2022 Wrapped (Marketing Edition): The Most Compelling Marketing Campaigns of the Year

This year saw the creation of riveting campaigns that snatched people’s attention. You just had to come across it. And when you did, all you could do was pause and marvel at the ingenuity and wit that produced such a captivating campaign.

Many brands delivered some of the most never-seen-before creative stories and campaigns, leaving us awestruck and impressed. However, there were a few campaigns that stood out like a unicorn.

It is now time to recap, in a Wrapped style, these unicorn campaigns that not only made 2022 exceptional but also serve as a footing for future campaigns.

But before that, this is what a marketing campaign is all about.

Marketing Campaign (The Basics)

What is a Marketing Campaign?

A marketing campaign is a series of coordinated efforts designed to accomplish a specific marketing objective which could be increased brand awareness or revenue growth. In some cases, it is to revive the business turnaround of a floundering brand.

Whichever goal it is, it is noteworthy that marketing campaigns help to shape culture and impact trends. Therefore, to understand them is to find elements of creativity useful enough for inspiration.

Most Inspiring Marketing Campaigns Across the World in 2022

Dove’s ‘Reverse Selfie’
HubSpot’s Milestone (1000 Integrations)
Spotify’s ‘Me, Also Me’

Dove Takes Self-Love More Seriously with #ReverseSelfie

With the #ReverseSelfie campaign, Dove explores the concept of self-love as it relates to the digital world and ephemeral beauty standards. Social media truncates individuality and peculiarity with filters that alter real appearances. It’s common to see this on Instagram and TikTok. And then millions of people get lost in them, regularly altering parts of their physical bodies that they seem dissatisfied with.

Dove crafts a video about a girl preparing to take and post a selfie to impart a cultural message. But this time, it’s the reverse. In the final form, you can see the image is conventionally attractive and digitally altered. Then you watch as the lens’s protective filter slowly diminishes until her chin, eyes, mouth, and other features are all shown in their natural forms, with no editing applied. The artificial intelligence’s gradually fake layers peel away to reveal a young austere-looking girl who looks very serious.

In the end, Dove delivers a message about how the pressures of social media are damaging young people’s sense of self-worth, sharing a guide with parents on how to navigate “the selfie talk” with their children in order to redefine traditional beauty standards and aid them in handling social media.

You’d agree that this is a powerful message that impacts an aspect of popular culture and also strengthens the brand archetype of Dove.

HubSpot’s Milestone Achievement Pulls Attention

Successfully reaching 1,000 integrations in the HubSpot App Marketplace was way beyond a milestone for HubSpot. Leveraging this achievement, the content marketing platform launched a multi-channel campaign involving social media, email marketing and co-marketing.

“We’re most excited about what this milestone means for our customers. [It] is central to our goal of connecting customers of all types with the integrations that will help them grow better,” said Scott Brinker, VP of platform ecosystem at HubSpot.

HubSpot enlisted its extensive network of partners and used them to help spread the word about the campaign across social media.

“Hubspot’s milestone celebration was able to act as one of the best marketing campaigns of 2022. This year, Hubspot celebrated 1,000 app integrations in their marketplace. The company used this as an opportunity to run a marketing campaign across multiple different channels that showcased its growing success. Not only did this campaign appeal to current customers but it showed prospective customers of the wide range of possibilities available with Hubspot’s platform,” said Todd Jensen, Head of Marketing at Nursa.

ALSO READ: Finishing Strong: The Most Effective End-Of-Year Marketing Strategy

Spotify Taps Memes to Drive a Message

If you did not see a meme on social media this year, are you even on social media? From jazzing up WhatsApp conversations to dominating Twitter timelines, memes made the year a bit more memorable—and maybe that’s why Spotify’s ‘Me, Also Me’ meme campaign turned into a flawless strategy that deserves a nod from us.

With the “Me, Also Me” style, the giant digital streaming platform makes people see how listening to music on the platform can be personalized to suit different occasions.

“This year, Spotify got creative with one of their marketing campaigns which turned out to be a success.

“The company leaned into memes for their advertising to showcase Spotify’s versatility in providing music for any occasion. To do this they used the meme model ‘me, also me,’ which shows two panels, one being the mood, and the other being the correlating Spotify music.

“This campaign was great because of its ability to speak to not only Spotify listeners but all music listeners alike. The campaign was launched across a variety of channels globally. It attempts to connect listeners and promote discovery which is why the campaign resonated with so many.”

Sanem Ahearn, Head of Marketing of Colorescience