Published on January 23, 2023
Learning from high-impact social media campaigns will help marketing teams and agencies create brand awareness, generate sales leads and grow followers.
The best social media campaigns in 2022 made an impact on audiences, organic impressions. engagement and creativity. Social teams should adopt these best practices in following 2023 social trends. Purpose Brand reviewed the best social media campaigns in 2022 and culled the list to name the year’s best 50 social media campaigns.
What Do the Best Campaigns Signal for 2023 Social Media Trends?
- More collaboration: Brands are relying more on viral content by their consumers, rather than putting focus on creating their own original content. With the stitch and duet feature on TikTok, for instance, we anticipate that brands will participate in more trends that allow for visibility.
- In-app shopping: Users are using social platforms as an alternative to Google to search for products they’re interested in buying. We predict that more brands will hop on in-app shopping features.
- Continued use of user-generated content: We will see brands sharing more user-generated content this year and less curated content. Authenticity is a priority on social media and brands are realizing just how much value that can hold with their audience.
- Less promotions: One thing that most viral videos have in common is that they’re entertaining. In 2023, we will see brands promoting their product or service less, but instead delight and provide value, with their product being the subliminal message.
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#1 Spotify Wrapped
Wrapped is a personalized breakdown of what each user listened to and exactly how often over the course of the year. This campaign began in 2016 and has continued ever since. Each year around the beginning of December, users share their Year in Review on social media. Users are eager to share their Wrapped in hopes of letting their favorite artists know just how much they’ve been listening this year. In 2021, more than 120M people shared their Wrapped content.
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#2 PetSmart Influencers
Influencers have been crucial to the quick growth and success of PetSmart’s TikTok and Instagram accounts. It’s no surprise that they would continue the momentum by partnering with four influencers for their holiday social media campaign. What was unique about this collaboration this time is that the influencers (and their owners) were involved in the entire campaign planning process. The campaign hashtag #PetSmartMadeMeBuyIt launched on Nov. 7 and already has more than 3 billion views.
#3 David’s Bridal Live Shopping
After seeing a decrease in success on Facebook, David’s Bridal shifted their social strategy and began incorporating TikTok into their campaigns. After asking individual stores to target their local markets with on-site videos posted to their own local accounts and a video going viral with a lot of great feedback from customers, David’s Bridal began testing out Live RSVP shopping events. With almost 100% of RSVPs in attendance, the brand was very pleased with the results and plans to do more, in addition to launching influencer storefronts and affiliate links.
#4 State Farm #TeamStateFarm
State Farm took a different approach to their advertising strategy this year. Instead of splurging on a Super Bowl commercial as in previous years, they decided to put those efforts into TikTok with an interactive ad.
Jake From State Farm is casting for an upcoming commercial and asked those that want to be considered to duet his video and his followers would get to vote on the winner. They received incredible submission videos that received hundreds of thousands of views and tens of thousands of engagements.
#5 Duolingo “Emily in Paris”
To ride the wave of excitement for the upcoming new season of the Netflix series “Emily in Paris,” Duolingo offered free memberships to anyone named Emily, a character known for her lack of knowledge of the French language.
This promotion was their most successful campaign to date with over 2 million organic views and 7,000 Emilys signed up. Lily Collins, the actress that plays Emily Cooper, also shared the campaign film on her social channels.
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#6 Tide and NFL “Lucky Jersey”
This creative partnership between Tide and the NFL encouraged football fans to wash their lucky jerseys after learning that 25% of fans with a lucky jersey haven’t washed it in a year or more. Professional football players like Davante Adams and Chase Claypool asked fans what it would take for them to wash their jersey and incentivized fans with tickets and autographs.
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#7 Smile Viral Videos
We don’t see too many guerrilla marketing campaigns, but when we do, they make a big splash. To create buzz around the September release of the horror film “Smile,” creepy smiling “fans” were planted in the stands of sporting events and other live events, such as NBC’s “Today” show. These “smilers” were spotted and videos went viral online. These videos drove traffic to a website in which you could report Smile sightings.
#8 Gymshark “We, The Changemakers”
As an inclusive athletic brand that promotes body positivity and encourages everyone of all shapes and sizes to feel comfortable in the gym, Gymshark launched its “We, The Changemakers” campaign on International Women’s Day. This campaign celebrated women in the fitness industry who have gone above and beyond to make a change in an industry that is dominated by men.
