What a year! Not only has 2021 been a little bit crazy at times (to say the least), it has also been full of all kinds of weird and wonderful marketing! As the year draws to a close and 2022 comes into focus, it’s time to take a look at 2021’s best marketing campaigns.
4.55 billion people are now active on social media*, which just shows the sort of reach an effective social media campaign can have! From Spotify to Aldi, we take a look at which brands have smashed it in 2021.
So, grab a mulled wine and a mince pie, whilst we unveil our top five favourite marketing campaigns of the year…
1. Spotify Wrapped
It’s not Christmas until Spotify Wrapped is released, right? As fellow music lovers will know, every year Spotify drops their unique personalised listening experience, and it is irresistibly sharable! Not sure about you, but here at Tempt HQ, we are OBSESSED with seeing a roundup of what we’ve been listening to over the past 12 months (hands up if you’re in the top 0.5% of Taylor Swift listeners too!). We are also impressed by all the marketing around Spotify Wrapped, from quirky billboards to building excitement across socials. This campaign is so sharable, the marketing pretty much takes care of itself!
(Photo Source: Spotify)
2. Free Cuthbert
The banter we all needed in 2021. Something that caused quite the stir on Twitter this year was the Aldi and M&S Cuthbert vs Colin war. When news came to light that M&S were suing Aldi for copyright over their copycat caterpillar cake, Aldi responded in a hilariously unexpected way on social media. A cheeky tweet from the German supermarket chain resulted in #FreeCuthbert trending quicker than you can say caterpillar cake, with memes, social posts, and even an online petition circulating! Not only that, “while M&S’s news sentiment and purchase consideration scores declined by 134% and 2.72% respectively, Aldi’s increased by 8.5% and 6.8% respectively.” Aldi then went one step further, raising money for charity with their #CaterpillarsForCancer campaign. What a great example of creativity, and the saga now continues with Christmas gin-gate…
(Photo source: Aldi Twitter)
3. ‘Beanz on Bix’
We’ve heard of weird food combinations before, but this one definitely takes the ‘biscuit’ (see what we did there?). In February 2021, an unlikely partnership was struck between Heinz and Weetabix for their controversial social media ‘Beanz on Bix’ stunt. Weetabix took to Twitter with a photo of not beans on toast, but beans on Weetabix, and it definitely got people talking! Even Citizens Advice replied, saying ‘we can’t advise anyone to try this’. One thing is for sure, we will be getting our breakfast inspo from somewhere else in future.
(Photo source: Weetabix Twitter)
4. Dove’s Reverse Selfie
Onto a more serious marketing campaign. By age 13, 80% of girls distort the way they look online, which is Pretty shocking, right? Dove decided to do something about this, by celebrating natural beauty instead with their powerful and thought-provoking ‘Reverse Selfie’ campaign. Part of Dove’s wider Self Esteem Project, Reverse Selfie shows the reverse view of a young girl’s ‘perfect selfie’, and it hits pretty hard. We love how this campaign aims to boost the self-esteem of young women and girls. It also shows how ethical marketing can be a source for good change in the world.
5. ReindeerReady
Whilst much festive anticipation always seems to surround the John Lewis Christmas advert, this year we were actually really impressed by McDonald’s ‘Imaginary Iggy’. This creative and heart-warming Christmas ad, featuring a beautiful cover of Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time, shows you are never too old for a bit of imagination. This adorable advert is part of McDonald’s five-year running Reindeer Ready campaign, which is accompanied by an online platform, complete with a Christmas countdown. We dare you not to cry at the advert- it gets us every (time after) time!
What was your favourite marketing campaign of 2021? Did we miss any?
If you’d like to find out how we could help to improve your marketing campaigns and social media reach, get in touch today.
In serious need of some social media inspiration? Have a read of our Top Ten Tips for Creating Content for Social Media blog.
*Source: https://datareportal.com/social-media-users
