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Back in January beauty brand e.l.f. Cosmetics kicked things off with a true crime mockumentary about makeup theft that’s since gone viral, racking up nearly 6 million views on YouTube and hundreds of comments praising the spot for its genius creative marketing. With the bar set that high, it’s bound to be an incredible year for brand video marketing, and major players are already off to the races.
And they’re wise to do so. According to Marketing Dive, video is now the central content pillar around which consumer engagement revolves, weaving “itself into the very fabric of consumers’ lives, influencing their learning preferences, decision-making processes, and ultimately, their purchasing behavior.”
In our 2024 Content Marketing Predictions survey, 71% of marketers forecasted ‘short-form videos for social media’ would be their most successful format this year.
For a look at some examples packing serious ROI and inspiration, read on to see how four big brands are wowing with their video efforts this year.
⏯ Related Reading: Brands Are ‘Pivoting to Video’ — and This Time, It’s Working
Workday Weaves Hard Rock into Light-Hearted Comedy
Video Details
It’s not every day that a B2B CRM company features legendary stars like Gwen Stefani, Travis Barker, and Billy Idol in a marketing campaign. But “while these rock icons might not consider us to be rock stars in the traditional sense, our customers around the world are the true rock stars of business and we want to celebrate that,” says Workday’s Chief Marketing Officer Emma Chalwin. “We’re bringing that to life in the next wave of this multi-channel campaign with
amazing talent, humor, and a bold, new edge aligned with what everyone loves about the Workday brand.
Why it Stands Out
Building on last year’s Super Bowl success — which won Workday a Gold Lion at Cannes — the brand keeps pushing the concept that enterprise management software (and what it enables pros to do) can be just as cool and hardcore as rock and roll itself. And if that sounds a bit far-fetched, it won’t when you look at the results. AdAge reports that the campaign debut “increased brand consideration by 65% and brand awareness by 14%”.
The proportion of people saying Workday is ‘a brand I can trust’ rose by 24%. The campaign also reversed five years of slowing lead growth.
Specifically, Workday has since enjoyed a 50% increase in leads, according to Variety. With those kinds of numbers, the company’s making the most of its message, ensuring that supporting copy across social media channels like LinkedIn, X, and Facebook (whose banners read “Be a Finance and HR Rock Star”), as well as related headlines across their site, all tie back to their biggest and most profitable marketing idea yet.
studioID Tip
Spiky hair and black leather not your thing? Or simply can’t afford to hire the likes of real-life rock stars for your next campaign? With some scrappy creativity, there are still loads of ways to get laughs, likes, and shares — even if you’re on a budget. Take a cue from HubSpot, for instance, whose marketing team has recently turned their social channels into glorified, B2B meme accounts with a slew of lo-fi DIY graphics and videos.
Related Reading: Cue the Comedy: 3 Brand Campaigns Making People Laugh in 2024
Dramamine Dives Into Long-From Documentary
Video Details
At 13 and a half minutes, Dramamine has produced a (relatively) long-form branded documentary that offers a fascinating look at the history and some quirky collectors of the airline barf bag — almost a thing entirely of the past, thanks to advances in air travel and the nausea-reducing effects of the well-known medication.
The brand turns 75 this year, which would be reason enough for the campaign, but like so many examples of exceptional marketing, it all started with some careful social listening. Andrés Ordóñez, Global Chief Creative Officer of FCB, the agency behind the creative, told AdAge:
Barf bags are disappearing, but [the collectors] are giving them a second life. That’s where this whole beautiful story started.
“The reality is, every time you see a barf bag, you wish you had Dramamine. The only reason why you would need one is if you don’t have Dramamine in your pocket, so there’s already a connection. Then we went deeper to understand the subculture.”
Why it Stands Out
With a dedicated landing page as well as paid social and digital ads, “The Last Barf Bag: A Tribute to a Cultural Icon” is Dramamine’s largest marketing investment since 2010 and the company’s next step in humanizing its brand and making it more accessible to a wider audience. For Randi Jachino, VP of Marketing at Dramamine parent Prestige Consumer Healthcare, “This checked every box as a brand marketer. I loved it from minute one.
I love ideas that get us into society and get people talking, that are fun and relatable and culturally relevant.
Even more clever? Inspired by the passionate barf bag collectors they interviewed, the team created a selection of 10 limited edition non-barf-bags, with a range of reimagined uses. From puppet to gift bag, glove, and more, fans old and new can now take part in the fun and order their very own “barf bundle” or individual bags, which the brand delivers with a variety of motion sickness-reducing products.
studioID Tip
Gather your team for a brainstorming session. What brand-adjacent products, topics, or themes can you come up with to take your storytelling efforts to the next level? Dramamine’s campaign works so well because it’s as earnest as it is light-hearted, making for a genuine exploration of a niche topic that’s human-centered, relevant to their offering, and educational as well as highly entertaining.
Related Reading: How to Create Ownable Conversations: A Step-by-Step Guide to Engaging with Niche Communities
Monday.com Produces a Variety of Social Videos
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Video Details
From casual, off-the-cuff uploads like the text-overlaid example above to pre-recorded podcast clips, user-centered series, monthly feature updates, corporate responsibility highlights, and much more, Monday.com is no stranger to experimentation when it comes to social media video efforts. Lately, that looks like employee insights and interview snippets on TikTok, a consistent stream of customer stories on YouTube, and a healthy mix of all kinds of content on Instagram to see what works best.
Why it Stands Out
For a company that lets users their own applications and project management software, experimentation just makes sense. And with 85.2 thousand subscribers on YouTube and 26.2 followers on TikTok — an impressive amount for any B2B brand — Monday.com’s willingness to experiment has led to steady growth across channels.
Case in point: in February, the brand celebrated 100,000 followers on Instagram; today they’re up to 105k and counting.
Whether they’re explaining what they do, how they did it, and where they plan to go next — or even when they’re just having fun — the branded videos have a consistent voice, tone, look, and feel, no matter how long or short they may be. That way, viewers always know it’s Monday.com they’re engaging with, and where the valuable insights (and light-hearted laughs!) are coming from.
studioID Tip
If you’re looking to make a splash on social as a B2B brand, set up smartphones, camcorders, or whatever you have on hand and start recording. While some employees may be camera-shy, others might turn out to be total hams — leverage their eagerness and highlight what they do. Have extra room in your budget? Partnering with influencers and content creators who already engage your target audience and understand vertical video can also help get you where you want to be even faster.
Related Reading: 5 Short-Form Video Trends for Share-Worthy Content in 2024