Gymshark asked for nominations and are not only featuring these changemakers, but also giving out $10,000 grants to 3 female-owned organizations, nonprofits, charities or individuals to help support and amplify their initiatives.
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#9 Heinz “Tip for Heinz”
Heinz is recruiting their loyal fans to request Heinz ketchup at restaurants that don’t carry the condiment brand in the form of a tip on their receipt and then asking consumers to post a picture with the hashtag #TipForHeinz or upload the picture on the dedicated website. Heinz committed $125,000 to the initiative, which will cover the full gratuity, up to $20 and, in the case of some lucky ketchup lovers, their entire tab. Heinz will also give the first 10 restaurants that take the tip and commit to switching to Heinz one free year’s supply of ketchup.
#10 Oscar Mayer Bologna Face Masks
As a playful spin on the “New Year. New You” trend, Oscar Mayer launched bologna face masks to “promote a healthy skin care routine” and also to pay homage to the kids that would bite out eye holes and a mouth out of their bologna and put it on their face. These “face masks” were promoted on social media with a slightly terrifying image.
Oscar Mayer is known for their off-the-wall marketing campaigns, so it’s really no surprise that they sold out of these face masks less than a day after their release.
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#11 Pepsi “Pilk and Cookies”
In wake of TikTok’s “dirty soda” trend, where creators mix soda with items like syrup and cream, Pepsi jumped on the trend by making their own dirty soda in their new holiday campaign. The brand encourages consumers to leave out milk and Pepsi for Santa and post a picture or video for a chance to win cash.
#12 Coke #ShareTheMagic
Coke wanted to join TikTok and make a big splash in the process. The brand wanted to make an impact and “share the magic” by partnering with BIPOC creators on the app to give these underrepresented creators the recognition and compensation they deserve. To do so, Coke launched a dance challenge on the app.
Coke partnered with 20 influencers of color to amplify the social media campaign to their audiences. They were pinned to the top of the hashtag challenge page to grow their own following, and of course, paid equitably for their work.
The hashtag received over 11.9 billion views, 1.7 million original videos created by nearly 1 million creators and grew the Coke account by 71%.
#13 Budweiser “The World is Yours to Take”
As a sponsor of the FIFA World Cup, Budweiser faced some major challenges and backlash when it came to their social media campaign.
The first challenge they faced was that the World Cup was being held in Qatar, a country in which alcohol is tightly regulated, and alcohol was not being sold in the stadium. Budweiser featured their non-alcoholic beer in their ad and focused on serving Budweiser Zero in the stadiums. Secondly, in the video ad, Budweiser included flags from many countries, as well as the LGBTQ flag. The presence of the flag stood out as Qatar has come under scrutiny for its persecution of LGBT people.
Budweiser’s inclusive campaign does a great job of bringing together fans from all over the world.
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#14 NFL “My cause. My cleats”
NFL players had the opportunity to bring awareness to their passions and pick a cause that is important to them and represent that organization on their custom designed cleats. After the social media campaign ended, players then auctioned off their cleats and donated the money to their chosen charities. This campaign successfully promoted the NFL and consciously linked the league to positive social change.
#15 Lyft “Yes, you are a bike person”
To announce Lyft’s bikeshare, the “Yes, you are a bike person” campaign features a diverse group of bike riders, including a corporate employee, a fashionista, and someone walking the red carpet at a movie premier. This campaign is co-branded with bikeshare programs around the nation, such as divvy and Citi Bike.
The idea behind the messaging for this social media campaign is that you don’t have to be a serious bike rider to utilize this mode of transportation. It’s a fun way to get around, no matter where you’re headed.
#16 Yitty
Yitty is the shapewear brand created by the one and only, Lizzo. Their social media campaign is a play on words for the typical #FitCheck, but instead encourages women to check their breasts and practice “breast self-awareness” and drive early breast cancer detection and improve survival rates.
The Yitty brand is committed to driving important social change and this campaign is no different.
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#17 Airbnb “Made Possible by Hosts”
This was a unique social media campaign made up of user-generated content. Following COVID, Airbnb CEO knew that the world needed something real and authentic and this was the only way to go about this.
They asked some content creators to book a house, take a vacation, and capture their memories there. The most viewed video received 7.5M views.
