What the hell happened to great digital advertising campaigns in Turkey?

Remember the time that we had microsites, Facebook apps, so many digital campaigns with banners and media channels? Developing in digital agencies is going down.

“Kristal Elma Awards” is one of the oldest advertising awards event in Turkey. This year, it was 26th. And this year is the year that digital advertising agencies have to put one’s thinking cap on.

As I wrote “the difference of social media between Turkish brands & global brands” before, digital advertising has changed so quickly in 5 years in Turkey and digital agencies became “an advertising agency shooting internet films” and “creating daily Facebook/Instagram content” There are maybe 10 big digital campaigns this year which contain a microsite, a full communication with banners, Facebook ads, a new channel (Snapchat, Whatsapp etc.) or a game.

I tried to mention the great digital campaigns I love from 2009 to 2014. There’re many of them of course and couldn’t gather all of them. But after writing this, I noticed that I missed the last years.

2009:

Seeding The Slavery

I remember we had fake accounts for Twitter & Friendfeed –I had more than 80- and we were building up their characters in social media accounts. They were tweeting about the music they like, interacting with people on the internet. Schizophrenic right? Keep on reading.

Those fake accounts were also using forums in a daily schedule. Because you can’t just become a member of a forum and post a commercialized content about a brand.

Common pages like “love” “woman” “1 Comic Video Everyday” “Chocolate” got very popular. So we –as social media managers- were connecting with the page owners and seeding content with them.

I think the most award-winning great campaign was “Seyfi Solukal” made by Wanda Digital & Grey, which was a great integrated one with viral videos, seyfisolukal.com, a personal Facebook account of Seyfi Solukal and finally a press conference which ended the campaign, telling it was a campaign of Greenpeace.

2010:

The Prize Storm

This is the year that we should hate what we have done. We made to believe brands that “if you give prizes, they will like you” and “the prize storm” began.

So here comes the golden year for “likes” on Facebook brand pages. Microsites developed for special days (Mother’s Day etc.), digital campaigns were hot with banners. I even remember a 100 level game we developed for kids. Started to spend money on Facebook ads, banners who direct to microsite campaign page, Facebook apps and more.

Started to give gifts on microsites and Facebook apps. I remember we even gave a car with a big digital campaign in 2010.

Should not forget bloggers. Digital campaigns with bloggers were so hot in 2010.

“Upload your vacation photo, ask for votes from your friends and win”

The result of 2010 was: there were about 30.000–50.000 people who were winning prizes with “voting” communities. “Voting” on Facebook apps has changed the game. And those people who we call “campaigners” kept winning on every Facebook brand app. There was even a family who kept winning all the time and probably became rich by selling those prizes. The funny thing was, most of the brands couldn’t reach their ultimate target group because of the campaigners. Remember a topic headline “What did I win today?” in a forum? That’s what we did and this was really, really ugly.

In 2010, there were great campaigns which had great traffic, interaction and awards:

Wanda Digital — “En Kafadar”

Deney 7–4129

C-section’s Sprite 15 Dakika -which was also an integrated campaign

2011:

Fewer prizes, more creative campaigns

Brands started to understand “the data is useless which came from Facebook apps or microsites to win prizes” And they were always the same people. This is the year agencies started giving fewer prizes but making more creative & integrated campaigns. A great digital campaign made by C-section which got viral: “Efes Pilsen, Bu Sene O Sene” There were no prizes but it still got millions of traffic with no media budget at all.

Another campaign was “Seninki Kaç Cm?” made by VForViral for Greenpeace which also got viral with a microsite.

The humor was great. Brands started to give up of their “Corporate Language” and this was good.

2012:

The Best Year of Humor

The humor was more than good. Even I had a great account in BLAB: JeansLab which became very popular in advertising agencies with real-time marketing and friendly language. Guess why? Because the brand stood up against “likes” and “votes”, “good morning content” and boring social media content.

This was the year we started talking about “content” more.

“Doritos Akademi” made by DDB was a great integrated campaign which had Youtube videos, print ads, Twitter accounts, banners, Facebook contents, great visuals with TVC. It was live for a year and kept on creating social media content.

Also, let’s not forget about Elit Çikolata with offline & online marketing campaign made by Concept.

But things also started to change in 2012. There were great microsites, still got Facebook apps (Hayatının Oyunu made by 4129) but videos got hotter and hotter.

2013 & 2014: Goodbye Microsites, Hello Videos!

Facebook apps were much, much less. Seeding was already gone, Facebook ads were hot. KPI’s became traffic, interaction, like stats, video views. This might be the year when we said: “if you have no media budget, you may not get traffic or video views.”

Another offline based advertising agency; McCann had a great integrated campaign using digital & offline together got many awards, Eye of The Fan.

This is also the year when digital advertising agencies started making too many videos. Remember “Ben Niye Yokum?” made by C-section for Rock’n Coke festival which got viral and had 15 awards, Kristal Elma Digital Category “The Best“ included. Was there a microsite for the campaign? No need. The brief was announcing the headliners and it was well played.

Let’s not forget about Batesmotelpro when we’re talking about viral in Turkey. I think what they did is a golden story. Started with a non-commercial viral video “Bana Kitap Al” made in 2006 and became a viral video production company for brands within years. And the important thing is that they’ve never lost their humor in years.

A glimpse from 2013 to 2014 is “wow.” This is the time we left Facebook applications and microsites.

2014:

Nothing but videos.

In Kristal 2014,

“The Best Digital Channel Use” is a viral video on Youtube, made by

C-section, for Rock’n Coke (Ben Niye Yokum)

Another one is on Youtube made by Batesmotelpro & Grey, made for Pronet.

“The Best Social Media Application” is a campaign made for Cumhuriyet “Twitter Miwitter” which was a Twitter account with an offline integration made by Concept.

Another winner on “social media application category” is a campaign made for WWF by 4129 based on Snapchat

Here’s another changing: there’s also an online video category in Kristal Elma now.

We should not forget about Wanda Digital’s “14 Kubat” in 2014 made for Turkcell and “Deneysel Bankacılık” made for Garanti by Kompüter.

And appreciate C-section for making a microsite for Coca-Cola “Onun İsmi”

But is it enough? What the hell happened to games, microsites, digital campaigns with banners and ads? What happened to great digital-based campaigns who ruled the internet for a month, for a week? Did users get bored? Add your comment!