8 Excellent Social Media Hashtag Campaigns

Hashtags seem like they have been a part of our social media life since centuries.

But did you know that the term hashtag only appeared back in 2007?

With the pandemic going on, 2007 might feel centuries ago but since that year, hashtags have brought a revolution when it comes to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

While creating a successful social media hashtag campaign is difficult, the traffic and engagement you can get with a well researched hashtag marketing plan can do wonders for your social media.

Let’s get you inspired by taking a look at 8 excellent social media hashtag campaigns of all time.

1. #DistanceDance by Procter & Gamble

The first months of the pandemic were scary and frustrating. Procter & Gamble thus brought about a social media campaign #DistanceDance that encouraged people to stay at home and also have fun doing that.

P&G partnered with TikTok sensation Charli D’Amelio who urged people to record a short dance video and post it on TikTok using the hashtag #DistanceDance

This campaign was a huge success. Just in a week, the campaign attracted 1.7 million iterations and 8 billion views with even sports teams, big influencers and celebrities joining in.

Many people were also drawn because of the agenda of P&G donating to Feeding America for the first 3 million videos.

Another reason this campaign took off was that P&G understood the fact that dancing videos and challenges are popular on TikTok and they made this a part of their campaign.

This proves that research and analysis goes a long way into making a campaign successful.

2. #HereToCreate by Adidas

In a survey, 87% of consumers stated that personally relevant branded content positively influences how they feel about a brand.

After all, who doesn’t love personalization?

Adidas made use of this tactic during the Boston Marathon in 2018. They created customized videos for all 30,000 participating athletes. The athletes would post these videos on social media with the hashtag #HereToCreate.

It not only was a great way to turn these 30,000 athletes into their brand advocates but the campaign got Adidas access to the respective athlete’s followers too.

This campaign expanded Adidas’s reach, that too within their target audience of sports enthusiasts.

Personalized content and social media hashtag campaigns sure go a long way.

3. #SpotifyWrapped by Spotify

Spotify shares year-end data with users which has a list of their most-listened to songs, artists and albums. It comes in a personalized “Spotify Wrapped” summary.

For 2019, they turned this event even bigger. Instead of just sharing a year’s data, they gave a summary of the past decade depicting how users’ preferences and listening habits had evolved.

These summary snapshots were provided in easily shareable image formats encouraging people to share them on their social media with the hashtag #SpotifyWrapped.

Spotify also went a step further to make personalized summaries for artists which let them see the countries from where their music was streamed, how many fans they had, and so on.

By pairing personalization along with easily shareable data visualizations, #SpotifyWrapped became a winning social media hashtag campaign.

4. #ShotoniPhone by Apple

Apple’s #ShotoniPhone social media hashtag campaign has been a great way of harnessing user-generated content on Instagram.

People use this hashtag to showcase and share the images or videos they shoot using an iPhone.

User-generated content is content that is created by unpaid contributors. These contributors can be customers, fans or followers.

It is a powerful way to not only source great content but engage your target audience and harness the power of social proof.

The #ShotoniPhone campaign has now about 19 million posts. And think about it. This brand exposure is something that Apple didn’t even have to shell out bucks for.

That’s not all. According to a study conducted by Comscore, when brands share user generated content, those posts get 28% more engagement as compared to the standard posts.

Isn’t that great?

5. #ShowUs by Dove

The most beautiful thing about a social media hashtag campaign that builds a rapport with its target audience is that it can work wonders.

For years, Dove has created campaigns that promote the values of natural beauty, inclusivity and positive body image. This one is no different.

The #ShowUs campaign was created to shatter beauty stereotypes. This project was created after they discovered that 70% of women don’t feel represented in media and advertising.

For this campaign, Dove partnered with Getty Images, Girlgaze and women everywhere supported this movement and helped create a photo library.

This campaign also got a lot of user-generated content because of which the campaign became an internet sensation. With more than 650,000 uses of the hashtag and 5000 images in the photo library, Dove proved that social media campaigns that relate and form a connection with the audience are the best.

6. #ShareACoke by Coca-Cola

The concept behind the #ShareACoke campaign was to have cokes with people’s names, titles or locations on them. People could gift these bottles to others. The popularity of this campaign even led to Coca-Cola launching a website for its customers through which they could order these personalized bottles.

Apart from personalization, this campaign helped create happy experiences for its customers. This led to a lot of user generated content. People went so far as to share their pregnancy announcements by having labels “Mom” and “Dad” printed on Coke bottles and sharing the posts on Facebook.

Coca-Cola also collaborated with celebrities like Selena Gomez and Ryan Seacrest to further boost their social media hashtag campaign.

7. #PutACanOnIt by Redbul

Redbull’s #PutACanOnIt campaign is the perfect example of a campaign that is fun, innovative and helps spark the creativity of its customers.

All users had to do was bring out their inner creative geniuses and think about placing their Redbull can in such a way that the picture seemed humorous, inspiring, witty or creative.

This campaign went on to receive a lot of user-generated content that got Redbull a lot of attention with no extra cost to them as the users did the ideation for them.

They just shared the very best content they came across by searching through the #PutACanOnIt hashtag.

8. #LetsDoLunch by Domino’s

Domino’s helped create a community around their brand with this social media hashtag campaign.

It happened back in 2012 when for every person who retweeted the hashtag #LetsDoLunch, the cost of the pizza would go down for the day till 3 pm.

They encouraged people to motivate everyone they knew to participate to get the cheapest Domino’s pizza ever. Isn’t that a fun way to generate brand engagement?

Providing exclusive deals to your customers or conducting giveaways is yet another way of having an excellent social media hashtag campaign and Domino’s sure did take advantage of that.

Conclusion

Social media hashtag campaigns are a great way to increase your brand awareness and expand your social media reach. Just one campaign that goes right could make your brand an internet sensation.

So, what are you waiting for? Get your inspiration from these successful campaigns and let us know if we have missed out on any. You can also check our best social media agencies directory if you’re looking for one.