13 Inspiring Social Media Campaign Examples for 2024 (+ Tips)

Spotify does it. So does Apple. Coca Cola was one of the first to do it with their ‘Share a Coke’ campaign. 

A social media campaign is an excellent strategy, especially if you’re a big-name brand looking to maintain your presence in a crowded market. 

But what if you’re not a notable big name brand or don’t have the budget to compete with your deep-pocketed competitors? Are social media campaigns still a viable tactic for your business? Yes! And we've got proof.

This guide shares examples of small businesses using social media campaigns to achieve big results—and why they’ve found such success.

What is a social media campaign?

A social media campaign is a series of posts focused on a core creative strategy or idea and leverage social networks to meet certain business objectives or digital marketing goals.

These posts support a company’s overall social media marketing strategy and help reinforce or assist with a central idea or business goal, such as:

• Getting feedback from customers

• Increasing website traffic

• Boosting brand reputation and awareness

• Improving overall brand engagement

• Building your email marketing list

• Driving direct sales

Unlike your daily social media marketing efforts, campaigns are more intensive because of their targeting, increased focus, and more specific outcomes that are trackable and measurable over a specific period. For example, you could publish posts every day at a specific time, sharing information like news, product updates, tips, or a fun fact as part of your social media efforts. 

A social media campaign can be limited to a single platform or be spread across multiple social channels, often with a specific theme like “AI-tech week” or “Cyber Monday”.

Examples of Successful Social Media Campaigns 

Social media marketing combines the right content, strategy, and channel/platform. Here are some great examples of small businesses whose campaigns hit all these marks.

1. Fi: ‘Chief Broke Officer’

Fi—an Indian-based neobank for salaried millennials—wanted to encourage users to sign up on a waitlist to experience its banking app, tailor made for millennials’ lifestyles, dreams, and aspirations with money. 

The company researched social media platforms for insights into how Indian millennials behave and engage with money. One thing stood out: most millennials loved talking about being broke. Fi created an ad for a “Chief Broke Officer” role and posted it on their LinkedIn Business page.

Source: Fi

Fi’s unconventional way of building buzz about its app—reframing “being broke” as a strength—connected with its millennial audience. Before they knew it, the ad became one of the most viral social media campaigns as users on LinkedIn and Instagram shared it widely, commented, and asked for more information about the role. 

Campaign results

• More than 60% of Fi website’s waitlist traffic came from the post

• More than 3.3 million people signed up for the role 

• Fi's social media channel followings grew by 5,000% in 3 weeks

• Other publications picked up and promoted the post, providing the bank free publicity

• The bank found its 21 chief broke officers, giving them early access to its app

2. Apeel: “Spoiler Alert!” 

Apeel—a food-system innovation company—wanted consumers to buy produce that’s been protected by its edible, plant-based coating, which keeps produce fresher longer. 

Instead of celebrity influencers, Apeel used fruit and veggie characters—avocados, limes, oranges, and English cucumbers—in its series of movie trailer-style spots.

Source: Apeel

Spoiler Alert! featured six blockbuster-style marketing videos, which ran on various platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and streaming publisher sites like SlingTV and Fubo. 

Apeel also ran social and display ads on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, starring various pieces of produce as their characters.

Campaign results

• More than 20 million impressions

• Almost 60,000 clicks

3. KitKat: “Fill Your Break With Wonder”

KitKat Chocolatory Australia wanted to increase brand awareness and maximize sales during the holiday shopping period. The idea: delight chocolate lovers with visuals of sweet treats at every point of the customer journey across Facebook and Instagram.

The chocolate boutique partnered with Shuttlerock to create a digital-first campaign dubbed “Fill your break with wonder”. Chocolate lovers could create personalized KitKat bars and discover limited-edition flavors at the company’s Melbourne and Sydney stores—and via a digital store.

To communicate the joy and wonder of Christmas, KitKat used a playful ad creative with colorful, festive holiday-themed imagery and videos with strong calls-to-action. 

