Are your marketing campaigns bland, boring, or just lacking something? It may be time to think about what’s missing. There are a number of remarkable marketing campaigns that are ideal for teaching you how to succeed in your own. From increasing in profits or customers, to promoting brand loyalty, these campaigns have done it all. Here are five hand-picked and wildly successful marketing campaigns that you can easily replicate if your current marketing campaign is falling flat.

The Old Spice Man

Old Spice created one of the strongest and most versatile characters for their brand. The Old Spice Man made his debut during the 2010 Super Bowl in a commercial that brought humor, appealed to both sexes, and gathered enough attention to make a single ad into a series of 180 videos. This helped the brand appeal to a younger demographic and presented their product in a way that actually made people want to watch their commercials instead of changing the channel.

How can you replicate it? Understand how to make your spokesperson appeal to your audience, but go one step further by allowing them to engage with your spokesperson. Respond to your audience with content that they want to share. Utilizing YouTube will make your commercials and other ads go much further than just a 30-second television appearance. If it’s good enough, you could make your advertisement go viral.

Coca-Cola Sharing Cans

Understanding who your audience is will be vital to creating an effective marketing campaign. Coca-Cola has done this by providing customers with a can that twist into two smaller cans. This lets customers share their favorite drink with another person. Coca-Cola has had success for years, however they continue to gain “followers” by changing up their product and providing current customers with something new and exciting. By thinking outside the box and putting a unique twist on their original product, Coca-Cola created a lot of buzz for the company.

How can you replicate it? Start thinking about who your customers are and how they interact with each other. Make it easier for them to spread your wonderful products and services with others as a sort of “trial product”. You don’t even have to mass-produce this special or unique product. You can make it available for a limited time only or only at certain locations.

“Gimme a Break”

Catchy slogans have always been one of the best ways to build brand and product recognition. Kit Kat successfully marketed their product in 1986 with their “Gimme a Break” marketing campaign, which consisted of a series of commercials with the catchy “Gimme a Break” tune that played in offices, homes and other familiar places while Kit Kat bars were broken and shared. The jingle is now widely recognized and still used today because of it’s popularity.

How can you replicate it? Use catchy, uplifting tunes to your advantage and make your company’s slogan an integral part of that tune. Use music to your advantage. Putting popular songs on your commercials will make customers more likely to watch your advertisements. Be careful with parody songs when writing jingles, as these tend to annoy customers more than they attract them. Try to come up with something new, but catchy.

The Whopper Sacrifice

This is probably the simplest successful marketing campaign modern marketing has seen. Burger King allowed Facebook users to “sacrifice” ten friends to get a free whopper using their app in 2009. This campaign made users do something morally questionable to gain something that they wouldn’t mind acquiring, which is what made it so successful. Any time you can incorporate your social media profiles into your marketing platform, you will have a greater chance of reaching a large audience.

How can you replicate it? The easiest way to replicate it is to deliver a simple call-to-action while being unafraid to be different with your marketing. Finding a way to incorporate you company’s apps or social media accounts into your marketing will allow you to reach your audience effectively and frequently. Holding contests or creating games that people can participate in straight from their phones will help you to reach your audience quickly and often.

The Refresh Campaign

In 2010, Pepsi decided to do something different for the first time in 23 years; they didn’t make an ad for the Super Bowl. Instead of doing that, they spent a third of their annual marketing budget on a marketing campaign aimed at funding charity products in various locations around the world using crowd-sourcing. People loved it because it was different and created with the intention of doing good instead of just creating more annual profits. Tying the Pepsi name and logo to humanitarian efforts not only impressed their customers (and potential customers) but it set them apart from their competition.

How can you replicate it? You can do something drastically different that people normally wouldn’t expect. Just make sure that your philanthropic marketing campaigns stay philanthropic or people will disregard your brand as shady. Join with a legitimate and well known philanthropic organization and promote your partnership with them. Use companies like onehourtees.com who use silk screen technology to help you create shirts and other promotional products that have your logo as well as the charity logo on them so that you can publicize the partnership.

It’s All About Your Audience

There are a wide range of options available to you when it comes to creating a successful marketing campaign. None of the spectacular campaigns cited would have turned over a single penny if they didn’t appeal to someone. But in order to create a successful campaign, these companies had to do something different. So while taking notes from these campaigns will help you, copying campaigns won’t set you apart or get you very far. Look at what your competition is doing and strive to do something unique and different—that will impress your customers more than creating an exact replica of their marketing campaign. Make sure you understand who you are marketing to. Do the proper research, understand your audience, think like your customers, and be bold if you want to be successful.

About author:

This article was written by Dixie Somers, a freelance writer who loves writing for business, finance, women’s interests, and technology. Dixie lives in Arizona with her husband and three beautiful daughters who are the inspiration for her writing.