Digital marketing industry case study library

You can do this online through our online submission form or by email. If you'd like to submit examples of your work then email them into CaseStudies@DigitalTrainingAcademy.com and after an initial review we'll be in touch if we feel they can be used to support learning goals.

There is also an online submission tool, here: http://www.digitaltrainingacademy.com/submit. By sending us a case study you agree we can use it in training, conference speeches, book chapters and reports and other media. You need to be confident you have the necessary rights and permissions from partners or clients to be able to do this. Case studies cannot be restricted to one particular course so we can only accept material which can be used in any aspect of our training. However, if youd like us to withdraw a case study at any point, then we can do this within two weeks.

The advert imitates Old Spice's classic ‘The man your man could smell like’ ad, with an engaging walk through a myriad of scenes celebrating the fun and frivolous side of a good cup of tea, whilst showcasing the soothing effects of a proper brew. Yorkshire Tea has taken to YouTube, with an epic song celebrating the virtues of the old fashioned cuppa, incorporating zombies, brass bands and even the odd Skyrim reference. To boost engagement, the YouTube ad ends with a call to action getting the viewer to click through to a behind the scenes video, along with links to the Yorkshire Tea homepage and the company's official Facebook page, both of which continue the ‘Tea Song’ branding.

Brand: Yorkshire Tea | Sector: FMCG, Food and Beverages | Country: UK | Partner/agency: Rubber Republic, The Viral Ad Network | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: YouTube, Social Media

Continue reading "Yorkshire Tea brews up viral success with YouTube song" »

To coincide with the new academic year, Unilever's Pot Noodle offered one student the chance to have their tuition fees for the next year paid for them, as part of a new Facebook ‘Scholar’ campaign. The winner was given everything they need to live the Uni lifestyle including Pot Noodle-branded t-shirts, trainers, bed sheets, condoms, a year’s supply of Pot Noodle and a “legendary” party.

Brand: Unilever, Pot Noodle | Sector: FMCG, Food and Beverages | Country: UK | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Social, Facebook

Continue reading "Pot Noodle pays for student’s tuition fees in Facebook search for ‘Scholar’" »

A Dalston corner shop gave its regulars an uplifting and unusual retail experience when it was transformed into an all-singing, all-grooving musical instrument by Red Stripe lager. This case study looks at how the Jamacian lager brand made smart use of in-store advertising and viral marketing to get 1 million YouTube views.

Brand: Red Stripe | Sector: FMCG, Food and Beverages, Alcohol | Country: UK | Partner/agency: KK Outlet, Stinkdigital, Hirsch&Mann | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: TV, Video, YouTube

Continue reading "Video case study: Red Stripe gets 1m YouTube views with musical shop viral" »

The Bundaberg Distilling Company ran integrated 'Road to Recovery' campaign, designed to help the local Bundaberg community in Australia get back on its feet after the recent flood crisis. This case study looks at how the Diageo brand raised $300,000 for the town with the help of social media. Spanning Facebook, PR, traditional media advertising, product innovation and a special event, the activity, with creative via Leo Burnett, Sydney, aimed to drive visitation back to Bundaberg and stimulate the local economy through tourism.

Brand: Bundaberg Rum | Sector: FMCG, Food and Beverages, Alcohol | Country: Global | Partner/agency: Leo Burnett, One Green Bean, IKON, Traffik, STI Group, Barker Gray.| Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Social media, Facebook, Video

Continue reading "Bundaberg Rum helps flooded community with Facebook campaign" »

For Christmas 2013, Baileys took a different approach, ditching festive imagery for a message about friends that resonated all year round. This case study looks at how the Diageo brand used traditional media as well as banners, pre-rolls, and social media. The campaign, under the slogan ‘Baileys, let’s do this again’, was composed of five TV executions, six print and outdoor executions, and various digital executions (banners, pre-rolls, RM, social media).

