Perhaps one of the most significant things you’ll need to remember about digital marketing campaigns is that they aren’t static. Digital marketing agencies in the US, businesses and thriving organizations are constantly looking for new well-crafted ways to update and refresh their marketing opportunities to attract much more business than ever before.

Now that we’re in 2019, we’re seeing a host of new digital marketing campaign ideas that we may never have considered before. I think it’s a good idea to consider the state of digital marketing campaigns in 2019 to give you an insight into the landscape, and a little inspiration too!

The following list is based on “WARC Creative 100” report which revealed the world’s most awarded campaigns for creativity—with a focus on the best digital marketing campaign in the US in 2019.

Let’s jump straight into the 2019 most influential digital marketing campaigns in the USA.

1. Skittles, Mars Wrigley Confectionery: Exclusive the Rainbow, Taste the Rainbow Campaign

Based on the concept of “sometimes, what we cannot see is more interesting than what we can see”, DDB Chicago marketing agency has built the new marketing campaign of Skittles in the US.

The objective of the campaign was to get massively noticed and arouse curiosity amongst viewers. As a part of the campaign, a TV commercial was released three weeks prior to the actual release of the exclusive ad. In the ad, Skittles announced that they’ll make a Super Bowl ad for only one viewer, which will be seen only by that one Skittles superfan.

Then on February 04 i.e. the Super Bowl Sunday, the exclusive advertising was shown to Marcos Menendez, a real-life resident of Canoga Park, California and a huge Skittles fan. Millions of viewers around the world watched how Marcos reacted to the ad via Facebook Live stream on Super Bowl Sunday.

As a result, the social campaign achieved five billion earned impressions and resulted in a 7% sales lift for Skittles over the course of five weeks.

2. Tide, the American’s Leading Detergent Brand: Every Ad Is a Tide Ad Campaign

The idea of this campaign, crafted by Saatchi & Saatchi New York marketing agency, stemmed from Tide’s position as the leader seller of detergent in the U.S. The idea of the campaign is based on that every piece of clothing used in the Super Bowl spots was indeed washed with Tide.

The objective of the campaign was to demonstrate the relevance and efficacy of the Tide brand without competing dollar-for-dollar or Tweet-for-Tweet with other detergent brands and guarantee as much value as possible. And “to become the most loved and most memorable brand in the Super Bowl.”, said Creative Director Daniel Lobatón’s.

This Tide campaign resulted in an extensive reach – #TideAd became the second trending topic on social media (in the first was #SuperBowl) with #TideAd used over 45, 000 times.

3. Procter & Gamble: The Talk Campaign

P&G and BBDO New York agency have aired its ad “The Talk” which addressed the conversation African Americans had to have with their children about racism.

P&G aimed to find ways to authentically connect with African-American consumers and use its advertising voice for good and growth in order to encourage parents a must-have conversation in which they prepare their children to face a world with racial bias, and protect them from racial bias’ harmful effects.

The ad resonated with individuals across the world with P&G garnering over 184,000 video views on YouTube, over 985,000 impressions on the Facebook platform and 15.8 million earned social mentions of “My Black Is Beautiful”.

4. Diesel, the Italian Fashion Brand: Go With The Fake Campaign

Counterfeit product is a scourge in the fashion and apparel industry. For DIESEL, it’s a particularly loathsome problem. Publicis New York participated with Publicis Italy to tackle the issue in a way that wasn’t heavy-handed or bad-tempered.

They secretly launched its own ‘fake’ label and opened a real knock-off store called ‘DEISEL’ on NYC’s Canal Street during New York Fashion Week. They chose a location to be far from Fifth Avenue or other fashion hotspots, and right in the heart of the city’s most famed fake-fashion destination.

After the reveal of this film, limited edition DEISEL pieces were launched online and sold out within a few hours. After one week the DEISEL experience generated 400 million global media impressions and 55 million social media impressions.

