A good marketing campaign is one of the best ways a company can speak directly to its target audience. But small businesses often feel that they don't have the funds or resources to create ad campaigns that make an impact.
This isn't the case. Small businesses are constantly finding new and exciting ways to raise awareness for their brands without relying on traditional and often costly campaigns like TV or print ads. A perfectly timed campaign can grab media attention allowing a brand to amplify their voice and grow their company.
So, to help you get started, we've rounded up some of the simple and best ad campaigns to inspire your future marketing efforts.
1. The Sill - Plant Care 101
Who are they?
The Sill is a small online plant shop that sells many products including plants, care accessories, and stylish planters. Originally founded in New York City, the company uses bright and modern branding to target its typically younger audience and inspire people in urban areas to grow their interest in plant care.
The campaign
Plant Care 101 is a campaign designed to support new plant owners by offering educational resources on plant care.
On their blog, Instagram, and YouTube they've created great content to support their audience.
Their video series, 'No Stupid Questions' addresses many plant health topics like yellow leaves and propagation.
They also utilize influencers or as they call them, "Plantfluencers" by interviewing them about their love of plants and how they got into this interesting hobby.
Rating: 8/10
Using multiple types of content to share their message is a great way to reach a wide range of audiences maximizing their reach.
2. Bumble BFF - Find Real Friends
Who are they?
Bumble is a popular dating app with the USP that women make the first move in hetero matches. The app has branched out in recent years and now has modes for dating, finding friends, and professional networking.
The campaign
Bumble BFF launched an integrated campaign titled “Find Real Friends” in hopes of helping women make new friendships throughout their lives.
The campaign began with engaging advertisements that quickly resonated with the target audience, generating significant buzz and positive reception. They used a mix of digital and print ads to promote the new feature and following its’ launch worked with local businesses to put on pop-up events.
The tongue-in-cheek tone of their ads made the process seem less scary and encouraged women to get to know new people who shared their interests.
Rating: 6/10
Although the tone of the messaging is great, by not utilizing all their channels they really minimized their reach limiting the impact of the campaign.
3. Goodr - #DoingGoodr
Who are they?
Goodr is an Atlanta-based start-up that created and manages a digital platform to track surplus food. Their insights help food businesses reduce waste and their food waste recovery service picks up and donates any waste they don't dispose of.
The campaign
Using the hashtag #DoingGoodr, the company utilizes social media to showcase its impressive impact on food waste. Capitalizing on food waste awareness days, they create and share infographics highlighting how wasting food costs money and damages the environment.
Using their actions and partnerships with other organizations as case studies, Goodr also share statistics on the positive impact of the organization and how it benefits the environment and their local community.
Not only has this helped them build an audience that loves and supports their message, but it also helps them engage local businesses to donate surplus food so they can help even more people.
Rating: 7/10
The campaign has a great visual impact allowing them to share their message in an interesting and eye-catching way.
4. Pip & Nut - Eventjacking
Who are they?
Pip & Nut is a small company that creates all-natural and palm-oil-free nut butter. The founder started the brand while training for a marathon. She was unhappy with the current nut butter options that were filled with additives and preservatives so she created her own version that provides protein and healthy fats.
The campaign
The brand wanted to reconnect with its initial target audience of health-conscious athletes. To do this they began sponsoring half marathons, where they provided free product samples to competitors.
Pip & Nut documented the events on their Instagram and created short videos encouraging participants to review and share their experiences. This strategy proved effective, allowing them to connect with influential figures in the fitness industry.
Building on this success, they began gifting products to prominent athletes, including Paralympians, who shared their positive feedback online, boosting the brand's social media visibility.
Rating: 9/10
This campaign was directly delivered to its target audience, engaging them in a way that created a memorable and impactful experience for everyone involved.
Flo Health - Pregnancy Mode
Who are they?
Flo Health is a popular app for female health and wellness. Globally they support over 300 million women in managing their health and reproductive well-being. The app offers personalized features for various life stages, providing tools for tracking cycles, fertility, and pregnancy with a scientifically backed approach.
The campaign
After the launch of their Pregnancy Mode feature, Flo Health created daily Instagram-style stories designed to align with each stage of a woman's pregnancy journey. Instead of conventional articles, these stories acted as a countdown to due dates and information on fetal development, health tips, and care.
The campaign aimed to leverage trends in digital health usage while offering engaging and accessible information tailored to pregnant women's unique health needs.
Rating: 10/10
Interactive, engaging and tailored specifically to each user - this campaign had it all. No notes!
6. Popchips - Influencer marketing campaign
Who are they?