#18 Home Chef + Rachael Ray
Home Chef partnered with Rachael Ray to bring Home Chef customers exclusive Rachael Ray recipes on a weekly basis for six months. This partnership makes sense because they both believe that cooking doesn’t have to be difficult to be good. Home Chef partners with many influencers to spread the word about these convenient meals that are delivered directly to your home.
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#19 Chipotle “BeReal”
If you’re not familiar, BeReal is the newest social platform that Gen Z quickly jumped all in on. This unfiltered app notifies you randomly throughout the day that it’s time to post. Users have 2 minutes to post what they’re doing at that moment and users can only see what their friends are doing if they post themselves.
Chipotle tapped into this growing community by offering codes to the first 100 people that place online orders. By offering unique codes on the growing platform, the success is easily tracked. The first day, 100 orders were placed within 30 minutes. The following days, it took just minutes.
BeReal is a unique platform in the fact that there is no paid advertising. In a time when consumers want authenticity, BeReal is the perfect platform to reach your audience in such an unfiltered way.
#20 BarkBox 4/20 Collection
BarkBox launched this dope line of dog toys on April 1 (surprisingly not as an April Fools joke) to mark 4/20. BarkBox is known for their witty (and sometimes slightly inappropriate content) but their audience responds well to it, which made this campaign a success.
This campaign originally launched in 2020. The brand sold out in 24 hours and surpassed Black Friday sales by 3x! It’s no surprise that they’ve continued to bring it back each year.
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#21 Oreo & Netflix “Things are getting stranger”
To promote their upcoming Red Velvet Oreo, and the new season of Stranger Things, Oreo and Netflix partnered up. In a series of videos and conversations from both brands, they generated curiosity from followers about this “strange happening.”
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#22 Heineken “Virtual Beer”
Gen Z is a different breed. Heineken knows that they don’t blindly follow quirky taglines and ads. They place a lot of value on sustainability and humor in marketing.
Heineken launched a virtual beer in the metaverse in an ironic marketing campaign that pokes fun at the brands that are best enjoyed IRL that are believing that the metaverse is the next big thing.
Heineken Silver was launched but didn’t quench anyone’s thirst. Later an IRL bar was created in London to remind consumers of the importance of real-life experiences.
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#23 Lego #BuildToGive
For the sixth consecutive year, Lego’s “Build to Give” campaign asks families to use their creativity to build a gift and share their creations on social media. For every creation shared before December 31st, Lego will donate a set of Legos to children in hospitals, children’s homes, or vulnerable communities.
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#24 Craftsman “She Builds Pride”
Inspired by the women of the world that perform remarkable work around their homes, yards, and communities, Craftsman asked for nominations on social media to celebrate women who are making a difference to win a limited edition storage unit set.
Craftsman partnered with TV personality Cristy Lee and Woodward Throwbacks to promote this giveaway leading up to Mother’s Day.
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#25 Fabletics “United in Pride”
During Pride month, Fabletics launched a Pride line of athletic wear with GLAAD to support the LGBTQ+ community. This marketing campaign promoted inclusivity, love, acceptance, and equality for all. In addition to this line of athletic wear, Fabletics also committed to donating $25K to GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer advocacy organization.
Fabletics worked with influencers from the LGBTQ+ community to promote this campaign.
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#26 Aerie “Keepin’ it real”
In an industry that is known for editing photos, Aerie set the standard for no “touch-ups” and is flipping the script by bringing happiness and positivity to social media.
Aerie promotes body positivity. To celebrate the beauty of all bodies, they partnered with a handful of influencers that keep it real and are their true authentic selves. In this series of videos, they danced to an original “keepin’ it real” song by Aerie and used a branded filter that showed positive messages on post it notes. Social media can be a really negative place at times, so it’s nice to see some positive messages like this.
TikTok influencers like Elyse Myers participated in this campaign. Her video alone received 4.8M views and more than 55k engagements.
#27 Wayfair “Way Day”
To get a jump on holiday sales, Way Day in October offered up to 80% off their home decor items. Wayfair utilized Instagram Livestream to showcase items and gave consumers the opportunity to interact with home experts in real time.
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#28 Chewy “Chatty Pets”
Chewy understands the role that our pets have in our lives. The “Chatty Pets” ad campaign gives personalities and voices to pets in anticipation of receiving their Chewy delivery. Chewy encouraged consumers to share on social media using the hashtag #ChewyChattyPets to share what they thought their pets were thinking. The branded hashtag received more than 9.4B views!