Brand: Baileys | Sector: FMCG, Food and Beverages, Alcohol | Country: UK | Partner/agency: We Are Social | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: TV, Video, YouTube

Continue reading "Baileys Christmas campaign gets social for year-long impact" »

In October 2012, Diageo partnered with Amazon to launch a Smirnoff-branded YouTube channel for fans to purchase ‘party items’ directly from featured YouTube videos. This case study looks at how the Diageo brand replicated the nightlife experience to engage and convert viewers online.

Brand: Smirnoff | Sector: FMCG, Food and Beverages, Alcohol | Country: US | Partner/agency: We Are Social | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Amazon, Ecommerce, Video, YouTube

Continue reading "Ecommerce case study: Smirnoff creates cocktail bar experience online with ‘shoppable videos’" »

To celebrate Father’s Day in 2013, Diageo embarked on a QR code campaign for three of its drinks brands. This mobile case study looks at how the firm turned physical bottles of Johnny Walker, Buchanan’s and Old Parr into a personalised tribute for loved ones. The campaign, developed by software company Everythng, used a technology platform called +More, which made all Diageo’s products smart by connecting them to the web. This technology is different to QR code technology, which only delivers the same message to everyone. With +More the brand is able to give a bespoke message to an individual consumer via a bottle.

Brand: Johnny Walker | Sector: FMCG, Food and Beverages, Alcohol | Country: US | Partner/agency: Evrythng | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Social media,Video, Mobile

Continue reading "Mobile case study: Johnny Walker bottles get personal for Father’s Day with mobile tags" »

In June 2013, Smirnoff teamed with DJ Fresh and neurotechnology expert Julien Castet to help three disabled musicians create a dance track using only the power of their brains. The social media case study looks at how the Diageo drinks brand helped to build its ‘nightlife’ brand with cutting edge technology, social media and a catchy soundtrack….

Brand: Diageo, Smirnoff | Sector: FMCG, Food and Beverages, Alcohol | Country: Global | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Social media, Facebook, Video

Continue reading "Case study: Smirnoff’s ‘brain-controlled DJ’ gets fans sharing video " »

Back in 2011, MTV teamed with Smirnoff to showcase ‘The Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project’ – an ambitious attempt to break new ground in nightlife experiences and an integrated marketing partnership in the truest sense. This video case study highlights how the campaign increased Facebook fans from 427% to more than 1m.

Brand: Smirnoff | Sector: FMCG, Food and Beverages, Alcohol | Country: Global | Partner/agency: We Are Social | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Social media, Facebook, Video

Continue reading "Facebook case study: Smirnoff creates global buzz with nightlife exchange MTV project " »

In Summer 2013, Oxfam ran a content marketing campaign with band Coldplay and Scoopshot, to raise awareness of land grabs. This case study shows how the charity attracted over 6,400 user contributions to raise awareness of this growing issue. Following the video’s release, the World Bank issued a statement agreeing to most of Oxfam’s demands.

You can see the video here:

Brand: Oxfam | Sector: Charity | Country: UK | Partner/agency: Scoopshot | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format:Video, YouTube

Continue reading "Case study: Oxfam crowdsources fans for Coldplay charity video" »

For its latest campaign Unilever’s Cornetto launched a set of airplanes with a Twitter-connected banners, so summer lovers could declare their love in front of everyone on the beaches of Spain. The campaign, created by ad agency Lola / Lowe & Partners
, Madrid, encouraged Twitter fans to tweet a message of love with the #CornettoSkyTweets. If the message proved popular with fellow social networkers, the Tweet was put it up in the sky. During the campaing, Cornetto managed to get new messages out every 15 minutes by using three planes, allowing lovers to declare their affections in front of everyone on the beaches of the Costa del Sol in Spain.

Brand: Unilever, Cornetto | Sector: FMCG, Food and Beverages | Country: Spain | Partner/agency: Lola | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: YouTube

Continue reading "Video case study: Cornetto’s ‘Love Plane’ takes tweets to the sky" »

To promote its remake of horror classic ‘Carrie’, Sony Pictures and MGM created an elaborate (and rather terrifying) hidden camera prank which has gone viral big time, getting over 4 million YouTube views.

