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10 of the Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in the UK in 2019

Digital Advertising | Jul 28, 2019

With 53% of marketers citing their biggest challenge as increasing customer acquisition and 48% face challenges with increasing leads, according to Ascend2’s recent Report, a great digital marketing campaign can both capture the imagination of an audience, drive engagement, and boost sales.

Although there is a lot of inaccurate information and poorly executed digital marketing strategies out there. It can be hard, but not impossible, to execute a digital marketing strategy that connects with your customer, boost engagement, increases your brand awareness, and adds more money to your bottom line.

To help you get started, we’ve put together a list of the top digital marketing campaigns in the UK 2019 based on “WARC Creative 100” report which revealed the world’s most awarded digital marketing campaigns for creativity.

Let’s jump straight into the 2019 best digital marketing campaigns in the UK…

1. Bodyform/Libresse; The Feminine Hygiene Brands: #Bloodnormal

9 out of 10 women still trying to hide their periods, according to a recent survey. And when it comes to advertising the menstrual products, we’ve become usual to seeing period blood represented as an unreliable blue liquid.

Bodyform and Libresse, the feminine hygiene brands, launched a marketing campaign centered around an online video that disrupted taboos in the British culture by showing period blood in a positive light. The ad is the first in the United Kingdom to depict real menstrual blood instead of the usual blue liquid. And this campaign became the best digital marketing campaign in the UK.

Despite the relatively small spend on the campaign, the brand achieved huge reach and an earned media value of over £3.2 million, sparking a cultural movement continues to ripple globally long after the campaign originally aired.

10 Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in the UK in 2019, Bodyform/Libresse: #Bloodnormal

The Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in the UK: Bodyform/Libresse: #Bloodnormal

2. Marmite, the Unilever-owned Food Spread: The Gene Project

Marmite is the decidedly British breakfast spread, made from yeast extract.  And as a result of the long-term decline in media spends meant that fewer and fewer families were buying it. Instead, they were buying sweet spreads (e.g: Nutella and honey). So, by 2017, nearly 20% of parents refused to let their families try the brand.

Marmite launched a PR-heavy campaign in the UK that played on its “You’ll either love it or you’ll hate it” message in a fresh way.

Marmite created the Marmite Gene Project – an experiment aimed to discover whether we are born lovers or haters for the brand, and give Marmite-hating parents a reason to reach for our jar again. The study was conducted by genetic center DNAFit and was publicized via PR and a white paper.

The campaign encouraged Marmite “haters” to try the product., increased sales by over 60% in Tesco where it was at risk of being delisted, and by over 11% in other retailers. Besides, 1.4 billion earned impressions and a quadrupling of brand awareness from 4% to 12%.

Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in the UK in 2019 - Marmite The Gene Project

Marmite Marketing Campaign: The Gene Project

3. Xbox, Microsoft’s Gaming Brand: Xbox Design Lab: The Fanchise Model

Xbox Design Lab sells customized controllers, but the customized versions were far more pricey than ones straight off the shelf. In a way to increase sales and take cost out of the equation, Xbox transformed its consumers into entrepreneurs in a global ecommerce campaign that enabled gamers to design and sell their own Xbox game consoles.

So, the more people buy the gamer’s design, the more money he/she can make.

The campaign launched initially with depending on social media influencers, followed by call-to-action online display ads, then later supported through retail and print ads. The campaign resulted in an increase in the brand’s engagement. The top earner made $1131, the average amount earned was $95.24, and the total response rate was 41%.

Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in the UK - Xbox Marketing Campaign: The Fanchise Model

Xbox Marketing Campaign: The Fanchise Model

4. Nike, the Sports Apparel Retailer: Nothing Beats a Londoner

Nike, the owner of a history of creating inspirational global advertising campaigns, launched an influencer-filled cinema, online and mobile marketing campaign to reconnect with its young urban target audience in the UK and create a London-centric campaign.

‘Nothing Beats a Londoner’ campaign used real kids from the capital in a three-minute film showcases the variety of sport that takes place in London, and celebrates the determination displayed by those partaking in it.

As a result of the campaign, Nike won awards including Cannes Lions, seven yellow D&AD Pencils, Campaign Big Award, The One Show – Gold Pencil and a Webby award.

London searches for Nike products increased by 93% following the ad’s launch. Also, Nike searches increased by 72% in Manchester and 54% across the UK overall.

