Updated: May 22, 2020

Have you ever felt like you’re entirely running out of ideas for your content marketing strategies and campaigns?

Well, you’re not alone.

Today’s marketers are aware that content is king, but then what does it take to stand out in the crowd? If you’re looking to uniquely set yourself apart from the competition, then you’ll need to carve out content that is compelling and exciting.

Content Marketing is centered around the use of content to attract visitors, retain them, and eventually turn them into return customers. Brands who use it know how effective it can be.

Even though advertising still works, it’s not as it used to be. Statistics show that 47% of internet users all over the world now use ad-blocker.

If you’re interrupting users with your ad message and the strategy doesn’t work well, how can you get them to seek out your company or product passionately? The answer is content marketing.

Marketers that pay close attention to blogging efforts are 13 times more likely to get a positive ROI. This is a clear indication that content marketing does more than just helping you drive traffic.

However, many small businesses and entrepreneurs find it hard to get the best from their content marketing efforts. That’s because it goes way beyond creating a simple video or writing blog posts.

Here are some of the most inspiring content marketing examples from creative brands around the world.

Let’s get started.

1. Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” 

For years, Coca-Cola has been putting out ground-breaking marketing campaigns and content strategies that establish an emotional connection with its broad audience.

The “Share a Coke” campaign got started in 2011, and still today, it’s still on. The campaigns grant every Coca-Cola fan, the opportunity to personalize their drink by either putting their name or a friend’s name on the bottle.

The campaign touched something significant for customers- personalization, it was a great way to capture the attention of their audience and have them make a purchase. It went viral and resulted in sales of 250 million cans and bottles across the summer.

The brand also followed up their social media and printed campaigns with videos that displayed friends chilling together and sharing a coke with their name on it. The strategy showed how the product could bring people together.

2. Make-A-Wish BatKid Campaign

The Make-A-Wish BatKid foundation is a charitable organization that puts together special and unique experiences for children who’re suffering from severe and life-threatening conditions like cancer and others.

Even non-profit organizations need to promote their work in an attractive and compelling manner to capture the attention of volunteers, donors, and individuals who can support their cause.

This foundation worked hand-in-hand with the city of San Francisco to help a young boy (called mike) who had the passion for becoming a batman even though he was battling with leukemia. They made his aspiration come true, and they impressively captured it in a short documentary film and used an entire digital marketing campaign to get their message out.

The brand was able to attract people’s attention and inspire their actions by connecting to them on an emotional level.

3. Squat App or Charmin’s Sit

This toilet paper brand created a mobile application called Sit or Stand for their customers, and they built a social media campaign around the app to get the words out about their products.

The application allowed users to check and see whether the toilets around their local area are clean or not. The idea is that, if the toilets are clean then people can feel free to sit on it, but if they’re not clean then people might consider squatting.

What made this app useful is that it’s interactive and it gets people talking. Even though the app idea might look silly, it comes in handy for consumers who’d be using the brand’s product.

4. Hootsuite’s Game of Social Games Video

When you want to launch a content marketing strategy, it won’t be a bad idea to tap into popular culture. That’s the strategy Hootsuite employed.

Hootsuite is a social media management tool that marketers can use to post content to their social media accounts. The brand had a little fun with their marketing by creating a viral video that was loved by both followers and fans.

As lovers of the HBO television show titled “Game of Thrones”, the team wanted to pay homage to the show while also getting the value of their product across- hence the idea of the “Game of Social Thrones” video.

They used the Game of Thrones as a jumping-off point to tell a significant story about their brand through a video titled “A Game of Social Thrones.”

The amusing video helps Hootsuite to get the attention of their audience while positioning itself as a product for businesses. The video ends by displaying Hootsuite’s logo connecting all social channels and the tagline “Hootsuite-unite all your social kingdom.”

5. Grow From Acorns

Grow from Acorns is a blog where the brand publishes tons of useful articles for their target audience with the goal of empowering them with realistic and relevant counsel that can help them achieve their financial goals.

