Mastering the Art of Short-Form Video Content
Mastering short-form video content: creation tips, platform optimization, and audience engagement in today's digital age.
With 1.3 billion monthly active users on Instagram and 3 billion daily active users on Facebook, these platforms are essential for marketing. Malaysia’s growing presence on social media makes Instagram and Facebook ideal for boosting brand awareness, collaborating with influencers, and promoting products.
Source: apple
Instagram and Facebook are perfect for boosting brand awareness, showcasing personality, networking with influencers, and promoting products. But where do you start, right?
Make sure to explore our articles Marketing Strategies for Instagram Advertising and A Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Advertising for an overview.
No sweat, buddy! We’ve got your back with some fantastic social media marketing examples to kickstart your creative juices. Let’s jump right in and spark that marketing magic, shall we?
Duolingo
Well, looks like Duolingo, that language-learning app, is indeed a rising social media star. It cleverly hooks you in with bite-size lessons and gamified “Streaks” that make you want to come back every day.
Duolingo nailed it with a hilarious campaign that brings their owl to life. They even humorously use their notoriously persistent notifications for self-mockery.
Source: chipotle and duolingo
The beauty? They’ve built a brand that’s fun but serious about its goal – helping folks ace a new language. This balance drives engagement, a key goal for any Instagram campaign.
Their Instagram account doesn’t really have a visually cohesive arrangement? But they’ve got a winning cocktail of video, photo content, animations, and it’s all working beautifully for them!
Key Takeaway: Give useful value through light-hearted humour and gamification can result in higher user engagement. The balance between being enjoyable and staying committed to your mission can truly work wonders on social media.
Apple
Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” campaign on Instagram is simply genius. They’ve soared their marketing lines around UGC (user-generated content), evolving the #ShotoniPhone hashtag into an integral part of Apple’s online realm.
Source: apple
Now, here comes the cherry on top – they’ve started to bring in celebrity firepower like NewJeans and Olivia Rodrigo to spice things up. We’re talking about taking pictures using the iPhone and sharing their fresh music releases at the same time. It’s like they’ve fused Hollywood glamour and music within their campaign, creating a unique blend that truly attracts their target audience.
Source: apple
And guess what? The majority of their feed boasts posts directly from their users. That’s one strong show of user engagement! Even more interestingly, they’ve gone minimalistic with just one Story highlight that pushes their latest iPhone.
Key Takeaway: Benefiting from user-generated content can provide authenticity and massive engagement. Tying your brand with influencers or celebrities, when aligned with your audience, can give your campaigns an extra spark.
Adidas
Adidas goes beyond just being a sneaker brand; their Instagram platform is a testament to this. Not only do they highlight their shoes, but they also use their online presence to illuminate social issues – proving their bold approach to marketing. A prime example is their initiation of the hashtag #WithWomenWeRun, sparked by insights revealing 92% of women often face safety concerns while running.
Source: adidaswomen and adidas
Moreover, Adidas doesn’t stop at product promotion; they actively engage with sports influencers and share sports-related content. This expands how their brand is perceived, painting them as invested in the sporting world rather than just a company that sells athletic shoes.
Their marketing on Instagram goes a step further to send a clear message: Adidas is not merely a shoe company. It’s a reputable voice and influential player in the realms of fitness and active lifestyle, entrusted by world-class athletes and respected sports personalities worldwide.
Key Takeaway: Beyond being a product, embodying a social cause can strengthen audience bonds. Partnering with influencers and widening content scope beyond product promotion broadens your brand’s reach and resonance.
Kiehl’s
Kiehl’s Malaysia, the skincare brand, promoted a sustainability-themed campaign in the form of Facebook in-stream video ads and Reels ads. Teaming up with local celebrities, their campaign, “Future Made Better With Kiehl’s”, aimed to boost awareness among millennials, seeing a 2.4-point increase in top-of-mind recognition.
The company created compelling visuals that beautifully expressed the dual action of caring for the environment, particularly saving sea turtles, and buying products composed of renewable ingredients in eco-friendly packaging. These visuals were then utilised in 15- to 20-second video ads and Facebook and Instagram Reels ads, spotlighting their best-selling items marked with an environmental and turtle conservation motif.
Source: evelyn.ramli
In parallel, Kiehl’s Malaysia continued its regular carousel-format photo and video ads designed to drive conversions. Whenever these ads were clicked on, users were brought to the brand’s website to get more information on their sustainability initiatives and look through available products.
To interact with a broad audience base, Kiehl’s Malaysia targeted individuals involved in beauty, cosmetics, fashion, and skincare with their ads. Moreover, to grab the attention of like minded potential customers, retargeted ads were shown based on an audience that consisted of dynamic website and Facebook visitors.