#29 KFC Delivery
KFC is highlighting their new option for delivery with their recent campaigns this year. For this social media campaign, KFC partnered with influencers, as well as media companies such as LadBible to promote ordering KFC whenever and wherever. LadBible’s Instagram post received more than 145k likes.
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#30 Dove “The Selfie Talk”
Dove is known for promoting positive body image and self-esteem in women, and this campaign does just that. The Selfie Talk is a social media campaign to promote positive self-image and reversing the negative effects of social media.
This campaign does a great job of educating adults and young people alike on how to avoid comparing yourself to others on social media, unfollowing anyone that makes you feel unworthy, and having a positive newsfeed.
#31 Lowe’s Hometowns
Lowe’s has grown from a small town hardware store to one of the largest home improvement retailers in the world. In order to give back to the communities in which they serve, they plan to improve 100 communities by revitalizing spaces that serve the communities such as parks, neighborhood housing, and community centers.
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#32 Chevrolet “EVs for Everyone”
To create awareness about the Chevy Electric Vehicles, Chevrolet is working with Fleetwood Mac, Conan O’Brien, and influencers to position these cars as “cars for everyone”. When working with influencers with audiences of all sizes, it was important to Chevrolet to not script what they say. These influencers know their audiences and in order to be as authentic as possible, it was crucial for it to be in their own voice.
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#33 Harbor Freight “Tools For Schools”
Harbor Freight is committed to supporting the advancement of skilled trades education in America. One of the flagship programs of Harbor Freight Tools for Schools is the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence, which awards more than $1 million to skilled trades teachers in public high schools across the United States.
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#34 Glossier “You Look Good”
Glossier partnered with Oliva Rodrigo for their “You Look Good” campaign where she talks about how Glossier makeup makes her feel beautiful. The makeup brand promotes natural beauty and the campaign focuses on positive self-affirmations.
Olivia’s Instagram post promoting the partnership received 4M+ views.
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#35 Taylor Swift “Midnights Mayhem with me”
Leading up to the release of her newest album “Midnight”, Taylor Swift posted a series of TikTok videos where she revealed the name of each track on the album. She randomly pulled a bingo ball from a cage numbered 1-13, representing the 13 songs on the album. All 13 of these videos received between 4 million to 13 million views and at least 20,000 comments on each.
Taylor Swift is known for hiding “easter eggs” in her songs and in her marketing, which encourages her fans to watch intently and attempt to solve these puzzles that may or may not actually be there. Either way, Taylor is a marketing genius!
#36 ALDI #AldiAdminOOO
ALDI “took the weekend off” and announced it publicly on their Twitter account. They asked other major brands to “take over for them”. Many brands got involved, which led to 5.1 million organic views and 140,000 engagements over the course of the week.
#37 Doritos “Triangle Tracker”
Doritos usually focuses on the bold flavors, but this time is putting the focus on the iconic triangle shape. For this campaign, consumers are encouraged to engage with the brand on Snapchat and TikTok by finding the most creative triangles from around the world. The Doritos filter can recognize the triangle shape and transform it into Doritos. The brand asked consumers to submit their videos for a chance to win weekly prizes.
#38 Nike “Seen it all”
To celebrate their 50th anniversary, Nike addresses the strength of all of its past athletes, while celebrating the promise of the future greats in this short film. One thing that can be agreed upon while debating on the past vs the present, the Nike brand shoes!
Nike customers used the hashtag #Nike50 to share their athletic content from over the years with the brand.
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#39 Sheetz “Why the Sheetz not?”
Sheetz uses humor in this campaign to let the audience know of the power they hold at Sheetz. From their made-to-order food, as well as self-checkout, consumers should “ditch their inhibitions” and utilize this power. Because if you can customize a sandwich on a waffle bun, what can’t you do? Sheetz worked with influencers to post their “Why the Sheetz not” moments.
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#40 Crumbl Cookies #CrumblTogether
Crumbl Cookies’ summer campaign focused on using their product to bring their customers together to enjoy each other’s company as well as a cookie or two. They asked customers to enter their giveaway by posting a picture of their get together with the hashtag #CrumblTogether and share a short story about how Crumbl has brought them closer together. The prizes given were unique to each winner, depending on their story. Crumbl Cookies gave away prizes worth $500+ that varied from patio furniture, camping gear, and even cookies for a wedding reception.