Even though the blog has some CTA and actions to the Acorn website, the goal of the blog isn’t to discuss how great Acorn is but to help readers with insights into how they can make enhanced decisions about their finances. Grow from Acorn is an impeccable example of a branded blog that offers valuable content for its readers.

6. Burberry’s Kisses Campaign

This campaign was centered around the line of beauty products sold by the Burberry brand. The foundation of the campaign was so that you could send a virtual kiss to someone you know after you must have virtually chosen a lipstick.

The campaign was an innovative and fun idea that customers took to. By appealing their audience’s desire to connect and emotions, Burberry captured the attention of their target customers’ in such a way that the brand will be the first place to think of when customers want to purchase cosmetics.

7. Nintendo’s Multi-Channel Campaign for Switch 

When Nintendo was about to launch its Switch console, they used several marketing channels to generate delight for the new console and globally announce its launch.

From massive billboards to their social media posts, Nintendo maintained unswerving visual branding. Their messages were also steady across diverse locations and channels.

8. AARP

AARP is another content marketing example that emphasizes the significance of knowing your audience and delivering content just the way they want it.

The brand has won many awards for the quality of its design, photography, and content, but then there’s nothing secretive about their success. AARP listens to all their readers who reach out to them via social media, letter, and email and they use the information to carve out topics that their audience can easily relate with.

AARP is America’s most prominent consumer magazine that is distributed to over 22 million households. In addition to that, they also have over 33 million readers.

 

9. BUFFER:

Buffer is one brand that leveraged content marketing and grew from nothing to tens of millions of dollars in worth.

On their blog, they write about productivity, work culture, creativity, social media, and online marketing – the last two subjects are what their target customers do.

Buffer made their blog exceptional by adding the other topics into it. Additionally, they’re actively using Facebook and Twitter to promote their SaaS product.

 

10. ESTY:

Esty is an online marketplace for vintage and handmade goods. They use a compelling content marketing strategy that drives sales.

For instance, Esty publishes content on its blog and has a considerable presence (about 994,000) on Pinterest.

In addition to that, Esty uses visuals on IG (with over 1.7 million followers) to promote its stores.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Show up, be true, be kind, keep going. 🧡 Get inspired with this downloadable embroidery pattern from Etsy seller @cozyblue.

A post shared by etsy (@etsy) on May 21, 2020 at 6:24pm PDT

Esty is aware that its customers want visuals and photographs. They offer that through their blog and on social media.

11. GetResponse:

This creative brand is one of the top email marketing services on the web that uses content marketing to create demand for their services.

Their blog receives over 150k visits through content marketing, and about 50% of those visits come directly from search engines.

GetResponse publishes different types of content like infographics, webinars, courses, and case studies. Their blog targets several topics like automation, productivity, and marketing.

One good lesson to learn from GetResponse is that you can leverage content marketing by targeting different topics related to your industry.

12. HUBSPOT:

If there’s one company that’s doing completely fine with content marketing, then it should be HubSpot. They publish anything from 5 to 7 new blog posts every day.

When you publish tons of free and useful content on the web, you’ll benefit from your content marketing efforts. By doing that, you’re giving your prospects and customers a lot of useful and valuable resources.

13. XERO:

Xero is one of the most popular online account software used by most B2B brands out there.

Even at that, they still invest in content marketing.

The company’s blog is focused on small business, product, and tech-related topics. Their target audience is most interested in these topics.

If a B2B company like Xero still leverages content marketing for storytelling through its blog, it shows the importance of content marketing.

 

14. ZENDESK:

This is one of the coolest content marketing examples in the world. Zendesk hopped on something that could have gone against them, and they leveraged that opportunity to show their brand personality and value.

It’s worth noting that your target audience is always looking for alternative companies that offer the same product or service as your brand.

Zendesk realized that people were searching for keywords like Zendesk alternatives. Afterward, they hijacked the keyword phrase and developed a video and mini-site optimized around it.

This singular action resulted in many goodwill and a page one spot for the Zendesk alternatives keyword.