Source: KitKat

KitKat also blended branded content, poll ads, Advantage+ catalog ads, dynamic ads, and Instagram Shopping among other ad solutions, to deliver a magical holiday experience. 

To increase online and in-store sales, the company leveraged social media advertising to meet their conversion and store traffic objectives. Plus, they hosted a Facebook Live for people to purchase through the Comment-to-Message feature.

Campaign results

• 3X lift in online sales from KitKat Australia’s website (more than a third of the brand’s annual sales)

• 35-point lift in ad recall

• 23-point lift in brand awareness among 35-44-year-olds

• 2.2X lift in purchase intent

5. Dove: "Show Us"

Dove Instagram @ShowUs post

Speaking of impactful social media endeavors, Dove's "Show Us" campaign deserves a standing ovation. 

This campaign had a strong goal: to break the idea of what "beautiful" is supposed to look like, in a world full of standard expectations. Dove orchestrated a movement that celebrates real women in all their diverse glory—embracing varied backgrounds, body types, and ethnicities that form the rich tapestry of humanity.

Partnering with Getty Images and the Girlgaze collective, Dove invited women to share real photos without any changes. They started a movement with the hashtag #ShowUs that became really popular on popular social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. This wasn't just about how people look on the outside, but about showing that everyone's story and body is valuable and unique.

And the results? Well, it was like a wave of confidence. The campaign wasn't just popular online – it connected with many people who wanted to see themselves represented. Lots of people got involved, and the campaign made a big impact. 

Results:

• 900+ companies downloaded #ShowUs images in over 40 countries

• 33+ Million Youtube Views

• 15K+ new followers 

• 100% positive sentiment 

• 17k+ Increase in website pageviews 

6. Spotify: "Wrapped"

2022 Spotify Wrapped

In the ever-changing world of social media campaigns, Spotify stood out with its "Wrapped" campaign. Designed for music lovers, it turned listening habits into engaging content.

Spotify tapped into our curiosity about our preferences, especially in music. "Wrapped" turned listening data into visuals, sharing top songs, genres, and total listening time. Social media users could reminisce about their music year and share insights on their social platforms.

Spotify created sleek graphics for easy sharing. Users posted these on social media, especially Twitter. Sharing their own "Wrapped" experiences, they invited followers to explore their summaries too.

Spotify also expanded the campaign's influence beyond the digital world by employing out-of-home (OOH) advertising methods, including billboards showcasing the campaign's creative content.

As users shared content, Twitter timelines were filled with tweets about the campaign. Conversations ignited as friends discussed shared music tastes and broader trends. The campaign's impact reached beyond personal preferences, sparking debates on the year's most streamed tracks.

‘Wrapped’ Campaign Results:

• App downloads increased by 21%

• Over 60 million shares on social media 

• A 17% year over year increase in total engagement

• Increase in brand loyalty due the personalized nature of the campaign

7. Doritos + Netflix: "Live From The Upside Down" 

How do you sell a bag of crispy tortilla chips in an already crowded market? 

Doritos did just that through a virtual “Live from the upside down” 1986-style music concert campaign in partnership with Netflix’s Stranger Things. 

Both brands targeted a younger generation yearning for new things—including reliving the ‘80s nostalgia. But they had different objectives to meet. Doritos was looking for new ways to remain relevant in pop culture while Netflix wanted to excite its fans for Season 4 of Stranger Things. 

Doritos used their bags of chips as tickets to the “live event”. They created a set, filmed Stranger Things artists, and applied special effects from the series so the bands could appear to be playing live from the Upside Down. 

Source: Soft Cell

To drive tune-in, Doritos added an instructional CTA on the bags that read: “Scan a bag. Open the portal. Enjoy the show.” 