5. LADbible With Plastic Oceans International: Trash Isles

There are over 8 million tonnes of plastic enter the North Pacific, an area of plastic trash the size of France has formed. This issue ignored by governments all around the world leaving the public unaware of the severity of the problem.

LADBible teamed up with Plastic Oceans Foundation to urge governments around the world to wake up and address the plastic crisis affecting our oceans. They submitted an application to the United Nations to recognize ‘The Trash Isles’ as an official country. If granted, this would force other nations to clean it up.

As a result, 215,000 people have signed up via change.org to become citizens to be the 26th smallest country in the world by population. The campaign has reached over 340m people across LADbible’s social channels and websites, plus globally from earned print, digital and broadcast media.

Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in the UK - Trash Isles

LADbible With Plastic Oceans International: Trash Isles

6. FIFA, the EA Sports Football Video Game: More Than a Game

To launch FIFA18, FIFA created a new skill move virtually which went on to influence football in the real world. The new skill move, ‘El Tornado’ was hidden in the game.

‘El Tornado’ was taught to Cristiano Ronaldo and then a film was released showing a gamer discovering the new move.  A film announced it, with millions hunting for the secret combo.

Gamers started looking up the combinations to perform ‘El Tornado’ during play and successful attempts by footballers were rewarded with unlocking their in-game character’s #ElTornadoCertified badge.

The campaign resulted in 100+ million views of the film (17 million via fan and influencer sharing). 170,000+ mentions of El Tornado in 4 days 20% increase in new players 50,000 trick uploads. In the UK, FIFA’s biggest market, FIFA18 became September’s biggest selling game – in only 2 days.

Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in the UK - FIFA Marketing Campaign: More Than a Game

FIFA Marketing Campaign: More Than a Game

7. Xbox, Microsoft’s Gaming Brand: Football Decoded

Again, Xbox grabbed 2 ranks in the list of top digital marketing campaigns in the UK 2019 of the “WARC Creative 100” report.

FIFA 18 was going to be crucial for Xbox. However, Xbox’s competitor ‘PlayStation’ had paid a fortune to buy all the marketing rights for the game.

So, the main challenge of this campaign is how to market FIFA when it was forbidden as a result of a 100% ban on marketing FIFA18 across all media.

To solve this problem, Xbox turned to a partnership with ‘Real Madrid’ in the real world of football, instead of the virtual one, allowing the brand to advertise FIFA 18 on Xbox without showing it.

During key Real Madrid matches, the footballers’ moves on the pitch were translated in real-time into moves on Xbox, encouraging viewers to impersonate real footballers via an Xbox console.

This awesome campaign reached 650 million spectators per match and FIFA’s unique player base grew by 10%.

8. Audi, the Car Manufacturer: Clowns Are No Joke

Audi wanted to promote its new artificial intelligence technology so the brand released a TV and cinema commercial to promote its intelligent in-car technology in the UK.

Audi launched an entertaining film as a product demonstration. The film showcases troublesome classic clowns driving their vehicles chaotically, mimicking the unpredictability of other drivers, while Audi cars save their respective drivers’ thanks to the in-car AI technology.

This light campaign resulted in an increase in associations with Audi and intelligent technology by 14% in the second half of 2017.

9. Glasgow School of Art: Ash To Art

On 23 May 2014, a fire ravaged the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland, destroying the interior of a legendary art school and all the art and history it once held.

The School needed to raise £35 million for the rebuild. And to raise funds for a new building, they return the crisis into art. A piece of charcoal salvaged from the fire was sent to 25 world-famous artists, asking them to use the charcoal to create new works of art.

These new pieces were then auctioned off for nearly £750,000, raising funds and publicity for the rebuilding of the school.

Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in the UK: Glasgow School of Art; Ash To Art

Glasgow School of Art; Ash To Art

10. Snaptivity, a Sports Innovation Company: Catch Your Moments

Snaptivity drove social sharing among consumers by developing unique technology to identify, measure and capture emotional spikes and reactions at the live sports matches in the UK.

Snaptivity installed robotic AI cameras and IoT sensors in stadiums that track a crowd’s reaction and capture individual reactions. Fans can download the Snaptivity app, enter their seat number and find their unique shareable photos.

Snaptivity covered 18 live games and achieved a social reach of 1.2 million people in each instance.

Andrew Tyree

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