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#41 Dunkin’ Casting Call
Dunkin went to TikTok to ask for auditions for their next big campaign. For this casting call, Dunkin released a video asking for “duets” in which the future ambassador will read a set of lines. Whoever they picked would be featured in an upcoming commercial for the brand. Some major influencers got in on the action and these videos received millions of impressions.
#42 E.L.F. Cosmetics + Weather Channel + Meghan Trainor
These are three very different brands/personalities that we never thought we’d see team up but after doing a little research, E.L.F. Cosmetics realized that 8 out of 10 women change their beauty routine with the weather – which makes this partnership make a little more sense.
They tapped into the viral sensation, Meghan Trainor, to be the face of their campaign as their weather reporter due to her popularity on TikTok currently, thanks to her very popular song and dance, Made You Look. On top of these social videos that E.L.F. released, they will also be wrapping snow plows in New York with their brand. It’s still an interesting combination but we love that they’re thinking outside the box.
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#43 Amazon Alexa “Mind Reader”
In this hilarious Super Bowl ad, Scarlett Johanson and Colin Josh team up as a married couple to show the horror of what it would be like if Alexa could actually read our minds. This video received more than 11 million views on their Instagram account, while most other videos received only tens of thousands of views.
#44 Tractor Supply + Lainey Wilson
To capture the attention of the younger generation, as well as the female population, Tractor Supply tested out a new style of advertising. Not only are they partnering with Lainey Wilson, country music singer and Yellowstone actress, but they are testing out TikTok – as well as running a TikTok style commercial during the Yellowstone season 5 premier.
This video was posted to Lainey’s TikTok account and received 4.9M views organically.
#45 Gatorade “Fuel Your Community”
Fuel tomorrow is a campaign that Gatorade has been running this year. This campaign is focused on making sports more accessible to everyone. As a part of this campaign, Gatorade ran a contest called “Fuel Your Community” that asked young athletes to share their stories about how they are bringing positive change to their sports communities and how they hope to leave a lasting impact through sports.
Gatorade interviewed pro athletes on their social channels to find out how they are fueling their communities to promote this contest.
#46 Sephora #SephoraSquad
Sephora launched the Sephora Squad in 2019 and they are continuing to bring it back year after year. The goal for this program is to build partnerships with influencers and support these creators in an impactful way. We often see brands work with influencers for a campaign here or there. Sephora is switching it up by connecting with these ambassadors and building long-term relationships with them over the course of the year.
To apply, Sephora asked influencers to post their application video, sharing why they are a good fit for the program. With more than 9,000 applicants this year, some of these videos were so creative and received so much engagement, prior to the partnership even starting.
#47 HBO “50 years of firsts”
HBO celebrated their 50th anniversary this year with their campaign “50 years of firsts”. HBO was the first premier network and the first network to push boundaries to create groundbreaking stories and characters.
HBO shared exclusive content such as behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, and teasers of what’s to come.
#48 Ryan Trahan “$0.01 for 30 days”
Ryan Trahan is a YouTube personality with 6.8 million subscribers. He had a plan to travel across the country in 30 days with just a penny. During his travels, everything had to be funded with that single penny. He began by trading it for a pen and then continued to sell/trade the items he had for a profit.
During his cross country trip, he also raised money online for Feeding America. His goal was to raise $100,000. He offered incentives such as shoutouts during his YouTube videos, or even getting a tattoo of whatever the donor wanted. He ended up raising $1.4M and made his way across the country within 30 days.
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#49 FitBit “Feel Your Power”
To piggyback on last year’s campaign and overall shift in leaning towards a more holistic health approach, FitBit’s “Feel Your Power” campaign is focused on listening to your body when it comes to exercise and health. There are many variations of what it means to be healthy and there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach.
FitBit worked with many influencers to show their health care routine, many of which included meditation, light reading, or just unplugging for a brief period of time to focus on mental health, as well as their physical health.
#50 Pinterest “Don’t Don’t Yourself”
Pinterest wants to set itself apart from other social networks and position itself as a positive space, free of judgment and criticism. As a creative platform, there is no room for comparison. It’s all about experimenting.
This campaign focuses on our “inner saboteurs” that often comes along with social media. However, Pinterest says that’s not the vibe and no one has time for that negativity!
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