7 Best Social Media Campaigns of 2024 - Why Do They Work?

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen! We’re about to see the best social media campaigns of 2024. The triumph of creativity and consumer psychology provides us with a constant flow of social media campaigns. How can you start one, and what do you need to make it? Let’s find out. 

What is a social media campaign?

A social media campaign is a connected series of operations designed to bring about a particular result via social media. End dictionary quote. A social media campaign is a bunch of posts, hashtags, and stories all working together to make something happen online. It's like herding cats on the internet, but with metrics and clear business goals.

These campaigns are basically attention grabs by businesses. It's not just about posting memes 24/7 (though that's tempting). A campaign is a campaign. It has a start and end date, unlike your friend’s stories from a tropical paradise.

Maybe a brand wants to be the next big thing everyone's talking about, or they're unleashing a product, or they just want to spark a conversation because they genuinely care about humanity. Or perhaps they're trying to get users to create content for them because it is free labor, and companies love that.

Key components of a social media campaign are:

1. Clear, measurable goals aligned with broader business goals
2. Detailed understanding of the target audience: demographics, behaviors, likes, and icks
3. Choice of social media platforms based on where the target audience is most active
4. Hard understanding of content strategy that will be adapted to both the platform and the target audience
5. Timeline with general deadlines and posting schedule

There are several types of social media campaigns:

• A brand awareness campaign is all about getting your brand's name out there and hopefully cemented right into the customer's brain.
• A user-generated content campaign encourages your customers to make and share stuff about your brand - the consumer-to-ambassador pipeline.
• A contest and giveaway campaign is not about giving free stuff but rather exchanging free stuff for engagement.
• A product launch campaign aims to generate interest in this new awesome product, which has been strangely hard to come by lately.
• Cause-related campaigns happen when a brand teams up with a charity or talks about important things, pausing the shameless promotion. They can be found in Cannes shortlists.

Most of the time, a campaign isn't just one of these things. Smart marketers mix and match, creating campaigns that tick multiple boxes of consumer motivation. For example, you might launch a new product while also running a contest that asks people to share photos with your product.

What makes a successful social media campaign?

By definition, “success” is the accomplishment of goals set. This means you have to set goals you can actually measure: not just "more likes," but “1,000 new followers" or "20% boost in website visits."

Also, it’s good if you have a vision of how you’ll utilize those results further. There are several ways to raise the chances of a successful social media campaign. Some are essential to any marketing activity, and others are unique to the competitive world of social media. 

Picking the right social media platform

First of all, know your audience. What do they like? Where do they hang out online? Not all social media is created equal. If your crowd's all about Instagram, don't waste time on LinkedIn. Pick the right platform and go where your people are. 

Facebook: Used for everything from shopping to reading the news. Great for reaching pretty much everyone.

TikTok: Where trends are born and die in the blink of an eye. If you want to go viral with the Gen Z crowd, bust a move here.

Instagram: Where the cool kids hang out. If you've got eye candy to show off, this is your spot.

LinkedIn: Suit up! This is where the professionals mingle. Perfect for B2B.

X (Twitter): The cocktail party of the internet; adult content is welcome. Great for quick chats and staying on top of what's hot.

Pinterest: DIY heaven and shoppers's paradise. If you're selling lifestyle porducts, pin it to win it.

YouTube: Your go-to for video content that reaches the masses.

Snapchat: For the young (and young at heart). 

Now, how do you keep your campaign from looking like it has multiple personality disorder across these platforms? Keep your core message consistent, but wrap it differently for each platform. 

User-generated content: drive, measure, get inspired

The better you know your target audience, the better you can connect with it and create content that makes people stop scrolling. To make engaging content, mix cool visuals, snappy text, and videos with strong hooks.

But what if you were not the only one creating content for your campaign? That's exactly what user-generated content (UGC) is all about. UGC is any content—photos, videos, reviews, or even TikTok dance routines—all created by your users rather than your brand.

And let me tell you, it's every marketer’s biggest dream to achieve this kind of potential customer engagement. The best minds sitting in the best chairs of the best advertising agencies in the world are thinking about how to trigger UGC day and night.

When real people showcase your product or service, it comes off as way more authentic than your own claims. It's the difference between saying, "I'm awesome," and having someone else say, "They're awesome." Guess which one people are more likely to believe? 

Also, UGC is like engagement steroids for your campaign. People love seeing themselves (and people like them) featured by brands. It creates a sense of community and gets folks interacting with your content in the most positive way.

And the best part of it all—it's basically free content! Your customers are out there creating high-quality, relevant content for you. It's like having an army of unpaid interns, but way less ethically questionable. You can save money on creation, placement, and (with a good enough cause) free celebrity endorsement. It’s a good idea to always get permission before using someone's content, give credit where it's due, and have clear guidelines about what kind of content you're looking for.

