The next decade has begun, and we’ve been taking a look back at some of the best marketing and ad campaigns that we think could take the “best campaign of the decade” crown! Check out our shortlisted final four below.

Carlsberg

First on the list is a memorable campaign from Carlsberg. They realised they needed an overhaul of their marketing as well as their product after it became apparent that the public wasn’t too fond of the Danish lager. Combined with sales of Carlsberg plummeting, something had to change.

After changing their lager to better suit people’s taste buds, they released a very open and honest marketing campaign to try and win back customers. They released a viral video on social media that consisted of Carlsberg employees reading out mean tweets, about the taste of Carlsberg. One iconic review claimed that Carlsberg tasted “like drinking the bathwater your nan died in”. Not only did reading these reviews make light of the situation, but it also made people realise that Carlsberg recognised the need for change and were reinventing the product. The video was a success with many retweets and comments, and a whopping 50 million impressions. 

Combined with an eye-catching and humourful TV ad and new slogan “Probably NOT the best beer in the world. So we’ve changed it”, Carlsberg’s marketing approach was refreshing and original, and demonstrated the importance of brand honesty, prompting people to give the new Carlsberg a try. The image below shows just a snippet of the awesome campaign. 

WWF

WWF’s “Give a Hand to Wildlife” campaign was a beautiful and iconic marketing campaign that caught the eye of social media users. It aimed to raise awareness of WWF and encourage people to take action against dwindling wildlife numbers. 

Designed by Saatchi and Saatchi, Give a Hand to Wildlife featured images of hands painted as different animals, playing on the phrase and embracing the human aspect of nature. 

Social media users were encouraged to share their own hand art on Instagram and Twitter, with the most creative being featured on the WWF’s social pages and #Wearitwild website, to encourage other people to take action to protect the world’s beautiful wildlife. The campaign went on to win the Grand Prix award at Cannes. Check out the image below that demonstrates some of their amazing artwork for the campaign. 

Churchill

One of the UK’s biggest insurance providers, Churchill wanted to revamp their brand recapture the hearts of customers. The company undertook market research to determine people’s perception of the brand. It became apparent that despite an affinity for the iconic Churchie bulldog and a perception of reliability, they felt that the brand was out of touch. 

The Churchill marketing team got to work on a campaign set to modernise the brand and give ‘Churchie’ a 21st-century makeover. Churchie was no longer a nodding dog toy, but a skateboarding CGI bulldog who drove the campaign to success. 

The campaign ran on TV, radio, cinema, social media and even Spotify. It implied that the new brand does all the hard work so that the customer can just “chill” with Churchill. The success of the campaign was down to the emotional response it triggered, the fact that the campaign was aesthetically pleasing , and reinforced Churchills traditional brand values. The campaign is featured on the Creative Works page of The Drums website, and is one of the highest rated campaigns with a rating of 5/5. Their social media has also gained more attention since the campaign was introduced with the reveal of the new “Churchie” on Twitter gaining over 1K retweets back in October 2019. The image below shows the skateboarding ‘Churchie’. 

ASOS

As the second most visited fashion site in the world, Asos wanted to build a community of informed fashion followers, in a bid to prompt customers to retain their loyalty to the brand. To do this, they used the power of social media. In the fashion world, social media means greater competition and weaker customer loyalty, due to the number of ads and fashion companies doing giveaways, competitions and interacting with customers on social platforms. 

The #Asseenonme campaign was a great example of how a company can boost customer engagement, strengthen brand loyalty and influence the way customers make purchases. 

The idea was a user-generated strategy that would prompt social media user engagement through the sole use of a hashtag. Customers would upload an image of themselves in their Asos outfits using the hashtag, with a chance to be featured on the Asos Instagram and Facebook pages which boasted millions of followers. Customers wanted their image to be one of the chosen ones and that they are influencing people to buy their outfits — a great demonstration of how a company can inadvertently persuade their customers to do their advertising. 

We’ve loved looking into some of the best marketing campaigns of the past decade, and can’t wait to see where we will be in another ten years! 

Want to create a mind-blowing marketing campaign like the ones above? Get in touch to see how we can help!