Popchips is a healthy snack brand known for its unique approach to manufacturing its products. Instead of taking the typical approach of frying or baking their product, they use a pressurized air chamber that gives the snack its unique look and texture.
The campaign
Popchips launched an ad campaign by gifting products to micro-influencers (1,000–100,000 followers) known for their loyal, highly engaged audiences. They encouraged influencers to feature Popchips in party and event photos, tagging the brand to boost excitement and visibility. This approach successfully increased brand recognition and created an organic buzz around the product on social media. Popchips tapped into pop culture trends by aligning their influencer marketing strategy with current cultural phenomena, enhancing consumer engagement and brand recognition.
Rating: 7/10
Utilizing micro-influencers is a cost-effective strategy to reach a highly engaged audience. However, the lack of targeted messaging specific to their product slightly diminishes its effectiveness.
Partake Foods - User-generated content partnerships
Who are they?
Partake is a New York-based and black-owned business that creates allergy-friendly snacks. All of their foods are gluten and GMO-free and avoid the top nine allergens making them suitable for a wide range of people.
The campaign
Partake Foods collaborated with DoubleTree by Hilton to create an allergy-friendly, individually wrapped version of their chocolate chip cookie, ensuring a safe treat for guests with dietary restrictions. Released across U.S. Hilton hotels to celebrate National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, this shared branding effort allows all guests to enjoy a sweet treat without worry of cross-contamination, aligning with Partake’s business ethos.
Rating: 8/10
The campaign promotes inclusivity and leverages a strong partnership that increases visibility but its limited reach slightly reduces its impact.
8. Monzo - Year in Monzo
Who are they?
Monzo is a UK-based digital bank that offers checking accounts, saving tools, and budgeting features. It operates primarily through its mobile app and provides instant notifications, easy money management tools and no-fee international spending.
The campaign
Monzo’s campaign used customer data to create personalized, fun, and localized ads, celebrating how users spent their money over the past year. Consumer data played a crucial role in shaping the campaign, tailoring messages that resonate with local audiences. Billboards across the UK highlighted unique spending patterns, such as “Milton Keynes: you went to Nandos more than anywhere else,” targeting specific regions. The campaign’s success was down to its local relevance, data-driven insights, and the ability to connect with communities personally aligning with consumer demand for smarter, more personalized marketing.
Rating: 9/10
Using data-drive insights creates an engaging personalized experience and the locally relevant ads resonates with consumers and their communities.
9. The Dog Bakery - Dog Birthday Party
Who are they?
The Dog Bakery is a Los Angeles-based company specializing in high-quality, gourmet dog treats. They offer a variety of seasonal and themed products, allowing pet owners to celebrate special occasions with their dogs. Their treats cater to different holidays and events, making it easy for customers to include their pets in the festivities with delicious, fun, and safe options for four-legged friends.
The campaign
To help promote their custom-made dog birthday cakes, The Dog Bakery ran a marketing campaign aimed at the most passionate dog owners. They created #DogBirthdayParty to encourage local pet owners to showcase their dog’s birthday celebration. User-generated content, such as photos and videos from dog owners, helped promote the dog birthday cakes. They invited local pet influencers to document their experience of collecting and enjoying the cake showcasing their huge range of dog-friendly cakes, party favors, and treats to attract local pet owners and increase foot traffic.
Rating: 8/10
The campaign leverages user-generated content and pet influencers boosting local visibility and creating a sense of community but the niche audience limits some broader reach.
10. Surreal - Same name campaign
Who are they
Surreal UK-based cereal brand that creates healthy versions of classic sugary cereals. Their products are high in plant protein, low in carbs, and completely sugar-free making them a great healthy alternative for adults that still feel young at heart.
The campaign
Surreal has made a name for itself with its kooky marketing campaigns that typically include staff members' pets and tongue-in-cheek humor. In one of their more recent campaigns, Surreal decided to try their hand at celebrity endorsement, be it a more budget-friendly one. They got regular people with the same names as A-list celebs to endorse their product so that they could share their glowing reviews on social media and billboards. The stunt caught many people's attention and created a real buzz online.
Rating: 9/10
The campaign cleverly uses humor and creativity to deliver a cost effective take on celebrity endorsements generating significant online buzz.
Wrapping up
Ad campaigns don't need to be complex or expensive. They're simply tools to get your brand out there and engage your audience.
Small businesses with limited budgets can get creative and find new ways to gain media coverage and bring awareness to their product, whether via social media or traditional advertising mediums.
Customer data plays a big role in advertising, so make sure you’ve got it accessible, and are handling it securely.
With Capsule you can store, manage, and categorize your data in one place making it easy to access and utilize. Try Capsule free for 14 days to find out more.
