24 absolutely incredible examples of social media marketing

A short time ago, a good social media campaign meant letting people know you were on Facebook. Over the past few years, that’s changed dramatically, to the point where social campaigns meet and sometimes even exceed their traditional advertising counterparts in terms of creativity and innovation. Small wonder then that a lot of business executives now view social media as being as important as a corporate website and more traditional forms of online advertising. All the evidence suggests they’re right to think that way too. Research from eMarketer suggests that brands can profit dramatically from a well-executed social campaign and a 2012 study by research company Millward-Brown showed that there was a direct correlation between how successful a company is and how well it uses social media. That goes a long way to explaining why it’s become such big business. Twitter alone is expected to rake in US$1-billion from ads next year and a large portion of the US$1.36-billion in revenue Facebook reported in Q1 of 2013 came from ads. With that kind of spend comes serious incentive for innovation and The Bees Awards, a San Francisco-based award for the best use of social media, now in its fourth iteration aims to recognise the best examples of social media innovation. The awards have just announced the winners in 24 categories, whittled down from some 83 nominees. For their fourth edition, The Bees Awards received social media marketing campaigns from six continents and 23 countries. While that diversity is perhaps not as widely reflected in the winning entries as it was in the nominations (more than half of the winning campaigns are from the US), campaigns from Russia and Brazil both managed represent emerging market countries with wins. The Russian winning entry in the “Best Innovation” category, Blind, comes from the Hungry Boys agency and was one of the campaigns that we picked as being particularly strong when the nominations were announced. The campaign aims to change the treatment of blind children by giving people insight into what they go through. The primary way of doing this was with a website that challenged people to navigate a character through a virtual city using only sound. Brazil’s winning entry meanwhile came in the “Best use of App for Social Media Marketing” category. The app, built for Bradesco F.Banking by AG2 Publicis Modem. The agency built a fully functional Facebook banking app for Bradesco, a top Brazilian bank. Capitalising on the social banking trend, the app came with the promise of the same level of security offered by internet banking. But it also leveraged the social power of Facebook by allowing people to create financial share and collaboration funds covering everything from money for humanitarian causes to money for a friend’s birthday party. Winners in some of the other categories will perhaps have been more familiar to web users around the world. The winner in the viral video category, for instance, Bubba’s Hover from US agency Thinkmodo — which saw top golfer Bubba Watson riding around in a hovercraft modified to function as a golf cart — has racked up nearly 8-million views on YouTube. The Dragon Shadow Launch campaign for the third season of hit show Game of Thrones, which took top honours in the Best Art Direction category, received serious attention online. The ad, which was placed in The New York Times, had a dragon shadow covering a double spread in the paper over fake articles that hinted at plotlines from “Game of Thrones.” The full list of winners, as well as nominees can be found below: 1. Best Use of Micro-Blogging PlatformDiscovery Channel – Moonshiners OMD United StatesWinner: Metropole Tweetphony Havas WorldWide Amsterdam NetherlandsCurators of Sweden Volontaire SwedenThe Oreo Blackout Tweet 360i United States 2. Best Use of Social Media Platform#friskissthlm Volt SwedenThe Social Home Tour Artplan BrazilFrito-Lay Do Us a Flavor OMD United StatesWinner: Skype: Say it with Skype 1000heads United KingdomPapermate World’s Most Stolen Pen PHD United States 3. Best Use of Mobile#friskissthlm Volt SwedenWinner: Discovery Channel – Gold Rush OMD United StatesAMOURUGBY KIDS LOVE JETLAG (FRED & FARID GROUP) FrancePropel Kiip OMD United States 4. Best Use of Alternative ToolsWinner: Dunk