15. SALESFORCE:

A lot of people consider Salesforce to be the number 1 CRM provider in the world. Even though they’re at the top of the cloud computing industry, Salesforce still invests in content marketing to create demand for their products and/or services.

Additionally, the company has a community where customers can ask questions and get answers from professionals.

16. HELP SCOUT:

Help Scout is a help desk software that uses content marketing to drive growth and help customers.

The company uses content to educate and assist their customers and prospects.

In the words of Gregory Ciotti,

“Help Scout always see content as a means to help their customers get the results they need.”

As an aside, the company had over 3 million visitors on its blog in 2015 alone.

17. AUTODESK:

If you’re in the content marketing niche and you talk about very few topics, you’ll have a limited ability to grow a much bigger audience.

On the flip side, if you write about too many subject matters, it’ll become difficult to ascertain where you stand.

For companies like Autodesk that focus on engineering software and 3D printing, it’s particularly challenging to stay in the middle of a few topics and many topics.

In their blog, Autodesk writes about manufacturing, infrastructure, construction, and architecture. They use the blog to create demand for their products and services.

 

18. TASTY’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL:

Tasty is a YouTube channel that features recipes and other food-related content. The channel was launched three years ago, and since then, their videos have been able to rack up about 2.8 billion views.

The success of this channel on YouTube can be attributed to three facts: their excellent and consistent video content publications, unique video format, and eye-catching thumbnails. Here’s an

These videos are easily digestible, short, and explain the cooking process.

 

19. SHUTTERSTOCK:

If there’s one brand that has been in the business of images, then it’s Shutterstock- the brand has used its proficiency in content creation to create a resource (AKA creative trend reports) that everyone can benefit from.

Shutterstock takes advantage of the fact that people value reliable data, and this type of resource generally gets shared.

According to the infographics from Content Marketing Institute, Shutterstock attracted over 6 billion site visits last year.

This year, they made the creative trend reports interactive by incorporating music and video.

20. GE:

GE is one brand that has an inspiring content marketing strategy- the company has been known to transform what might seem like a dull business into something more fun and livelier. Here’s a perfect example of their content marketing campaign on Instagram.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Thanks to our incredible group of Instagram pros and #AVgeeks for a great #GEInstaWalk! Check out GE.com/InstaWalk for more photos from our #Aviation Test Operations Facility in Peebles, OH.

A post shared by General Electric (@generalelectric) on Sep 23, 2013 at 1:24pm PDT

With its #GEInstaWalk campaign, the brand invited six Instagram influencers and few fans to travel to their manufacturing facilities and share their experiences using the #GEInstaWalk hashtags. With this, they were able to reach about 3 million people with every new tour.

The #GEInstaWalk Instagram content marketing campaign is an excellent example of how businesses can use branded hashtags to encourage user-generated content.

The campaign racked in 3 million reaches per hour, 8 million views, and 3000 new followers. Surprisingly, the campaign wasn’t done with any paid advertising.

21. SUPERDRUG:

Superdrug is another excellent content marketing example that uses social media and publishing placements to get their audience’s attention.

To raise awareness around issues relating to body images, they asked 18 graphic designers to edit a photo of a model and bring it in line with their brand’s beauty standards.

They published the results on Huffington Post and Buzzfeed, and the campaign resulted in: 1 million social shares, 3 million views, celebrity endorsements, international news coverage, and placements with leading publications like Business Insider, The Telegraph the New York Times.

The company got over billion-page views to its website within five days. Upon completion, the company shared the result, and it brought forth massive results like 3 million views, about 1 million shares, celebrity endorsements amongst others.

Wonderful right?

Wrap Up

In conclusion, the content marketing examples provided in this post will offer some good inspiration for modern marketers who’re looking to do more with their content.

Whether you’re looking to do something extraordinary with your content story or you want to personalize your messaging, it’s necessary to keep your audience in mind whenever you’re developing ideas for the content.

Oh yeah, and also remember to have fun.

If you have further inquiries about how to develop a content marketing for your brand, we’d be happy to hear from you; leave us a comment below.