Key Takeaway: Boost customer engagement and brand recognition by incorporating social causes into your product ads and employing strategic marketing techniques.
Heineken
Heineken Malaysia came up with an inventive way to support local bars and food vendors hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. They did this by starting their first-ever online sale, “Raise Our Bars” and “Save Our Street Food”. Through this, folks could buy drink vouchers from their site and Heineken matched each purchase with a donation to local ventures, selling a fantastic 74,800 beers and ciders!
Source: heinekenmy
The nifty idea here was that customers could buy refreshing beers or ciders from the comfort of their homes while supporting their favourite local shops. Heineken didn’t only match each purchase, but also gave the full proceeds to these small businesses. Plus, Tiger Beer threw in an extra RM 1 million to help with the rents of street food sellers!
Source: heinekenmy
The campaign had engaging video ads that led people to the website to shop. Famed brands like Heineken, Tiger, Guinness, and Apple Fox Cider featured these ads, spreading the word and bringing the campaign to as many people as possible. The company kept the ads relevant by targeting legal drinking age adults across Malaysia, except for people interested in Muslim community and lifestyle, and offering them in both English and Mandarin.
Heineken Malaysia’s campaign was live all through May 2020 and aired on Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network, using smart ad placements and budget optimization to keep costs low and make the ads most effective.
Key Takeaway: A successful marketing campaign can combine support for a social cause with effective online sales strategies, making use of clever targeting and budget optimization to improve reach and cost-effectiveness.
Watsons
Watsons, a health and beauty retailer, decided to shake things up a bit. They included Instagram Reels in their regular Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns and the result was super impressive—a 48% increase in video completion rates!
They had this cool idea to find new brand ambassadors through a contest. So, they asked people to create and submit their best Instagram Reels. The one with the best Reel would win some cash and a chance to be a brand ambassador. They worked with Entropia, a media agency, to make a video specifically for Instagram Reels in line with Meta’s guidelines, ensuring it was friendly for sound-on or off environments.
Source: Watsons
Watsons mixed in the new Reels ads with their existing video ads campaign. With Advantage+ placements, they smartly spread their ads across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and the Meta Audience Network. They were bold enough to even exclude their current followers and similar audiences, hoping to bring in new people.
To really check how much the Reels ads were helping, Watsons also ran a side-by-side comparison of their campaign with and without the Reels ads for 20 days.
Key Takeaway: Innovating with new types of content like Instagram Reels in your routine ad campaigns can lead to a big jump in engagement. Test and learn to discover what works best for your brand.
Gopro
Let us tell you how GoPro is rocking it with social media contests. They wanted to hype up their new HERO9 Black camera. So, what did they do? They put a whopping $1 million on the line for their third annual Million Dollar Challenge! They asked GoPro fans across the globe to send in their best, raw GoPro footage. The best part? The winners get to split the $1 million equally.
Source: GoPro
GoPro has a massive fan base on Facebook, with over 10.9 million likes! They cashed in on this and used Facebook to run the contest. In just 80 days, they got over 29,000 video submissions from 125 different countries! They then selected 56 of these clips and mashed them up into a 2-minute long video, showing the world what it means to be part of the amazing #GoProFamily. This video has now been seen over 664,000 times on Facebook and counting.
Here’s the thing about GoPro’s customers—they’re a creative bunch! They used the brilliance of user-generated content as the key driver of their campaign. So, spending $1 million might seem crazy, but remember, they’re making their customers the stars and showing off their new product at the same time.
Source: GoPro
But wait, there’s more! After the contest ended, GoPro kept the ball rolling by sharing individual winner’s quotes, snippets of their clips, and links to Q&As revealing the magic that happened behind the scenes. Now that’s how you extend the life of a campaign!
Key Takeaway: Give back to your most loyal supporters and celebrate their creativity
Conclusion
As we’ve explored, social media provides an expansive platform to ignite your brand’s presence, leverage user-generated content, stir nostalgia, promote causes and more. These creative examples unveil the power of successful marketing campaigns for brands like Duolingo, Apple, Adidas, and more.
Now, it’s your turn to bring your brand to life and make unforgettable connections with your audience. But we know – it can be daunting. Where do you start, right?
Here’s the thing – you’re not alone in this journey. At AdFortless, we’re all about helping businesses like yours succeed in this digital era. Transforming complex marketing challenges into simplified, actionable solutions is our forte.
Our team of expert marketers is just a click away. Let’s chat about how AdFortless can tailor the perfect strategy to catapult your brand’s social media presence and supercharge your marketing efforts, effortlessly. Dive in and explore the world of AdFortless now!