Campaign results

• 11% lift in Doritos sales

• 1-point lift in market share ($45 million annualized value)

• 10% lift in Doritos 3D sales

• 303.4 million views across owned media

• More than 365,000 concert invite scans

• More than 22,000 YouTube Live Chat messages

• 7.01 average view duration

• Mainstream media picked up the partnership generating 4.46 billion impressions, 582 earned placements, and #1 share of voice across all Stranger Things 4 partnerships

• Stranger Things 4 became the biggest streaming premier and most-streamed program of 2022 with 1.35 billion hours viewed in the first 28 days

8. Little Passports winter holiday campaign

Little Passports—a subscription-based learning company—created a social media campaign to boost sales of their hands-on activity kits, games, toys and stories.

The company ran Facebook Advantage+ shopping campaigns alongside a consolidated single ad set campaign during the winter holiday gift-giving season. Before the start of the winter shopping season, they ran split tests comparing the performance of:

• Their usual campaign setup: Segmented account structure + multiple ad sets + diverse audiences.

• The new campaign setup: Consolidated account structure + one broad ad set + broad audiences.

The new setup produced much stronger conversion results, so they tested it for the new holiday ad campaign. Little Passports’s campaign comprised various photo, video, and branded content ads, each with a Shop now button linked to their website. 

Source: Little Passports

They also retargeted ads to Custom audiences of people who had viewed any of the initial video ads or visited their website and Facebook or Instagram page within the previous 90 days.

Campaign results

• 89% increase in online purchases

• 57% lower cost per subscription

• 39% reduction in cost per impression

9. Arlo: “Protect Your Everything”

Most American feel endangered every day with 42% feeling unsafe in their own homes.

Arlo—a company that provides smart security solutions—tapped into the chaos in the world and its associated worries to demonstrate the peace of mind its solutions offer. 

Through a campaign dubbed, “Protect Your Everything”, Arlo introduced this message to its target audience. They used spots focused on unique narratives leveraging relatable headspace-occupying anxieties—an experience almost everyone can relate to.

Source: Arlo

The goal: to give their audience a sense of control and peace of mind enabled by Arlo’s smarter protection.To reinforce the messaging and drive sales to featured products, Arlo used a full integrated campaign, which included:

• A campaign page

• Paid and organic social posts

• Digital media

• Affiliate marketing 

Arlo also used two 15 cutdowns of its 30-second spot, which drove home its effective smart solutions that can protect your everything.

Campaign results

• Lift in conversion events across viewers

• Year-on-year website traffic growth

• 24% lift in awareness

• 39% lift in familiarity

• 51% lift in consideration

10. E.l.f. Cosmetics: Wake Up & Makeup

E.l.f. Cosmetics—a bold disruptor in the beauty industry—wanted to promote its limited edition E.l.f. runs on Dunkin’ collection to an audience of Gen-Z superfans. 

The beauty brand collaborated with Dunkin’ Donuts and enlisted Mikayla Nogueira—a relatable beauty and makeup influencer—as the face of the collection and its Wake up & Makeup campaign. 

Using the new collection, Nogueira hosted a TikTok Live Shopping event on her channel, walking viewers through an e.l.f. x Dunkin’ makeup look. Viewers not only got real-time reactions from Nogueira, but they also got to shop the collection directly from the livestream via her account.

Source: E.l.f.

The idea was to unite makeup lovers and coffee lovers alike in their collection while giving access to their limited-edition collection from coffee-inspired textures to ultra-pigmented shades to glazed-up formulas.

Campaign results

• More than 3.8 billion impressions

• More than 6 million views on one of its TikTok videos

• Successful brand awareness, which propelled E.l.f. and Dunkin’ to the top of hte beauty conversation

11. TrueCar Inc.: “I Need a TrueCar” Sweepstakes

Buying a car was difficult, especially during the pandemic, owing to a decrease in inventory and increase in prices. 

Consumers who needed cars were hardest hit by the crisis, which led to an increase in online searches for the phrase “need a car” and over 4.7 million TikTok views on videos about needing a car. 

TrueCar Inc.—an automotive pricing and information site—launched the “I Need a TrueCar” Sweepstakes to award 10 individuals money to purchase their next car and:

• Create brand awareness

• Spark social conversation

• Create value to position TrueCar as a helpful car-buying resource

TrueCar leveraged TikTok, optimized their ad creative, and partnered with five high-profile influencers, including Nathan Apodaca and Nikita Crump. This brought credibility, authenticity, and encouraged participation.