5. Downtown Records, the Record Company for Irish Band The Academic: Live Looper Campaign

BBDO New York Studios has partnered with Downtown Records on a project for rising Irish 4-piece band ‘The Academic’. The project involved innovative use of the Facebook Live platform to create the first-of-its-kind Facebook Live performance of the band’s latest single, “Bear Claws,” using the social media platform’s audio/video time delay to create a mesmerizing visual loop sampler. The loop was created by filming the Facebook Live stream and adding in each member’s musical part layer by layer.

The music video reached Reddit’s front-page and went viral overnight and this led to increases in the band’s weekly Spotify streams and their US tour sold out.

6. National Safety Council (NSC), a Non-profit Public Service: Prescribed to Death Campaign

According to the NSC analysis, a person in the US is more likely to die from an accidental opioid drugs overdose than from a motor vehicle crash. Data revealed that the odds of dying accidentally from an opioid drugs overdose have risen to 1 in 96, exceeding the odds of dying in a motor vehicle crash (1 in 103).

In an attempt to end this crisis, NSC cooperated with BBDO and Ketchum to launch the ‘Prescribed to Death Memorial’ in November 2017 in Chicago. The traveling memorial features 22,000 pills sculpted with the faces of overdose victims. An onsite CNC machine sculpted a new face every 24 minutes, the rate of a fatal opioid overdose.

The campaign positioned NSC as a leader in the fight against prescription opioid overdoses and resulted in over 1,008,415,240 earned impressions, over 404,4000 earned impressions in the first day, over 11 million video views, and 2,017% increase in shared Facebook impressions period/period.

7. State Street Global Advisors, an American Investment Firm: Fearless Girl Campaign

Under a slogan said that “#SheMakesADifference”, SSGA, the world’s third-largest asset manager participated with its agency, McCann New York, to create an overnight viral sensation about the leading role of women in working life and how the senior leadership positions of women make companies more profitable.

On International Women’s Day, a statue of a little girl took over the headlines in media across the globe. The sudden appearance of the ‘Fearless Girl’—a bronze statue of a defiant girl facing Wall Street’s iconic Charging Bull, quickly went viral online expressing the power of women in leadership.

The campaign garnered over 1 billion Twitter impressions and over 745 million Instagram impressions in the first 12 hours. In just 12 weeks, the campaign reached 4.6 billion Twitter impressions and over 215,000 Instagram posts.

Fearless Girl Campaign

8. Burger King, the Fast-food Giant: Google Home of the Whopper Campaign

Last year, Burger King along with the brand’s creative agency David Miami created an overnight viral sensation with the first example of cross-platform integration between a TV commercial and a voice-activated virtual assistant.

In this first in its kind campaign, Burger King released several 15-second spots featuring the sentence ‘Ok, Google, what is the Whopper burger?’. Google Home assistants and Android phones with voice search enabled automatically proceeded to read out the definition from the Burger King Wikipedia page. The stunt was immediately hacked and internet trolls managed to edit the Burger King Wikipedia content, adding false ingredients like “100% medium-sized child” and “cyanide”.

The campaign aimed to ensure that Burger King is not behind the negative edits and the stunt became a catalyst for controversy, conversations around technology’s vulnerability. Burger King’s Google Home of the Whopper campaign won the Grand Prix for Direct at Cannes International Festival of Creativity 2017, for use of broadcast.

The campaign achieved 9.3 billion global impressions, $135 million in earned media, and it was the trending topic on Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and Burger King was the most talked about TV spot in Burger King’s history.

9. The Grammy Awards: Play the City Campaign

To celebrate the 60th Annual Grammy Awards returning to New York, the awards event recognizing the music industry’s best achievements, AI and Augmented Reality powered campaign marked this outstanding return.

The brand transformed New York City into a musical instrument that was “played” by special Uber cars outfitted with sophisticated AI and AR. Uber riders watched from the backseat as a unique song that was composed in real-time for each ride, based on objects and people outside the window, as they drove through the city.

10. Comedy Central: The Daily Show Presents – The Donald J Trump Presidential Twitter Library Campaign

Twitter is clearly the president Trump’s most preferred social media platform. So, Comedy Central cooperated with The Daily Show fans and generated a great social buzz with its satirical take on a presidential library honoring Donald Trump and his tweets confirmed as ‘official White House statements’.