Here’s some inspiration. Look at the longest-running Apple campaign, “Shot on iPhone." This company literally built an entire brand around beautiful user-generated photos and videos.

Or, for a short impact story, look at the Heinz #DrawKetchup campaign. First step, they have asked people to draw ketchup and celebrated the fact that most people were trying to draw Heinz bottles.

And then turned some failed attempts into limited edition labels. How cute.

Posting schedule 

When you have crafted (or triggered) the creatives that should resonate with your customers and carefully adapted the style to a specific platform, it’s time to post.

Timing is important, so try posting when your target audience is online and be consistent with your communication. Respond to comments, ask questions, and get people talking. Building a little community around your brand or cause is at the heart of UGC and viral exposure.

Whatever you do, remember the definition of success. We will show you some of the most successful social media campaigns of 2024 so you can see for yourself how those steps are used in a practical setting.

How to measure the success of your social media campaigns 

We have set goals, remember? The way we can measure and benchmark our progress when it comes to social media marketing strategy is through metrics. Each platform has its own metrics that matter most, so keep an eye on platform-specific analytics to see what's working where.

The main metrics are:

1. Reach shows how many unique viewers saw your post? This tells you how far your message spread.

Formula: Reach is typically calculated by the platform itself and represents unique views, so no manual formula is usually needed. 

2. Impressions mark the total number of times your content popped up on screens.

Formula: Impressions = sum of all instances your content is displayed on users' screens.

3. The engagement rate is all about likes, comments, shares, and other ways people interact with your posts.

4. The click-through rate (CTR) shows if your content is tempting enough to make people want more.

5. The conversion rate shows the percentage of people who did what you asked for in the CTA out of all people who showed interest in your content.

6. Return on investment (ROI) answers a business question: are you making more money than you're spending on these campaigns? 

Remember, different campaign types might focus on different metrics. A brand awareness campaign might care more about reach, while a product launch would be all about the conversion rate.

The key is to pick the metrics that match your goals and then track them like a hawk. That way, you can figure out what's working, what's not, and how to make your next campaign even better.

Although every platform, in theory, provides comprehensive analytics tools, this theory does not always translate into practice. When using more than one platform, looking at all native tools creates discrepancies, time losses, and headaches.

The practical solution is to try Madgicx's One-Click Report for tracking and reporting on Meta, TikTok, and Google ad campaigns. It gathers all of the crucial analytics in one neat dashboard and allows for the creation of cross-platform reports. 

You can try this elegant solution for free to get an immediate understanding of which platform was the best choice for your social media campaign and how well you are doing. 

The 7 best social media campaign examples of 2024 

Here are the 7 best social media campaigns (in our opinion) that rocked the creative advertising world in the past year. As we mentioned before, most of those use a combination of social media platforms and produce massive engagement via UGC.

1. Dove and #thefaceof10

The idea:

As Bridget Jung from Ogilvy explains: “Girls as young as 10 are being exposed to harmful social media content, pressuring them to adopt unnecessary anti-aging skincare regimes. This not only damages their skin but also their self-esteem.

We wanted to start a conversation by asking the world one simple question: When did 10 stop looking like 10? What I love most about 10vs10 is how confronting it is in its simplicity. The final execution has remained true to what we very first presented.

That’s the power of a good idea. It’s been a brilliant collaboration between our Sydney and London offices to bring this campaign to life. I couldn’t be happier with the result.”

Platforms utilized:

Print, outdoors, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube

Results and impact:

1,5 million organic views in under one week, a 209% increase in online conversations amongst parents.

Why the campaign was successful:

The Dove brand is famous for its persistent study of beauty. For years, it has presented social and even philosophical ads that have ignited conversations about beauty standards and their effect on self-esteem and mental health.

Its latest creation from 2024, hashtag #thefaceof10, has a good cause and relies heavily on nostalgia. When we were kids, we played with sticks, not with derma rollers. Users, celebrities, and influencers replicate this message by making fun of makeup looks and talking about the problems with kids using anti-aging cosmetics.

2. Assume That I Can

The idea: 

This campaign was dedicated to Down syndrome awareness and based on a speech given by an activist at the UN.

She said: “I discovered that in psychology, there is a concept called “self-fulfilling prophecy,” whereby a teacher who thinks that a student cannot understand would just act accordingly, and therefore they would not teach the student. And there you go: the prophecy self-fulfills.”

Platforms utilized:

TikTok, YouTube

Results and impact: 

150 million views first week

Why the campaign was successful:

The idea behind the assumption becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy is at the core of most forms of discrimination, so it triggered a lot of positive engagement and tons of UGC. People from all over the world showed their work, hobbies, relationships, accomplishments, and quirks—everything that makes us human.

3. Michael CeraVe

The idea:

The campaign was seeded in the weeks preceding the Super Bowl, starting with a series of stunts by Cera to fuel speculation about his connection to the brand and culminating in a humorous Super Bowl spot.

