Almost every year has its marketing hits. Some of these were masterfully planned, others came up out of nowhere and couldn’t have been foreseen. They made 2023 a delightful and sometimes quite serious year, marketing-wise. Let’s take a look at the most creative marketing campaigns of the year.
Barbieheimer
It’s the least likely mash-up ever. First, there’s Barbie, the ultimate doll for girls of a certain age and with parents following decidedly unwoke stereotypes in a movie that was surprisingly affirming. Contrast that to the story wrapped around the creation of the atomic bomb and its Baghavad Gita quoting project manager, Robert Oppenheimer. It sounds like two uncombinables, but consider this:
The two flms came out at the same time, prompting moviegoers to see them back-to-back instead of having to choose between such different, yet widely recommended films. It made for a long day, but NPR pointed to surveys showing that hundreds of thousands of people would do just that on a weekend.
Guinness
Guinness has had some incredible marketing campaigns over its 265 years in existence. The fact that the product is still the same after all this time is a testament to the vision of Arthur Guinness, who invented it, and those who have held the reins since then.
In 2023, Guinness became Britain’s most popular pint in Britain yet again. How? Diageo’s strategy was the exact opposite of the accidental synergy of Barbieheimer. Marketing Week points to a deliberate campaign, very well focused on the target audience, and keeping a solid vision of the basics. Since then, the 2023 Guinness campaign has become a reference point for talking about the 4Ps (product, price, place, and promotion).
McDonald’s
The world-renown fast-food chain McDonald’s gave a master class in brand recognition in 2023. The McDonald’s name, what the company serves, and people eating were not featured at all. MDonald’s could do it because the shape of the company’s logo is so well known that 98% of those tested recognized that it was a McDonald’s commercial before the logo appeared.
The 2023 #RaiseYourArches campaign kicked off by McDonald’s and Leo Burnett focused on that, with the office workers’ surreptitious planning for lunch utilising nothing more than raised eyebrows. Their social media and app use were also highly lauded.
Kyrylo Budanov
In the first half of 2023, hopes were high for Ukraine to start its long-awaited counteroffensive. In the age of telecommunications, that meant that practically everybody was talking about it. In the midst of the waiting, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov released an advertisement, with him seated at his desk, in which he said nothing for 33 seconds. At the end, with a slight smile on his face, the words, “to be continued” appear on the screen.
For those tired of the on-air modelling of what could happen, the silence of someone who actually knew was refreshing. The “Silent Budanov” video was also called a masterful “mindf#$%” video.
Argomenti
