Hashtags and viral hashtag campaigns have become a glory tool for social media marketers.

From big brands to budding startups, everyone uses their branded hashtags for marketing campaigns claiming their paparazzi space on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Even TikTok hashtags are gaining momentum!

And why not? 💁🏾

Hashtags have the potential to amplify your branding echoes and create a successful campaign with user-generated content.

With the help of a robust digital marketing strategy, your campaign can be the next viral hit and compel many people to join your clan.

  • What Is A Hashtag Campaign, And How To Execute One 🧐
  • What Are The Benefits Of Hashtag Campaigns? 📝
  • 14 Of The Most Successful Hashtag Campaigns In Social Media History 📖
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    But, there is always a catch.

    You can’t expect your social media campaign to be a showstopper overnight.

    It demands a considerable amount of effort for months to develop a unique hashtag and promote it to a level that the hashtag becomes synonymous with your brand.

    An entire campaign can take time and dedication.

    Social media users are usually the main promoters of social media hashtag campaigns, that gain most traction, in the majority of cases.

    Are you baffled at the very thought?

    Loosen up because we have covered 14 examples of successful hashtag campaigns by some of the most popular brands.

    Draw some inspiration from these for a perfect campaign brainstorming.

    Let’s dive into the concept before moving to the examples.

    What Is A Hashtag Campaign, And How To Execute One? 🧐

    As the name vividly depicts, a hashtag campaign is promoted with a hashtag that pertains to the campaign’s goal and motto.

    So now, what’s the commotion all about? What makes one campaign an utter failure while the other sets a benchmark?

    No matter the conclusion derived from numerous KPIs and metrics, everything spirals down to this one crucial factor - hashtag combinations of the digital marketing campaign.

    One might argue that it’s obvious to include trending hashtags. But is that so simple?

    How do you find the best hashtags from the trending topics to resonate with your target audience?

    Finding the appropriate hashtags for social media platforms follows the same process of keyword search in SEO.

    • You can use third-party tools to zero down the best hashtags in your niche. Use your business name, tagline, or a catchy phrase with the campaign hashtag for the brand touch.

    And

    • Collaborate with well-known marketers and leverage influencer marketing for retweets to spread the word about your social media campaign, executing a rigorous promotional regime.

    Believe it or not, this does pay off.

    What Are The Benefits Of Hashtag Campaigns? 📝

    Here’s why vesting efforts in hashtag campaigns is your golden ticket to the social media marketing league.

    Exponential Reach 🗣

    👉🏼 Social media channels have more than half of the world’s population squeezed in.

    Influencer marketing, content with advocates, and additional partnerships with eminent marketers skyrocket your reach, create quality content and widen your target audience base to a potentially massive audience.

    Hashtag campaigns also improve SEO rankings for better reachability and user engagement. There are also different types of hashtag campaigns as we will mention throughout the article.

    Branding Leveled Up 👏🏼

    Hashtag campaigns are a type of campaign that can upgrade your branding to another level altogether.

    A promotional campaign can help with extending your reach for your branded content too.

    If you manage to pull it off well, the campaign becomes a trending topic for media coverage, adding fuel to the brand awareness fire.

    Tons Of UGC 👩🏾‍💻

    Unlike other marketing campaigns, hashtag campaigns in specific thrive on user-generated content or UGC alone. This content type has dual benefits:

    • You don’t have to sweat on additional content development for campaign promotion.
    • Your following and engagement metrics multiply as the community of UGC creators keeps a check on you consistently for the latest updates.

    Start the chain of retweets and shares to make your campaign a guaranteed success.

    Massive Sales 📈

    Hashtag campaigns prove to be a great social media marketing campaign idea that brings you more sales into your sales funnels by generating more leads.

    In addition, good hashtag campaigns have demonstrated better ROI prospects and are worth the blood and sweat.

    Now, that’s a good deal 😎

    14 Of The Most Successful Hashtag Campaigns In Social Media History 📖

    Ready for some real campaign inspirations?

    Let’s get started.

    1. #ShareACoke by Coca-Cola

    Coca-Cola's #ShareACoke Campaign came about for the first time in Australia in 2011.

    Since then, this hit campaign keeps making a comeback every now and then to boost sales like magic.

