The Best Social Media Campaigns of 2013

With 2013 coming to a close, it has been a year full of some impressive communications campaigns. From Facebook, to Twitter and Vine, it is safe to say that many brands are becoming comfortable with social media outlets for communicating and advertising. Overall, their unique and sometimes powerful messages increase brand awareness effectively.

Here are a few of the top picks:

Dove Real Beauty Sketches

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk

This 3 minute clip has over 130 million views and gained immense popularity on Facebook. Although Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty has been around for a number of years, this video evokes many emotions in the viewer. Specifically geared at women, a forensic artist asks different women to describe themselves physically, then has a stranger also describe their physical appearance.  The end sketch results are significantly different. Ultimately, Dove’s brand is trying to change the perception of beauty and encouraging women to not be so hard on themselves.

Guinness Basketball Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwndLOKQTDs

This commercial by Guinness does not sport any flashy party scenes or scantily clad women. Instead, the ad, which has received millions of hits online and thousands of shares on Facebook, conveys a message about friendship and love. The commercial starts off with a few guys playing a game of wheelchair basketball. At the end of the game, all but one of the guys stands up and walks away. The next scene shows the men having beers after the game, with one still in his wheel chair. The narrator says: “Dedication. Loyalty. Friendship. The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character." Since Guinness aligns its brand with masculinity, this commercial was a unique and refreshing approach to advertise the brand.

#MyJourney by Honda

Inspired by a couple that drove for 8 years around the world in their Honda Civic, this innovative social PR campaign encourages consumers to embark on a journey, take an image from their journey, and tweet the picture using the hashtag #MyJourney. The hashtag allows you to follow people on their longest or shortest trips, and also increases global brand awareness by using a large social media outlet such as Twitter.

More and more companies are learning how to utilize social media in order to advertise and increase their brand awareness. With the ability to reach millions of consumers in just seconds, it is a tool that needs to be used in order to keep up with competition.

What are some of your favorite social media campaigns of 2013? Leave us a comment and share your thoughts!

This guest blog post was written by PRowl Staff Member Tessa Cohn.