5 of The Best Brand Marketing Campaigns of 2021

It’s no secret that the pandemic has opened the door to some seriously creative marketing campaigns. With so much uncertainty surrounding nearly every industry, brands have had to think more strategically than ever before on how they connect with their consumers. For the most part, brands have adopted a more humanised approach to marketing strategies - focused on the theme of togetherness, entertainment or value-driven campaigns. Here’s a round up of some of our favourite creative marketing campaigns from the year:

Aldi’s Free Cuthbert 

When M&S announced they were suing Aldi for copying their famous Colin The Caterpillar cake with Cuthbert the Caterpillar, Aldi got creative and worked speedily to be able to control the narrative...all with a single tweet. They took an empathetic and humorous approach to win over the public in the hopes that mass support would softly force M&S to back down. And it worked. They tweeted “this is not just any court case, this is…#freecuthbert” - a play on M&S’s famous tagline and within hours it was trending on Twitter and making headlines around the country. 

UGC helped to develop over 30 million views across the different platforms, there were protests held outside various M&S sites and Cuthbert made countless TV appearances, popped up on memes and fast became a household name. Many other brands and celebrities jumped in on the conversation and helped propel the cause. 

Off the back of this campaign, Aldi’s news sentiment grew by 8.5% and their purchase consideration grew by 6.8%, as well as growing their Twitter following by 30%. Their organic reach was over £5m worth of media spend. What did it cost them? Nothing at all. 

To round out the campaign, they added a charity element. They launched a limited edition Cuthbert with all profits going to Teenage Cancer Trust and they actively recruited competitors to get involved and join the campaign too. A perfect example of togetherness, the power of social media and how some jovial competition can do wonders for a brand! 

Bumble x TikTok – Date with Better Answers

When I mentioned earlier that every industry has been hit by the pandemic, one of the most underrated ones is the dating industry. With social distancing and enforced lockdowns preventing singles from meeting each other in the traditional ways, dating apps have had the opportunity to get creative. We’ve seen the likes of Thursday emerge with their epic guerilla marketing tactics but Bumble’s partnership with TikTok to support their users into easing back into dating, was a mighty fine example of social media use. 

As a marketing channel, TikTok had a real moment during the pandemic (something still growing today). Bumble partnered with TikTok content producers around Europe with a series of short-form videos under the guise of “date with better answers”. The premise is that our interests have become so niche during the pandemic that they might not be deemed “sexy” to talk about on a date. But, with this campaign Bumble encouraged conversations on presenting yourself authentically in a social setting. The beauty of this campaign is that TikTok really nurtures niche hobbies and interests and are driving learning-centric content. During the pandemic, TikTok content has encouraged thousands of people to try new things. It’s the epitome of a perfect partnership.

KFC’s slogan hijack

KFC’s famous slogan “finger lickin’ good” fast became wholly inappropriate in the age of Covid. In 2020, they made the decision to temporarily get rid of it. When this year began and the reality that the slogan was going to remain out of touch, they ran a campaign to “try on” other brand slogans - Nike’s “Just Do It”, Snicker’s “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry”, Tesco’s “Every Little Helps”, Johnson’s Baby Shampoo “No More Tears”, Marmite “You Either Love It or You Hate It”, Ronseal’s “Does Exactly What It Says on The Tin” and McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It”. 

It’s the perfect example of a brand having fun with their marketing in a way that will genuinely entertain their audience and engage people. The campaign came alongside a press release that said, “we’re just having a little fun and have nothing but respect for the brands featured. We hope the brand managers don’t mind if we try on their slogan for the next 48 hours - we promise we’ll give it back.”

Genius. 

Dove’s Project “Show Us”

Dove is a regular front runner for clever marketing campaigns and 2021 is no different. They built a database of 10,000 images of non-binary individuals to encourage body positivity and show the world that different is normal. It was the perfect example of a campaign where PR and social media work hand in hand by getting their audience involved with UGC (user-generated content) to help strengthen the campaign. They released the images for use by all media, advertisers and brands to use in their marketing via Getty Images and Girlgaze – a collective of female-identifying and non-binary photographers.

The point of difference with this campaign is that they allowed the photographed individuals to dictate the search descriptions and tags for their photos. It empowers individuals to have a voice that is directly used in marketing without being glossed up in an unrecognisable way.

Taylor Swift’s rereleases of Fearless and Red albums

Ok - so when you’re sat there thinking about marketing campaigns, Taylor Swift isn’t probably one that immediately comes to your mind but this year (and last) she absolutely excelled her marketing game. Fundamentally, Taylor’s success lies with how in-tune she is with her fans. She goes where her fans go and generates content specific to each channel where they are - something that all brands can learn from. On August 23rd, she launched her first TikTok post. This alone isn’t ground-breaking but considering the fact that her fan base were already posting tons of Taylor content, this drove a fan frenzy and even sold out the dress she was wearing in the video within minutes of the post going live. 

But that’s not all, Taylor’s content is exceptionally well thought out. Part of community management and maintaining a devoted fan base is giving them a role within your journey. Taylor nails this every time. She leaves “Easter eggs” (clues) for her fans in nearly all of her posts, lyrics and fan interactions. Everything she does on social media makes fans feel like it’s a secret message made just for them and sends them into overdrive with guessing theories. 

This year, Taylor rerecorded and rereleased two of her albums Fearless and Red (part of taking ownership back of her music from Scooter Braun). She sent fans into overdrive before the release of these albums with the “Easter eggs” she left in her social posts, particularly on TikTok. As a result, her anthemic song ‘All Too Well’ had a 10-min version released that topped the Billboard charts and became the longest song to ever top the charts. She also released a short film video for it and invited a select group of fans to a screening premiere in a cinema in New York to experience it with her. It was a near perfect example of a “product” launch that many brands could learn from. 

Community first. Listen to them and listen hard. Go where they go. Give them tailored content. They will follow you, hard.