The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns

Written by Jeff Bullas - View Comments
Categories: Facebook, Facebook Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing


Facebook marketing campaigns seem to be going all warm, caring and fluffy recently as brands realize that solving problems and helping those in need can be a very effective marketing tactic.

Three of the Facebook campaigns in this list have an altruistic reason behind their campaigns, from donating $500,000 each to 20 schools to raising funds for the “Make A Wish Foundation”.

The marketing goals for the Facebook pages vary but quite often the simple goal of just increasing their fan count to their Facebook page seems to be top of the list as brands have worked out very quickly that being able to communicate to 1,000′s or even millions of fans via a simple status update is very efficient highly leveraged marketing. Companies have also realized that  people’s main reason for becoming a fan for the most part is not so charitable, but is about having access to the latest special offers and freebies.

10 Best Facebook Campaigns

1. Kohl

The Department store Kohl’s gave away $10 million to various schools decided by the votes of their fans on Facebook. It was an excellent promotional campaign as the 20 schools with the most votes were each given $500 thousand. Kohl’s Facebook page sky rocketed to well over a million fans, and the winning schools each tallied well over 100,000 votes. Kohl’s hit it out of the park so to speak with this campaign centered around the social network, and they did an excellent job utilizing social media tactics to help in its social responsibility efforts.

10 Best Facebook Campaigns Kohl

2. Target

n February of this year, popular department store Target left the choice of where to donate $1 million into the hands of their fans on the social network. The company used an application titled “Super Love Sender” and kept fans updated in real time which charity was in the lead. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital ended up being the winning charity. Overall though, the excellent campaign was a complete success as it created quite a boom on the store’s Facebook page.

10 Best Facebook Campaigns Target

3. Ford Explorer

2010 saw a shift in Ford’s promotion techniques as they began gearing their campaigns towards social media outlets, and they really pushed the boundaries with innovative ideas. This past summer they released tidbits of info leading up to a Facebook event unveiling the 2011 Ford Explorer. The campaign was the first time a car company has ever used a website to reveal their new model as opposed to an auto show. Ford also went as far to randomly select one of their fans to giveaway a free Explorer upon their fan total surpassing a certain number.

Read more about this at 10 Key Elements Of One Of The Top #Facebook Marketing Campaigns Of The Year.

10 Best Facebook Campaigns Ford Explorer

4. Jack In The Box

Popular fast food chain Jack In The Box, and their slightly creepy mascot Jack, added a nickel in an imaginary jar for every new fan they accrued on Facebook in their October Rich Fan Sweepstakes. They started at just over $2,000, and when they gave away the money about a month later to a randomly selected fan, the jar was up to over $11,500. Needless to say, giving away free money is one of the best and easiest ways to acquire new fans on the social network. It was certainly a creative campaign though that helped the fast food chain see an explosive increase in fan numbers.

10 Best Facebook Campaigns Jack in the box

5. Bing and Farmville

A little before the beginning of Spring, Microsoft’s Facebook page for Bing launched a campaign that helped them accrue almost a half million new fans on the social network. The search engine did this by giving away FarmVille currency to all new fans that hit the “Like” button. Bing drew in great traffic and their page grew rapidly, but engagement of the content on the page was drawn into question. The Microsoft page responded by making itself a hotspot with the latest news about the popular Zynga developed game to keep their new fans around.

10 Best Facebook Campaigns Bing

6. Papa Johns Pizza

The first pizza chain’s Facebook campaign to appear on our Year End list is Papa Johns. They promoted their Papa’s Speciality Pizza Contest using Facebook, and it created quite a buzz and a growth in fans as a result. The contest put the fans taste buds and creativity to the test as it was up to them to come up with a new pizza for the company. The winner also saw a piece of the profits, so it was not too much of a surprise that this creative campaign helped the popular chain’s fan-base on Facebook continue to expand.

10 Best Facebook Campaigns Papa Johns

7. Southwest Airlines

To go a whole list without mentioning at least one company that has utilized Facebook’s new popular feature, Places, just would not be acceptable. Southwest partnered up with the Make A Wish Foundation for an excellent charitable promotion that had the airline donating a dollar to the organization every time a passenger checks into a Southwest served airport. The promotion has had great success, as it is for a great cause, and it has it helped Southwest gain over 1 million fans on the social network. Be sure to check in on your next flight and join an excellent campaign.

