With election now over and Justin Trudeau as our new Prime Minister, it’s interesting to look back on the marketing of his campaign.

More than any other candidate, Trudeau utilized social media to reach out to Canadians. I mean, his party even sold their own selfie sticks.

Outlined by Huffington Post, the 5 ways Justin Trudeau effectively used social media are:

1. Video Marketing

He created fun, short video clips that were easy to share and retweet with his messaging of real change consistent throughout.

2. Connection

He connected with Canadians through hashtags such as #RealChange and #GenerationTrudeau, but also through more emotional tweets and imagery that got his point across.

3. Humour

Trudeau used jokes about his hair to keep the campaign light and relatable, to remind Canadians that he’s a regular person.

4. Family

He also shared many personal posts and pictures of his family, which affirmed to us that he was a loving father and husband.

5. Response

By posting in both French and English, Trudeau’s engaged with Canadians and concentrated on increasing his social media presence when other candidates didn’t. It was worth it though, as Trudeau finished with 66K Instagram followers, Harper with 11K and Mulcair with only 7K.

Through the use of a genuine voice, authentic content and consistent messaging, Trudeau won over Canadians. More than any other candidate, Trudeau saw that reaching out to Canadians over social media was the best way to communicate that he was ambitious, trustworthy and relatable.

And it won him the vote.

– N

For a while now, whenever anyone has asked me what my favourite marketing campaign of all time is, there’s been only one answer: the Coca-Cola Share a Coke campaign.

What is it? Just the simplest, most genius campaign ever created.

Don’t mind if I do, @harrystyles

The campaign made sales rise for the first time in a decade and put Coke above their competitors by allowing customers to pick out their names on bottles.

What made this campaign so great for me though, was the user generated content that was created when it was released. On Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, you couldn’t escape people posting pictures of their coke bottles with funny captions or sentimental notes. Giving someone a Coke bottle with their name on it became seen as an awesome gift.

All that advertising was free to Coca-Cola.

Like we discussed in class, consumers are more interested in hearing the views of their peers, and that can even lead them to buy more. User generated content is great because it builds trust and awareness without just having a brand constantly post boring sales pitches.

It’s hard to get right, but when you do it can produce great results.

– N

All hail Taylor Swift, queen of Instagram. With 50 million followers, Swift just overtook Kim K to take the coveted crown of most followed on Instagram.

It’s no surprise that Taylor is number one. She’s built a devout following and become incredibly influential just by posting fun pictures of her cats, friends, and baked goods, making herself seem like a regular girl. But, we mustn’t forget that there’s clever marketing at play behind every picture.

Taylor Swift, just a regular girl with really cute cats

One of her greatest marketing achievements is her Bad Blood video campaign earlier this year, breaking the Vevo record with 20.4 million views in only 24 hours. The music video, premiering at the Billboard Music Awards, was counted down ahead of the release by branded images of the stars (mostly her friends) in the video, like Selena Gomez, Karlie Kloss and Cara Delevingne.

The posts created hype around the release and received hundreds of thousands of likes within hours.

Inc.com explains how to replicate Taylor’s strategy in 4 simple steps:

1. Create suspense

Taylor did it by releasing the images with not much information but still giving some away, making people excited as they didn’t know what was coming next.

2. Establish partnerships

Partnering with 15 celebrities, Taylor broadened her market to untapped areas not in her typical genre, like popular rapper Kendrick Lamar and Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo.

3. Perfect timing and execution

Even though Bad Blood was on Taylor’s album 1989 released in October 2014, she managed to make the single relevant again by showing it from a different, dark angle. Then, she posted the images every day in the 10 days leading up to the video’s release.

4. Don’t oversell

She didn’t overhype the video by not giving away too much, but it’s important not to leave the customer disappointed if you don’t have Taylor’s budget.

And here you have it. A Taylor Swift approved marketing strategy.

No bad blood here.

– N