    The crux strategy is to replace the brand tag with generic terms or personalized names of individuals and places.

    People are encouraged to find these customized bottles or cans and tweet about this with the #ShareACoke hashtag.

    Coca-Cola partners with celebrities like Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Emma Roberts to promote this specific campaign.

    Coca-Cola even provides personalization offers for customers worldwide. It tempts people to share happiness bottled in coke with others, and creates a wider sense of customer engagement.

    2. #HereToCreate by Adidas

    Adidas started #HereToCreate for all the inspiring creators around the globe. For example, during the 2018 marathon in Boston, 30k videos were made for the participating athletes.

    Later, others also took part in this campaign and shared their motivational stories.

    👉🏼 A lot of people jumped on this trend to showcase their take on bringing a positive revolution.

    Big names from diverse industries pitched in for promotions, notable mentions included Lionel Messi, Pharell Williams, and David Beckham.

    Adidas has done a great job in creating a brand awareness ripple with such an impactful campaign and hashtag content.

    3. #IceBucketChallenge by ALS Association

    17 million+ videos of UGC postings, including the famous entries by Bill gates and George Bush, were shared with the #IceBucketChallenge tag.

    This is a great example of content with people sharing hashtag contests, and from popular influencers too.

    The task was simple.

    Get a bucket of ice and water and record pouring it on somebody. Nominate a minimum of 3 people to do the same in the next 24 hours and make some donations.

    ALS Association, a non-profit organization, raised $115 million to fund full-fledged research on “Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis” and help the patients.

    Interestingly, this 2014 hashtag campaign wasn’t even initially started by the ALS association, yet it garnered enough attention and was a roaring success.

    Funny hashtag campaigns are successful because people love humor! What better way to get others to join in for the fun of it?

    4. #PutACanOnIt by Red Bull

    Red Bull knows a befitting trick to advertising for free. Their 2014 #PutACanOnIt campaign got instant fame on Instagram and Twitter with tons of entries.

    One needs to be insanely creative and put a can of Red Bull on pets, people, buildings, cars, or anything!

    The Red Bull campaign had 10k+ entries.

    Mind you, it was wholly organic and was solely driven by UGC. Now, how cool is that?

    5. #TweetFromTheSeat by Charmin

    Charmin, a toilet paper producing firm, started a #TweetFromTheSeat campaign for the bathroom brainstormers.

    Charmin asked their followers to tweet about random things from the “seat.”

    It got viral with quirky with tweets pouring in. Charmin owned the limelight and even made marketing toilet paper fun and engaging!

    A perfect hashtag for guaranteed views and interaction amongst a wider audience.

    6. #MyCalvins by Calvin Klein

    #MyCalvins campaign calls out the fashion brand lovers to showcase their Calvin Klein looks and get a golden chance to be featured.

    It started in 2014 with a Youtube video featuring Justin Beiber and Lara Stone in Calvin Klein undergarments.

    The video got 9 billion+ views and is relaunched every year.

    Celebrities like Kendall Jenner, Noah Centineo,  Billie Eilish, etc., have promoted the campaign and encouraged users to post more of their Calvin Klein moments.

    And needless to say, the campaign does well and brings in lots of new followers.

    7. #NationalFriedChickenDay by KFC

    KFC used one of the trending hashtags, #NationalFriedChickenDay, related to their business of selling fried chicken!

    It has become an annual ritual of worldwide promotion with discounts and engaging prospects on #NationalFriedChickenDay.

    8. #WeAccept by Airbnb

    The 2017 Superbowl ad by Airbnb commenced with #WeAccept.

    Promoting the notion of making peace with diversity, the company made an official statement to provide short-term housing to 100,000 refugees, survivors, and immigrants for 5 years and make an annual donation of $4 million for 4 years to the International Rescue Committee.

    This is a good example of charity-based hashtag campaigns.

    Unfortunately, Airbnb faced discrimination accusations.

    However, this campaign was a small step towards bringing their core belief to embracing diversity under the light.

    9. #SFBatKid by Make-a-wish

    Make-a-wish foundation created a #SFBatKid campaign that not only moved a lot of people on social media channels but in real life too.

    Not everything is about sales; it's sometimes about humanity too. This campaign is all about making a wish of 5-year-old Miles Scott come true.

