It’s no secret that creativity is a necessary ingredient in any marketing or social media campaign. But sometimes creative juices aren’t there when we need them.

The truth is, with a little inspiration and a creative seed, any brand or product can be the subject of a creative campaign. It’s about finding the right element.

A good campaign is bold, it knows its target audience and is an extension of the brand—meaning that it actually has something to do with the product or service being promoted.

Though creativity seeds can’t be purchased and the right creative element can’t be handed over, inspiration can be curated. (Like I’ve done here for you)

The following 6 big brand social media campaigns are fantastic examples of creative social media strategies and all have key takeaways that can be applied to any social media strategy. For each of the following, think to yourself: How can I do something like this for my own brand?

Kraft’s social media awesomeness, lies in the fact that the brand doesn’t take themselves too seriously on their channels.

Their social media team tweets back to fans who talk about products like their mac and cheese and even tweets them coupons.

And then there was the time that Kraft turned their social media accounts over to their oldest fans for the day. How funny are old people when it comes to technology? Check out just how funny this part of their social media campaign was.

So maybe it wouldn’t make sense to let our grandma run our Twitter feed for the day, so what can we learn from this campaign? First and foremost Kraft’s human and laid back voice on their social media channels makes them quite likable.

What is your social media channel tone? If you aren’t sure, it’s time to develop a voice. Do you want to be informative? Funny? Sarcastic? Even if you want to adapt an informative voice, try to make it human.

When you send out a tweet or write a Facebook post, pretend you are crafting it as a text to send your best friend. Ask yourself, if I saw this on my Twitter feed, would it grab my attention? Would I feel a connection with this brand?

Sharpie brand does an exemplary job across all social media channels, especially the visually driven ones like Instagram and Pinterest which are full of creative uses of Sharpie markers, many of which are consumer generated.

Sharpie has a very specific audience they target—teens. And they curate the voices of their audience members by showcasing Sharpie art projects by fans all over their social 福汇 media channels. From Converse shoes decorated with Sharpie to a guitar covered in permanent marker scrawl—everything aspect of their social media campaigns scream creativity.

By giving their teen audience a voice, they create a perfect handful of advocates to share cool Sharpie creations all over Facebook. Their Facebook page has almost four million fans by the way…

Until you visit Sharpie’s social media channels, a simple permanent marker doesn’t seem all that interesting. But upon visiting Sharpie’s , a whole realm of art projects with a permanent marker in hand are possible. It’s a great example of how a seemingly mundane product can be turned in to something trendy and interesting.

Groupon started a campaign called in 2010 to let the world know about Groupon’s name and how the company works.

Josh Stevens was given the challenge to live off of Groupons and was armed with nothing more than unlimited Groupons and a phone and laptop. He was allowed to barter them and through Groupon acquisition and trading, he lived for a year all over the U.S. while doing some really cool stuff all while writing blog posts, tweeting and posting on Facebook.

In an interview at the end of the campaign, Groupon said that they felt the campaign was a success because they increased brand awareness all over the country.

Though Groupon is having struggles now, one can’t deny that this campaign wasn’t creative. One of their competitors even stated in an interview that they admired the boldness and creativity of the campaign.

Jumping off of Groupon’s example, what does your brand have to offer that someone (not from your brand) can use or experience and tell the world about?

Recently, Wendy’s launched a blogger outreach campaign to promote the fact that their famous Frosty now comes in a cone.

They aligned with mom and fashion bloggers who enjoyed the Frosty and took pictures of themselves and kids (when applicable) eating said Frosty in a cone. The really cool part was that they bloggers wrote about a nostalgic memory that the Frosty reminded them of.

When Wendy’s had their bloggers write about nostalgia, they struck an emotional chord with their audience. When relevant, nostalgia is a tactic that can be very effective.

Is there an emotional chord that you can strike with your audience? Can you use your product to trigger nostalgia?

ModCloth does a stand up job of using their fans in their social media efforts. What makes them stick out is how self-promotional they are not.

Their Pinterest board has hair tutorials for their fans instead of photos of their clothing. A big difference between them and other fashion companies, after all fashion is a very visually driven industry.

They share their user generated photos across all platforms, respond to the Twitter conversations and comment on the consumers photos.

What types of user generated content and visual pieces can you incentivize? The more you share your customers photos and/or words, the more people will see this and be inspired to create something “tweetable” in the hopes of getting a public shout out.

What types of assets, learning tools, guides and content can you produce that go hand in hand with your brand but aren’t about your brand.

These types of content will draw people in and give them warm and fuzzy feelings about your brand for helping them out in some way which will be sure to bring them back when they are ready to purchase. Keep referring to board for inspiration!

Takeaways

After examining the above 6 social media strategies, here are the key takeaways that you can apply to your own brand’s social media strategy. Whether you sell software, hats, music, art supplies, frozen food or any other varieties of products out there—you can be creative and utilize some or all of the following takeaways.

• Don’t take yourself/brand too seriously in the social media content that you put out. Strategize a persona and use it. Don’t be afraid to be funny, sarcastic, silly, etc.
• People love to feel special. Promote user generated content and find a way to publically recognize your followers and advocates in any creative way that works with your brand.
• Even if your product doesn’t at first seem exciting or creative, find a way to still have a creative social media strategy that entertains. Social media is meant to make people aware of your brand and get your brand’s personality across.
• Find a way to empower someone not from your brand to talk about your service or product across channels. What can you give them for free to keep up with the mentions?
• Is there something about your brand that can elicit an emotional chord in your audience? Can your product trigger nostalgia in some way?
• Can you make your social media channels useful and educational to your target consumers without talking about or mentioning your brand? Try providing a resource or “how to” that is an extension of your brand but doesn’t promote your brand.

Are there any social media campaigns that you admire? Please share in the comments below with your favorite take away from your favorite campaign.

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