Comedy Central wanted to give the tweets a platform for everyone to connect with through a live entertainment experience. It was a three-day pop-up exhibit featuring framed tweets, visual installations, and informational plaques. Besides, providing a virtual tour of the library online via the Comedy Central’s Daily Show website.

This campaign garnered over 480,000 digital engagements, over 336 digital impressions and over 43,000 mentions on social media platforms.

Comedy Central; The Donald J Trump Presidential Twitter Library Campaign

11. Country Time, the American’s Soft Drink Brand: Legal-ade Campaign

Running a lemonade stand in the US is a rite of passage for kids to earn a few extra bucks, but several incidents around the country have cracked down on these young beverage entrepreneurs. So, in an attempt to help young entrepreneurs who get tangled in red tape by overzealous local governments, the lemonade brand ‘Country Time’ go to bat on a legal basis for lemonade stand operators everywhere.

Country Time created a social media campaign with Leo Burnett Chicago pledging to cover legal fees charged to the lemonade stand young sellers in the US. As a result, Legal-Ade is the brand’s initiative taking a stand against archaic permit laws in the US.

12. HBO’s Westworld: The Maze Game

The American science fiction Western television series, talking about a future world in which Android-technology is extremely developed and wealthy people can pay to be immersed in an amusement park called ‘Westworld’, tried to increase fan engagement following the end of its second series by creating a voice-activated game on Amazon Echo devices in the US.

The campaign’s objective was to maintain hype around the series after it stopped showing on TV. In this regard, the 360i New York crafted an immersive voice game called ‘The Maze’, produced by Westworld creators, enables users to activate through Amazon Alexa. The game supplied fans with 60 player-generated paths and two hours of unique play.

In the first week of launching the game over 10,000 fans tried to solve The Maze. Also, the game generated more than 500 million earned media impressions thanks to Easter eggs hidden in the game just for the press.

13. The New York Times: The Truth is Hard to Find Campaign

The growing mistrust of news as a consequence of the divisive election year pushed The New York Times to partner with Droga5 New York to show that its commitment to quality, deeply reported, original journalism is worth paying for.

The campaign aimed to spark the idea of how hard is the truth, how it’s more important than ever, and how The New York Times still commitment to achieve this.

This outstanding campaign achieved more than 5.12 billion earned impressions which are equivalent to more than USD $16.8 million earned media value and became an inspiring message to rally around for now and the future.

Also, the success of this campaign meant that in the second quarter of 2017 The New York Times advertising revenue grew for the first time since Q3 2014.

14. Tourism Australia: Dundee – The Son Of A Legend Returns Home Campaign

When Tourism Australia wanted to increase its number of American tourists, Droga5 New York was the best choice to help them achieve this. Droga5 New York though out of the mold of traditional tourism advertising and focused on what distinguishes Australia from other countries; the nature of its people.

A fake Dundee film was created, just like the film launched 32 years ago, to make Australia top-of-mind for high-value US travelers, and eighteen days before the Super Bowl, the world was shocked with the announcement of Dundee.

The campaign was the biggest single investment Tourism Australia has made in the US since Paul Hogan’s ‘Come Say G’Day’ ads over 30 years ago. The campaign became the number-one most viewed and shared Super Bowl campaign and increased organic booking inquiries by 900%.

15. MailChimp, a Marketing Automation Platform: Did You Mean MailChimp? Campaign

MailChimp has a pretty easy name to pronounce, but the marketing automation platform claimed that it has a history of people mispronouncing it, especially during its sponsorship of the popular podcast Serial.

So, MailChimp partnered with Droga5 New York to increase brand awareness in the US. The campaign based on creating nine different projects that rhyme with “MailChimp.” without telling anyone that it was for MailChimp. They let them figure that out on their own.

Instead of trying to hide the mistake, as other brands always do, MailChimp embraced it and even made it central in one of their most successful marketing campaigns.

Actually, people really love this play on MailChimp mispronunciation campaign that achieved over 988 million social impressions which are equivalent to more than USD $3.52 million earned media value, and over 67 million organic searches.