10 Best Facebook Campaigns Southwest

8. Kellogs

Popular cereal company Kellogg’s teamed up with Feeding America, and the Facebook page Kellogg Cares comes as a result. The page has been a quick increase in fans, and the content posted makes it such an interactive success on the social network. The page’s aim is to educate younger generations on proper nutrition through posts and video updates. Kellogg’s used Facebook in an extremely humane fashion to raise awareness for a particular issue.

10 Best Facebook Campaigns Kellog Cares

9. Domino’s Pizza

Domino’s Pizza has completely revamped its brand image this year through advertising campaigns, and a heavy focus on interactive social networks. As they were coming to the realization that their pizza previously tasted similar to cardboard, they started a tab on their Facebook page where fans could voice all of their complaints with the popular chain. Regardless of any opinion on whether their new pizza has actually improved, their use of Facebook to listen fans opinions was a great way to begin to improve a deteriorating image that was initially attached to their brand. Domino’s continues to be extremely interactive on the page offering responses and updates for fans.

10 Best Facebook Campaigns Dominos

10.  Corona

Corona Light cross-media campaign this past year included a goal to become “The Most Liked Light Beer In America.” A most notable part of this was to use Facebook, and by fanning the page you could see your picture up in the bright lights of New York City’s Time Square. The campaign was a great social media success in the sense that it had fans interacting on the pages as well as spreading the story of the billboard by word of mouth. The billboard ran for a month until the beginning of December, and many fans were able to snag pictures and be a part of this Facebook-based advertisement.

10 Best Facebook Campaigns Corona

So what is a Facebook marketing campaign that you have noticed recently that impressed you? Look forward to reading it in the comments.

This list was sourced from Allfacebook.com which is a great resource for finding the latest information on all things Facebook.

More Reading:

How Effective Are Facebook Ads?

10 Key Elements Of One Of The Top #Facebook Marketing Campaigns Of The Year

How To Increase Your #Facebook Page Fans By 1,000%



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  • http://www.juanmarketing.com/ juanmarketing

    Good compilation, but I miss brands like Nokia, Sony or Starbucks… Old Spice?

    Passion makes the difference

  • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

    Thanks for your comment Juan I didn’t add in Old Spice because I had already covered it here and it was more a YouTube social media campaign http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/08/31/the-10-best-social-media-campaigns/ Cheers Jeff

  • http://meers.com @meglub

    Has there been any flack regarding Dominos looking inauthentic? Otherwise, great mash-up of the leaders! @meglub

  • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

    No not yet, let’s hope the brand police don’t show and for poetic licence, let’s just call it a representative image :)

  • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

    Thanks for the comment and having a top 10 for smaller companies that have a limited budget sounds like a good idea for a post

  • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

    Thanks for the comment Sarah and it sounds like you had some fun putting the campaign together

  • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

    Thanks Tanith for your comment. There is nothing like a “Win..Win” to keep the wheels of commerce and charity’s wheels spinning.

  • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

    Thanks for the comment and I hope it inspires your clients

  • http://blog.kmto.de/notizen/die-10-besten-facebook-kampagnen-der-welt-und-so/ Die 10 besten Facebook Kampagnen der Welt – und so. auf Marketing Welten

    [...] Die 10 besten Face­book Kam­pag­nen der Welt. Solche Überschriften wer­den schnell mal weit­ergegeben. Kurzer Blick auf den Beitrag und raus damit. Twit­ter ist ja geduldig. Nur schade, daß kaum jemand nach­denkt. Schlim­mer noch: es scheint, als woll­ten sowohl der Blog­beitra­gende, als auch die Twit­ter­schleuder sich kosten­los im Licht von Aktio­nen son­nen, an deren Ver­wirk­lichung sie sel­ber null Anteil hatten. [...]

  • http://twitter.com/moses3k Anh Tu Sam

    Hey.. what about the awesome IKEA campaign: http://youtu.be/0TYy_3786bo ??

  • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

    I see the start of another list !!

  • http://mwcom.se/2011/03/01/mw-tips-2011-03-01/ MW-Tips: 2011-03-01

    [...] The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns 10 smarta Facebook-kampanjer, inklusive bland andra Target, Papa Johns Pizza och Southwest Airlines. Listan är gjord av australiern Jeff Bullas. [...]

