Yesterday, Ireland was crowned double champion of the 2015 Six Nations tournament, as both the men’s and women’s rugby teams finished triumphant. However it was not just on the pitch that Ireland came out on top, a winning social media campaign by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) created strong a community feel for all the fans making the trip to abroad to the games and those watching from the Emerald Isle.
It’s a big year for Irish rugby with both the Six Nations tournament and the Rugby World Cup in September. New research has revealed that over half (52%) of rugby fans multitask on their smartphones while watching the game demonstrating the huge popularity of ‘second-screening’.
In order to capitalise on the ‘second-screen’ the IRFU used social and mobile channels during the Six Nations to boost its image and create a campaign that added value and benefit for the fans and sponsors.
The IRFU let fans take charge for the social media campaign and encouraged them to share their experiences using the long established hashtag #ShouldertoShoulder. In the run up to the games a great atmosphere was created on social media with fans uploading photos enabling them to feel part of the occasion.
The IRFU tweeted links to pre-match interviews with players which brought fans to the IRFU website and initiated discussions on social media about what to expect from the game.
The IRFU also set up a match day live blog for those unable to watch on television, which was hugely popular with fans
Ireland’s official sponsor Three mobile also has their own Twitter handle @ThreeIrlRugby and hashtag #AllItTakes suggesting that they are getting a good ROMI from the team.
Through the use of social media the IRFU successfully demonstrated how to create a great campaign connecting fans at home and away and getting fans involved in the match day experience regardless of location.
2014 was an epic year for digital marketing. With the ever growing array of tools, platforms and channels available at marketer’s fingertips, brands were able to connect with consumers in more ways than ever before! 2014 saw: social media flooded with buckets of ice, Facebook buy WhatsApp, mobile and tablet growth skyrocket, the word ‘Uber’ become a verb (Oxford Dictionary needs to get on that one) and Kim Kardashian ‘break’ the internet. As the world of digital marketing continues to evolve, trill and engage with consumers in new ways here’s a roundup of the good, the bad and viral digital marketing in 2014.
Good
2014 Christmas Ad campaigns
One thing British marketing agencies appear to get right year on year are Christmas ad campaigns and this year was no exception. As always John Lewis pulled out all the stops with Monty the Penguin and Sainsbury’s tugged at our heart strings with a WW1 themed Christmas truce story which tied in nicely with the wars centenary in 2014. Other popular campaigns this Christmas included Burberry: From London with Love featuring Romeo Beckham, Marks & Spencer: Follow the fairy and the Debenhams: You’re your Fabulous Christmas ad campaign.
Pepsi Max augmented reality bus shelter #LiveForNow campaign
As part of Pepsi’s #livefornowcampaign the drinks brand used augmented reality technology to catch the attention of London commuters. Commuters at this bus stop witnessed alien invasions, wild tigers and huge tentacles coming at them from a bus stop window. The stunt was popular with commuters and the YouTube video received over 6million views.
In March 2014 social media was invaded by no make-up selfies. Cancer Research UK received over £2 million in donations over a two week period due to the popular social media campaign. Many celebrities got involved. Watch the short BBC news video above to find out how it all started.
Bad
Greggs – Google fail (turned into a social media win)
Greggs unofficial slogan appeared on Google Search
Greggs was left embarrassed when its logo with an unofficial slogan ‘Providing shit to scum for over 70 years’ appeared as the first Google search result in August 2014. Greggs dealt with the negative publicity excellently tweeting GoogleUK a picture of donuts saying ‘Hey @GoogleUK, fix it and they’re yours! #fixgreggs’.
Who knows that the marketers at Uber Sydney were thinking when they posted this to Twitter in December 2014? The tweet, tweeted hours into the hostage situation explained that a price surge had started to encourage more drivers to pick up passengers from Sydney’s CBD. This angered many Uber riders as prices increased to four times the normal fare in some cases surging to a minimum of AU$100 (£53) for a ride. Uber was criticised heavily on social media being described as ‘sickening’, ‘shameful’ and ‘a dsgrace’. The company was forced to draw a U-turn and an hour later declared that all rides out of the CBD would be free to ensure Sydneysiders get home safely.
It was supposed to be the largest album release in history; instead it turned into a marketing and PR disaster. In September 2014 Apple and U2 angered hundreds of thousands of fans when U2’s latest album, Songs of Innocence automatically downloaded one morning onto an estimated 500 million iTunes accounts regardless of their taste in music. The promotional stunt caused an unprecedented backlash on social media when users complained via social media that the album took up valuable storage space on iPods and iPhones, while others were angry that a band they didn’t like had forced their work onto them.
Viral
ALS ‘ice bucket challenge’
I don’t think anyone could have gone through the end of the summer without seeing an Ice Bucket Challenge video on social media. Videos were uploaded by over 2.4million people, watched on YouTube (1 billion views) and Facebook (10 billion views) and raised $115 million for the ALS association.
Air New Zealand safety video
Airplane safety videos can be monotonous to tackle this and ensure passengers take note air New Zealand created an ‘elf and safety video’ that transports passengers to Middle Earth. The video has been rolled out across Air New Zealand’s fleet and the video on YouTube has received over 13.5 million views.
It’s the long arm pic that sparked a selfie craze! At the 2014 Oscars Ellen de Generes pulled together some of the winners, nominees and celebrities to take the ultimate selfie. It became the most retweeted tweet of all time – 3.3million retweets.
When Paper Magazine put Kim Kardashian on the front of their magazine she boasted it would ‘break the internet’, she didn’t succeed but she did get everyone talking about that shoot. The clever marketers at Nissan jumped on this with a tweet that went viral highlighting the impact of real time marketing.
the marketing hype 