Are you feeling in a rut or stuck with your content marketing strategies recently? Drawing inspiration from industry giants can always be a great way to refresh and reboot. Now that we are more than halfway through 2018, let’s take a look at some of our favorite and most unique content marketing examples from the past year.

IHOB v. IHOP

One of our more recent case studies—this past month, international breakfast chain IHOP began teasing a big change for their company. They posted a video to twitter flipping the P of the acronym name (International House of Pancakes) to a B. Wild conjecture ran through social media, what could it mean? The restaurant built exactly the kind of buzz they wanted. The release date came and IHOP/IHOB posted a video of one of their restaurant signs being changed to International House of Burgers. The internet seriously reacted. Celebrities, everyday people, other restaurants, you name it, #IHOB was trending. There was even hilarious banter (/shade) between fast food restaurants, with Burger King changing its logo to Pancake King for the day, and others getting in on the joke.

Image Source: Wendy’s Twitter via Business Insider

All press is good press, right? Well spoiler alert: turns out this was a practical joke. IHOP just wanted a crazy-creative way to introduce their new burger line for the summer. Even IHOP reps didn’t think it would get as much engagement and buzz as it did. “We thought people would have fun with this, but never did we imagine that it would grab the attention of America the way it did” explained spokesperson Stephanie Peterson.

Takeaway– hoax marketing can work when it’s done with a sense of levity and silliness, and the brand needs to be okay with poking fun at itself and taking it in stride.

Snickers UK Valentine’s Day Promotions

It would be difficult for Snickers UK to outdo their 2017 Valentine’s Day Promotion. (They created a billboard with a take on their classic slogan; “You’re forgetful when you’re hungry,” made entirely of detachable cards for walkerbys to snag and bring home to loved ones). But by gosh, they did it! This year, Snickers UK branded a van with the same slogan from the previous year on one side, and ‘Need a table for tonight?’ on the other. There were a limited number of reservation cards that passerbys could grab. When lovers showed up for the dinner they were met with Oublié, a pop-up restaurant that served a complimentary 3-course meal by a renowned chef. This stunt is clever in several ways; oublié is french for forgetful, it’s experiential for the audience as well as limited and exclusive, lastly it ties in to their main advertising that when hunger affects you, Snickers is there to help.

Takeaway– interactive content marketing pieces work on multiple levels; they engage the user, garner social media buzz and can be recycled afterwards for a video ad of the entire event.

Miami Dolphins Digital Overhaul

Two years ago the Miami Dolphins decided to completely revamp their digital (specifically social media) marketing efforts. The change was in no doubt thanks to their president and CEO Tom Garfinkel, who is not only from a marketing background, but had similar past success with pro-team makeovers such as the San Diego Padres. A big change was moving from multiple agencies to an in-house content team. The new team heavily focused on both high quality photos and video marketing via Facebook and Instagram. Instead of putting together pricey advertising-forward videos/images, they created content that authentically told stories. The videos highlighted the Dolphins organization and Miami community, there were brand-authentic over obvious pitches. The new campaign worked. In 2017, 25% of new ticket sales were driven through Facebook Ads. The Dolphins received a 250% increase in digital revenue over just two years! Heck, Facebook even uses the team as a case study in their ‘Facebook for Media Success Stories.’

Image Source: Miami Dolphins

Takeaway– Sometimes you need to go back to the drawing board when it comes to content marketing strategy, and when you do that it’s always a good idea to focus on storytelling, engaging your audience and brand authenticity. If you focus on these goals, leads will inevitably turn to sales.

Apple HomePod via FKA twigs and Spike Jonze

What do you do when you’re introducing a new home assistant in an already saturated market with giants such as Amazon Echo and Google Home? If you’re Apple and about to drop the HomePod, you bring in big names, AKA oscar-winner Spike Jonze and popular artist FKA twigs. Apple released a 4 minute short film entitled ‘Welcome Home’ (with a shorted 60-sec TV spot). The video is a mind-bending musical masterpiece, starring FKA twigs as a tired commuter who comes home to unwind and fantastically dances to Anderson .Paak’s ‘Til It’s Over,’ all brilliantly directed by Jonze. This is a great move by Apple to release a new product, the video has racked up over 13 million views. Even if the HomePod had shakey sales and user reviews, the ad captivated a ton of buzz. Adweek even posted a behind-the-scenes documentary on how the the hypnotizing film was created.

Image Source: Apple

Takeaway– Apple is obviously in a league of their own as far as content creation and advertising, but we can see here that for big product releases it can pay off to create an even bigger ad.

Bottom Line

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. While you do not want to directly imitate innovative marketers, it’s great to draw inspiration from truly dynamic and unique content. Also- most brands are not working with the budget or resources of NFL teams or Apple. So how can use the crux of the concepts from these examples to create your own distinctive marketing strategies?