2018 saw a plethora of fantastic marketing campaigns, from fast-food to massive corporations like Nintendo and Apple. Even when these campaigns weren’t mainly marketing the product or service produced by the company who funded the marketing, these campaigns were quite groundbreaking for their time. If these marketing campaigns are any indication as to where the world of marketing is headed, 2019 should shape up to be a rather fun year. With that being said, these were the best marketing campaigns of 2018.
- Burger King Explains Net Neutrality
Fast-food giant Burger King made a bold statement with one of their commercials in 2018. The marketing campaign featured a regular employee exhibiting, in practical terms, how the controversial measure of net neutrality worked. In the commercial, employees who purchase a Whopper at a regular price have to wait longer to receive their food, than someone who paid premium money to have their food delivered faster. This is a paper-thin metaphor for net neutrality, which left the internet in stitches. Burger King was bound to garner quite a bit of notoriety and support for this campaign, considering the massive backlash surrounding the potential of the repeal of net neutrality. Their campaign was just one of many to speak out against the measure to remove net neutrality.
- SpaceX Sends A Tesla Roadster Into Orbit
Who can forget when Elon Musk sent his own Tesla Roadster into space? It was a groundbreaking achievement for SpaceX, and the car still circles Earth to this day. Many people didn’t realize at the time that this was a clever marketing campaign, but the sales of Tesla Roadsters sky-rocketed after Elon Musk’s entertaining decision to send his own into space. Piloted by a dummy Musk aptly named “Major Tom,” after the popular David Bowie song, “Space Oddity,” the car serves as an explorative device for SpaceX.
- IHOP or IHOB?
With a rather short-lived marketing campaign, the popular breakfast joint, IHOP played with the idea of replacing the “p” with a “b,” branding them as the International House of Burgers, instead of “pancakes.” Although entertaining and fun, the campaign was largely dismissed, as people began to catch on that the changing of their name was not legitimate, and instead, a marketing ploy.