  • http://ccpslinks.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/the-10-best-facebook-campaigns/ The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns « CPPS
  • http://www.myvicarioustravel.wordpress.com wordwanderlust

    Jeff, these are fab! But we’ve seen most of them so many times. It would be awesome to see some fresh campaigns (from smaller comapnies)

  • http://gavinllewellyn.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/whats-your-price-tag-2/ What’s your price tag? « Gavin's Blog

    [...] can also be a lot of fun. Just look at what Old Spice and Blendtec have been doing! Just two of many more examples of companies having a great (and successful) time using social [...]

  • Anonymous

    Nice list, but I think Amex Small Business Saturday deserves consideration. 100K fans in less than a month.
    http://www.facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday

  • Ed

    There’s no way you can forget the IKEA campaign… one of the best use of facebook and all the tools it provides.

  • Anonymous

    Interesting, always useful to see Facebook campaigns.

    Can I just ask, what makes them so good? Are you talking from a purely creative sense that they look good or did they actually increase sales/donations/awareness? If so by how much?

    Just seems like a lot of new applications with nice creative but surely Facebook apps and campaigns are more than that now?

    Also – how much did they cost? Did they use Ads to drive? In my experience no ads then tabs don’t get used very well. Also – with the majority of interactions taking place on post updates rather than the wall how did that integrate?

    Lots of questions I know.

  • Sales

    We are a startup and just launched our iframe based app for our fan page http://ow.ly/4JaIx

  • http://blog.gsdm.com/?p=4904 A “Like” is a First Date « Curiosity | GSD&M Blog

    [...] For an example of brands that have been noted for doing this well, check out this blog. [...]

  • http://blog.iconsultants.eu/2011/05/grundsatze-des-word-of-mouth-marketing-hauptsache-personlich/ Word of Mouth Marketing – Facebook Marketing, Facebook Fanpage, Facebook Applikationen

    [...] Positive Beispiele werden von Jeff Bulla beschrieben. [...]

  • http://aurasmihai.ro/2011/06/prezentari-cu-si-despre-facebook/ Prezentari cu si despre Facebook |AurasMihai. Online-ing

    [...] trafic generat de si pentru paginile de facebook, pluginuri, sfaturi si studii de caz. Si bonus, top 10 best facebook campaigns Social 101 Facebook View more presentations from Marcus Nelson FAIL: Social Media Disasters & [...]

  • http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/the-50-best-social-media-blog-posts-in-the-first-half-of-2011/ A selection of 50 of the best social mesia blog posts from 2011

    [...] bit of Research shows Facebook emotional boost is like marriage If you need a little inspiration The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns An Exclusive look at the new Facebook photo sharing app launching [...]

  • http://digitalmarketinginstitute.ie/blog/marketing/the-50-best-social-media-blog-posts-in-the-first-half-of-2011/ The 50 Best Social Media Blog Posts In The First Half Of 2011

    [...] bit of Research shows Facebook emotional boost is like marriage If you need a little inspiration The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns An Exclusive look at the new Facebook photo sharing app launching [...]

  • http://www.drivensocial.com Matt

    I’m not very impressed.  These are supposedly the best Facebook campaigns, but they also spent millions of dollars doing it.  I think the best campaigns are the ones who can gain the most fans with the least amount of money spent.

  • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

    Thanks for your comment Matt. The challenge with any business is to see what the best of breed are doing and then work out how to do “more with less” . That is the constant challenge for marketers. Cheers

  • http://www.khaledscorner.com خالد

    Nice post thanks

  • Craig

    How about displaying successful campaigns from so called “mom and pop” type businesses without mega budgets?

  • Crazyflux

    Volkswagen has a neat FB campaign running at the moment, it takes fans behind the scenes on what it takes to make a commercial getting them involved throughout the entire process – http://www.facebook.com/vwcanada?sk=app_135745576502974

  • http://socialmediatoday.com.au/2011/08/how-much-is-one-facebook-fan-worth/ How Much is One Facebook Fan Worth? | Social Media Today

    [...] § The 10 Best Facebook Marketing Campaigns [...]

