one of the biggest moments in astrophysics and people noticed. On the day of the landing, over 450,000 tweets announced the landing of @Philae2014 while Kim Kardashian had about 300,000. In fact, each space rover has their own Twitter account, and landings are announced in numerous languages so that people all across the world can retweet what is happening. Who says science can’t be cool?
There you have it. Online Optimism’s list of the best social media campaigns of 2014. We can’t wait to see what 2015 has in store for us. If you have questions about making an effective and viral-worthy social media campaign next year, give Online Optimism a call at 504-521-6222 or tweet/FB/email us, whatever works best for you!
