When social media campaigns are done right, they can be great. When they’re done wrong, they can be horrible (and sometimes hilarious).

This past summer, Airbnb came out with a campaign called “Is Mankind?” featuring a baby walking through a dimly lit house and a voiceover of Angela Bassett asking if mankind is truly kind. She tells us, “Go look through their windows, so you can understand their views. Sleep in their beds, so you may know their dreams.”

It did not go well.

A well-intentioned campaign no doubt, but the underlying creepiness of the video caused the internet to have a bit of a field day.

Thousands of tweets and numerous parodies later, it just goes to show how volatile social media can be.

These days when it’s so easy for a single person to broadcast their opinions to the world on Twitter and have a huge impact, companies need to be making sure that their campaigns portray their brand in the best light and are being screened multiple times.

Social media, it can help and hurt you. It’s important to make sure the content you’re posting is right to avoid the wrong kind of viral fame.

– N

This year has been pretty insane for me, to say the least. I packed up a suitcase and moved halfway across the world to Edinburgh, where there wasn’t a single person who knew my name, to start a semester abroad. 9 months and 17 countries later, I can absolutely say that I have a whole new outlook on life.

Me in Edinburgh!

Before my exchange, I was obsessed with buying the newest things – shoes, clothes and basically every new product I could get my hands on (my credit card bill at the end of every month was not pretty!) Travelling out of a backpack and seeing amazing things made me realize this—while staring at the Eiffel Tour or drinking a bottle of wine on the Spanish Steps, I couldn’t even remember what all that stuff I bought was!

The fact that I was happier travelling through Europe with little to no money than I was constantly shopping made me realize we really don’t need that much stuff. Coming back I knew what I needed to do de-clutter my life – minimize.

Just like the clutter faced in my life, consumers are bombarded with information from every direction. That’s why minimalism is a growing trend in marketing today. Minimalist marketing tries to cut all that noise by being efficient and entertaining. How do they do that? As outlined by Emily Perry for Content Equals Money, it’s important to simply choices, establish trust, tell a story and provide valuable information.

The “modern master” for minimalism is Apple. Sleek, cool and easy-to-understand, Apple’s advertisements are to the point and always behind a neat white background.

The MacBook air advertisement above has no voice over and ends with only four words, but the viewer clearly understands the brand.

And that’s what minimalism is about – simplifying in order to be able to see things clearly.

– N