The Seven Most Popular Posts for Consumer Marketers in 2018

What were the most read articles for consumer marketers this year? Which topics caught the eyes of those hoping to catch the eyes of consumers? And what can we learn from these pieces?

Delighting consumers—grabbing their interest, holding onto it tightly, and winning them over—is the holy grail for marketers.

Sometimes it requires fresh and zany ideas, sometimes it’s a matter of being straight up and serious. No one can predict what tagline will make it into the country’s vocabulary, what YouTube tutorial will become sterling evergreen content, or what visual will be immortalised for evermore as a meme.

But the valiant folk of marketing departments keep trying to find the elusive winning formula nonetheless! And when they hit upon it, it will have no doubt been informed by all the things they themselves have seen and read.

So we wondered, what were the most read articles for consumer marketers this year? Which topics caught the eyes of those hoping to catch the eyes of consumers? And what can we learn from these pieces?

Without further ado, according to social measurement tool Buzzsumo, here are the seven most popular posts of 2018 with consumer marketers…

Iceland urges customers to make its banned Christmas TV ad go viral

Rang Tang
Source: The Drum

Total engagements: 353.6K

Iceland collaborated with Greenpeace for a Christmas ad with a real message: that palm oil needs to be stopped. When the ad was banned for being political, 500,000 people signed a petition to have this decision overturned, and the ad hit 30m online views.

It’s a story that showed consumer marketers the enormous power social media can bring you when mainstream channels block your access. It may also have served as a cautionary tale, reminding marketers everywhere that big budgets can go to waste if Clearcast guidelines aren’t met.

It asks marketers to think about the channels that matter most when they’re designing campaigns.

Woodstock festival returns to mark 50th anniversary

Woodstock
Source: Campaign Live

Total engagements: 242.8K

It’s a huge headline: a festival we’ve all heard of, and a big anniversary. It speaks to the power of live experiences, particularly in a time when making people physically go and engage, rather than joining in via devices, is rarer and rarer.

It’s also a testament to the power nostalgia has to spur action, potentially giving marketers ideas of retro campaigns.

After angering Swedish dairy industry, Oatly brings controversial ad campaign to the UK

Oatly
Source: The Drum

Total engagements: 88.1K

The headline is rife with the excitement of controversy. A previously unheard-of brand made an advert, it got banned, and yet they still wanted to roll it out in another country!? This is a post consumer marketers will have clicked on to find out where the line between power and trouble lies. How far should you push your authentic message: far enough that you’re ruffling feathers and making headlines, but not so far that your finances tank.

YouTube starts showing free Hollywood movies with ad breaks

Youtube
Source: AdAge

Total engagements: 39K

Marketing for consumers is all about knowing which platforms’ popularity is on the up, and this post is yet more evidence that YouTube’s star just keeps rising. Despite some issues with questionable ad placement, the video site can’t be ignored in 2019, and even though it’s by no means the newest or snazziest social media site to target, it’s a solid bet—especially when it’s innovating in new ways like screening Hollywood movies.

‘If England get beaten, so will she’ – posters bleed World Cup fever into domestic violence

England Beaten
Source: The Drum

Total engagements: 37.7K

This post was impossible to ignore. The nation was ringing with cries of ‘football’s coming home’ and pubs were brimming with avid and hopeful fans. This campaign for National Centre for Domestic Violence was, then, all the more shocking, and there was a feeling of guilt that many of us hadn’t considered the effects of the world cup happening behind closed doors.

It was a reminder to marketers that an authentic social message is incredibly powerful, and incredibly important.

Beer industry’s glass ceiling is shattered

Heineken
Source: AdAge

Total engagements: 12.4K

A happier post about the rising trend of industries battling sexism. This piece set the backdrop—that men dominate the beer world—and then traced one woman’s career journey weaving in and out, and eventually making her way to the very top. Consumer marketers will have been keen to keep an eye on what big name companies like Heineken are doing both externally and internally to achieve their excellent branding, as well as watching the rise of equality since 2019 has been such a breakthrough year in many ways.

Watch: Toyota Gets Religious in Super Bowl Ad

Screen Shot 2018-11-29 at 16.44.35
Source: AdAge

Total engagements: 11.3K

A surprising ad, in the secular world of Western advertising, that therefore got a lot of attention. This post has all the ingredients for popularity: it name drops one of the biggest advertising events of the year, a huge car brand, and something that’s often taboo. The success of the ad, and sentiment that, despite different faiths, people are united by their love of sport, brought a feel-good touch to the halftime ads.

What do these seven posts teach us?

Marketers for mainstream brands have to appeal to wide demographics. They need to capture the hearts of people with different tastes, and different interests. For this to happen, it’s imperative that they have their eyes on several balls all at once.

Keeping abreast of industry news, advertising news, political, social and economic trends, and popular culture milestones is one way of keeping your worldview dynamic, challenging your way of seeing the world, and showing you what’s possible with a little creative thinking. This in turn helps you to maximise your chances of successfully crafting campaigns that resonate with the people you want to connect with.

For another powerful approach to understanding the world around you—whether it’s asking consumers what they’re reading, watching and listening to at the moment, or testing your creatives out on real people before they go live—get in touch with us today.

Attest

Content Team 

Our in-house marketing team is always scouring the market for the next big thing. This piece has been lovingly crafted by one of our team members. Attest's platform makes gathering consumer data as simple and actionable as possible.

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