Tank Clear Channel Spectacolor United StatesGODIVA LOVE&HUG project Saatchi and Saatchi Fallon Tokyo JapanThe CW “Twitter in Print” OMD United StatesCivil Rights Captcha Prime Sweden 5. Best Use of Ad Banners on Social Media PlatformBugaboo’s 3 For 30 – Facebook Ads Buzzsmith United StatesRav4 – No Time to Waste! Banners Saatchi & Saatchi LA United StatesNo winner has been awarded by jury Ref. Rules & Criteria 6. Best Use of Analytic ToolsWinner: Agora Social Visualizer 1000heads United KingdomTop Voice Cossette Canada 7. Best Engagement with CustomersWinner: Discovery Channel – Moonshiners OMD United StatesRevlon SuperLustrous Truth or Dare VML Digital / GPY&R AustraliaSamsung Q470 product launch campaign MSLGROUP Asia ChinaFrito-Lay Do Us a Flavor OMD United States 8. Best Relationship with BlogsMILRAM Blogger Cookbook strg. GmbH GermanyVO5 Express Yourself Havas Worldwide London United KingdomWinner: Cotton 24-Hour Runway Show Jack Morton Worldwide United States 9. Best Reputation ManagementWinner: Tanks Of Thanks Colle+McVoy United StatesBasil Hayden Walton Isaacson United States 10. Best Crisis ManagementWinner: Making a Difference for a Sandy Hook Family Havas PR North America United States 11. Best Social CRMWinner: The Social Home Tour Artplan BrazilMitsubishi MyCover Ampfy Brazil 12. Best Branded Viral VideoHuman Motorcycles: Behind the Scenes with the Progressive International Motorcycle Shows i.d.e.a. United StatesWinner: Bubba’s Hover Thinkmodo United States100 Cars For Good “Click” Saatchi & Saatchi LA United StatesTundra Endeavour – The Ultimate Journey Saatchi & Saatchi LA United States 13. Best Marketing Within Social GamesGatorade Bolt! Mobile Integration OMD United StatesMyLowe’s Sims Social OMD United StatesWinner: Intel Angry Birds OMD United States 14. Best use of Geo-Location for Social Media MarketingThe Great Beach CleanApp INNOCEAN USA United StatesHertz Foursquare OMD United StatesWinner: Tag the Weather Saatchi & Saatchi Stockholm Sweden 15. Best use of App for Social Media Marketing“A Year in the Like” Edelman Digital United StatesPapermate World’s Most Stolen Pen PHD United StatesWinner: Bradesco F.Banking AG2 Publicis Modem BrazilMitsubishi MyCover Ampfy Brazil 16. Best Tool or Technology for Social Media MarketingWinner: The CW “Twitter in Print” OMD United StatesThe Cisco Learning Network Learning@Cisco United StatesThe Social Home Tour Artplan BrazilAdaptive Canvas Studiocom United States 17. Best Student WorkWinner: Google Music Translate Forsbergs School of Design and Advertising SwedenThe Red Cross – TweetAid Berghs School of Communication SwedenFinal Chapter DMJX: Creative Communication DenmarkUnderground Library Miami Ad School United StatesJetBlue Empty Seats Miami Ad School United StatesThe Digital Donor Card DMJX: Creative Communication Denmark 18. World Student BriefAFS Thai Sports Media Design School New ZealandRound The World in 80 Seconds Media Design School Media Design School New ZealandWinner: Snapchat with Chile Media Design School New ZealandThe Cushy App Media Design School New Zealand 19. Best Social Media Marketing TheoryWinner: Measuring What Matters Blueocean Market Intelligence United States 20. Best InnovationWinner: Blind Hungry Boys RussiaThe CW “Twitter in Print” OMD United StatesDiscovery Channel – Moonshiners OMD United StatesThe Social Home Tour Artplan Brazil 21. Best CopywritingBasil Hayden Walton Isaacson United StatesWinner: Advertising Week Question Generator Colle+McVoy United States100 Cars For Good “Click” Saatchi & Saatchi LA United States 22. Best Art DirectionSamsung Make A Wish Campaign for Valentine’s Day Havas Media Hong Kong SAR ChinaBasil Hayden Walton Isaacson United StatesWinner: GAME OF THRONES DRAGON SHADOW LAUNCH PHD United StatesPrius Hum Saatchi & Saatchi LA United States 23. Best CampaignTHE COUNTRYWIDE JOKE FRED & FARID PARIS FranceAdobe Marketing Cloud: Metrics, Not Myth Edelman Digital United StatesSmartWool Fan Field Tester Program Victors & Spoils United StatesWinner: The Great American Bacon Barter 360i United StatesCivil Rights Captcha Prime SwedenTundra Endeavour Campaign Saatchi & Saatchi LA United States 24. Agency of the Year1000heads 1000heads United KingdomWinner: 360i 360i United StatesOMD OMD United StatesEdelman Digital Edelman Digital United StatesMSLGROUP Asia MSLGROUP Asia China