Brand: Sony Pictures, MGM| Sector: Entertainment | Country: US | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Video, YouTube

Continue reading "Video case study: Telekinetic Carrie prank gets 4m YouTube views" »

In October 2013, Heinz and Reckitt Benckiser were among the first brands to sign up for Future Ad Labs’ advertising format, PlayCaptcha. The partnership saw Heinz and Reckitt Benckiser use PlayCaptcha to increase brand engagement and improve overall consumer sentiment and product recall. Early tests for both Heinz and Cillit Bang indicates that PlayCaptcha delivered engagement rates many times higher than traditional digital advertisement formats, while providing a better user experience for web page visitors.

Watch this video presentation explaining how the 'PlayCaptcha' tool works below:

Brand: Heinz, Reckitt Benckiser | Sector: FMCG, Food and Beverages | Country: UK | Partner/agency: Future Ad Labs | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Gaming

Continue reading "Heinz and Reckitt Benckiser get 90% brand recall with 'PlayCaptcha' branded games" »

In a hard-hitting TV and digital campaign, St Johns Ambulance offered interactive advice on giving first aid to youngsters, in a bid to help boost awareness of potentially life-saving skills. The campaign, created by BBH London, features a TV and YouTube commercial that links to an interactive video adapted for both desktops and smartphones, with instructions on basic first aid. On their smartphone or on the desktop they will then be asked to swipe the screen or click a mouse at various points to help the father carry out first aid and move the boy into the right position to enable him to survive.

View the video ad here:

Brand: St Johns Ambulance | Sector: Healthcare, Public Service Announcment | Country: UK | Partner/agency: BBH London | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Video, TV, YouTube

Continue reading "Interactive first aid video helps ‘save the boy’" »

Social accommodation app Airbnb launched its first video ad this month- compiled only using 6-second Vine videos from Twitter fans. The 4-minute long commercial was composed after the firm asked its Twitter followers to create their own short Vine videos for the film, each of which depicts a different scene with a paper airplane traveling across the world.

Airbnb’s commercial, dubbed ‘Hollywood & Vines’, aired on the Sundance Channel in September 2013, and can been viewed in the embedded YouTube video below:

Brand: Airbnb | Sector: Hospitality, Travel | Country: US | Partner/agency: Mullen | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Video, Vine, Twitter, Social media

Continue reading "Twitter case study: Airbnb creates 4 minute film using Vine videos" »

Retailer TK Maxx has appointed Exponential for its first ever cross-platform ad campaign designed to increase the number of visits to its stores by occasional shoppers. The video campaign will run in two phases – autumn and Christmas – across both desktop and tablet, and will focus on communicating store locations. The ads will contain a Google map locating all stores in the user’s proximity overlayed on videos showcasing the latest male and female fashion ranges available in-store.

Brand: TK Maxx | Sector: Reatil, Clothing | Country: UK | Partner/agency: Exponential | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Mobile, Video

Continue reading "TK Maxx runs first ever cross-platform video campaign" »

In September 2013, American politics exploded onto the web with a partial governement shutdown, and digital marketers got tough and took the fight to Twitter, email and beyond. And they made it personal with a massive campaign to hold Speaker John Boehner “responsible” for the shutdown. Here’s what they said…

Sector: Politics | Country: US | Objective: Petition, Social media followers | Format: Email, Twitter, Social media

Continue reading "Social case study: The government shutdown? Democrats fight back online #EnoughAlready" »

Hewlett Packard’s US printing division generated more revenue per visitor from paid search than via organic listings, according to a this case study and white paper from Resolution Media and Kenshoo. The study examined the complex relationship between Paid and Organic Search Marketing, to discover the optimal balance on a search engine results page. The results indicated that paid search drove higher net revenue per visit than organic search.

