What’s Hot in Brand Campaigns?
Dare to be different!
What does creativity mean in an age of digitalisation where consumers have instant access to the same lures and hooks online 24-hours a day? We show you the brands that break through the noise with creative, fun and smart ideas and make their voice heard.
1. Making audience a part of the experience
Example: Snapbot by Snapchat
We were impressed by Snap Inc.’s innovative Spectacles. What caught our attention was not just the camera-equipped sunglasses, but also the way they were marketed.
The company wasn’t simply selling them online or through shops. No, instead a limited number of pop-up vending machines caught the consumers attention. Dubbed Snapbots — visually striking — allowed consumers to see a picture of themselves with a virtual pair of Spectacles. The excitement & curiosity created around the product resulted in it being sold out on its very first day.
The customer experience is for brands the new competitive battleground. Snap did understand and invest in it. It did design a positive experience and reacted to the customers interactions with its product for the purpose to exceed their expectation and with that increase sales, customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy. From finding the machines at “places where you’re excited to make memories” to trying out the Spectacles virtually, the brand was gifting consumers a well crafted ride. Plus, this well designed strategy to roll out the product generated a tremendous amount of free coverage, both from users as well as media outlets.
2. Using culture aspects for a positive impact
Example: Immunity Charm by McCann Health India
‘The Immunity Charm’ campaign shows how the UN global goals can be realised in practice, when cultural aspects are considered in the design process and with doing so drive innovative solutions that respond to national problems.
Afghanistan is a country that has some of the lowest vaccination rates in the world, which contributes to high levels of infant and childhood mortality. The campaign tackled the national illiteracy problem and traditional biases against vaccines in remote areas by providing a simple bracelet, similar to those found universally among infants in Afghanistan to protect them against evil spirits, thus acting as an incentive for the mothers to bring their children for vaccination.
Healthcare workers started providing The Immunity Charm™ to place on their newborn’s wrist. Each time the child was brought for an immunization, a color-coded bead corresponding to the specific vaccine received, was added to the bracelet. Each bead symbolizing the protective effects of the vaccine. Thus the local bias could be turned around as the same traditional bracelets that protect infants from evil forces, now also protect them from disease.
This not just spread awareness about vaccination, but also increased the rates of vaccination being provided in the country. McCan Health New Delhi received various awards for this innovative campaign. Its focus was simple: To implement an idea seeded in culture so that it finds a meaningful role in people’s life and has a positive impact.
3. Re-design to grow the target audience
Example: Re-branding and nationwide campaign of Frooti
Frooti has been India’s beloved mango drink, which is especially famous among the kids. This was the first time in the brand’s 30-year existence that the company radically changed its logo, design and taste.
The re-branding — designed by London-based Pentagram partner Harry Pearce — was done to shed the traditional Frooti image and give it a bold and contemporary look to make it relatable to a wider audience. The brand wanted to emerge out of the shadow of being only a ‘kids’ drink and appeal to the young adults of today — the 18–30 year old, who had previously shied away from the drink.
A nationwide brand campaign was launched on top of it to introduce the new Frooti packaging in a fresh, bold, and playful manner. With that the brand was able break away from its past. Designed by Sagmeister & Walsh, the large brand marketing campaign around it was an immediate success, which resulted in the desired sales increase.
4. Increasing curiosity
Example: “Did You Mean MailChimp?” by Mailchimp
Mailchimp, another company which we admire for its creativity in design, dared to be different. Drawing an inspiration from its 2014 audio ad, in which people mispronounced MailChimp as “MailKimp” — the company’s oddball name became the basis of an elaborate brand marketing campaign.
MaleCrimp, MailShrimp, KaleLimp, FailChips, VeilHymn, SnailPrimp, JailBlimp, WhaleSynth and NailChamp lead the campaign as they had one thing in common: They sounded like “MailChimp.”
The brand went all out with a collection of cultural activation that spanned categories including food, film, fashion, beauty and more. From creating hit singles to starting a new brand of potato chips, they did it all.
Mark DiCristina, senior director of brand marketing at MailChimp, said in a statement: “We used mispronunciation as a creative device to inspire all kinds of different executions, knowing that people would be curious about what they were seeing and search for more information.”
The thing that tied all these mini campaigns together was that they all directed people to MailChimp’s website and thus reached its goal of creating a wider brand awareness. This was possible because MailChimp is practicing what it preaches — to be truly creative and true about your brand.
5. Metaphor for new branding
Example: New visual identity of GöteborgsOperan
GöteborgsOperan is the leading opera house of the Nordic countries situated in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, which recently introduced a new identity created by Happy F&B using an audiovisual experiment. With the help of a microphone, an amplifier and sound waves generated by vocal chords, movement and instruments — as well as some clever computer work — they were able to create a moving, dynamic identity.
Their old logo, which hadn’t changed since 1994, just had a distinctive monogram that easily went unnoticed. While the new one delivered a memorable and recognizable presence through an “O” — for Opera, natch — that has been dipped in liquid and made to reverberate with sound waves. The result was captured in motion and stills to create an unexpected logo (or set of logos) with rich textures.
A logo in constant motion as a metaphor for a vibrant opera house.
The new logo reflects movement and represents the vibrant art forms shown at the opera house. Definitely catching the attention of a wider audience.
I hope you enjoyed the read. There are many takeaways from the success of these campaigns. I find their lessons a great conversation starter. So feel free to share your thoughts with us on our Twitter or below in a comment. If you started to ♡ us, join us on Instagram and this Medium Publication.
Love to hear from you!
Yours,
Antje
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Antje is an Explorer, Creator, Connector + Co-Founder of The Create Labs.
