Digital marketing industry case study library

Any agency or media owner can submit case studies to our team and these 225 are the strongest we have received, with the most recent case studies at the top of this page. If you're interested in more digital marketing case studies then review our complete case study library. If you're interested in submitting case studies then email our case studies manager to find out more CaseStudies@DigitalTrainingAcademy.com.

This impressive ad promoting the brand Trueroot creates a connection with Indians in a very unique and touching way. This ads became popular under the tagline “That’s the Way we are”. Recently, the video went viral in Facebook, amassing more than 225,000 views in YouTube.

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| Media: YouTube, Viral, Video | Country: India | Sector: Film | Objective: Build brand equity| Format: Viral Video »

07/05/2012  |  Full story...

These ads for Virgin Mobile were launched on digital media only with the launch of IPL (cricket in 2010). The ads were distributed via a targeted email and social network campaign aiming to reach the core market of Young Indian males. The collection of ads have racked up over a million views.

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| Media: YouTube, Viral, Video | Country: India | Sector: Film | Objective: Build brand equity| Format: Viral Video »

07/05/2012  |  Full story...

In April 2012, Belgian TV channel TNT posted this ad on YouTube, getting 23m views in just one week and becoming the second most shared video on the website. Published on April 11, the 'A Dramatic Surprise On a Quiet Square' video campaign has clocked a whopping 30m views and 250,000 likes with a fortnight. This case study takes a look behind the success...

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Brand: TNT | Media: YouTube, TV, Social Media | Agency: Duval Guillaume Modem, Belgium | Country: Belgium | Sector: TV, Media

24/04/2012  |  Full story...

Ahead of the Cricket World Cup 2011, PepsiCo India used Facebook’s video ad formats to closely engage with target audiences. The campaign’s main objectives were to create buzz, get the cricket-centric TV spots closer to consumers, create deeper level of engagement for the brand and drive traffic to an application created for the World Cup.

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Brand: PepsiCo India | Media: groupm | Country: India |Sector: Beverages | Agency: Komli | Format: Facebook Reach Block

24/04/2012  |  Full story...

This clever publicity stunt from Mercedes has earned the car maker many plaudits. The YouTube video features an 'invisible' car was seeded on numerous sites, including digital media blog Mashable, and attracted more than 9 million views in a couple of months.

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Brand: Mercedes | Media: YouTube, TV, Social Media | Agency: Jung von Matt | Country: Germany | Sector: Automotive

04/04/2012  |  Full story...

This witty Old Spice-style video ad from the Dollar Shave Club might just shake-up the shaving industry and give Gillette something to worry about. The viral video posted on YouTube garnered 3 million views and 32,000 'likes' within two weeks of going live in February 2012.

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Brand: Dollar Shave Club | Media: YouTube, TV, Social Media | Country: US | Sector: FMCG

15/03/2012  |  Full story...

LG’s minute-long 'smart thief caught on cam' guerrilla-style ad for its slim televisions amassed 4.5m YouTube views and over 50,000 shares across social media networks. This case study looks at how the electronics firm used viral video advertising and an amusing play on the products features to drive comsumer engagement.

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Brand: LG | Media: YouTube, TV, Social Media | Agency: Y&R | Country: Amsterdam | Sector: FMCG / Electronics

14/03/2012  |  Full story...

Cadbury's "Chocolate Charmer" online advertising campaign provided ROI almost 4 times higher than their TV campaign. The chocolate brand ran a cross-media campaign for its Dairy Milk brand, covering TV, online ads and YouTube promoted videos. Despite only investing 7% of its budget in online, the brand saw the sector generate 20% of the sales. This case study from Gfk NOP highlights to growing power of online advertising in the marketing mix.
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Brand: Cadbury’s | Media: YouTube, TV, Social Media | Agency: Fallon London | Country: UK | Sector: FMCG

06/03/2012  |  Full story...

In this case study, Orabrush made smart use of YouTube to create buzz around the brand and generate sales. The dental brand's YouTube video generated 16 million views with a budget of just $500. After 2 years the results are 160,000 followers of the ads on YouTube, 43 million views and 1 million brushes sold online

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Brand: Orabrush |Media: YouTube | Country: Spain |Sector: Oral Healthcare| Format: YouTube Video

View the first YouTube commercial | View the case study 'How they went to Walmart' | View the infographic | Read the Google Blog

05/01/2012

To promote the Smurfs film in Malaysia, Sony Pictures used interactive rich media ad formats to closely engage with the target audiences and generate high dwell rates. The campaign’s tone was fun and entertaining, to keep in line with the feel of the movie.

