Plan Your Next Spring Marketing Campaign With These 6 Inspiring Ideas

Spring is upon us, bringing with it a host of seasonal events that can fuel your next spring marketing campaign. In March, there was St Patrick’s Day, then there was Easter and the general merriment that the lead up to summer brings.

These holidays provide the perfect opportunity to get creative with your marketing campaigns and connect with your audience.

For some spring-focused inspiration, here are some of our favorite seasonal campaigns over the past couple of years.

Inspiration For Your Next Spring Marketing Campaign

1. Guinness x Nick Offerman, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like St Patrick’s Day”

It’s no surprise that Guinness goes all out for St Patrick’s Day – they are, after all, the drink of Ireland.

For their spring marketing campaign, they teamed up with Parks and Recreation actor Nick Offerman to create a multichannel campaign packed full of tips, stories, and activities.

It consisted of three key things:

• Tips, tricks, trivia, and Guinness-related food pairings shared on Instagram Stories for Guinness’ over-18 audience
• Encouraging Guinness fans to share selfies of their “foamy Guinness mustache” on Instagram using the hashtag #StachForCharity. For every selfie submitted, Guinness pledged to donate at least $1
• Collaborating with workwear brand Carhartt to create a St Patrick’s Day Guinness clothing line. The products were made available on a microsite, where customers could enter for the chance to win a trip to the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin

The multichannel approach meant Guinness could target different audiences based on where they were already hanging out. Plus, using a celebrity influencer instilled trust with the brand and made it relatable for the everyday consumer.

2. Dunkin’ Donut’s Social Media Contest

Everyone loves the chance to win something – especially donuts. I mean, who doesn’t want to win a year’s supply of their favourite sweet treat?

This spring marketing campaign was a simple idea from Dunkin’ Donut, but it tapped into their customers’ wants and needs.

It essentially invited people to share how they were spending St Patrick’s Day using the hashtag #DDLuckyDozen to align with the luck-inspired four leaf clover emblem of Ireland’s most famous day.

The visuals accompanying the social media shoutouts were a nice touch too, featuring the familiar colors of St Patrick’s Day.

Despite the simplicity of the campaign, Dunkin Donut managed two things. They created a buzz around their brand and community and they gave their customers the chance to get involved.

This community focus is becoming an increasingly popular way for brands to connect with their digital audiences, and we’re likely to see more of the same this year – if not more, thanks to quarantines and lockdowns forcing people to stay at home.

3. Deliveroo’s GOT Dragon Chocolate Eggs

2019 marked the airing of the final series of Game of Thrones.

To commemorate the mammoth event, Deliveroo created a spring marketing campaign that promoted dragon-inspired chocolate eggs.

Fans were able to purchase the eggs through the Deliveroo app in various locations throughout the UK, and they were encouraged to share a snap of their buys on social media.

By tapping into current popular culture, Deliveroo unlocked a common theme with their audience and carved a deeper connection with them. Plus, the link between Easter eggs and Game of Thrones was a nice touch.

The campaign resulted in a wave of new signups for the food delivery brand, as GOT fans clamoured to get their hands on the eggs before they sold out.

4. IKEA’s Flat Pack Bunny

In another Easter-inspired spring marketing campaign, we turn to Swedish furniture brand IKEA.

For Easter 2020, they created an on-brand flat pack chocolate bunny that aligned with their brand positioning – because if IKEA isn’t known for flat pack furniture, then who is?

Customers were keen to get their hands on the limited-edition offering from the brand, but the message IKEA sent with it was much more than “we’re known for flat pack furniture”.

The bunny itself was made from sustainable cacao, which promoted the brand’s ongoing dedication to a sustainable future. The campaign also came at just the right time to promote the brand opening a swathe of new stores.

5. Lexus and Yahoo’s March Madness Campaign

Two big-name brands teaming up on a campaign is always big news. So, when Lexus joined forces with Yahoo, it was something to talk about.

The brands teamed up and created a homepage takeover along with a social media campaign made up of visual ads that drove viewers back to a microsite. When visitors reached the microsite, they could do a bracket challenge game to keep in the spirit of March Madness.

On top of this, participants had a chance to win a trip for four to Las Vegas, while Lexus was able to capture prospect email addresses and widen their reach.

The campaign generated some incredible results. It led to 165 million total impressions, 23 million total page views, as well as a 15% lift in brand favourability and a 29% lift in consideration to make a purchase.

6. Pure VPN’s Share Love at Times Square Spring Marketing Campaign

Spring is often known as the season of goodwill. It’s the time of new beginnings and looking forward to a brighter summer. For Pure VPN, 2021 was the perfect time to inject a bit of goodwill and love into their brand.

Using a UGC platform TINT, they collected user generated content that was displayed in Times Square during the first week in March.

To get their image featured, users simply have to make a heart shape and write a message for their loved ones telling them what they appreciate about them. Then, using the hashtag #ShoutoutAtTimesSquare, they can post it to their social media channels to get their name in lights.

Combining the buzz of community and the much-needed dose of love and goodwill after the year we’ve had, Pure VPN have created a campaign that ticks all the boxes.

Tips for Creating Your Own Successful Seasonal Spring Marketing Campaign

The examples we’ve collected here show a variety of different campaign ideas and activities you can use as part of your spring marketing efforts.

The key is to dig into what your audience enjoys and create something based around their wants and needs.

To recap, here’s how you can make sure your campaigns hit the right spot this spring:

• Tap into popular culture to resonate with a wider audience
• Align your marketing efforts with key events taking place
  Create multiple touch points and run campaigns across a variety of channels to reach the most people
• Tie your efforts into your brand values like IKEA
• Understand what your audience needs right now, like messages from loved ones or a hearty dose of happiness after the past year
• Keep it simple and make it easy for your audience to get involved
• Encourage people to share their own content as part of your campaign to generate UGC and create a buzz around your brand

When you know exactly what’s driving your audience and what they’re interested in, you can align your efforts to match those.

Rather than creating something and hoping for people to come to you, flip the switch. Create campaigns that meet consumers where they’re already hanging out, whether that’s on Instagram, YouTube, or in real-life places like Times Square.