1. #YesWeCan – Obama Election Campaign

Ah, politics. A world in which fancy slogans are the most valuable currency around, and few have had a bigger impact over the years than Barrack Obama’s iconic ‘Yes We Can’.

Despite hashtags not being particularly common in political campaigns back in 2008, a significant number of people used this one.

During Obama’s acceptance speech the hashtag saw a massive spike, and it arguably set the trend for future campaigns, almost all of which now rely heavily on hashtag slogans.

2. #ALSIceBucketChallenge – ALS Association

You would literally have to be living inside a bucket to not be aware of this one. Arguably the most successful hashtag campaign of all time in terms of global reach and media coverage.

This is the perfect example of how something very small – the hashtag was born in a Massachusetts living room – can go viral if the content and message are on point.

Celebrities from Rita Ora to Lady Gaga got involved, along with the likes of Bill Gates (pictured below) and George Bush (pretty much anyone with a social media account and an internet connection, basically). This culminated in a peak of 1.3m mentions in just 24 hours.

ice bucket challenge Bill Gates

I debated not including this example given that the hashtag wasn’t actually started by the ALS Association, but it would be criminal not to mention it in a round-up like this.

3. #ThisGirlCan – Sport England

This campaign from Sport England aimed to encourage women of all shapes and sizes to get off the sofa and get fit.

It was all about building confidence, but it also did a fantastic job of raising the profile of Sport England, with the video alone having received 13m views to date.

The hashtag enjoyed another spike in popularity on International Women’s Day a couple of weeks ago.

4. #LikeAGirl – Always

This campaign aimed to turn the insult ‘like a girl’ on its head, presenting it instead as something positive and empowering.

As you can see from the chart below, the campaign was well received across various different audience segments on Twitter.

#LikeAGirl campaign results Twitter

5. #NoMakeupSelfie – Cancer Research UK

As with the ice bucket challenge, this hashtag was not initially created by the charity that benefited from it. But after releasing a text code for donations Cancer Research UK ended up raising £8m from the campaign, so it definitely deserves a place in this list.

I like to think of #NoMakeupSelfie as the gateway campaign for the ice bucket challenge and various campaigns beyond, in the sense that it was the first time we saw a truly global social media takeover with people from all walks of life taking part.

6. #BeatCancer – Livestrong

An oldie but a goodie. Livestrong wanted to beat its own Guinness World Record for the most widespread social networking message, and it absolutely smashed it.

The #BeatCancer hashtag achieved more than 300,000 tweets and 1.67bn impressions, with PayPal and SWAGG donating $0.05 to a cancer charity for every time the hashtag was mentioned.

The above figures might not seem huge next to the likes of the ice bucket challenge, but bear in mind this was 2010, before the viral spreading of online news we’re used to now.

7. #BTTF2015 – Back to the Future (official)

How could we not include this one? It may only have been a short-lived campaign, but #BTTF2015 saw Back to the Future receive more media attention in the space of 24 hours than most movies could hope for in their lifetime.

For one day only, fans of the classic film franchise celebrated the date Doc and Marty travelled to from 1985, and it was glorious.

I’m not sure what the producers had in mind for the date back in the mid-eighties, but you can bet they couldn’t have imagined it would be something called a ‘hashtag’. What even is ‘the internet’?

8. #TweetFromTheSeat – Charmin

I love this one purely because it takes something everyone is kind of prudish about usually – number twos (see, even I can’t bring myself to say it) – and turns it into a hilarious hashtag campaign.

And not even Alan Sugar could question the relevance of this marketing campaign, given the primary use of Charmin’s products.

9. #HolidaySpam – Three

When it comes to brands, Three is, in my opinion, one of the masters of social content. It always manages to strike a good balance of humour and relevance and come across as a ‘human’ company.

The #HolidaySpam hashtag is a perfect example of that. We all hate seeing people posting gloating pictures of themselves on some golden-sanded beach somewhere (although hotdogs or legs has to be one of my favourite memes of all time), and Three jumped on that idea with gusto.

To promote its new plan that enables people to carry their data allowance over to a number of European countries, Three issued an ‘apology’ in advance for the inevitable increase in holiday spam as a result.

Sadly the hashtag has since been hijacked by actual holiday spammers, presumably with the incorrect belief that if they’re self-aware it’s less annoying.

10. #RainbowLaces – Paddy Power

Paddy Power is well known for its ‘lad’ humour, such as the fine example of display advertising below…

Pappy Power #RainbowLaces campaign

But it was refreshing to see the brand stand up for a good cause with its #RainbowLaces hashtag, which aimed to address the issue of homophobia in football.

Loads of other brands got involved and a number of high-profile Premier League players wore the multi-coloured laces in support.

11. #ShareACoke – Coca-Cola

Who would have thought putting a name on a bottle could generate so much social content? In hindsight it seems obvious, really, but Coca-Cola’s #ShareACoke campaign is proof that simplicity and the personal touch are powerful things.

Coca-Cola #ShareACoke campaign

When the campaign first launched in 2013, Coca-Cola created 1,000 different named labels, all displaying the #ShareACoke hashtag, which received 160,000 Twitter mentions and 740m impressions.

And the hashtag is still going strong today…

If you want to learn how to get your hashtag off the ground, check out some of our social media training courses

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