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Successful Advertising Campaigns
Coca Cola
Coca Cola began a campaign in 2013 that involved utilising peoples love for personalised gifts. They began printing names onto their bottles and cans to encourage fans to buy their products. People were drawn to the idea of finding a can/bottle with their name on it. It became a viral trend to find your name and share the news on social media. This campaign was the first of its kind meaning people found it fun and exciting. This links with both traditional and digital methods of advertising due to the below-the-line marketing with the cans being one-on-one advertising and the social media hashtags being digital.
The company used billboards as a way to advertise the campaign. They used a variety of names across their billboards to encourage people to find, not only their name on a bottle, but their name on a billboard. This marketing strategy is a common practice for companies such as Coke as it allows them to reach a large audience while feeling connected to the brand. They strategically place their billboards in popular places such as capital cities, busy roads, and tourist areas. The adverts were not directly aimed at a specific demographic. Their focus was individuals names rather than defining features of them. They use their logo in all of the adverts to ensure people are aware of the company producing the products.
Coca Cola produced a TV advert to promote their new campaign. The advert follows a girl called Jess. She finds her name on a bottle and buys that and a drink for with her friends name on from a little shop. As the story progresses, more and more people come with Jess to get a drink from this little shop. Eventually their are big parties with everyone drinking coke with their names on. The story ends with Jess buying a drink with the cashiers name on so he can join in the celebration. The story has themes of friendship and excitement. These themes will make people want to buy a coke as they wants do not want to miss out on the celebration. The storyline is easy to follow to allow people a full understanding into what the story is and why each thing is happening. The advert shows the drinks on multiple occastions to allow people to fully understand what the adverting is selling. The advert also represents a variety of names to allow people to try and find their name. This encourages an active audience as they will be watching the advert trying to find their name.
Coca Cola began an online campaign to promote their drinks. They created the hashtag 'ShareaCoke' to encourage people to feel involved in the campaign. The use of folksonomy allowed people to connect with others and allow people to find people with the same names and find out if their name was available on a bottle. It also allowed people to share their finds with friends and family. The hashtag went viral on social media and became a trend to find and share your bottles with your followers. This was a good move for cola as they were able to use social media to their advantage. It was a free form of advertising and allowed cola to reach a wide audience and gain new consumers.
ALS Ice bucket Challenge
ALS is a progressive disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. A charity that focused on raising awareness and funds to finding a cure for this disease created a campaign known as the ice bucket challenge. The ice bucket challenge involved individuals pouring ice cold water over their heads and nominating others to do the same. This challenge went viral on social media and was a challenge done by millions globally. The challenge was spoken about on multimedia outlets such as the radio and newspapers. This brought even more attention to the disease and allowed a range of people to hear about the campaign.
The trend started in 2014 and took off across social meda. The challenge raised over $115 million for the disease and bought awareness to the struggles people face daily. The challenge was done by people of all ages and all types of people. It allowed people to laugh and joke while bringing awareness to such an important cause. I believe the challenge had such a large success due to the humour of the reactions and the nominations people made.
Celebrities began doing this challenge which furthered the awareness even more. Celebrity endorsment is a great way for campaigns to take off. Celebrities have millions of eyes on them so by doing this challenge so publicly, it allowed their fans to understand and become invested in the challenge. People such as Kim Kardashian did this challenge on talk shows such as Ellen. This bought awareness to the campaign and allowed the audience a better understanding of the challenge and the reasoning for the challenge. Celebrity endorsement is something that campaigns use to their advantage as they bring attention and hype to the campaign and the reasoning for it. People were more willing to participate in the challenge after watching their favourtite celebrities do the challenge as they became influenced. The challenge being done on Ellen is also a huge benefit for the campaign as this is a traditional method of advertising. Using TV shows like Ellen opens up the campaign to a new audience that may not be on social media. This allows for further recognition for the charity and allows the capaign to reach further.
Although the ice bucket challenge was mostly used on social media, there were newspaper articles about the campaign. These articles went into detail about the campaign and the reasoning for it. Newspapers are more commonly consumed by an older demographic meaning they may not be aware of the campaign happening across social media. The newspaper articles being published about the campaign allowed a wider audience to be understand and learn about the disease and the trend that people are participating in. Although this did not specifically show this audience everything that was happening online, it allowed them to educate themselves on the disease and learn about the campaign.
Although the ice bucket challenge began in 2014, the challenge came back in 2025 to raise awareness for mental health. The ice bucket challenge was such a big thing in 2014 that a group of students in USC decided to bring it back with the intention of bring awareness for mental health and trying to encourage the youth of today to speak their minds during dark times and speak to someone when they need. This challenge became big on TikTok and Instagram with influencers participating and encouraging fans to take part. The influencers included a reference to the previous reason for the ice bucket challenge to ensure ALS was continuing to gain awareness however putting a focus on mental health and ensuring people were aware of resources and people they can speak to if they begin to struggle. The campaign raised $300,000 so far and continues to grow every day.
The ice bucket challenge coming back sparked new articles being made. The BBC made an online article about the challenge - with many references to the campaign from 2014 - spoke about the challenge and the reasoning for it. The article spoke about what the campaign is and how people are participating in the challenge. An online article targets a wide range of people as they can be accessed by people all over the world. The article is targeted at a middle aged demographic. I believe this is the demographic as the language used is humourous and reminiscent of the challenge from years ago that this age range would have participated in. The article is a good way for the campaign to gain attraction to the campaign as it allows a wide range of people to view it and can be easily read and understood by many.
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