    Dressed in superhero attire, the kid took the world by storm by living Batman’s life for a day.

    It got support from Batman actors Ben Affleck and Christian Bale, influential personalities like Barack Obama, Enrique Iglesias, Britney Spears, popular sports teams, and even astronauts from the International Space Station.

    The campaign was a massive hit with more than 1.7 billion impressions.

    10. #WorthSaying by L'Oreal Paris

    L’Oreal Paris doesn’t just believe in making ladies feel beautiful and confident with its products but also encourages them to voice their opinions.

    The #WorthSaying campaign was a way to empower womanhood, encouraging women to share with the world what is important to them.

    The 2016 campaign was backed by distinctive personalities like Jennifer Lopez and Blake Lively. They revamped the campaign in 2018 and partnered with TIFF donating $0.25 for every mention.

    11. #ShareYourEars by Disney

    Disney joined hands with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to grant the wishes of kids with acute diseases.

    In addition, Disney kept its promise of sharing $5 at every share of a kid wearing mouse ears to celebrate Mickey Mouse's 90th anniversary in 2018.

    Their third campaign was in a row donating $1 million to the foundation, granting more than 130,000 wishes over the 40 years of partnership.

    Their donation of $100 million for the fourth campaign to improve kids' lives was another remarkable kind of act.

    12. #DoUsAFlavour by Lays

    Were you ever confused about your new product launch?

    Here’s how Lays used the crowdsourcing technique to decide their next flavor sensation.

    Image Source: Digital Innovation And Transformation

    Lays asked people to submit flavor suggestions through their Facebook page. Chef Michael Symon and Eva Longoria narrowed it down to 3 suggestions, Sriracha, Chicken & Waffles, and Cheesy Garlic Bread.

    Limited stocks of these three flavors were manufactured and were available in stores.

    The final winner came from the public vote.

    The creator of winning taste was supposed to win 1 million dollars or 1% of the winning flavored chips' net sales in 2013, whichever summed more.

    The campaign got 3.8 million flavor suggestions in 10 months, witnessed a 12% rise in year-on-year sales and 22.5 million Facebook page visits.

    This is a good example of engagement with brands and popular influencers that the public enjoy seeing and hearing from.

    13. #WantAnR8 by Audi

    Audi boasts of their heavenly vehicles. Unfortunately, despite the wants, not everyone can purchase them.

    But a strong determination gave in to this desire, and thus this campaign was born.

    Joanna McCoy kept tweeting #WantAnR8 for months, and then it did come true.

    Audi promised her an R8 giveaway.

    But it didn’t stop there. They marketed the hashtag and turned it into an engaging campaign.

    The contest was easy. Tweet the reason as to why you need an R8 and add the hashtag. Selected people get an R8 giveaway for a whole day. Millions of tweets followed it.

    And that’s how #WantAnR8 became one of the longest-running and most successful campaigns of all time in Twitter’s history.

    14. #LikeAGirl by Always

    Discarding girls' ancient portrayal as weak and lithe, Always, a feminine care products brand started a revolutionary social media marketing campaign named #LikeAGirl.

    They posted a video on gender stigma, which got 90 million+ plays and 1 million+ viewers.

    The campaign was backed by several celebrities and went down well with the online folks. It also won an award for woman empowerment in 2015 for its startling impact. A brilliant idea for some impactful content creation.

    Final Thoughts 💁🏻‍♀️

    Now is the time to leverage hashtag marketing campaigns to drive traffic and engage with your loyal fanbase like never before.

    Keep a vigilant watch on KPIs and metrics for performance tracking.

    Figure out which social media channels are paying off well, at which step a prospect abandons the buyer journey and points where retention and bounce rates are high.

    These all will make your marketing campaign even more effective.

    Don’t limit yourself to Twitter and Instagram, and keep track of relevant hashtags.

    If you are into B2B business, LinkedIn can be a great platform for hashtag campaigns and advertising content too.

    Remember, this is the best chance to show off your brand loyalty and impeccable customer service to a lot of people who are not your regular followers/customers. Civic engagement is an important driving force in making a hashtag viral and gaining popular influencers to promote your content.

    So get going and plan a perfect campaign with relevant posts right away!