November was a good month for social media campaigns. Some businesses are really starting to “get it” and the campaigns are becoming more inventive, more interactive and overall — they are just plain kewl. Here are a couple awesome November campaigns we thought especially rocked (in NO particular order):
Whole Foods’ “Taste and Tweet”
Customers purchased one of six selections of wine available at Whole Foods stores. On November 17, from 7-8 pm EST, the “Taste and Tweet” took place. Wine enthusiasts across the Twittersphere could discuss and critique the wines using the hashtags #WFMWineGuys or #WFMWine, or by logging into the tweet chat.
- What we dig: Connecting wine enthusiasts from across the nation! And as an added bonus for Whole Foods, we assume they saw an increase in wine sales.
- What we might do differently: The fact that there’s a tweet chat AND two hashtags is a bit all over the map. Better to stick to one, or at least only one hashtag. We also think there could have been a tweet grid set up on the site so even non-Twitter users could at least easily observe the conversation without needing to be Twitter-savvy. Also, at least in the Whole Foods Market we shop in on Metcalf, the campaign was not heavily promoted in-store. We would have liked to have seen some large signage near the wine section, as well as a takeaway flyer with instructions in non-techy language.
McDonald’s McCafe Scavenger Hunt
McDonald’s rolled out a new McCafe flavor, and went social with its launch campaign. In the nine cities the campaign took place, Twitter handles like @McCafeyourday tweeted clues to the “hidden” location of McCafe cups throughout the cities. Twitter followers used the clues to track down the cups, and the first to arrive at each location won a year’s worth of FREE coffee from McDonald’s. The next 100 people to arrive received a card valid for one free McCafe drink.
- What we dig: The incentive is huge, and a great way to encourage participation. We also love the scavenger hunt idea because it really turns social media into an active, real-life “game.”
- What we might do differently: Bring it to Kansas City! And perhaps involve location-based social media such as Foursquare or Gowalla.
We look forward to what December has in store. The holiday season seems like a great time to roll out some spiffy social media campaigns!
