HubSpot Marketers Reveal Their Favorite Campaigns of 2019

2019年，我们看到许多公司创建了屡获殊荣的广告系列，这些活动产生了ROI，引入了新客户并扩大了品牌知名度。

And withdigital and online media consumption growing我们,会l likely see even more fascinating or creative campaigns in 2020.

But, even if other brands are reaching ROI and awareness goals with their unique tactics, you might still have trouble brainstorming or creating an interesting plan for your 2020 campaigns.

When you can't come up with a solid idea, it can be helpful to learn from the brands that have launched award-winning, memorable, and revenue-generating campaigns Simply learning more about these strategies and identifying aspects that could fit into your own tactics could give you a wealth of great ideas for 2020.

But in a world where we have ads literally everywhere, how do you identify and determine what the best ads were?

To help inspire new ideas and jumpstart your creativity for 2020, I asked six HubSpot Marketers to share their favorite campaigns of 2019. Here's what they revealed:

6 Campaigns HubSpot Marketers Enjoyed in 2019

"The Truth is Worth It" - The New York Times

The纽约时报'"The Truth is Worth It" campaign features a series of commercials that follow actual时代'journalists' through the long, complicated, and challenging process of uncovering hidden truths for a story. It also emphasizes the barriers reporters must overcome to complete and report on a thorough investigation.

Each commercial follows an actualNew York Timesjournalist as they make calls, take notes and begin writing a story about one of today's hardest-hitting topics, such as immigration, climate change, and international conflicts.

The时代ads create a sense of tension byshowing actual footage-- primarily recorded by journalists -- related to the controversial topics discussed. As the footage plays, you can hear soundbites of a featured reporter making a number of calls to confirm the controversy presented in each ad.

One HubSpot marketer that found this campaign powerful was Kyle Denhoff, a global acquisition campaign manager.

"In a time of climate change, conflicting political views, and terrorism, theNew York Timesset out to position itself asthesource of truth," says Denhoff. "While the Times generates revenue through subscriptions and advertising, it did not set out to sell its media products. The campaign doesn't mention their website, podcasts, newsletters, or videos. It tells a story."

“创意很简单且令人难以置信的有效。它可以定位时代perfectly," Denhoff says. "Being the source of truth for all subscribers is a powerful promise. When you're subscribing to the New York Times you are subscribing to getting the truth every day with your morning coffee."

Danhoff wasn't the only marketing expert who found the campaign powerful. In fact,"The Truth is Worth It: Perseverance,"an ad that follows journalistCaitlyn Dickersonas she confirms child separation at the U.S. border,won a Gold Clio. Here's the TV spot:

"Open Sunday" - Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen

In a short, but sweet, commercial, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen announces that itspopular Chicken Sandwichis returning and that it will now be open on Sundays, unlike its main competitor, Chick-Fil-A.

广告开头时说：“你们所有人……三明治回来了。这个星期日，这是一个大胆的假设，即Popeyes Chicken Sandwichis so popular that audiences will know which sandwich the chain is talking about.

该广告切入高速公路上的出口标志，列出了附近所有快餐店。当缩放到Chick-fil-A和Popeyes徽标上彼此相邻时，Chick-Fil-A的徽标下有文字说：“周日关闭”，而画家在Popeyes徽标下透露了新文字，说，“周日开放。”

这是整个广告：

这个野蛮的广告是HubSpot Marketing Blog的初级工作人员Kayla Carmicheal的最爱。

"I chose this commercial because of the complexity of marketing tactics they fit in 21 seconds," Carmicheal explains. "In a direct response to competitor Chick-fil-A, the chain emphasized the one thing their competitor doesn't have: the ability to open on Sunday."

"As a final punch, they chose the launch date to be on a Sunday, highlighting that on billboards (right next to Chick-fil-A)," Carmicheal explains. "The impact of this commercial is felt even on silent, meaning that this perfectly-timed video is visually compelling as well."

When it comes to the visual details she notes above, Carmicheal explains, "Popeyes used their brand-specific orange in an eye-catching and invigorating way, under text that's hip and relatable to consumers."

If you want to highlight what makes your product or service stand out from a competitor, take a note from Popeyes. Identify where your competitor is missing opportunities to please their customers, then one-up them by highlighting how you're solving for those customer woes in your own campaign.

"We All Win" - Microsoft

After it came to Microsoft's attention that people with missing limbs or limited mobility were having trouble holding and pressing buttons on video game controllers, the tech company developed an adaptive controller with touchpads rather than buttons.

After the controller's launch, Microsoft highlighted this story of how they solved for the customer in a 2019 Super Bowl ad titled, "We All Win."

In the Gold Clio-winning commercial, Microsoft interviewed children with mobility issues and missing limbs about why they loved video games, but how they still faced difficulties with game controllers due to their disabilities.

Many of the children and parents featured in the ad explain that gaming helps them connect with friends in ways that they might not be able to otherwise. However, because of the current line of controllers, they have difficulty playing or competing in many games.

"I never thought it was unfair. I just thought 'Hey, this is the way it is and it's not going to change," says one boy.

After demonstrating the problem with game controllers, the ad shows the children using Microsoft's new adaptive video game controller as they explain how it makes gaming easier and more accessible for them.

For example, one girl excitedly says, "I can hit the buttons just as fast as they can," while a boy exclaims, "Now everyone can play!"

