Top 5 Social Media Campaigns of 2012

David Blain’s ELECTRIFIED

The fusion of technology, illusion, and connectivity inevitably sparks the interest of any audience. Last year, Intel partnered with illusionist David Blaine to leverage his shocking talents and create a live-streamed interactive performance piece controlled by the Ultrabook.

Blaine was awake for three days and nights in a massive interactive globe, surrounded by one million volts of electricity emitted by seven Tesla coils. Participants had the unique opportunity to manipulate the coils to create dazzling arrays through on-site controllers in select cities. The complementary interactive experience allowed online participants to explore the event, send David messages, and unlock new camera angles. Tapping into human curiosity and respect for technology while providing a channel to live vicariously through an illusionist easily puts this social media campaign in the top five for 2012.

Pitbull Kodiak Campaign

Social media campaigns are all about response. And sometimes, it’s not the one you’re hoping for. The promo contest for Energy Sheets and Walmart is the embodiment of a social media director’s worst nightmare gone golden. After Walmart announced a contest that would send rapper, Pitbull, to the store location that received the most new Facebook Likes by July 15, David Thorpe and Jon Hendren of Something Awful sparked a campaign to #ExilePitbull to the most remote Walmart in America. When voting came to a close on July 16th, Walmart’s Alaskan Kodiak location achieved more than 70,000 Facebook Likes — nearly 10 times the population of the entire island, according to 2010 census figures. But an impressive, good-humored response from Pitbull turned up the heat on a cold-hearted attempt to sabotage the social media campaign.

Gaga’s Workshop

Yeah, we’re biased on this one. But that Webby we won tells us we’re not the only ones that are in love with the whimsy of Gaga’s Workshop. Last year’s holiday season, we had the unique opportunity to blend the high fashion brand of Barneys New York with the unprecedented artistic nature of Lady Gaga into a unique stylish holiday experience. We brought Gaga’s Workshop to life digitally through a progressively immersive microsite. The website was a beast on its own, growing and changing as the opening date of the workshop approached. The panel-based design served up opportunity after opportunity for social interaction and sharing. It all started with the lead up to the big reveal with the twelve days of Gaga, a daily limited-edition product release to build hype and awareness. Once the event launched, the microsite evolved into a gallery of live coverage, bringing a little bit of Gaga to everyone who couldn’t attend the opening night. The heart of the beast was the Gaga Machine. We put fans on a hunt to find clue-based codes throughout New York City to unlock special videos, prizes, and workshop merchandise via the Gaga Machine. But wait, there’s more! For all the Gaga fans dying to be one of her monsters, we let them upload their roaring photos into a custom illustrated monster face of their choice to share with friends. Paws up!

Nike Primetime

We were honored to be nominated for a Webby along side Nike. Their campaign solution put the social media director’s job on autopilot. Nike connected twitter followers with their basketball idols through Nike Primetime, an app that lets the NBA players reply to tweets through custom video. The beauty of this campaign is that it caters to the challenges of creating personalized content, especially with celebrities. When an NBA star logs in, he has the choice of one or more prompts for possible video content to create, such as challenges to fans and direct responses to fans’ tweets. The lucky fans that receive a video reply can then share it on Facebook, encouraging more fans to join in. This campaign is similar to Old Spice’s 2010 hard-to-forget twitter video response campaign featuring Isaiah Mustafa, responding to questions posted by fans, bloggers, and celebs alike. Kudos to Nike for simplifying social media enough to fit even a celebrity’s busy schedule.

Old Spice Muscle Music

Speaking of Old Spice, Terry Crews came back with a video you can’t unsee (or unhear). Although he’s not as well known as Isaiah, what he lacked in reputation he made up for in noise and muscle. The men’s care brand had Crew’s muscles hooked up to musical devices ranging from snare drums and tom-toms to a flame sax. When he flexes each muscle, an instrument is activated – flex them all in a frenzy, and you get the manliest symphony ever. But this video doesn’t take the prize; it’s the after party that’s to die for. After the video is over, the power of Muscle Music falls into your curious hands. Every key on your keyboard causes muscle man Crews to either play a makeshift instrument or do something entirely off the wall. Play, record, and share the Vimeo-powered hilarity for yourself; skip the gym and flex someone else’s muscles for a change. (We’ll even give you the keyboard cheat sheet). Happy slacking!

Check out our (kind of) super secret formula for measuring social media success. Understanding how to evaluate a social media campaign could get your brand into next year’s top five. Fingers crossed.