Best social media campaigns of 2009 (part 1/2)

Inspired by Adam Vincenzini’s the top 99 of ’09 , here’s a list of my fav social media campaigns and digital shenanigans of 2009:

January 2009 – The United Sites of Obama

The Obama election campaign was arguably the greatest social media media ever orchestrated to date.

Like a lot of web innovators, the Obama campaign did not invent anything completely new. Instead, by bolting together social networking applications, both niche and mainstream under the banner of a movement, they created an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote that helped them topple the Clinton machine and then the Republicans.

January 2009 – The Whopper sacrifice

I really loved Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice Application. Instead of encouraging you to join a group, find new friends, or spread the word, Burger King’s  Whopper Sacrifice Application gave users a free Whopper if you de-friended 10 people from your friend list. Part of the application makes sure that each of the 10 friends you choose to ditch get a nice note alerting them to the fact that they have been de-friended.

Brutal, bold, and quite frankly, pretty awesome.

March 2009: Skittles trending on Twitter

Do you remember the day where Agency.com turned the Skittles homepage into a simple display of Tweets? The blogosphere was divided over this move but at the end of the day, all publicity is good publicity, right? It certainly helped with their SEO

April 2009: T-Mobile’s flahsmob round 2

The T-Mobile’s Dance became a YouTube hit in a matter of minutes, and will remain one of the most spectacular marketing initiatives I’ve ever seen! Back in April, the T-Mobile guys were at it again, this time organising a giant karaoke in the middle of Trafalgar Square.

April 2009: The nation fell in love with Aleksandr Orlov

The compare the meerkat campaign is a great example of how companies can combine their online and offline marketing initiatives to create a popular brand and have a direct influence towards increasing online traffic and brand awereness. Aleksander now has over 30,000 Twitter followers, over 600,000 Facebook fans and even a non-official group with over 10,000 fans. Impressive.

May 2009: Be careful what you wish for

Wieden + Kennedy were given the task to reinvent the way you market a movie and created an amazing campaign to support the launch of Coraline, by coordinating online/offline mass-intrigue and buzz around the film, truly mastering the art of blogger engagement. An awesome campaign and an awesome movie!

2009 – ongoing: The Ford Fiesta Movement

To promote the launch of the Ford Fiesta in the USA (a market where  C-segment cars do not traditionally perform well), Ford solicited applications for brand ambassadors who think they’re cool enough to be seen in the 2010 Ford Fiesta. That’s right, this Fiesta is invitation only.

100 people – 6 months – 600 missions. They saw, they blogged, they Tweeted… that’s a LOT of content for sure!

To be continued…