Content marketers have many responsibilities. You’ve probably taken on additional responsibilities in the last two years, adjusted your marketing strategies and developed your audience understanding, all while facing daunting challenges.
These are not small achievements. We’ve collected a few outstanding content marketing examples that fit the theme, and we are grateful to the U.S. for their official thanksgiving. These delicious efforts were recognized as top finalists and winners at the Content Marketing Awards. They’re all worth enjoying, regardless of whether they win an award.
Spending time with loved ones and friends
Thanksgiving is a time when many people come together with those they care about, and who they can turn to in times of crisis. It is a reminder of how important human connections can be, whether at the dinner table, on the TV or via your digital devices.
Love connection
You may be familiar with AT&T’s tagline “Reach Out and Touch Someone”, which refers to phone calls between people. Although the channels for these conversations have grown, AT&T is committed to keeping those lines of communication open and accessible.
Although @ATT does not use the Reach out and Touch someone tagline, it promotes connection. @joderama via @CMIContent says that the Love Connections campaign promotes connection. CLICK TO TWEET
Personal communication is not a holiday obligation, it’s an essential necessity in the Love Connections campaign. Raw documentary video series that focuses on the lives of LGBTQ+ members reveals how they rely heavily upon their trusted connections to strengthen their sense of belonging.
Alok, a gender nonconforming individual, describes harassment and hostile remarks made about her flamboyant appearance in the video that was released as the inaugural video. They don’t hesitate, despite experiencing this negativity, to live on their terms and encourage others.
The Love Connection encouraged meaningful conversations between the LGBTQ+ community, their allies and their detractors. The brand supported The Trevor Project, an organization that aims to prevent suicide and provide crisis intervention for LGBTQ youth. More information about this campaign can be found in Five Lessons from the Content Marketing Awards Project of the year Finalists .
Touching customers’ hearts with their stomachs
While some consumers might have given up their starters of sourdough to make room for new dinner reservations, there is no substitute for home-cooked meals with family and friends. Marketers create content that evokes similar feelings of comfort, connection and connection by filling their plates with delicious, food-focused fare.
McCain cookbook creator
Many families are bonded by the tradition of passing down family recipes from generation to generation. McCain Foods transformed that tradition with McCain Family Cookbook Brought To You by Food24.
McCain created a unique Cookbook Creator tool with the help of South African foodie website Food24 and New Media, its content marketing agency. It allows users to upload six family recipes and personal notes.
Each collection was completed with top recipes from Food24, McCain and other sources. Each book was printed and shipped to the creator.
McCain was able to strengthen his position as a meal-prep partner and create a lasting association with home-cooked family meals.
For more information on this campaign, see There’s A Goal, There’s A Way: 4 Strategy-Led Programs.
Butterball Talk-Line calendars
Butterball is synonymous with Thanksgiving’s large bird.
The brand’s annual Turkey Talk-Line was launched on Nov. 1, to answer questions and prevent meltdowns in meal preparation. The brand added an extra layer of emotional support and culinary expertise to the conversation this year by offering a free calendar.
@Butterball, well-known for its turkey hotline sold a 2022 Comfort Calendar that included culinary expertise and additional emotional support. According to @CMIContent, it sold quickly CLICK TO TWEET
The 2022 Comfort Calendar was gone long before Thanksgiving grocery shopping began. Butterball does not leave customers with (giblets) bags: It stuffs its Instagram Page full of enough delicious tips to get you through Christmas.
Take the turkey show on-the-road
Post-pandemic, consumers are eager to return to the skies and byways for holiday reunions. Travel providers are still reeling from nearly three years of turbulent times that rocked their businesses to the core. Their industry partners have helped them to get out of this tailspin by providing targeted content tools, inspiration, and other support.
The Compass helps accelerate travel business recovery
As vacationers returned to their travels, leisure travel agents faced difficulties. They needed to be able to meet customer demand and keep up with regulatory changes.
These small boutique agencies are particularly affected. They can get the support they need through The Compass. This editorial media brand was launched by VAX VacationAccess in order to unify and assist its professional travel community.
The website and Compass Magazine are packed with industry education on timely topics such as social media marketing, agent growth, and top travel destinations (as seen in the image).
Aside from personal stories and perspectives of their fellow agents, they inspire and rekindle their passion for travel and help them make their business a success.