16. Apple, the Technology Company: Welcome to @Apple Campaign

Based on the concept of user-generated content, Apple created its last digital marketing campaign in the US in order to increase brand engagement rates by leveraging its own iPhone users’ creative talents and challenging communities to photography competitions on social media.

The objective of this campaign was to actively inspire people to take more photos and participate in a larger community. Contributors would compete with others by adding the hashtag #ShotoniPhone.

The campaign increased the engagement rates steeply compared to other competitors with 2.35 million #ShotoniPhone uses since the campaign’s launch.

17. McDonald’s, the Leading Fast Food Chain: The Flip Campaign

McDonald’s reported that 6 out of 10 of their managers are female and that its mission to support women has been ongoing for decades. To celebrate women’s contribution to its business, the brand flipped its ‘M’ to ‘W’ across 100 McDonald’s branches in the US in honor of International Women’s Day. Meanwhile, digital and online channels highlighted McDonald’s most important women in the company’s history.

The stunt crafted by ‘We Are Unlimited’ agency generated 1.6 billion impressions globally and became the top searched brand query on International Women’s Day.

McDonald’s The Flip Campaign

18. Bacardi, the Alcoholics Drink Brand: Music Liberates Music Campaign

Caribbean music has had a tremendous influence on pop music, yet few real artists get recognition or the resources to record their own music. Bacardi and Major Lazer have launched “Music Liberates Music,” a program designed to support this kind of music by providing up-and-coming artists a chance to share their music with the world. They generated free studio time for new Caribbean artists every time a Major Lazer song was played on Spotify.

The Spotify streaming gained 128 hours of studio time and the Caribbean artists documented their recording experiences on Instagram Stories. The best-created tracks have formed a Bacardi x Major Lazer album and one artist was signed to a record deal. The integrated campaign created by BBDO New York has generated 88 million media impressions and 42 million music video plays.

19. Change The Ref, a Non-Profit Organization: Posts Into Letters Campaign

Based on a study that said that 96% of government officials consider that handwritten letters are the most effective way to influence change, Change The Ref presented its “Posts Into Letters” marketing campaign to stand against the school shootings in the US and change the gun laws in the country.

The campaign’s objective was to change the way that families express their concerns from social media in a more effective way which is handwritten letters. So, the campaign changed all social media gun control posts into handwritten letters and sent them to Congress. The organization chose the handwriting of Joaquin, who died in the Parkland shooting.

Since the campaign launch, more than 10,000 letters have been sent to Congress and the movement has helped Americans demand change more effectively.

Change The Ref; Posts Into Letters Campaign

20. National Geographic, the Leading Media Group: Astronaut Reality Helmet Campaign

National Geographic wanted to promote the release of its new space series named ‘One Strange Rock’ that showed an astronaut’s view of Earth from space.

National Geographic partnered with McCann New York to offer the US public an immersive experience that used VR to imitate an astronaut’s view of Earth from space.
The idea has done by creating a VR headset that uses internal projection technology launched at a special screening of the series for unsuspecting journalists.

The campaign resulted in 312 million media impressions and the experience was available at Adler Planetarium, Houston’s Space Centre, Lincoln Centre, Liberty Science Centre among and more.

21. National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS): C21 Restaurant Campaign

On October 2, National Down Syndrome Society, the leading human rights organization for all individuals with Down syndrome, launched its new #LawSyndrome campaign by organizing a unique dining experience on Capitol Hill in a restaurant named C21, signifying the extra 21st chromosome. The dinner run by almost 40 individuals with Down syndrome to serve several members of Congress, parents, and other VIP guests.

The objective of the campaign was to showcase to the world that individuals with Down syndrome are ready, willing and able to work and to raise awareness of antiquated laws that hinder individuals with Down syndrome from pursuing a career or independent living.

The campaign managed to prompt a law change. The ‘Able Act’ now allows people with Down syndrome to work without risking their healthcare.

NDSS; C21 Restaurant Campaign

22. Nike, the Sports Apparel Retailer: A/R Jordan Campaign

Nike was facing a unique challenge: Nike wanted to sell its Jordan brand, for the first time, to teen consumers that have never witnessed “His Airness” lace up. Nike’s Jordan brand is built on the legacy of Michael Jordan (MJ), but teenage basketball fans were not connecting with the player as he was from a different generation and he has no enough YouTube clips.

