8 Content Marketing Examples That Turn Heads and Spark Engagement

Are you ready to be inspired with these cool content marketing examples?

Today’s marketer knows that content is king. But what does it take to make pieces of content that stand out in the crowd?

If you want to set yourself apart from the competition, you’ll need to create unique content that catches your audience’s attention and engages them.

Sometimes this is easier said than done. It can really be a headache if you don’t know where to start and how to do it.

In fact, based on a study by Zazzle Media, 60% of businesses find it hard to consistently create new and high-quality content.

Also, 65% of marketers struggle in writing engaging content.

And if your content is not engaging enough, then you will lose audience and eventually, potential customers.

That’s why we’ve put together a list of some of the best content marketing examples to help inspire your brand’s content creation.

From viral video content to booming blogs, this list shows you the best content marketing examples to recently hit the Internet.

We’ll also provide you with some key takeaways to help you learn how to apply these tactics to your own content marketing strategy.

So let’s get started!

• Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke”
• Make-A-Wish Batkid Campaign
• General Electric’s #GEInstaWalk
• Charmin’s Sit or Squat App
• Hootsuite’s Game of Social Thrones Video
• Grow from Acorns
• Burberry’s Kisses Campaign
• Nintendo’s Multi-Channel Campaign for Switch

1. Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke”

We’re going to start this list with one of the best content marketing examples from a big brand – Coke.

For years, Coca-Cola has been putting out innovative marketing campaigns that establish an emotional connection with their broad audience.

But the particular campaign we are going to look at, which got its start in Australia is 2011, is still going strong today.

The “Share a Coke” campaign gives every Coca-Cola lover the opportunity to personalize their drink.

Individuals could personalize their own bottle with their name on the Coca-Cola website…

…or look for their name (or a friend’s name) on a bottle at the gas station or supermarket.

This campaign soon went viral as consumers began posting pictures online with their personalized drinks.

While running this campaign, Coke personalized each bottle with a common name, depending on the country.

The “Share a Coke” campaign touched on something significant for consumers – personalization.

Not only could they find a bottle with their name on it, but they could grab one for a friend with his or her name on it.

This tactic was a great way for the soft drink company to grab the attention of their audience and get them to make a purchase.

By asking people to share the product with someone they know, the campaign also worked to make an emotional connection with its consumers.

Coca-Cola followed up the printed and social media campaigns with video serious that showed friends getting together.

And, sharing a Coke with their name on it.

This online marketing strategy helps the brand go beyond just showing the value of the product to showing how the product can bring people together.

Key Takeaways:

Though you may not have the same advertising budget as Coca-Cola, you can still take a few things from this popular campaign.

Email personalization can go a long way in helping your consumers feel special and appreciated.

Whether it’s sending a personal message through email or making product recommendations based on a consumer’s buying behaviors.

The more personalized your marketing is, the more effective it will be.

As a content marketer, building an emotional connection with consumers is another tactic that you can borrow from this Coca-Cola campaign.

Consider what your consumers care about most, and find ways to appeal to their emotions and make authentic connections.

2. Make-A-Wish Batkid Campaign

Big, consumer-focused brands aren’t the only ones providing great inspiration.

One of the best examples of content marketing effort is that of Make-A-Wish Foundation.

It is a non-profit organization that puts together unique and special experiences for children who suffer from life-threatening conditions like cancer.

Even non-profit organizations have to promote their work in compelling ways…

…to get the attention of donors, volunteers, and other individuals who can support their cause.

The Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area worked together with the city of San Francisco to grant one child’s wish.

The young boy Miles was fighting leukemia, and his wish was to become Batman.

The foundation made his wish come true in an impressive way, which was captured in a short documentary film.

Here is a promotional image for the Batkid documentary, made by Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area.

In addition to the documentary, the foundation had an entire digital marketing campaign involving several channels, including social media.

This multi-channel approach helped them get the word out about the cause while sharing this one child’s once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Make-A-Wish enabled people to visualize the ways in which the organization helps people by showing one child’s story and experience.

As you can imagine, the campaign was also an emotional one.

And this is such a great content marketing effort.

By connecting with people on an emotional level, the non-profit organization was able to get people’s attention and inspire action.

Key Takeaways:

So what can you and your marketing team learn from Make-A-Wish and Batkid?

If you work to support local causes, why not get your customers involved?

You can use social media, blogging, email marketing, and other types of content marketing…

…to get the word out about your favorite local charity or organization.

Not only does this help you spread brand awareness and provide more support for the worthy cause, but in the process.

You can connect with leads and customers who care about the community.

Thus, allowing them to support the same causes your business cares about.

3. General Electric’s #GEInstaWalk

When you think of social media influencer marketing, your first thought is probably not General Electric.

However, GE provides one of the best content marketing examples for B2B brands.

Rather than highlighting their consumer products (like washers and vacuum cleaners).