Failte Ireland spurs growth through customizable content assets
Pandemic-impacted travel businesses were not just the responsibility of the United States. Many Irish tourism businesses struggled to stay afloat. They lost staff and/or had little marketing and training skills.
Failte Ireland, Ireland’s national tourist body, launched an interactive toolkit to address these concerns. Keep Discovering offers small and medium-sized companies in Ireland short, accessible content, customization services, as well as other useful resources – all for free.
The toolkit’s cover image shows some of the Keep Discovering offerings, including downloadable assets and email templates.
Ireland’s travel agents were grateful for the assistance, which saw over 7,300 downloads and more than 5,000 visits of the toolkit page. Transmission, the agency behind the campaign, stated that Keep Discovering helped regional tourism companies to “rally heavily.”
To find out more about this campaign, please read Want To Generate More Demand. These are the 4 Content Tips.
Get your game on
American Thanksgiving is known for football. A great content play can make the game more exciting, whether consumers are looking to score touchdowns in their backyard or just enjoy playing armchair quarterback while sipping a beer.
Captain Morgan leads the cheers for the fans
Football fans love to support their favorite teams and go to great lengths. Captain Morgan, Diageo’s rum brand, captured the excitement through a video-centric campaign for its sponsorship of the National Football League Fan of the Year contest.
Captain Morgan invited Victor Cruz, an NFL legend, to host the We Bring On The Spice docuseries. Victor met the seven finalists for Fan-of-the Year and delved into their passions and shared their stories with other fans.
The videos show the story of a New York Giants fan from Los Angeles who travels over 3,000 miles each way to see games. (See video below), and a super fan who started a supporters’ club with more than 10,000 members.
Captain Morgan gave these NFL super-fans a video-centric platform for sharing their love of the team.
Learn more about this campaign and other outstanding video content campaigns in 4 ways to win with video – The “It Content Format for 2023.
Be inspired to give back
Patagonia founder, Patagonia, put his shares in a trust this year that will direct future profits towards fighting the climate crisis . You don’t have to give back to your brand to be successful. However, you can make use of your content platform to support philanthropy or public service.
Anheuser-Busch invests to prevent alcohol abuse
Anheuser-Busch is the marketer of some of the most iconic beer brands in the world, such as Corona, Budweiser and Michelob.
Ahava Leibtag explains that it also donates money and creates content in order to educate consumers about potential dangers of using its products such as drunk driving and underage drinking.
This content includes Global Smart Drinking Goals. Ahava defines this as a collection of programs and initiatives that reduce harmful alcohol consumption by shifting social norms, consumer behavior, and the organization’s business practices.
Below is an image that shows the age gate for accessing its website. This reinforces the brand’s efforts not to allow visitors under the legal drinking age to view alcohol-related content.
Anheuser-Bush also posts content to Instagram by using #DecidetoRide The efforts are in partnership with Uber and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Pepsi takes actions to promote racial equality
Following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, many brands published anti-racism content. Pepsi, however, reinforced its public statements by a long-term commitment.
The beverage brand launched the racial equity journey initiative in 2015. It also pledged a $400million commitment to increase Black representation at PepsiCo, support Black business and empower Black communities.
Visitors to the PepsiCo website today can access ongoing progress reports, information on the most recent program elements, as well as the results of the initiative.
Ahava wrote that Pepsi has reaffirmed its commitment to diversifying the workforce by hiring potential job candidates from historically Black colleges, universities, and colleges (HBCUs).
This video promotes the brand’s partnership in recruiting through content such as this HBCU Halftime Game video that recognizes HBCU students’ contributions off and on the field.
Ahava’s article contains more information about these campaigns and other brands that give back. How to raise your brand’s voice on important issues .
Even better, put your diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), intentions into practice – literally!
Line 25 is a game
Line 25 Consulting is an agency that helps organizations increase their DEI perspective through customized workshops and guided training. Michelle Ngome, a founder of Line 25 Consulting, saw an opportunity to make these lessons more accessible and useful for marketing teams. She created the Be Inclusion card game.
The DEI deck includes a prompt on each card. For example, “How can we practice DEI beyond the social media” or “How can we accommodate neurodiversity at work.”
The game encourages productive discussions on these important issues and prepares teams for the next step: finding solutions.
Don’t forget about fueling your goals!
We hope that you take some time off this holiday season, from the CMI team to you, to recharge and be ready to create incredible content that will enable your businesses to do better tomorrow for your customers.