  • http://twitter.com/MyrnaWidlend Myrna Widlend

    Great Post…would love to see the “average person” or “small home based business” successes shared.  Isn’t that what social media is all about the average person no longer has to wait to be discovered….they create their own online success.  #justsaying

  • http://twitter.com/MyrnaWidlend Myrna Widlend

    Great Post…would love to see the “average person” or “small home based business” successes shared.  Isn’t that what social media is all about the average person no longer has to wait to be discovered….they create their own online success.  #justsaying

  • http://socialogicmarketing.com/2011/08/03/heres-one-for-the-fans-rewarding-your-followers/ Here’s One for the Fans: Rewarding Your Followers

    [...] that tasted like, well, anything else, Domino’s couldn’t please all of its critics. So, the company turned to Facebook for suggestions on improving its product, where fans could see that their suggestions were being [...]

  • http://www.christopherakoch.com/2011/08/4-reasons-why-facebook-stinks-for-b2b-marketing/ 4 Reasons Why Facebook Stinks for B2B Marketing | Chris Koch's B2B Marketing Blog

    [...] I see many brands launching altruistic campaigns on Facebook to get attention and burnish their [...]

  • http://www.pokergosh.com The PokerGosh

    Red Bull also has a very good fb page…

  • http://facebookap.com/?p=528 4 Reasons Why Facebook Stinks for B2B Marketing | facebookap.com

    [...] we see many brands rising altruistic campaigns on Facebook to get courtesy and refinement their [...]

  • http://ibrandcasting.com/big-brand-marketing-ideas-to-steal-and-claim-as-your-own/08/10/2011/ » Big Brand Marketing Ideas to Steal and Claim as Your Own – ibrandcasting.com

    [...] Get Liked like Corona Light: Last year, the lower-calorie version of everybody’s favorite chips and salsa beer launched a campaign to become America’s most “Liked” light beer. The company bribed beer drinkers and Facebookers alike with free merchandise and fancy trips — and it worked. The company has garnered nearly 300,000 Facebook likes under its belt. So while you might not be able to give away trips to get likes for your Facebook page, we’re sure you have something to entice FBers to like your page. From free cocktails to free tickets, every business has something to give away and we’ve seen small businesses thrive using the bribes for Likes model Corona popularized. [...]

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    [...] [...]

  • http://www.yolao.com/3718.html 十大最佳Facebook营销活动案例 | 优酪网

    [...] 原文链接：http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/03/01/the-10-best-facebook-campaigns/ [...]

  • http://www.doodou.com/?p=299 十大最佳Facebook营销活动案例 | 智分享

    [...] 原文链接：http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/03/01/the-10-best-facebook-campaigns/ 此条目发表在 未分类 分类目录。将固定链接加入收藏夹。 ← [...]

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for your comment and take the first 10 smaller companies, which have a limited budget seems like a good idea to post
    SEO Company India

  • http://www.centopress.com/top-ten-facebook-marketing-case/ 十大最佳Facebook营销活动案例 | 商优网

    [...] 转载于SocialBeta，原文地址：http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/03/01/the-10-best-facebook-campaigns/。 Tagged: facebook 营销 [...]

  • http://bizsociableblog.com/2011/09/01/twitter-tip-use-twitter-to-spearhead-your-own-viral-campaign/ Twitter Tip: Use Twitter to Spearhead Your Own Viral Campaign | bizsociableblog

    [...] 11-year old Anna Graceman and her YouTube video has to 2 million views. The department store Kohl’s picked up over 1 million Facebook fans by sponsoring a contest where they gave away $10 million to [...]

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jenny-Standish/100002623554509 Jenny Standish

    Type your comment here.
    I go to Kohl’s all the time… have
    personally always loved their stuff, but I keep coming across stories
    of people who have had really bad experiences with the company. There
    are some really funny vents about it here.

  • http://adpartnersblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/11-facebook-marketing-tips-and-tactics-for-b2b-marketers-door-jeff-bullas/ 11 Facebook Marketing Tips and Tactics for B2B Marketers (door Jeff Bullas) « Internationaal online marketing nieuws

    [...] The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns [...]

  • Reakamkar

    Is it possible to acquire fans without giving money away at all?
    It seems all everyone is doing is BUYING fans for short term through competitions and giving money away!

  • http://www.pccto.com/%e4%b9%a6%e7%94%9f/%e5%8d%81%e5%a4%a7%e6%9c%80%e4%bd%b3facebook%e8%90%a5%e9%94%80%e6%b4%bb%e5%8a%a8%e6%a1%88%e4%be%8b 十大最佳Facebook营销活动案例 | 首席网

    [...] ‎ 原文链接：http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/03/01/the-10-best-facebook-campaigns/ [...]