This case study shows how, with rich media advertising on MSN and MSN Messenger, Sony Pictures got viewers to engage with the brand on the website itself. Users spent and average of 146.36 sec on the banner and the average dwell rates of the campaign were 8.62%, which is above the benchmarks of Malaysia. The campaign was targeted toward the key audience of the movie- teens and young adults age 12-25 and parents with children age 5-12 years. The purpose of the campaign was to create viral buzz about the movie and drive ticket sales for the release of the movie.

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Brand: Sony Pictures| Media: MSN Malaysia, MSN Windows Live Messenger | | Country: Malaysia | Sector: Entertainment |Agency: Universal McCann MY, Monster Interactive MY |Format: Rich Media Interactive 3D ads

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24/10/2011

Before this now-legendary social media and video campaign, Old Spice was a brand that was previously associated with old men. This case study looks at how the ‘Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ YouTube ad got 6 million YouTube views in its first week, netting the P&G brand a sales increase of 125% year-on-year in a highly competitive market dominated by Unilever’s Axe.

11/06/2011  |  Full story...

Back in 2009, Samsung lit up the Welsh countryside with a stampede of ‘extreme sheep’. This case looks at how the electronics giant caused a viral sensation, getting 10m YouTube views within a year. The 200 second ad sees sheep with LED light harnessed manoeuvred into position to create a giant sheep, before creating the Mona Lisa with the various coloured LEDs on their back.

29/12/2009  |  Full story...

A good example of creativity within the advertising space. This simple advert for a Zoo in San Diego achieves interaction and creates a short entertainment experience. The player can create a mythical animal but connecting different parts of a zoo animal’s body together. The send-to-a-friend feature is a real neat way to let kids share the content, and the payback of saying that whatever the animal, you’ll find it at the zoo clearly fits with the attraction’s position in the market. The forwarding tool is a simple example of how to tap into social networks and the interaction a good way to make otherwise flat advertising something people want to engage with.

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09/07/2009

This example of data capture inside an advertising space is a good way of showing how brands can build lists and email addresses of prospects without needing them to visit the website. In this particular example, the confectionery brand Snickers uses mobile marketing as a way of sending messages between friends that are from their brand spokesperson – Mr T. The messaging is customised by name and gives the person who triggers the message a range of options. A neat way of reaching into social networks and getting people with mobiles to forward the brand message to their friends.

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09/07/2009

These kids became iconic through television and online advertising. They’re instantly recognisable and their leaping eyebrows swept through the web as fast as people could forward to their friends. It’s a good example of integration between media channels because the images and music were identical across both. The images are high impact on screen and they work well on the web because of the lack of clutter within the advertising space. It becomes one of the dominant elements on the page and because of this achieves both impact, brand recognition and message association. For fast moving consumer packaged goods brands like Cadbury’s, they’re not trying to sell off the page, their goal is to build brand image, discussion and front of mind awareness. That’s exactly what this creative achieves so brilliantly – even without a click-through to their website.

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09/07/2009

A challenge Levi's have is that they compete not only intensively in store for market share amoung their target consumers, but also for the time and attention their consumers have when they are exposed to media. The brand needed to find a way to engage that would achieve cut through.

Download the case study: Levis Jeans Jump | Watch the video

26/06/2009  |  Full story...

Coca-Cola needed to find a way of levering a celebrity endorsement to gain cut-through in a tough market. The brand was looking for a technique of messaging that would gain real attention, connecting to the right people and in the right way. The peer referral power of viral marketing offers this promise, but in most cases proves elusive for fast moving consumer goods firms. However, this short video starring English football star Wayne Rooney - proved compelling enough for millions of people to want to send this on. It’s the kind of connection all viral marketing sets out to make but rarely delivers.

Download the case study: Coke Wayne Rooney | Watch the video

26/06/2009  |  Full story...

Matt Harding is back, and Striding with friends. The cult following of Matt got a boost when chewing gum brand Stride sponsored his next round-the-world adventure. With a few million views online, Matt had a couple of friends who wanted to take part as well. From Quebec to Los Angeles, Paris to Sao Paulo, Mumbai to Madrid , they showed up and in his words, 'danced badly' with him.

11/03/2009  |  Full story...

The multi award-winning BMW Films project was one of those rare moments when an advertising campaign is so powerful it succeeds in changing the medium it works within. High budget, all-action and with blockbusting stars like Madonna under the stewardship of A-list directors like Ang Lee, the movies were an instant cult success. They showcased the best in movie-making, and delivered it in the context of a message of brand association BMW had carefully crafted. By creating compelling media they generated their own self-selecting audiences without the need of heavyweight media spend.

