The year 2020 has certainly been a whirlwind, and it’s not over quite yet! From a major pandemic to a history-making election year, you can’t seem to turn on the news and not find another major breaking story.

From a marketing standpoint, it leaves us wondering how our favorite brands are pivoting through this unique time in our lives. Thankfully, we’ve rounded up the top 11 who are using this year to their advantage. Maybe we should take a few pages out of their books? Let’s take a look! 

Apple

Apple has always been known to have great marketing tactics through the years, and it proves to be no different this year! In fact, they took all of this year’s events into consideration and chose to release their new products a month or two later than normal as a result.

This is a company that keeps it simple with their campaigns, and so it’s perceived as so much more. From close-ups of the new sleek technology to creative, yet powerful narration, their advertising is able to grasp the attention of many each and every time.  

Annheuser-Busch 

While they’re known for beer, this brewing company was able to successfully and iconically pivot their offerings to customers. Annheuser-Busch is now serving hand sanitizer with your happy hour brew!  

Why is this great? According to Cone, at least 78% of Americans all want companies to show they care and are willing to positively impact society. And this particular company is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.   

 Lego 

In their first global brand campaign after 30 long years, Lego is back with the campaign Rebuild the World. Although it’s fitting for this year, the brand set out to create this campaign in September of last year in order to promote their newly released movie. 

It’s an attempt to inspire the community and shed a light on global issues such as climate change. The campaign secured over 5 million views on YouTube, all while creating a stance on issues in a more creative way. It solidified part of the brand story and mission. 

Lyft 

Did you know that Lyft is the rideshare company that’s on track to overtake Uber? A lot of it has to do with it’s insane growth and competitive pricing. 

The company is so successful because they know that their target customer is willing to invest in convenience. Knowing this, they came out with a program that was entirely run by word-of-mouth. In an attempt to refer themselves to new clients, they were able to get tier current customers to do it for them. 

Not many companies are able to say they can achieve that either! 

State Farm 

State Farm will forever be known as the insurance agency that’s been able to constantly instigate humor in their marketing campaigns. On Valentine’s Day they ran a campaign where a successful girlfriend dumped her boyfriend. The insurance brand then swooped in to ensure the guy and audience that life will go right with them. 

Relatable and funny, this is the kind of campaign that will keep the target audience engaged throughout the entirety of the advertisement.   

Dove 

In the last several years, Dove has been able to touch the lives of many by incorporating emotional and real aspects into their campaigns. In one of their more iconic campaigns, the company had a forensic artist go in and create blind sketches of several women. One was from a description of the women made by themselves and the other was from a description made by other people. 

With the eye-opening campaign and #ShowUs the company has since doubled its worth to about $4.5 billion. 

Slack 

In the current home-life work style, who doesn’t use Slack as a form of communication? 12 million users have been recorded, and that number only continues to rise during the pandemic. 

Instead of focusing on one major marketing campaign, Slack has turned to customer relations to build the loyalty and relationships of their current customer base. In this unique situation with the company, Slack has no need to go out and find new customers, but they do need to keep the new and current ones on the platform and not leave to be a part of their competition. 

One of the ways they’ve been able to do this is by launching reviews on online publications such as Venture Beat and TechCrunch Inc. 

Airbnb

Since travel has been so different due to the current world affairs, Airbnb learned to be receptive and change as needed. Airbnb has changed its algorithm to now send new travelers homes closer to them to demonstrate a home away from home. Now more than ever, more customers are having staycations in an attempt to still get away without running the risk of contracting COVID-19. 

Aside from that, they’ve also shaped the way that people perceive hotels. Now it’s more personalized and multiple different people can host, creating a variety for guests and more options for them. 

Yelp 

Yelp has completely changed the way customers look at reviews of a business. At least 45% of customers check Yelp reviews before even thinking of visiting a business. And at least 81% of people checking these reviews between the ages of 18-34 trust these reviews. 

Their marketing tactics rely on the fact that people are able to look up trustworthy brands from a designed trustworthy community. Without building trust and loyalty, there is no solid community. Yelp has also been able to use a business model that is similar to Facebook, but is built on reviews instead of sole friendships.  

Tide 

Did you know that Tide is one of the many kings of Super Bowl ads? However, they’re most successful one by far was in 2018 with their advertisement Every Ad is a Tide Ad. The creators had the mind-blowing thought that all ads on TV feature actors in clean clothing. 

That’s when this iconic campaign came to life. The ad itself then starred a man trying to sell products in clean clothes and informing the audience that every other ad that currently exists is in fact a Tide ad. Why? Simply because each actor is wearing clean clothes. Genius, right? 

Sometimes the best way to give a campaign a new look is by going in a more simple direction. Tide had a simple concept and was able to blow it up to be much bigger than originally planned. And that’s all it really takes to get the best ideas at times. Take the easier thoughts and run with them. 

Uniqlo  

This innovative Japanese clothing company is rated third in largest retailers behind Zara and H&M. They’re actually valued at over $12 billion and it could very well be a result of their tech-related clothing such as their thermal line. And that’s exactly how they brand themselves too. Not only do they market themselves as a fashion company, but also a tech company. 

They’ve been able to reach younger audiences on TikTok as well. By creating interactive social media challenges, they’re able to engage the audience and create brand exposure all in one sitting. They even keep it interesting by announcing select winners for their challenges.