The 10 Best Brand Moments of the Decade

By Guest Blogger, Raoul Toi

Over the past decade, the quality of campaigns across social media dramatically improved. Many brands took advantage of social media to create viral moments around a trend or event, and some created a marketing event that we’ll remember for years to come. Using Sprinklr data mixed with my own personal opinions about global and local campaigns, I pulled together 10 of the best brand moments on social media this past decade.

Oreo

Do you remember Oreo’s Dunk in the Dark tweet?


Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans faced a 34-minute power outage during Super Bowl XLVII in February 2013, and Oreo seized the moment to release a simple, yet powerful tweet with the words: “you can still dunk in the dark.” This grabbed everyone’s attention and it’s one of the best live marketing campaigns of the decade.

Paytm

In 2016, the Government of India moved to demonetize its most circulated currency notes, resulting in the growth of mobile wallet apps like Paytm. Short for “Pay Through Mobile,” Paytm introduced bold marketing campaigns in November 2016 that helped the platform grow its user base.

For example, they sent out a tweet on November 8th, 2016 to capitalize on the Government of India’s demonetization announcement. What’s interesting to note is the fact that Paytm very subtly included their tagline in the tweet. It went viral and Paytm saw a huge increase in their app downloads and usage.


best brand moments paytm top words

Google India

On January 28th, 2019, Google India published a tweet saying, “We really, really, really….want to know why you keep asking the Google Assistant to marry you” which kicked off a trending Tweet of other people responding with their own “I really, really, really…” tweets.

According to an India Today article posted on January 29th, 2019, “Really really really is a meme trend that has become exceedingly popular on Twitter in the last few months. It involves people writing the word ‘really’, in different lines one after the other in a manner that it forms a curved pattern until you reach the last word.”

A Google study said that the Google Assistant received more than 450,000 marriage proposals in April 2019 from people in India, making “will you marry me” one of the most frequently asked questions.

Google India’s Tweet was a simple way for the company to engage consumers with a relevant message that jumped on two trends: “Really, Really, Really” meme and Google Assistant marriage proposals. The tweet worked, and consumers are still engaging with it even a year later.
https://twitter.com/GoogleIndia/status/1089857735666085888

Heinz Ketchup US

In April 2018, Heinz launched #mayochup – a combination of ketchup and mayo. Heinz created a Twitter poll asking if Mayochup should be released in the US and received a whopping 500,000 voting “YES!”

This idea was created after the concoction generated one billion impressions in the first 48 hours of its launch. A photo was tweeted from the Kuwait grocery store which then turned into a debate for whether or not this should be sold in other countries.


best brand moments heinz ketchup word cloud

KitKat

In October 2012, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner set a world record for skydiving when he jumped to Earth from a helium balloon in the stratosphere 24 miles above the earth’s surface.

Nestle’s Kit Kat created a campaign around the event, sending the candy into orbit with Felix and filming both its ascent and descent, shared via Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. KitKat also created a countdown promoted through Facebook in a build-up to the launch. The campaign resulted in over 8 million Twitter impressions and millions of video views according to agency JWT.

Uber India

One of the official sponsors of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, Uber India came up with a witty Twitter and Facebook post during the India vs New Zealand match asking the rain gods to change their ‘drop location.’ How we wish they used the Uber app and paid heed to this post!


best brand moments uber india word cloud

Johnnie Walker

Diageo launched a special edition whiskey based on Game Of Thrones. The packaging was changed to white. This created a great response in consumers’ minds and the brand got great sales and views. The name ‘White Walker’ also matches their theme: ‘Keep Walking.’

You can watch the video here:

Spotify

best brand moments spotify game of thrones
For the launch of Season 6 of Game Of Thrones, Spotify created music profiles for 31 of the most celebrated characters teaming up with the show’s music supervisor Evyen J. Klean. A user was offered a chance to see which character’s profile best matches their own musical tastes.

Arby’s X Pharrell Williams

Pharrell’s much talked about Vivienne Westwood hat from the Grammy’s went on auction in 2014 and was sold the day of the Oscars. Pharrell tweeted about this, thanking whoever bought it on eBay for $44,100. Arby’s responded to Pharrell’s tweet wishing him good luck at the awards and thanking him for the support for the great cause. Arby’s generated 6K+ retweets on this single tweet.

best brand moments arbys pharrell

NASA

NASA was the biggest cheerleader of the film ‘Gravity’ bagging a number of Oscars back in 2014. The space agency celebrated this by tweeting images, facts, and images from space using the hashtag #RealGravity.


best brand moments nasa topic wheel
best brand moments nasa gravity word cloud

In my opinion, these were some of the greatest moments when brands hit the sweet spot — marketing with the right content at the right time.