Tipp-Ex and Pharrell

To promote his new book, Inspiration, pop superstar Pharrell has enlisted the help of Tipp-Ex’s Hunter and Bear characters.

The idea is that the two characters have accidentally Tipp-Exed over al the words in Pharrell’s book ahead of the launch.

To rectify the situation a site has been setup to crowdsource the words so the book can be rewritten in real time.

Users have to correctly guess the hidden words with the help of some hints – those who are successful will then be credited in the printed version.

People are obviously encouraged to share their activity on Facebook, and it’s also being heavily promoted using Tipp-Ex’s social platforms, including Snapchat.

This is a really creative campaign that makes great use of the Hunter and Bear’s existing popularity on social. And it’s all for a good cause, of course.

The revenues from the book will be used to help underprivileged children around the world.

Evian

Following up from its successful Amazing Baby adverts from 2013, Evian has joined forces with Marvel as part of the promotional activity around the new Spider-man movie.

During April Evian asked its Twitter followers to submit their problems using the hashtag #AmazingBabyRescueMe. The Amazing Baby character then responded with quirky tweets, vines, and illustrations.

Selected stories were also posted on the brand’s Amazing Baby Pinterest board.

The campaign, which was created by We Are Social, also involved a Facebook competition that asked fans what they would do if they had spidey sense. Each day four winners were given an Amazing Baby water bottle and tickets to see The Amazing Spider-man 2.

Finally, this YouTube video was published on April 1 to kick off the campaign and has already been viewed more than 17m times in just over a month.

Nike’s World Cup ad

Those of us old enough to remember back to the glory days of the 90s when Nike football ads relied on the charisma of Eric Cantona, Paulo Maldini (has there ever been a more handsome footballer?) and the original Ronaldo rather than snazzy computer graphics are less impressed by Nike’s latest effort ahead of the Brazil World Cup.

But you can’t argue with almost 60m views in two weeks.

Just Eat’s #SingForYourSupper

Online takeaway service Just Eat launched a social talent content during April that asked people to submit videos of themselves singing for the chance to win vouchers worth up to £249.99.

Just Eat recruited a number of entertainers to help promote the competition, including comedians, X Factor singers and a London choir.

Videos had to be submitted on Twitter or Facebook using the hashtag #SingForYourSupper with prizes handed out for the best, worst and most original entries.

It’s a very simple campaign but one that neatly connects the dots between Saturday night TV and takeaways. According to Topsy the hashtag has been used almost 1,000 times on Twitter in the past 30 days.

Manchester City sticker album

For anyone who spent their youth collecting Panini football stickers, this will be a shot of heart-warming nostalgia.

And though it isn’t a social campaign so much as a digital product, I love the idea so I’ve included it nonetheless.

Manchester City have launched a digital sticker album that allows fans to collect, trade and complete their albums through a wide variety of platforms including smartphones, tablets and PCs.

Available on iOS and Android, the interactive album also allows users to scratch beneath the surface and unlock special prizes, such as signed merchandise and match-tickets.

As it’s digital the images obviously go beyond the usual headshots to include action shots, animated images and exclusive video sequences.

Collecting stickers was an inherently social activity when I was at school as you had to swap with other kids and hope to complete sets before anyone else.

I’m dubious as to whether a digital product can recreate the same obsessive excitement, but there’s a huge market for virtual goods so I’ll probably be proved wrong.

Vileda Save Your Cats

I can only applaud the attempt to use cats as a way of selling mops. The first lesson they teach in social media school is that people love sharing videos with cute animals, and this video certainly ticks that box.

Vileda’s advert has been viewed more than 50,000 times in two weeks, but whether it helps sell any mops is another question entirely.

Greggs

UK bakery Greggs used social as a central part of its #TopSecretCoffee integrated campaign that sought to change consumer opinions of the brand.

To promote its new coffee blend Greggs toured several major UK cities and conducted a blind taste test with unsuspecting consumers. 

The participants, who were also filmed for the activity, were encouraged to guess the brand via Twitter using the hashtag #TopSecretCoffee. The following day Greggs was revealed to be behind the stunt and those who took part were all sent a voucher to get a free coffee.

Greggs also worked with the food blogging community and hosted similar sampling events in an effort to alter the bloggers’ opinions of the brand.

This campaign is a clever way of challenging consumer perceptions while promoting a specific product, and the involvement of food bloggers helps to amplify the message beyond relying on the reach of consumers

And we can of course overlook the fact that the campaign ran in March, not April… 

Jose and Yahoo

Jose Mourinho’s deal with Yahoo has yielded its first social competition, with the main prize being a training session with the Chelsea manager.

The campaign to find the next ‘Special One’ will primarily be hosted on Tumblr and requires users to send a 10-second video of themselves performing their best football tricks.

Clips can also be submitted using the hashtag #Special1s through Flickr, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or Vine. Each entrant will receive a pre-recorded reply from Mourinho, such as a shake of the head or a nod of respect.

It’s worth watching some of these videos just to see the weird range of reactions recorded by Jose.

Charities hijacks tube strike

While most Londoners saw the tube strike as nothing more than a giant inconvenience, Macmillan Cancer Research and Save The Children viewed it as an opportunity to gain a bit of social PR.

Jumping on the hashtag #tubestrike, both charities used a mock up of the tube map to promote their respective causes.

Macmillan showed that while the tube lines were closed, its own support lines remained open.

And Save The Children used the strike to raise awareness of the ongoing problems in Syria, with the tube lines altered to highlight the suffering of people caught up in the conflict.

French Connection’s selfies

Selfies are so hot right now, and French Connection has jumped right on that bandwagon with a ‘#canthelpmyselfie’ campaign in its flagship store on London’s Regent Street. It will also roll out to other stores around the UK during May.

Shoppers can use an interactive photo booth to capture images of themselves, which are then projected onto the windows of the store.

Large scale screens in-store will also display French Connection’s new SS14 collection modelled by fans of the brand with campaign content going live across the brand’s social media platforms. Users will then be able to vote for the most fashionable selfie.