So, how does Nike bring Michael Jordan’s prowess on the court to life—in a way that would connect with basketball’s teenage fans? The answer was ‘Augmented Reality Technology’. R/GA Portland agency managed to transform footage of MJ into a 3D AR version of the basketball. The lens was available on Snapchat and featured the AI MJ wearing the latest trainer that fans could buy via the social media platform.

The sneaker sold out in just 23 minutes, smashing Snapchat’s stats—the A/R lens quadrupled previous engagement levels—and raising the bar for shoppable video.

Nike; A/R Jordan Campaign

23. Google Cloud, the Leading Data Storage Platform: Know What Your Data Knows Campaign

Google cloud wanted to increase site visits and product interest by creating a campaign that interpreted real-time data into basketball match predictions in the US. So, with the NCAA basketball tournament approaching the brand harnessed the event hype and transformed it into a live product demo.

Google Cloud transferred historic NCAA game data and combining it with live statistics, and at game half-time, Google Cloud made a prediction which aired during the commercial break. In total, six accurate game predictions were made by Google Cloud and the campaign brought about a 91% lift in product interest.

24. Kiwi, the Shoe Polish Brand: Portraits Completed Campaign

In order to increase sales in the US, Kiwi used the world’s most famous paintings to create a very creative e-commerce campaign by attached shined-up shoes to subjects in famous paintings.

The world’s most famous portraits capture subjects from the waist up, so Kiwi identified this as an opportunity to showcase its premium product range by painting the missed part of paintings that shows the shoes.

Not just that, Kiwi created an exhibition of the new portraits, available to view on art education app Docent, for the missing bottom halves of ten masterpieces, with shoes becoming the main characters.

The museum-goers could view the Kiwi additions and listen to audio guides explaining the history of the original portraits.
The campaign managed to build an educational and branded experience for consumers and demonstrated its commitment to producing premium shoe care products.

Kiwi Portraits Completed Campaign

25. Amazon, the E-Commerce Giant: Echo Escape Campaign

Amazon wanted to expose its Echo device ‘Alexa’ to Millennials, the advertising-resistant audience, by creating a unique experience that required an active exploration of its wide range of skills. So, Amazon created an interactive escape experience at the New York Comi Con in the US.

The idea is based on locking the internet into a room with only Amazon Echo to help them escape in a 30-minute product demo. Set in the world of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, players fully exploited Alexa’s capabilities to gain intel, control smart-home devices, crack codes, interact with live actors and finally set themselves free.

The objective of the campaign was to promote Amazon Echo devices by letting customers experience it rather than exposing them to a demonstration resulting in the live feed to be the most-watched non-video gaming content on Twitch garnering 43,000 real-time engagements.

Amazon Echo Escape Campaign

26. KFC, the Fast-Food Giant: Brand Integrated Campaign

After being the fast-food giant for decades, KFC faced declining sales and the brand’s position was slipping. To turn things around, KFC partnered with Wieden+Kennedy Portland agency to create an effective campaign. The Campaign focused on the things that made KFC special, including the founder, Colonel Sanders.

So, Colonel Sanders was placed at the center of a long-term integrated plan, which involved launching a KFC chicken sandwich into space, gamifying Colonel Sanders, a Colonel Sanders romance novel, Colonel Sanders merchandise, the first-ever female Sanders, unfollowing all Twitter followers and refollowing five Spice Girls and six men called Herb among other stunts.

KFC Brand Integrated Campaign

27. Volvo: Survivor Sales Agents Campaign

“Let me show you the Volvo that saved my life.” This sentence is simply what Volvo used to create its last marketing campaign to boost its brand purchase intent in the US.

The campaign idea is to invite some cars accidents survivors in the US to explained how Volvo’s car safety technology saved their life. Volvo converted its car-owners that were accident survivors into sales agents. The campaign resulted in Visits to Volvo car stands increased by 60% and three out of ten potential buyers took a test drive.

Volvo: Survivor Sales Agents Campaign