It’s no surprise that social media is an effective way to create brand awareness and help increase product sales. There are many ways to launch viral social media campaigns, which are strategically focused, have measurable outcomes and are ultimately aimed at influencing consumers to feel or act a certain way. User-generated content is one way a brand can engage its customers and fans and have them share their experiences by creating social media content. This approach can inspire others to join in and post about the campaign or product, creating mass reach.
Here are some of our top five recent user-generated content campaigns that have achieved great results:
As part of their Frappuccino Happy Hour, Starbucks launched a Unicorn themed Frappuccino. The purple and pink drink ticked many millennials boxes as it was only available for a limited amount of time. Despite not having a good description of the flavour, the photogenic drink prompted customers to post their instore experience to their social media channels. Nearly 155,000 posts on Instagram were created, and drove mass foot traffic, with many wanting to try the frappuccino before it sold out. The brand smartly capitalized on the trend of sharing food photos online and the growing consumers sentiment of ‘FOMO’ (fear of missing out).
This campaign showcased that limited edition products that tap into trends can have mass appeal. Capitalizing on this by making an “instagrammable” product turned a great idea into a viral sensation.
Online clothing brand, ASOS, utilised user-generated content to accelerate customer engagement with the use of a hashtag they created, #AsSeenOnMe. ASOS encouraged their Instagram followers to use the hashtag and show off their latest outfits, with the best looks featured on ASOS’ Instagram and Facebook accounts.
As a result, ASOS received 124,000 posts within just seven months, an incredible figure that brought the brand to the fore-front of retail social media at the time. This is a great campaign as it showcases clever thinking in getting their followers to feel like they’re inspiring others fashions choices, whilst receiving quality, targeted and engaging social media traffic.
Olay partnered with nine models and athletes from a diverse range of backgrounds to share their emotional stories about embracing physical differences. The women, referred to as the ‘Fearless 9’, were asked to post on social media using the hashtag #FaceAnything to spark a movement for all women to embrace natural, real beauty, and confidence despite the unrealistic societal expectations placed on them. The influencers were also encouraged to break free from their normal beauty routines for 28 days in exchange for Olay skincare products and a makeup-free event at the end of the challenge.
The social media campaign secured a total reach across Instagram of 298,556 video views, 1,441,220 likes, 11,654 comments and a total engagement rate of 8.33%.
These outstanding results make this campaign stand out as one of the most successful not only in terms of reach figures and likes but also in that you can connect to a diverse audience to generate relatability through female icons and increase your brand awareness without having the product front and centre of the campaign.
Coca-Cola recently released a new logo design and a new message for their ‘Share A Coke’ campaign which centres around the message that chilled Coke tastes better when being shared with friends and family. Coca Cola encouraged consumers to find bottles with the name meaningful to them then share it with their nearest and dearest when sharing their stories on social media with the hashtag #ShareACoke. The campaign generated more than 500,000 photos on Instagram, six million in an increase of 25 million Facebook followers.
This campaign was a success as Coca-Cola connected with their consumers on a personal level, and not only achieved outstanding social media results but displayed user-generated content that included a powerful call-to-action with their slogan ‘Share A Coke.’
Glossier’s products were created in a distinctive shade of pink that lends itself to standing out for branded activities and is particularly popular amongst millennials. Instead of focusing on products, Glossier focused on other objects that included Glossier’s particular shade of pink and asked fans to use the hashtag #glossierpink whenever they saw the colour in their everyday life. The campaign led to 1,700 user-generated images over seven days and over 6,000 images by the fourth week.
Even though this campaign was not focused on a specific product, it was still successful as it generated content that was engaging to the audience and was ownable for the glossier brand. The hashtag is still being used with social content featuring similar pink-hued products even today, which showcases just how memorable the campaign was.
If you would like to find out more about how social media led UGC campaigns could help your brand please get in touch. FORWARD Agency is one of Australia’s leading consumer PR agencies and regularly works with clients on UGC campaigns.