Source: TrueCar

In line with its mission to make car-buying easy, transparent, and convenient, TrueCar used sweepstakes to grow and reinforce its brand while showcasing how it helped people with such a challenging purchase. Plus, the campaign generated virality and user-generated content (UGC) on social media as users posted videos explaining why they needed a car.

Campaign results

• Nearly 10 million earned impressions via press coverage

• 23 million social impressions

• More than 25,000 page visitors

• 3,500 new followers

12. Questex: “A Beautiful Return”

When the pandemic hit, Questex—a leading provider of media and products and services—was among the affected companies. Its 2022 International Beauty Show (IBS) New York struggled to pull crowds as registrations significantly lagged a month before the conference. Questex engaged Park & Battery agency to spin up an omnichannel strategy to:

• Engage the beauty professional community

• Create a powerful sense of FOMO

• Spike registrations

• Drive attendance

Source: Park & Battery

At the core of the initiative was a targeted influencer Marketing campaign that brought together Instagram and TikTok influencers to create buzz over its returning event. 

Campaign results

• A stunning return to the IBS event

• 30% more attendance than its 2021 event

• Nearly 22,000 attendees at IBS NY

• 10 million social media and digital ad impressions

• 45% more IBS events social media followers

13. Mendocino Farms: “Eat Happy”

Mendocino Farms—a California-born fast-casual restaurant—wanted to increase brand awareness and connect with its target audience.To achieve this goal, they partnered with La La Land’s following to:

• Drive brand awareness

• Drive trials in its Texas markets

• Grow its social media pages’ followers by 5%

The Mendocino Farms + La La Land partnership led to a campaign that would leverage simple acts of kindness to spread joy. 

Source: La La Land

Among the tactics they used to drive optimal visibility include:

• A “Drive by Kindness” TikTok sharing compliments to random passersby

• Joint $100 gift card giveaway post across both brands’ Instagram accounts

• Sharing $25 La La Land gift cards with brand influencers to encourage product trials

Campaign results

• Reached more than 1.6 million people 

• Joint giveaway post got more than 2,500 

• Texas sales during the period met or surpassed sales goals better than the pre-collaboration period

• Secured more than 1.5 million views

• Mendocino Farms’ TikTok and Instagram follower counts grew by 5% and 2% respectively

• Reached more than 85,000 people and generated 96,000 impressions on Instagram with an engagement rate of 19%

A lot of work goes into a social media campaign. Before you know it, it’s time to post your next. Not to mention the sheer volume of content you need to fuel your social media pages and the challenge of developing new ideas.

Need a defined game plan for your social media campaign but don’t have the time or inspiration to do it? Hire a social media strategist on Fiverr to design a creative campaign strategy that connects your brand with your audience and generates results.

Why are social media campaigns important for small businesses?

Consumers are spending an average of two hours and 45 minutes on social media per day. So, you have more opportunities to use social media campaigns to reach your target audience—or risk being left behind.

With a good social media campaign, you can:

• Improve brand awareness: By posting campaigns on various social media platforms, people get to know more about your brand and product. An example is Apple’s viral Shot on iPhone campaign, which marketed the phone’s camera feature.

• Connect with your audience: Social media platforms make it easier to connect with current and potential customers worldwide. For example, Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign used relatable posts that got people excited about a personalized bottle of Coke, connecting them with the company on a deeper level.

• Boost website traffic: Adding links to your website on your social media pages and campaign posts helps guide followers to your site and increases traffic.

• Increase sales: Successful social media campaigns get people excited about your brand or products and can drive sales. An example is Starbucks’ runaway success campaign—Unicorn Frappuccino—which led to an increase in same-store sales and over 180,000 user-generated posts with the #unicornfrappuccino hashtag.