Platforms utilized:

TikTok, Instagram

Results and impact: 32 billion impressions and a 25% increase in sales.

Why the campaign was successful: Who doesn’t love good conspiracy theory? Things were spiraling out of control fast. First, there were a few influencers “accidentally” catching Michael Cera with CeraVe products. Then dermatology influencers were demanding explanations from Michael while he was keeping it vague. It was funny to watch.

4. Yes, couch!

The idea:

This idea is hard to explain: it’s a wacky combination of spring mood, a hot celebrity in their tidy whities, photoshoot props, and one very creative person on the Facebook branding team. If you throw in 7.5 million views of the original ad featuring the couch on YouTube, it was a total success.

Platforms utilized:

Facebook

Results and impact: over 1.26 billion in earned reach and close to $14 million in earned media. 

Why the campaign was successful: It literally cost less than $4,000 to create a campaign that made it to national TV and into people’s hearts. People were reposting this Marketplace listing while casually offering their organs, firstborns, and money. Then there was a big giveaway to a widow with a very sad life story. After this campaign, I specifically forbid my loved ones to exchange my memory for furniture on popular talk shows. 

5. Heinz and seemingly ranch

The idea: 

We often share the ways barads utilize fandom. This time, the chain reaction started with an innocent tweet on September 24th, 2023:

 🚨| Taylor Swift was eating a piece of chicken with ketchup and seemingly ranch! pic.twitter.com/rpAOP2HFtT — The Eras Tour (@tswifterastour) 

It instantly went viral as anything Taylor-related. In a very short time, the Empire State Building lit up red and white to celebrate the combination of condiments. However bizarre the previous sentence sounds, the following events are even more bizarre. 

In 2019 Heinz tried to launch a product called Kranch—ketchup and ranch in one bottle. It was a fail: people were laughing and calling the new recipe an abomination. So, when the celebrity plate went viral, Hainz marketers got their chance to shine. The “new” product—Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch"—was launched in less than 24 hours and had a dedicated aisle in Walmart within two days. That must have been the fastest product launch-sales-revenue sprint of all times.   

Platforms utilized:

Instagram, X, TikTok, outdoor

Results and impact: 

6 billion earned impressions (the highest ever for a Kraft Heinz Company program), 

engagement rate 690% above benchmarks

Why the campaign was successful: 

Within days, Garfield, the cartoon cat's official X account showed him stealing a piece of chicken off of Jon's plate. Care to guess the dips? McDonald's app was noticed promoting a "Definitely McNuggets" deal. Many others have joined them. 

Apart from hijacking the celebrity plate contents, Heinz played on the “bandwagon effect." If the cool kids are doing it, so must we. By the way, the sales of the sports jackets Taylor had tied around her waist spiked 400% in sales. So, ask Taylor Swift to touch whatever you’re selling and watch it turn into gold.  

6. Wendy’s X journey

The idea:

Wendy’s voice on X is a loud one. Ever since “the roasts” their team was doing with then-Twitter croud, their humorous and slightly ironic tone is earning new followers. Now, every time anything (ANYTHING!) happens, Wendy’s is there to hijack the event. 

This time, there was this silly episode of losing a valuable ring in food. Not the one where the woman accidentally swallows the engagement ring with the champagne. Jason Kelce lost his Super Bowl LII ring in a bowl of chili while playing a silly game. Wendy’s decided to taunt him and promote their chili at the same time. 

Platforms utilized:

X, Instagram

Results and impact: 

At least one million impressions combined, feature in press.

Why the campaign was successful:

Social media is not a safe place: people get teased, celebrities get trashed, and everybody enjoys humor when it’s directed at someone else. As funny Wendy’s can get, it’s still a loss of a symbol. So they get extra points for subtle rage bait.

7. Liquid Death & Amazon 

The idea:

“The below video is our second failed attempt to work with celebrity superhero, The Deep. Given his connection to the ocean, we first hired him 2 years ago in a thought-leadership role as our Chief Sustainability Associate. But that role was short-lived as we had to fire him for releasing a PSA video where he burned plastic trash on a beach next to small children. <...> However, he then released this new video where he inadvertently exposes innocent children to cigarettes and second-hand smoke. Liquid Death would NEVER condone handing out tobacco products to minors. And effective immediately, we have now terminated our relationship with The Deep for good.” 

Andy Pearson, VP of Creative at Liquid Death, on LinkedIn.

Platforms utilized:

Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn

Results and impact: 

Ten times more engagement on X, close to 600k likes on Instagram

Why the campaign was successful:

It’s slightly disruptive and slightly confusing. By implying that Vought International is not only real but also accepting complaints about their superhero employee’s unethical behavior. By using the character from the Amazon Prime show, Liquid Death is erasing the fourth wall. Mixing reality with fiction like it was agave syrup and water.