Which Brands Did Not Sleep During The Lockdown?

Coronavirus pushed the whole world into the back. Brands with years of experience were struggling to find the working strategy during the lockdown. But still, we have agile brands that managed to reach customers with the help of influencer marketing.

Let’s see who nailed the biggest global challenge with the right content and creativity.

#1 Pepsi Virtual Suhour

Ramadan is the time of gathering, spending time with family and friends. But due to the pandemic people are confined to their homes and isolate themselves. With increasing social media consumption during Ramadan, the search for food video content also rises. According to the report, 86% of Facebook users in MENA celebrate Ramadan.

What Pepsi reminded us is social distancing does not mean social isolation. Working with Saudi Arabia key influencer Tareq Al Harbi, Pepsi launched the live series of the Virtual Sohour campaign.

Each week the influencer hosted a Virtual Sohour in a live stream with another popular influencer picked by his audience. Virtual Sohour campaign’s main goal was to generate strong engagement with its main target group, Millenials and Gen Z.

With a combination of technology and traditions, Pepsi brought people together when they were apart.

Pepsi was brave enough to take the risk to launch unedited, unfiltered live streaming content on a hard time. But results say it is worth risking. The Virtual Sohour campaign reached a 21M audience while driving a 5.3% engagement rate.

#2 Activia Gut Health Campaign

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A post shared by Talilla ? Live Workouts ? (@talillahenchoz) on Jun 13, 2020 at 9:36am PDT

Activia is among the brands that worked even more productively during the lockdown. In one of their releases, the brand mentioned since 2015 Google searches for “gut health” is increasing by 400%, meaning people understand the importance of a healthy digestive system for the overall health system.

During the lockdown, Activia re-launched their Gut Health initiative campaign to promote its products which contain calcium, probiotics, and natural ingredients that are essential for healthy digestive enzymes. The Gut Health campaign is designed for boosting awareness of the relationship between gut health and overall health. The influencer campaign mainly targets younger people and Gen Z to share the basics required for gut health.

Influencers created content about informing their audience about the importance of gut health and a range of Activia products that support a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

#3 Alo Move’s Sweat & Tone Campaign

Lockdown changes the way brands communicate with the audience. But it also creates new opportunities to reach new customers with value and creativity. Fitness brand Alo Moves launched an influencer campaign for the #stayhome with the right message.

The brand collaborated with fitness influencer Calli Gullickson on #sweat&tone seven-day workout series. This helped to increase customer engagement with influencer followers and also raised traffic to Alo Moves’ and the parent company Alo Yoga’s website.

#4 Puma’s Virtual Ambassador

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A post shared by M △ Y △ (@mayaaa.gram) on Mar 12, 2020 at 4:55am PDT

Starting from February 2020 Puma adopted a completely new digital marketing strategy by engaging in virtual reality. Puma scaled its influencer marketing by introducing its own Virtual Influencer in Southeast Asia. By running influencer partnerships with 2.5 million engagement before Puma is familiar with the role of influencers in marketing.

Together with Maya and Asian stars, Puma launched the RiderUnlocked campaign video on YouTube. However, Maya’s content extends from brand ambassador posts to sharing life-hacks for a productive and positive day.

Puma’s also tapped into AR by turning each Instagram user into PUMAN. A combination of UGC and influencer marketing leads to AR face filters. Puma worked with influencers such as footballers, actors, KPOP dancers to share stories with AR filters and call their fans to share stories with PUMAN filters and #RiderUnlocked hashtag to get discounts on PUMA products.

#5 Oreo Stay Home Stay Playful

Take the #CookieWithACause challenge on Tik Tok. Post with the hashtag and OREO will donate to @savethechildren for the first 1M video uploads. ❤️ Put any cookie on your forehead and move it to your mouth. No hands! Put your twist on it, and @ your friends. #StayHomeStayPlayful pic.twitter.com/Kbzkxg657N

— OREO Cookie (@Oreo) April 5, 2020

After the setting of global lockdown, Oreo was looking for an ad that accomplishes the brand image and will bring joy to people to go through the hard times. Oreo renewed last year’s Stay Playful campaign to #StayhomeStayplayful tagline. The campaign calls people to entertain and be active during the stay home.

As part of this campaign, Oreo launched the #CoockieWithACause challenge on TikTok. The challenge features UGC videos of people holding Oreo cookies and moving it to their mouths.

Oreo’s initiative was to donate $1 for every video with #CoockieWithACause hashtag to SaveChildren nonprofit organization.

#6 Hawaya Awareness Campaign

Hawaya is an online dating app designed for Muslim singles. Due to the pandemic, Hawaya has seen a jump in the number of messages and overall app usage.

To sustain the app’s success and encourage people to connect during the social distance, the matchmaking app launched an influencer marketing campaign in Indonesia and Malaysia. The goal was to increase awareness of Hawaya mainly among female users and increase app installs.

Together with the Keepface Influencer Marketing Platform, 52 diverse tier of social media influencers were picked to work on the campaign. Influencers created IG stories to inform their followers about the app and call them to download the app. The value-driven approach of Hawaya makes the app appeal to conservative societies.

Hawaya Awareness Campaign generated 323,013 and 436,256 Impressions in Indonesia and Malaysia respectively. The app is currently expanding its influencer marketing to Turkey, Germany, Saudi Arabia.

Take a Step In the New Era

Now consumers are more careful when it comes to the influencers to follow and engage with. Influencers stay as brands’ spokespersons and deliver their messages in a human way. Investing in an influencer platform will help to find the best brand advocates for your marketing campaign. Keepface automated platform offers distinct products to smooth your influencer marketing in every step.