  • http://social.weizhuli.com/social/?p=1079 十大最佳Facebook营销活动案例 | 微助力social社会化博客

    [...] 原文链接：http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/03/01/the-10-best-facebook-campaigns/ 译者：Vicky In category: [...]

  • Terry Torok

    great post Jeff – great launching pad for raising the bar in what is yet to come ! 

    Terry Torok  SocialWhirled… 

  • Chris

    I am not impressed either. I have an ad campaign already in mind and I now need to implement it.

    Chris
    Owner Cel Financial Service
    CTEC Tax Preparer Registered Bonded California
    Please visit my website for all your Fillmore Income Tax needs.
    http://www.taxprepfillmore.com/

  • http://www.auensure.com/ extended auto warranty

     
    fantastical widget.
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  • http://viningscre.com/?p=22 Social Media Marketing’s Biggest Myth – Source: Jeff Bullas’s Blog | ViningsCRE – Jim Kobal, M.A. – Social Media Marketing Commercial Realtor

    [...] The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns [...]

  • http://twitter.com/ConnectToUs ConnectToUs
  • http://twitter.com/ConnectToUs ConnectToUs

    Great campaigns. Check this one out. Very cool. Small Swiss Mountain town rivals some of the biggest brands with their campaign. http://www.simplyzesty.com/facebook/easily-the-best-facebook-campaign-ive-ever-seen/

  • http://www.theurbantwist.com TheUrbanTwist.com

    Very nice list…it definitely has given me some ideas on how to create a campaign for my fanpage

  • Amanda

    Where is Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice campaign? That was brilliant. Most of these are generic compared to some really cool stuff out there.

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  • Jenae

    What About Ikea ? – They did a photo gallery in their FB, then challenged fans to tag items that they wanted. The first to tag each item won their item. Brilliant in my opinion, as the tags would be viral through likes, tags, and shares, and it probably led to several purchases once people developed emotional attachment to products that were already won/ claimed.

    I’m more keen on campaigns that connect to purchase activities or direct brand engagement. Buying ‘likes’ seems counter intuitive. I rarely go back to FB pages I like for a contest.

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  • http://www.techteinte.com/ Vitres Teintees

    Are there some discounts on the Facebook?

  • http://www.mspy.com/ Ashley

    On the contrary, i’m impressed. Facebook is of one the sites that allows users to communicate
    with their favourite brands and gives companies the possibility to
    incorporate unique features and interactive campaigns.

  • Jim

    You’re all wide of the mark. If we are talking the ‘best’ Facebook campaigns then I’m amazed there is no mention of the UK ‘Rage Against The Machine’ campaign on Facebook vs Simon Cowell. It re-wrote the music industry books, set a Guinness World record, raised over £160,000 for charity, and re-formed a legendary band http://fb.com/ratm4xmas

  • comotzi

    Ass long as they are for a good cause I think there worth it
    http://www.filmepornoaz.com/porno-cu-negrii

  • http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/01/23/the-best-of-jeffbullas-com-the-top-10-social-media-posts-from-2011/ The Best of JeffBullas.com – The Top 10 Social Media Posts from 2011 | Jeffbullas's Blog

    [...] 2. The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns [...]

  • http://twitter.com/GeneDexter Gene Dexter

    I don’t think so. Hands down for best campaign was the Sade tour. 

  • http://twitter.com/GeneDexter Gene Dexter

    I don’t think so. Hands down for best campaign was the Sade tour. 

  • http://www.theclinegroup.com/2012/01/26/3-social-media-tips-for-local-businesses/ The Cline Group » Blog Archive » 3 Social Media Tips for Local Businesses

    [...] news, you have probably heard of national brands launching large social media campaigns like Kohl’s and Target on Facebook and Radio Shack and Nestle on Twitter. Still, it is very easy to use social media for business even [...]

  • http://alejomedia.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/how-to-create-a-facebook-marketing-strategy-for-a-non-profit/ How to Create a Facebook Marketing Strategy for a Non Profit « alejomedia

    [...] The 10 Best Facebook Marketing Campaigns [...]

  • http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/02/07/what-are-4-key-goals-in-content-marketing/ What are 4 Key Goals in Content Marketing? | Jeffbullas's Blog

    [...] The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns [...]

  • http://massfacebookfans.com/ increase facebook fans

    agreed to u mate the campaigns should be handled in a proper way with a subtle market to target 

  • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

    Hi Julia. The release date was March 2011

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