Social media is no longer just about networking with friends and people. The platform, given its popularity and humongous user base has steadily evolved into a potent marketing tool for many companies.

A little bit of creativity blended with quirkiness, zing and boldness on social media can do wonders for any enterprise overnight.

Presenting to you some recent campaigns from past year that are examples of how quirky, unique and even risky social media marketing can be effective.

Nivea ‘Second Skin’ video

The “Second Skin Project” video featured a mother and her adult son who couldn’t spend Christmas together, because one lived in Spain and the other in Paraguay. Using VR goggles and a fabric that supposedly simulated human skin, mother and son were reunited.

With “the right tone” and a “non-sales-y approach,” the video received more than 150,000 YouTube views and generated positive social media buzz for Nivea.

‘Blind pre-order’ campaign from Tacobell

This February 6, Taco Bell announced its “first-ever, blind pre-order” of a new, undisclosed menu. Fans could order the mystery item online and pick it up between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. at their local shop.

It was a cross channel marketing strategy which utilized Twitter, Snapchat and Super Bowl TV ads, to create“pent-up desire” for a new menu addition. Lindsay Beltzer, manager of marketing communications at Tenet Partners, says that the campaign is an example of how to create excitement among brand influencers by giving them early or exclusive access to new products or services.

PwC’s #BallotBriefcaseSnapchat campaign

#BallotBriefcase campaign from PricewaterhouseCoopers is a perfect example of how to do B2B marketing on Snapchat.

Auditing firm PwC has managed Oscar balloting for 82 years. For the 2016 awards ceremony, the company sought “to create a modern and savvy campaign” aimed at millennials by using Snapchat “to generate buzz internally and increase external visibility around the firm’s involvement with the Academy Awards,” according to the company. In its first two weeks, PwC’s Snap Story on Snapchat jumped to over 700 views.It also won a Shorty Award in the B2B category.

Domino’s #EasyOrder

You cannot beat Domino’s in pizza and pizza ordering.

Beginning in May 2015, the company let customers request delivery of their favorite pizza by tweeting a pizza emoji to the @Dominos Twitter account, or by using the hashtag #EasyOrder. The tweet-based order system earned Domino’s media coverage from the likes of USA Today, Forbes, and Good Morning America, not to mention a Titanium Grand Prix award at Cannes.

Edeka’s Christmas-themed video

German supermarket chain Edeka released a touching holiday ‘homecoming’ ad in which an elderly man is alone at Christmas because his grown children are too busy to visit. The #HeimKommen ad, which ends on a happy note, touched upon food, family and the true meaning of the holidays, while shining a light on the unfortunate loneliness some older people experience.

The video racked up 33.5 million views within a week on Youtube.

Black Friday campaign from Cards Against Humanity

A perfect example to delight target audiences in unpredictable ways.

On Black Friday 2015, when every business in the world tried to sell consumers something, Cards Against Humanity sold absolutely nothing for $5.The stunt received major media coverage, and the company took in $71,145, when it didn’t even say what it planned to do with the funds.

20th Century Fox’s ‘Deadpool’ promotion

20th Century Fox went all-out for its “Deadpool” film promotion, according to Lily Croll, strategy director with Wire Stone. The irreverent campaign “wove the titular character’s voice and humor into a bombardment of marketing tactics,” she says. “Everything was leveraged from email to TV appearances, billboards to custom emojis, a Fandango takeover — all accompanied by and interwoven with a constant social media backbone. Growing excitement between the @deadpoolmovie Twitter handle, celebrity fans and lead actor Ryan Reynolds blurred the lines between promotion and fandom.”

The first “Deadpool” movie tweet hit the Web in March 2015, nearly a year before the film’s release, and it since earned more than 55,000 retweets and 52,000 likes. The movie’s Twitter handle has nearly 450,000 followers. The campaign “smartly used Reynolds’ genuine Deadpool fandom to elevate (not alienate) diehard fans,” Croll says.

Article Written By: Staff Writer of CIOL