1.Swiggy
Swiggy had an outstanding year with a multitude of marketing campaigns that rocked their social media handles. The one that stands out the most is the #SwiggyVoiceofHunger campaign which they launched in association with Dentsu Webchutney. The campaign was primarily focused on Instagram. Last year Instagram launched a feature in which you could send voice notes on DMs and Swiggy capitalized on it. Participants were invited to send Swiggy a voice note via DM wherein the shape of the soundwave they created while sending the voice note had to resemble the shape of a dish that Swiggy posted that day. They had five such dishes/challenges :
1. Kebab skewer
2. Shawarma
3. Fish
4. Nacho
5. 21 Stack Pancake
Winners were entitled to get Swiggy vouchers for (wait for it) an entire year!
Needless to say - Swiggy saw an outstanding response with 1.5lakh DMs in just 10 days! They also brought in influencers like Srishti Dixit , Rohan Joshi and more to participate in this challenge which greatly boosted their campaign and overall brand awareness.
Insights from Talkwalker’s Quick Search
Though the campaign was focused on Instagram, I did some digging on Quick Search which looks at data on other platforms and found a lot of interesting hashtags associated with the campaign. Apart from the official campaign hashtag - #SwiggyVoiceofHunger, it raised awareness about #FoodSafety and #FoodSecurity. It was also a reflection of Dentsu’s clean sweep at the Cannes Lions last year. #CannesLions, #RoadToCannes and #casestudy are the three hashtags that reflect this.
2. Ariel India
Ariel India struck a chord last year with their #SharetheLoad campaign which quickly became a movement. They launched a poignant video in January 2019 which showed a harassed mom cleaning up after her son, who learnt that her daughter wanted to quit her job because her husband was incapable of helping her with household chores. The lady then realized that she was making the same mistake with her son and proceeded to teach him how to do his laundry.
This video received over 9 Million views and an outstanding response from all over the country. Ariel too got a large number of celebrities and influencers to take part in their campaign such as Shifa Merchant, Rajkumar Rao and many others. That’s a multichannel marketing campaign if there ever was one!
Insights from Talkwalker's Quick Search
Looking at data from the last year, we can see that the campaign spread far and wide and not only that, it was widely spoken about by both women and men as can be seen, and is particularly popular among Gen Y and Gen Z. Hopefully this means that future generations will see a rise in all genders sharing the loa
3. Spotify
Spotify’s Diwali campaign last year - featuring Anil Kapoor and Ishaan Khattar was a big success, garnering over 50 million views on YouTube.
Since Spotify entered the Indian market in only 2019, this campaign is more of an awareness campaign for them - to show people that they have over 50 million songs that they can choose from.
“Diwali is all about chores, family time, get-togethers with friends, and new beginnings. We wanted our playlists and campaign to be as fresh and fun as what this festive season brings. It’s also a huge festival for our diaspora audiences and our playlists have been created keeping those users in mind as well. This is perhaps one of the most important cultural moments for our users and we want to ensure we are a part of all that they celebrate,” said Amarjit Batra, Managing Director for Spotify India. (source: Social Samosa)
Learnings from The Ad Campaign
-Spotify India’s ad captured the essence of Diwali - India’s biggest festival. This ensured that Spotify was a part of the daily lives of Indians and helped them connect with the brand as one of their own and not a foreign brand.
- Anil Kapoor is a well-loved household name and Ishaan Khattar is a rising star. Having them both in the ad lends it credibility.
- Lastly, the message is clear - you can have access to the 50 million songs on Spotify for free. For a market that is as price conscious as India, this is a great advantage and could potentially help people switch to Spotify from other music platforms e.g. Apple Music.
4. Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime never fails to disappoint with their marketing campaigns, but they were the champions of moment marketing in India last year when they cashed in on the #RahulBoseMoment in July. Moment marketing is the phenomenon of jumping onto a trend and leveraging it for your own brand. When Rahul Bose tweeted about being charged Rs.442.50 for two bananas at a luxury hotel, a host of brands jumped onto this, highlighting how much more affordable their services were.
Amazon Prime’s response to this went viral.
— amazon prime video IN (@PrimeVideoIN) July 25, 2019
Insights from Talkwalker’s Quick Search
As expected this tweet went viral - being heavily discussed and shared not just on Twitter but also on online news, blogs and newspapers. Here are some key takeaways from this:
- The folks at Amazon Prime responded ahead of most other brands and were therefore able to ride the wave completely.
- They know their target audience very well - mostly digital natives who have a wicked sense of humour. This is also evident from the kind of content they choose to showcase.
- Their tweet highlighted the value Amazon Prime can add to their customers’ lives for the same amount of investment.
Sometimes the best marketing campaigns don’t require months of work and expensive bids from agencies - you can achieve more or less similar results from being vigilant.
5. Samsonite
Samsonite’s Diwali message plays on our heartstrings - their marketing campaign consists of a video where they give a shoutout to all those who ensure that we reach home on time for Diwali - pilots, air hostesses, bus drivers and ticket checkers on trains. The video recognizes their efforts and calls out to them as unsung heroes who make sure the rest of us can get home for Diwali.
A host of influencers have commented about this campaign on Twitter, making it even more widespread. Some of them are cricketers Virat Kohli and Virender Sehwag as well as actresses Twinkle Khanna, Radhika Apte and Miss World 2017, Manushi Chhillar.
Insights from Talkwalker’s Quick Search
Quick Search reveals that the themes around this campaign are exactly what Samsonite would have likely imagined, focusing on togetherness, family, sharing, gratitude and more. The results from Talkwalker’s Quick Search also show a peak on October 27, when Diwali took place. Suffice to say that Samsonite targeted the right audience and struck a chord for this campaign.
It’s important to note that these are some marketing campaigns that hit the bull eye last year. You can recreate this magic by taking a leaf out of their book. We’ve put together a campaign playbook that will help you ensure everything that you need to keep in mind in order to craft a successful campaign!