• Humanize your brand: Done correctly, a social media campaign can positively impact your brand while building loyalty, trust, authority, and recognition. You can show the human side of your brand by living out its values and putting your employees’ and customers' needs first. 

• Build thought leadership: You can use social media campaigns to give your company a voice. For instance, you can post insightful content that positions your company as a thought leader in a specific niche or promote your upcoming book.

• Attract new audiences: If you want to reach new audiences who may not be ready to buy yet, use a social media campaign. It makes it easier for prospects to explore your brand and gather top-of-the-funnel leads in a simple, low-commitment way.

• Learn more about your audience: Social media campaigns provide a great platform for your audience to interact with your brand. They can help you learn more about your audience, such as their demographics, interests, likes, and dislikes. By monitoring conversations about your company or products, you can stay up to date on what is popular and understand what your audience enjoys.

• Acquire talent: Instead of using conventional talent acquisition methods, you can create a social media campaign that attracts the right people your company needs to succeed. A 2022 Job Seeker Nation Report found that 39% of job seekers use social media, such as LinkedIn or Facebook, as part of their job search. 

• Optimize your social media content for search engines (SEO) by incorporating relevant keywords and phrases. 

Tips for Creating an Effective Social Media Campaign 

Social media campaigns aren’t as simple as they seem. There are many moving pieces to any marketing push—reaching your audience, analyzing results, tying the insights back to your goals, and more.

Large brands also struggle to plan and execute their brand campaigns. So, there’s no surefire formula for instant social media campaign success. 

To help you kickstart your own campaign, here are some useful campaign ideas and tips from small business owners:

• Decide what your "brand voice" is first, then make sure everyone representing you online—including influencers—stays on-brand and everything reflects your voice.

• Use social monitoring tools to listen and analyze conversations, track sentiment, and extract topics that matter to your audience. 

• Call or survey your customers to find out what they think about your brand, products, and industry. You can also partner with your sales/success teams to learn more about your customers and create better social media marketing campaigns.

• Weave the keywords, phrases, or search terms your brand is focused on into your campaign strategies to inform your content themes.

• Build out a co-marketing plan to partner with another brand(s) that don't overlap with your audience or product offerings during your next campaign. For example, E.l.f. partnered with Dunkin' while Mendocino Farms partnered with La La Land.

• Consult other non-marketing teams, such as product development, HR, R&D, or sales to bring more ideas to the table and boost your strategy.

• Maintain a content calendar to organize and schedule your social media posts, ensuring consistent and timely delivery of your campaign messages.

• Outsource your social media tasks to help you design high-impact campaigns. Fiverr's freelancer marketplace is a great place to find the right professionals for your next campaign.

• Use social media analytics tools to get regular reports and updates, then evaluate the data to derive actionable steps for modifying your plan, where necessary.

• Use music or trending sounds to inspire your campaign and complement your campaigns. 

• To come up with social media content ideas, schedule brainstorms with your internal content creation team to share what's performing well and bolster your social campaigns' impact.

• Fuel brand evangelism by inviting your audience to engage with your campaign and source user-generated content.

• Find out where else your audience can interact with your brand, product, or content and brainstorm ideas with your team that can help you make a more business-wide impact. For instance, you can add a face-to-face or in-person experience like pop-up shops or booths to your campaign.

• Be friendly online. Follow and invite people to follow you so you can quickly build your follower count. But above all, be authentic.

Level up your next social media campaign

A social media campaign is a great way to market your brand, while increasing brand awareness, enhancing its reputation, and engaging your audience. 

If you’ve been toying with creating a campaign for your business, don’t let the fear of the unknown stop you. 

Use the tips above while taking inspiration from our SMB examples. Soon enough, you’ll have a plan that leads to launching your next best social media campaign.

If you’re just getting started or you’ve run out of ideas for your next campaign, turn to Fiverr for help. 

Fiverr is the largest digital services platform that hosts a bevy of professional freelancers—including social media management experts. You can find and hire a freelancer to plan and execute winning social media campaigns for your business from scratch.

Sign up to Fiverr to find social media talent for your next campaign.