"'We All Win' hit all the marks in terms of emotion, starting a dialogue, and fun. It wasn’t an ad about disabilities, it was about kids wanting to play video games," says Dmitry Shamis, Senior Director of Creative. "I loved it back in February and still love it in November."

“我们都赢了”也是我2019年最喜欢的活动之一。它不仅会拖着您的心弦，而且还鼓励了为客户解决的问题，并通过解释微软如何花时间开发解决一个重大问题的产品来解决客户的可及性。面对一群独特的客户。该广告使您相信Microsoft真正地关心客户，并会付出额外的努力，以确保每个人的产品都有丰富的经验。

You can read more about this particular campaign and get inspired by a few more empowering ads inthis blog post on inclusive marketing.

"Listen Like You Used To" - Spotify

When it comes to reaching millennials or Gen X, one tactic that many marketers use is leveraging nostalgia. Spotify is no different.

In a series of online Spotify adscreated by the agency Who What Why, each graphic comedically compares music-related activities that adults did in the '80s and '90s with what they're doing in 2019.

例如，一个广告显示了1988年成年人的“ 24小时派对人”，这在2019年仅是“ 2-4小时的派对人”。

Source: Spotify

Each ad in the series also features the tagline, "Listen like you used to," to inspire audiences to embrace the nostalgia, blast some tunes, and party like they did when they were younger. The goal? To get adults, like Gen X or older millennials, to play their favorite songs for hours on Spotify.

While the ad above might be more relevant to Gen X, Spotify also aims to capture older millennials with a Spice Girls reference:

Source: Spotify

"As an 'older millennial', I loved this one," says Jami Oetting, HubSpot's Director of Editorial Strategy.

Nostalgia is a great way to relate to your audience, remind them of the good times, and make them want to use your product to replicate their positive past experiences. With these ads, Spotify reminds people of the music-related fun they had in the past and says, "Listen like you used to," to show those consumers how its app can still help them embrace similar music and fun as grownups.

Sleep Puzzle Subway Ad Campaign - Casper

Can you solve this word puzzle?

资料来源：卡斯珀

挣扎？这是答案。SN +酒 - B = Snooze和F + Vest -V -V是节日。图像说贪睡节。

Why would you make an ad that doesn't state the brand name and takes a few minutes to comprehend? Simply because it's pretty fun for the consumers that try to solve it.

在它的一系列地铁广告，卡斯珀（Casper）鼓励听众破解代码，也迫使他们考虑睡眠。该系列的想法是，当您考虑睡眠时，您可能会考虑床垫。然后，当您考虑床垫时，您会记得Casper的这些古怪的广告。

This campaign was a favorite of Lucy Alexander, an associate marketing manager of customer communications and campaigns at HubSpot.

"I love how Casper simply and creatively delighted audiences with these subway ads. The light brain teaser was a fun way to pass a couple of minutes of my commute," Alexander says. "It may seem like a short amount of time to grab someone’s attention compared to a long-form campaign, but it’s much longer than a typical ad, and it was an interactive experience that I found inviting rather than interruptive."

As Alexander mentioned, the experience is not only fun, but it's also interactive. Casper has done a great job of creating a campaign that people can interact with even when its just an image.

If you want to experiment with interactivity in your ads, but don't have the time or resources to create digitally interactive material like avideo game ad或者live video Q&A, getting creative graphically could also be a beneficial strategy.

Brandwagon - Wistia

而不是营销基金关注很多different types of ads, Wistia launched a marketing talk show calledBrandwagonon its website.

Brandwagon事件主要包括采访with experts from Wistia and other companies about various marketing strategies and campaigns. This content aims to inform marketers of techniques they should try, keep viewers on Wistia's website, and enable Wistia to show off its marketing credibility

"We’ve found that one of the most effective ways to set yourself apart from your competitors and build a well-loved brand is by creating binge-worthy content. In other words, content that provides enough value to viewers that they can’t help but want to consume more of it," says aWistia blog postthat explains the motives behind Brandwagon.

为了让您了解该节目的样子，这是在YouTube上发布的快速预告片：

"I'm a big fan ofBrandwagonand other original series from Wistia," saysIrina Nica, HubSpot's Global Community and Influencer Relations Manager. "It brings a refreshing, late-night show format to the marketing world, which makes this campaign instantly stand out.

Nica notes that Brandwagon is also, "equal parts entertainment and education which I believe helps viewers stick around and enjoy the content, even though it's long-form compared to formats like blog posts and webinars."

Nica adds that she's also noticed a growing trend of branded online series.

"Many other B2B and B2C brands, like Uber and Mailchimp, started creating their own或者iginal seriesin the form of talk shows, and documentaries," Nica explains. "It's a practical way to create content that can become binge-worthy and also enables marketers to then repurpose each episode into smaller microcontent."

Campaign Like a Pro in 2020

As we've seen from this list, campaigns that win attention from audiences and expert marketers, often embrace quirkiness, competition, or a deep storyline.

While brands on this list have found unique ways to educate audiences about their company or one-up competitors, others have thought more outside the box with fun approaches such as leveraging visual puzzles or nostalgia.

Regardless of which campaigns you launch in 2020, it's a great idea to look to these campaigns and others for inspiration.

Want more examples of amazing and memorable campaigns, check out our favoriteEmmy nominated adsand this detailed roster ofClio Gold winnersfrom 2019.