What Are Marketing Campaigns? Definition, Types, and Examples

Evan Tarver has 6+ years of experience in financial analysis and 5+ years as an author, editor, and copywriter.

What Is a Marketing Campaign?

Marketing campaigns promote products through different types of media, such as television, radio, print, and online platforms. Campaigns include demonstrations, video conferencing, and other interactive techniques. Businesses in competitive markets and franchisees may initiate frequent campaigns and devote resources to generating brand awareness and sales.

Key Takeaways

• Marketing campaigns promote products through different types of media, such as television, radio, print, and online platforms.
• Defining a campaign’s goal usually dictates how much marketing is needed and what media are most effective for reaching a specific segment of consumers.
• Companies that lose sales due to major negative press often use marketing campaigns to rehabilitate their image.

Understanding Marketing Campaigns

Marketing campaigns are designed with different goals in mind, including building a brand image, introducing a new product, increasing sales of a product already on the market, or reducing the impact of negative news. Defining a campaign’s goal dictates how much marketing is needed and what media are most effective for reaching a specific segment of the population.

Businesses in highly competitive markets may initiate frequent campaigns and devote significant resources to generating brand awareness and sales.

Types of Marketing Campaign Activities

There are many ways to market products and services, from mailing brochures to coordinating a social media blitz. Small companies can email invitations to a special sale and offer a free product to every customer who brings the invitation. Larger companies can use paid advertising and professional agencies to reach a wider audience.

Whatever the size of the company, someone must handle the influx of traffic a marketing campaign generates. If customers sign up for your email list, you must manage the list well and send welcoming messages. If website visits increase, you must update your content to convert traffic to profitable sales.

Examples of Successful Marketing Campaigns

The long-running Aflac duck campaign significantly raised brand recognition. The company’s brand-recognition rate was just 12% when it launched the campaign in 2000, and advertising boosted recognition to 90%. 

Lay’s launched its first "Do Us a Flavor" campaign in 2012, asking customers to suggest new potato-chip flavors through texts and social media. The company’s sales increased 12%, and its volume of social media followers tripled.