Content creation is a huge part of the marketing mix, especially for online businesses, which means coming up with fresh new ideas to talk about and share. A great way to share information is to use data, whether from an internal source or by engaging with a research company who can carry out the surveys for you.
Below I have listed a few of my favorite data projects that include a range of budget and sectors, which I hope will inspire you to create some of your own.
Dumb ways to die
When Metro Trains in Australia wanted to run a campaign to raise awareness around rail safety, they knew it would take something out of the ordinary to make an impact, so they enlisted McCann Melbourn to help.
The outcome of this brief was “Dumb Ways to Die”, a cartoon video which currently has over 100k views. It was so successful that it reduced accidents and deaths by 21%, with 1 million young people actually pledged to be safer around trains. This is a stand out example of a data driven campaign that helped to improve safety statistics for a community cause.
Bath time trends
Data stories give brands and businesses a chance to be fun, and push the boundaries in their sector, but also cross into others. The key thing to remember is that it still needs to be relevant, which is why this example from Bathrooms.com has been included.
Bathrooms.com commissioned a survey of the nation to look in to bath time trends. They found that when Brits do have time to run a bath, 6% enjoy relaxing with a glass of wine, and 14% read a book. The graphics for most clean and most stressed areas of the country helped to visualize the information in a way that listing percentages wouldn’t have been able to communicate. It goes to show that going the extra mile with imagery and crafting a story, can push your campaign to the next level reaching high level media attention, which otherwise could have been overlooked if it was just written in a blog post.
Creative license
With data sources readily available online, it means you don’t have to fiddle the figures to come up with exciting angles by yourself. This is why Trolliesofmoney.com is one of my top data examples.
In 2014 when global supermarket store Tesco released their overestimated profits by a massive £263m, an idea sparked for marketing agency Liberty. They decided to demonstrate how many miscellaneous items like bread, milk and wine you would need to equal the value Tesco quoted in their profits. Very smart, and a reactive piece of content marketing.
That’s it for my data led examples, but it would be great to hear which campaigns stand out for you and why, so please comment below and share your thoughts.