It was once a captivating yr to be a marketer. Expectancies had been prime, budgets had been low, content material moved on the velocity of sunshine, and entrepreneurs needed to make magic occur via all of it.
As 2023 involves a detailed, I polled the HubSpot Media Staff to look what their favourite advertising and marketing campaigns of the yr had been. Take a look at the total run-down beneath.
HubSpot Media’s Favourite Advertising Campaigns of 2023
The Barbie Film
Let’s get started with the most obvious: Barbie owned the primary part of 2023.
To advertise the summer season blockbuster, Warner Bros. and Mattel teamed as much as execute one of the powerful, well-rounded advertising and marketing campaigns we’ve ever observed. The “Barbie” film’s advertising and marketing engine, from experiential activations to product collaborations, had all of it. Probably the most highlights come with:
- Ken’s Malibu Dreamhouse that was once indexed on Airbnb
- Barbie-themed co-branded merchandise with manufacturers like Crocks, XBOX, BEIS, and Homesick Candles
- An experiential Barbie-themed boat cruise in Boston
- The Barbie meme generator
Then again, Warner Bros. and Mattel can’t take the entire credit score — “Barbie” additionally had a ton of natural advertising and marketing make stronger. Opening the similar weekend as “Oppenheimer” led film enthusiasts to create the “Barbenheimer” double characteristic development on social media, giving each movies a advertising and marketing spice up. Additionally, anytime we noticed the colour crimson this yr, we couldn’t assist however bring to mind Barbie.
Snoop Dogg and Solo Range
Within the fall, Snoop Dogg shared a cryptic social media publish implying that he was once giving up smoking. Naturally, the publish garnered a large number of consideration, as Snoop Dogg’s marijuana use has been a large a part of his emblem since day one.
It seems the publish was once a teaser to advertise his collaboration with Solo Range, a emblem that sells smokeless fireplace pits. The logo introduced Snoop was once its legitimate “smokesman” and dropped an legitimate advert days after his preliminary social media publish.
Walmart Black Friday
Walmart tapped into nostalgia advertising and marketing in a large manner with its “Imply Women” themed Black Friday marketing campaign.
The store rolled out a sequence of ads starring the unique solid of the 2004 movie reprising their roles. This marketing campaign was once well-produced and successfully focused the biggest demographic of vacation customers: millennials.
Millennials are anticipated to spend extra than different generations this vacation season. The unique “Imply Women” was once a generational movie that many millennials know and love, and the advertisements in an instant sparked nostalgia for this necessary crew of shoppers.
Dunkin’ Donuts x Ben Affleck
In February, Dunkin’ Donuts aired its first-ever Tremendous Bowl business starring Ben Affleck. The Massachusetts-raised actor has been photographed taking part in Dunkin’ espresso a number of occasions through the years, so it made sense for him to transform an legitimate spokesperson for the emblem.
The Superbowl business kicked off a sequence of Dunkin’ Donuts advertisements starring Affleck, and the partnership is a smart instance of name alignment and a star endorsement that simply is sensible.
Nicki Minaj’s Gag Town
Nicki Minaj has one of the engaged fan bases on this planet. This yr Minaj enthusiasts, referred to as the Barbz, rallied across the liberate of her newest album Red Friday 2 successfully making a viral advertising and marketing second for the rapper.
In September, Minaj shared the album quilt on social media. The duvet featured her set in a crimson futuristic town. Her enthusiasts temporarily started the usage of the time period “Gag Town” to explain the album quilt and used AI to generate their very own crimson cityscape photographs to depict Gag Town. Barbz necessarily created a web based global and generated memes to assist advertise the album.
Different manufacturers like Baskin Robbins and Microsoft Bing temporarily were given in at the motion, developing their very own Gag Town photographs and including gasoline to the fashion.
Whilst it’s unclear whether or not the Gag Town marketing campaign was once planned advertising and marketing from Minaj and her label or purely an natural motion created through her enthusiasts, it’s a captivating case learn about on the intersection of fan UGC and generative AI.
Dove Self-Esteem Undertaking
The Dove Self-Esteem Undertaking had a string of stellar campaigns supporting its affect paintings this yr.
Within the spring, Dove took on social media attractiveness filters with the #TurnYourBack marketing campaign. The marketing campaign featured celebrities and influencers sharing unretouched content material caution their fans concerning the risks of virtual distortion and inspiring them to show their again on filters that modify their herbal options.
Quickly after, Dove introduced an initiative with Lizzo known as the Dove Self-Esteem Undertaking Analysis for Children On-line Protection. The objective of the marketing campaign was once to attract consideration to the Children On-line Protection Act, which promotes protection on social media for younger customers. To make stronger the invoice, Dove produced a movie known as “Price of Attractiveness” to focus on the affect social media attractiveness requirements could have on younger other folks’s psychological well being.
As we lined this autumn, Dove additionally teamed up with Nike to release the Frame Assured Game initiative, which inspires women’ participation in early life sports activities all through and after puberty. Along with an academic toolkit for coaches and caregivers, the Frame Assured Game marketing campaign incorporated a sequence of YouTube movies depicting the advantages of women’ participation in sports activities.
From cinema to social affect, 2023 had its fair proportion of efficient campaigns. We look ahead to seeing what entrepreneurs have in retailer for 2024.