11/03/2009  |  Full story...

A mint, a fizzy drink and a schoolboy prank taken to extremes. We must have watched this 50 times and still it gets a smile. These videos with quality production values and good direction tell a story that’s right in tone, length and format for the web today. Thanks to YouTube they’ll be around 10 years from now and still reinforcing the brand. But as a creative concept this wasn’t created by the brands; it grew from the street and wasn’t easy for the brands to accommodate at first. What many marketers forget is that for every firm there are brand adorers and brand vandals and there needs to be a strategy for dealing with both. Over the next 10 years the centre of gravity of the web will shift to social media and firms need to have these strategies in place before their brands and content start being used. Marketing in social media demands creating material people want to share. The principles of getting this right grew from the early days of viral marketing in the mid 90s and are closely related to PR. ‘Enjoy the film.

11/03/2009  |  Full story...

How do you make kitchen electricals sexy? Take some heavyweight appliances, a heap of schoolboy mischief, a chef in a white coat, a sprinkle of viral marketing and a splash of social media; then pour the contents into a blender and watch the ingredients bond together to create the perfect recipe for viral marketing. WillItBlend has become legendary in less than six months. It’s made Tom a superstar, transformed a parochial firm into a global brand and boosted sales of $800 smoothie makers. Few firms have the nerve, vision, guts or raw creativity to try this; but when you get the formula right, the results taste awesome.

11/03/2009  |  Full story...

Viral can deliver exceptional impact on brand image and consumer engagement, but as a marketing tool it remains unpredictable and highly challenging to get right. Viral is an effect rather than a media channel. Brands don't create virals - they simple create the content. What happens next is up to consumers. While one in a thousand campaigns may gain real traction, the majority of web marketing is either not arresting enough or motivating enough to earn a viral effect. However, for the brands that get it right, viral can deliver complex brand messages and generate fast distribution among both the mass market and niche audiences. Against a landscape of media saturation they can achieve cut-through because they arrive with consumers through the endorsement of their friends. Planners can use the viral effect particularly well to pass messages through communities that otherwise are hard to pin down. If those audiences don't naturally come together around online media content then there may be no way of reaching them through conventional web advertising approaches. The viral effect inside a community can ensure the message finds the people who are most receptive.

Viral messaging can also extend the period a campaign is in market because it continues to live long after a paid for advertising campaign has passed. Viral marketing can self-select its audience and in the hands of an experienced planner, the half-life of a campaign can betracked and anticipated

15/05/2008  |  Full story...

This television style commercial uses the classic tease and reveal model. It builds a story which is entertaining and engaging. By releasing it on line the web Coke build discussion among key target audiences. The fact the origins of the idea are in an online game gives a synergy with the target audience and the viewing environment. The creative is really a classic television commercial that simply takes an icon of the digital gaming world – Grand Theft Auto – and builds a story around it. The way it was deployed then created a greater effect...

• Harnessing social media content by developing a viral effect for transmitting the message through YouTube and email
• Using online gaming characters and visualisations to build brand equity and message association between Coke, the brand and the coolness of the game
• The brand exploits an icon of digital entertainment in a way that is synergistic with the expectations of the target consumer
• The brand succeeds in creating content that successfully parodies one of the world’s leading games

15/05/2008  |  Full story...

Lycos has evolved from an early leader in search to the content portal that it is today. With a large registered user-base for services such as Lycos Mail, Lycos aims to monetise its audience by extending into new content areas, such as XY. XY is a new channel on Lycos, targeting a similar audience to magazines such as Zoo and Nuts. Taglab was developed PR-able content and Viral game featuring user generated content to promote the launch of Lycos UK’s new “XY” men’s channel. The campaign features a Flash photofit style application enabling users to combine the features of celebrity females to design the perfect woman. The images can then be sent to friends or published in an online gallery.

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01/08/2007

Warner Breaks saw a 2000% increase in its return on investment in email marketing and a 48% increase in open rates when it began working with RedEye. Using RedEye’s segmentation and event-driven email tools, Warner was able to obtain and utilise detailed information about online customer activity and use this data to automatically send timely and highly targeted emails. RedEye also advised Warner Breaks on the most effective creative designs in order to improve deliverability rates.

Download Warner Breaks viral email case study | Ask your Tutor for more insights | Submit your own case studies

31/07/2007