This week we looked at the subject of social proof concerning social media marketing and put together a case study that showcases a few of the most successful social media campaigns of 2019 below.
Pantone and Adobe
Every year, the Pantone Color Institute announces a new colour that is said to be on-trend for that year, with Pantone16-1546 (Living Coral) being the chosen colour for 2019. The 20th consecutive Pantone Color was a warm orangey shade with hints of gold, meant to mimic nature’s most beautiful coral reefs.
Pantone chose this particular shade to create awareness about the destruction of coral reefs due to climate change. In addition, both Adobe and Pantone paired up in an effort to come up with a well thought out interactive social media campaign addressing the issue.
The campaign encouraged designers and individuals to get involved by using designated colours that Pantone had chosen in codes #0029fd (blue), #FFFF05 (yellow), and #9007f9 (purple), meant to represent the coral reefs found naturally displaying these colours in an attempt to protect themselves. The campaign focused on helping to raise awareness of the rapidly dying coral reefs that currently reside in our oceans all around the world. It also included a website and a hashtag #GlowingGone in an effort to raise awareness.
Essie
Essie, the well-known nail polish brand used by salon professionals and people who genuinely appreciate a good quality polish alike, is a great example of a brand that encourages fans to produce User Generated Content for their social media accounts. In their 2019 social campaign, they asked followers to share and tag pictures of themselves wearing Essie colours using the hashtag #essielove for a chance to get featured on their Instagram page. Having a unique hashtag for a particular social campaign works well because hashtags can be used to keep track of all the User Generated Content for that campaign.
The social campaign hinged on dye hard fans to provide and produce quality content for the Essie page, with the assumption that true fans would never pass up the chance to feature on one of their favourite nail polish brand’s official Instagram account! This ingenious campaign took care of two things at once, with the Essie brand receiving lots of mentions as well as free fan content to post on their social media.
National Geographic
National Geographic is definitely doing something right when it comes to their social media campaigns. Boasting an impressive 131 million followers on Instagram, the brand has clearly won the hearts and the attention of their fans. Not bad for a brand who printed magazines that were first published in 1888.
National Geographic’s 2019 social campaign focused on creating awareness about the evils of the wildlife tourism industry. They wanted to educate the public on how the corrupt and cruel industry preys on people’s ignorance and their love of animals to keep the industry going. Stating that captive experiences with exotic animals often, if not always involve abusive training or treatment.
The campaign encouraged fans to share a single image on their social media of an abused, shackled Indian elephant using the hashtag #NatGeoWildlifeTourism to help create awareness.