The company decided to use social media influencers to highlight their other business – like jet engines and wind turbines.

With its #GEInstaWalk campaign, GE invited six Instagram influencers and a few fans to tour their manufacturing facilities and share their experiences.

These individuals would take and upload photos using the hashtag #GEInstaWalk for all to see.

In the end, these individuals provided a unique look at what it’s like behind-the-scenes at General Electric.

The influencers in the #GEInstaWalk campaign offered an exclusive look at GE’s manufacturing facilities.

And GE was pleased with the results. Without having to use paid advertising, the brand was able to reach 3 million people with each new tour.

The stats result was 8 million page views of GE’s Instagram page and 3,000 new followers.

This campaign provides one of the better examples of influencer marketing at work.

Providing access to their manufacturing facilities offered these influencers a chance to create unique and exclusive content for their followers…

…while offering GE free exposure to new audiences.

The #GEInstaWalk also offers an excellent example of how businesses can create branded hashtags to encourage user-generated content.

Content created by your fans and followers is an excellent supplement to your branded marketing content.

It helps you build a connection with your leads while showing them how others use and view your brand.

Key Takeaways:

If you are considering influencer marketing, you can take a note from GE.

Find the right influencers for your market or industry, and make sure that they have a following that can benefit your brand.

Then, consider what you can offer these influencers in return for their help with your campaign.

It may be free products, money, or sometimes just exposure to an even wider audience.

However, you don’t need to work with influencers to utilize user-generated content as part of your marketing strategy.

Whether you create a contest or just consistently ask for feedback through social media.

You can encourage your fans and followers to post pictures of themselves using your products or services.

When you repost this content, you are showing your leads and customers what others think about your brand…

…while showing the customer themselves your appreciation for their business.

Additionally, this will entice more social shares and eventually generate you more page views.

4. Charmin’s Sit or Squat App

Charmin took it to the next level with #4 on our list of best content marketing examples.

The toilet paper brand created an app for their customers called Sit or Squat.

They built a social media campaign around this unique app to get the word out about their products.

The app allows users to check the local toilets around their local area to see if they are clean or not.

The idea behind this is that if they are clean, people can feel free to sit, but if they aren’t clean, then they may want to squat.

This silly app was the perfect way to connect with customers about a real problem they face that is relevant for the brand to address.

Charmin used their social media channels to promote their Sit or Squat app.

One reason why this app and the resulting campaign is so effective is that it gets people talking.

The app idea may seem silly, but it is at its core still useful and relevant to consumers who would be using Charmin’s products.

The app itself is also interactive, which allows consumers to take part in the content experience themselves.

Key Takeaways:

You don’t have to have a big brand budget to take something from best content marketing examples like this one.

At its heart, this campaign is not about a fancy, fun app. It’s about helping customers solve a problem that they regularly face – dirty toilets.

And this is something that every brand can do regardless of budget.

Though you may not have the time or resources to create a specialized app to market your brand.

You can create great content that gets to the heart of your target audience’s biggest challenges.

You can either produce a podcast, webinar, infographic or blog content.

What’s important is that by focusing on creating content that highlights and explains these challenges, providing simple and effective solutions.

You’ll be on your way to building stronger customer relationships and influencing more conversions.

5. Hootsuite’s Game of Social Thrones Video

If you’re not familiar with Hootsuite, it’s a social media management and marketing tool marketers can use to post content to social media accounts.

Though this may not seem like the most exciting product to sell.

Hootsuite had a little fun with their marketing to create a viral video that fans and followers loved.

As fans of the HBO television show Game of Thrones, the Hootsuite team wanted to pay tribute to the show while…

…also getting across the value of their own product.

That’s when they came up with the idea for this video – “Game of Social Thrones”:

Hootsuite takes it to the next level with their Game of Social Thrones video.

In this video marketing campaign, Hootsuite recreates the title sequence from the hit television show.

Only instead of the warring kingdoms, their video shows the different social media channels.

Then, at the end of the video, you are shown the Hootsuite logo connecting…

…all the social channels together with the tagline, “Hootsuite – Unite your social kingdom.”

This clever video is one of the best content marketing examples.

It gets the attention of Hootsuite’s audience with fun and creative messaging and effective visuals that pay tribute to the popular TV show.

However, this video goes far beyond just that.

It also helps Hootsuite make an emotional connection while positioning itself as a product for businesses.

It’s an integration product that helps bring together separate channels, allowing marketers to create a unified social experience.

Key Takeaways:

Marketers can learn a lot from this video.

For one, it’s okay to think outside the box to show how your product works or what value it provides, no matter how boring or exciting it may be.

You should also work to have a little fun with your marketing as it will clearly show in the final product.

Even better if you can come up with an idea that’s relevant to your business while paying homage to popular media or trends!

6. Grow from Acorns

Acorns Investment is a popular investing app that helps you round-up your spare change from debit card purchases…

…and invest these small amounts of money over time.