Brand: Hewlett Packard | Sector: Consumer Electronics | Country: US | Partner/agency: Resolution Media and Kenshoo | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Paid Search, SEO

Continue reading "Paid Search ‘drives higher revenue per visit’ than organic listings for Hewlett-Packard" »

The official website for crime writer Agatha Christie got a revamp this month, resulting in a significant rise in visitors. This case study looks at how digital agency Tangent Snowball used a user-centred social media strategy to solve the mystery of fan engagement…

Brand: Acorn Productions | Sector: Publishing | Country: UK | Partner/agency: Tangent Snowball | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Website design, Social media

Continue reading "Agatha Christie site revamp gets 35% audience boost in first week" »

Following its successful ‘Art of the Trench' campaign, luxury fashion brand Burberry has teamed up with Google to let people capture their kisses by direct contact with their touch screen device, adding a personalised message and send on to friends across the globe. The YouTube video below has already notched up half a million views three months after the campaign went live.

Brand: Burberry | Sector: Clothing, Luxury | Country: Global | Agency/Partner: Grow, oogle | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Social, Mobile

Continue reading "Case study: Burberry teams with Google to offer social media ‘kisses’" »

Dom Pérignon is using Instagram to reinvent itself and appeal to younger consumers, as the luxury champagne brand expands into social media. Dom Pérignon has been showcasing the collaboration and limited-edition collaboration through its social media pages. On Facebook, daily posts convey the collaboration and promote the limited edition bottle and gift box.

Brand: Dom Pérignon | Sector: FMCG, Luxury | Country: Global | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Instagram, Facebook, Social

Continue reading "Dom Pérignon targets younger consumers with Instagram art project" »

In September 2013, Italian automaker Lamborghini introduced a live-streaming racing community to target aspirational consumers and racing enthusiasts. The new service went live at the Sept. 21-22 the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo race at the Nürburgring racecourse in Germany. The brand provided dedicated fans with moment-to-moment video and multimedia pertaining to the weekend’s races. Rather than inventing new content, finding ways to bring traditional events to social media can help Lamborghini bridge the gap between young and old consumers.

Brand: Lamborghini | Sector: Automotive, Luxury | Country: Global Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Social, Video

Continue reading "Lamborghini targets racing fans with live video streaming" »

Virgin Mobile USA has launched an interactive video campaign which a viewer can control simply by blinking- provided they are using a webcam. It begins as a fairly straightforward ad explaining why it's a good idea for you to switch your phone contract to Virgin Mobile, but every time you blink, the scene on screen changes, getting more and more ridiculous as time goes on. The technology in the spot works by scanning each viewer's eyes via their webcam so that the computer picks up the action every time they blink. The film is then designed to switch scenes with every blink.

View a trailer for the service here:

Brand: Virgin Mobile | Sector: Mobile | Country: US | Agency/Partner: rehabstudio | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: YouTube, Video

Continue reading "Video case study: Virgin Mobile tests blink-controlled YouTube ad" »

Menswear fashion brand, Burton recently launched an initiative across the performance channel, adopting a ‘channel neutral approach’ increasing conversions and sales by 395% in the process. With the increased exposure given across the publishers sites, Burton saw a significant increase in activity. Affiliate traffic increased by 260% on the previous week while the offer also converted exceptionally well at 14.5% click to sale.

Brand: Burton | Sector: Clothing | Country: UK | Agency/Partner: Affiliate Window | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Mobile, design, affiliate

Continue reading "Case study: Burton increases digital sales by 395% with omni-channel approach" »

In a digital twist on the classic ‘last Rolo’ ads, Milka has launched a new campaign that lets consumers pick who receives the last square of their chocolate bar. The confectionery brand has taken the last square from over 13 Million Milka Chocolate bars and are giving people the chance to claim their square back or give it to someone else. The campaign builds on the French brand’s current positioning of ‘Osez la tendresse’, or ‘Dare to be tender’. Paris-based Buzzman had the concept of the missing square and is behind the marketing campaign. The campaign was no mean feat, as it meant Milka had to alter its manufacturing process to create 10 million blocks of chocolate with a single piece missing.

Brand: Milka | Sector: FMCG, Food and beverage | Country: France | Agency/Partner: Buzzman | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Social

Continue reading "Milka lets consumers send ‘last square’ to friends" »