7 Awesome Online Marketing Campaigns from 2011: Part 2

This week, we wanted to keep the New Year rolling by bringing you a few more quality examples of online marketing campaigns from 2011. Last time, we covered online marketing efforts from “Underheard New York”, “Dermablend” and “Dos Equis”—which all proved their worth in the digital realm and set the bar high for the rest of the competition. These next four examples do the same while also upping the ante for online marketing campaigns in 2012.

Little Thor – Having kids in commercials is always a win, just take for example the E*Trade baby who makes a huge impression every Super Bowl game as of late. But this year was the year for kids with imaginations. The first was a little spot by Volkswagon starring a child dressed as Darth Vader, attempting to use the force. It was cute, effective and enjoyable. But the one that stole the show, and created a seamless integrated online marketing campaign was Marvel Comics “Little Thor.” This online video promoted the new Paramount Pictures movie “Thor” and was a direct parody to Volkswagons “Mini Darth Vader” commercial, but with a different ending of course. The video exploded online and surpassed 1 million views within a week. With a direct link to the “Thor” website, it created one of the top online marketing experiences of the year.

Decode Jay-Z with Bing – Being able to innovate your products and services are what keeps brands afloat in today’s world. Consumers are always looking for something more to keep their attention and keep them entertained online—and Bing did exactly that. With Jay-Z’s upcoming book, “Decoded”, Bing decided to give the audience a little challenge by actually having them decode Jay-Z’s book on Bing Maps. How it worked was that actual pages of the book were physically placed around the country, mostly in New York, for people to find on Bing Maps. 5-10 pages were released per day, and if you found a page online or in person, you got credit for it and were entered into a drawing for signed copies of his book, as well as for the Grand Prize of winning tickets to his New Year’s Eve show in Las Vegas with Coldplay.

This is a great example of an online marketing campaign that integrates the online world and physical world while giving the audience an actual/physical challenge to stimulate their senses.

Tesco – Retail marketing and the innovation of retail technology has been a major subject the past year, especially with PSFK’s Future of Retail report. Retailers want to create the shopping experience as clean and smooth as possible, and are almost pushing out human interaction all together. But the integration of mobile with retail shopping is an interesting concept that Google has been pushing with mobile credit card processing, along with Square. But the retailer that really pushed the envelope was Tesco with their “virtual shopping wall.”

Setup in the Seonreung subway station in central Seoul, the virtual shopping center was the first of its kind in August and will surely inspire more retailers to follow suit. While commuters are waiting for their train, they can do some shopping using only the digital images of products and their mobile phone to scan the product and complete the order. The integration of this innovative mobile technology with our everyday activities makes life a lot less complicated and will inspire other brands to tweak the idea to fit their consumers needs and wants. Hopefully this technology will reach the states in the early stages of 2012.

Adidas 3D Mapping Projection – If there had to be a trend in 2011 that saw the most love and attention, it would have to be the use of 3D technology. At least 25% of the movies that came out in 2011 were shot in 3D, either during production or post-production. There were 3D cameras introduced into the amateur photography market and even 3D television sets. But in the world of advertising and marketing, nobody utilized 3D technology better than Adidas France. Sure, there are other brands before Adidas to dip their hands into the 3D honey pot, but it doesn’t seem they are too invested in the technology. Adidas, on the other hand, creates the ultimate consumer experience by making their 3D projections invigorating and breath-taking. Now that the tool has been introduced, it is up to the brands to use the tool to expand their creativity. Adidas set the bar, and that bar is sitting pretty high.

And that concludes Firespring’s examples of awesome online marketing campaigns from 2011. The examples covered almost every aspect of a truly integrated online/digital marketing campaign, and did so in enthralling fashion. Each campaign set the bar pretty high for 2012, so keep an eye out to see if anyone will accept the challenge.

Did we miss any great examples of awesome online marketing campaigns from 2011? Feel free to share them in the comments below.