This approach to investing is ideal for anyone who doesn’t feel like they have enough money or time to invest.

But, they still want to be work toward building wealth.

Their blog called Grow from Acorns, is just one of the best content marketing examples of an effective blog.

Grow from Acorns offers a space where the brand publishers provide a wealth of valuable articles for their target audience.

Grow’s goal is to empower its readers with relevant and realistic advice that can help them accomplish their financial goals.

Much like the app, the blog aims to help people start building wealth now instead of waiting until later.

Grow from Acorns is the perfect example of a branded blog that provides valuable content for its readers.

The blog is broken up into sections – Money 101, News, How-Tos, and Interviews.

The blog provides a range of different resources that are all relevant to their target audience.

The topics range from explaining recent regulations that might impact a person financially to step-by-step instructions for creating your very first budget.

Though there are links and CTAs to the Acorns site throughout the blog site, the content is not product-focused.

Instead, it educates and informs the reader so that they can make better decisions about their finances.

Rather than discussing how great Acorns is, it provides relevant and realistic advice about how readers can take control of their financial future.

Key Takeaways:

While you may have a blog housed as a page directly on your site, you can still take some tips from Grow from Acorns on how to blog effectively.

Instead of choosing topics that highlight your brand or talk about how great your business is, choose topics that provide value for your target audience.

What challenges do they face? What do they need help getting started with? What do they need to know to make smarter buying decisions?

Use the answers to these questions to create a list of relevant topics that can offer your readers valuable advice and essential information…

…that can inform their decision making Doing so will also help establish your brand as a thought leader.

7. Burberry’s Kisses Campaign

Burberry is known for some of the best content marketing examples for a luxury consumer brand.

But by far one of their most interesting digital marketing campaigns was the Burberry Kisses.

This campaign revolved around their line of beauty products and had a simple premise.

You could send a virtual kiss to someone you know after virtually choosing a lipstick.

Burberry partnered with Google to offer image capturing technology through an app that allowed users…

…to press their lips to the screen and capture their kiss.

Then they could send that virtual kiss to another person located anywhere in the world.

Using Google’s Street View and Google Places, the user could visualize the path that the kiss took to get to its target.

With the app, you could choose the color of your kiss and even redo your kiss if you didn’t like the look of it.

The Burberry Kisses campaign was a fun and innovative idea that consumers took to.

It captured their audience’s love of mobile technology and interactive experiences to deliver a unique content marketing campaign.

By appealing to the audience’s emotions and desire to connect, they captured their target consumers’ attention.

Making sure that the Burberry brand would be in the back of their minds the next time they wanted to purchase cosmetics.

Key Takeaways:

Again, this is one of the best content marketing examples that might seem out of reach for a smaller business.

However, you can learn a thing or two from Burberry on how to connect with your audience.

Appealing to your target buyers’ emotions is always a great way to establish a connection and build a relationship.

Similarly, the need to connect with others is one that every person experiences.

So finding ways to tap into that is a surefire way to content marketing success.

Also, promoting interactive experiences is an effective way to not only gain your audience’s attention but get them involved in the experience.

After interacting with your content marketing, the consumer becomes a bit more invested in your brand and the products and services you sell.

This involvement means that they will be more inclined to buy from your brand when the time comes to make a purchase.

8. Nintendo’s Multi-Channel Campaign for Switch

Another one of the best content marketing examples comes from Nintendo.

When launching their Switch console, the video game giant used multiple marketing channels to generate excitement…

…for the new console and announce its launch.

The Switch campaign was global, spanning several accounts to reach customers across the world.

Here is an Instagram post anticipating the launch of the Nintendo Switch.

Since the Switch was a global product, Nintendo needed to get the word out about their new console on a global scale.

From their social media posts to massive billboards, Nintendo maintained consistent visual branding.

Their messaging was also consistent across channels and locations.

Nintendo’s traditional advertising and event marketing were also in line with their digital content marketing assets.

Key Takeaways:

Even if your business isn’t a global brand, you can still learn from the best content marketing examples like the Nintendo Switch campaign.

Nintendo’s global cross-channel campaign was so effective because the messaging and branding remained consistent…

…across all channels, from social media posts to billboards.

It’s important to keep your visual branding and messaging consistent across all campaigns and all channels.

By focusing on consistent branding, you can make sure that your business is communicating one clear message across all campaigns.

Conclusion

The content marketing examples above provide some excellent inspiration for the modern marketer that’s eager to do more with their content.

Whether you work to personalize your messaging or just want to do something out of the ordinary with your content story.

It’s essential that you keep your audience in mind when developing content ideas.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget to have fun!

Want to create your own killer content but don’t know where to start?

If you don’t have the time or staff to dedicate to creating consistent content that converts, then it may be time to call in the experts.

Learn more about our content marketing services or contact us today to chat more about your brand’s unique digital marketing needs.

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