The Most Engaging Brand Content of 2016, Month by Month

Pillsbury, "Ranch Chicken Rollup Bake"
If people absolutely have to cook on or shortly after Jan. 1, chances are they’re going to want to make something simple. So Pillsbury started off the year right with this New Year’s Day Facebook post of a recipe requiring very few ingredients and as little culinary effort as possible.

Audi, #TractionTuesday
Audi banked on the fact that people love to show off their cars and jump in on hashtag campaigns to score big with this Instagram post. It also helped in this instance that people also apparently love to share their experiences of harsh winter weather and how they can make it fun.

 

@frankiecampo and his #AudiS5 have their own idea of what sledding should be. Remember to tag your photos with #TractionTuesday for a chance to be featured.

A photo posted by Audi (@audi) on Jan 26, 2016 at 12:10pm PST

Hyundai, "First Date"
One of Hyundai’s four Super Bowl 50 spots from Innocean Worldwide, "First Date" was one of two featuring big-name celebrities—the other was Ryan Reynolds—in which comedian Kevin Hart showcases the automaker’s Blue Link Car Finder feature by tracking his daughter after insisting her young suitor borrow his car. 

Esurance, #EsuranceSweepstakes
Esurance dominated the Super Bowl with its social-first approach, and aside from #SB50 and #SuperBowl, more people saw its #esurancesweepstakes hashtag during the Big Game than any other word combo.

Wipe the wing sauce off your hands & RT now because you could win $250K! #EsuranceSweepstakes #SB50 pic.twitter.com/lm76bj4aMR

— Esurance (@esurance) February 8, 2016

Disneyland, #ShareYourEars
This cause marketing effort from Disneyland benefited Make-A-Wish by donating money to the nonprofit every time users posted photos wearing their Mickey Mouse ears and using the hashtag on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Domino's DXP, "Extra Mile"
Domino’s made an actual car, a dedicated pizza-delivery car no less, complete with a built-in warming oven, demonstrating in this ad the "great lengths" to which it will go to deliver you a hot pizza.

Always, "Girl Emojis"
For this "Like a Girl" spot, Leo Burnett interviewed girls to find out how they feel about today’s emojis. Turns out the female ones are very limited and terribly stereotypical.

Microsoft, "What are you going to make?"
Microsoft’s effort from McCann Worldgroup’s m:united highlighting women inventors struck a chord on International Women’s Day. In it, science-loving girls are asked to name some inventors. They’re all men. How about women inventors? The girls are stumped. Then Microsoft reminds everyone that "not everything is ‘man’ made."

Nike Basketball, #MambaDay 
The most retweeted brand tweet of the year, according to Unmetric, was from Nike Basketball about Kobe Bryant’s retirement in April. Fans get the last word in the digital part of a campaign that used love and hate as the main theme, with most saying positive things (mixed with some respectful insults) about the revered longtime NBA star.

Always love the hate. #MambaDayhttps://t.co/oqWHZi6Amv

— Nike Basketball (@nikebasketball) April 13, 2016

Command, "Hammer's Toolbox"
In April, Adweek called MC Hammer the "perfect spokesman" for 3M's Command strips. The brand’s "Do. No Harm" campaign from Grey New York got max mileage out of the artist’s name and catchphrases.

Knorr, #LoveAtFirstTaste
Knorr, Unilever's biggest food brand, with help from MullenLowe had people go on blind dinner dates and feed each other to find out if having the same taste in food could spark romance.

JetBlue, "FlyBabies"
In this Mother's Day stunt from MullenLowe, JetBlue managed to convince passengers to love when babies cry. How? By rewarding them with a 25 percent discount each time a baby started bawling on a flight.

Diet Coke, "Taylor Swift Award"
Diet Coke’s tweet congratulating Taylor Swift for winning (perhaps not so surprisingly) the first-ever Taylor Swift Award at the BMI Pop Awards in May got the most replies of any brand tweet in 2016, according to Unmetric.

Congratulations @taylorswift13 on the BMI Taylor Swift Award. Here's to two things that never go out of style. pic.twitter.com/zBkmVwHlqb

— Diet Coke (@DietCoke) May 11, 2016

Nintendo, "Legend of Zelda"
Nintendo’s retweet event offering in-app prizes actually got more likes than retweets. But it garnered plenty of both.

The Legend of Zelda Retweet event begins! #Miitomo in-app gifts for RTs! ⇒ https://t.co/UFrnvGjLth #Miitomo_Zelda_RT pic.twitter.com/sDkgYt3iOr

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) June 8, 2016

Nike, "The Switch"
This epic Nike film for Euro 2016 from Wieden + Kennedy was a long-form, comedic imagining of what would happen if Cristiano Ronaldo accidentally crashed into a young Brit and inhabited the kid’s body until he became the soccer star England has long sought.

Red Bull, "Race to the top of a bridge"
Red Bull’s exhilarating Facebook video in which two free climbers race to the top of a bridge (and fall off a lot along the way) netted 71 million views and 739,000 reactions.

Samsung, "The Anthem"
Sure, Samsung’s Olympics spot from Leo Burnett Chicago and Leo Burnett Sydney promoted the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, but it also focused on bringing people together during undeniably scary times at one of the world's biggest events.

Samsung Mobile, "Galaxy Note7: Official Introduction"
Judging from the number of YouTube views this introduction got, the Galaxy Note7 reached its apex right out of the gate. A month later, dozens of the Samsung phones were catching fire and exploding from overheated batteries, and the brand was left scrambling.

Nike, "Unlimited You"
The voiceover completely drives this fun Rio Olympics spot from Wieden + Kennedy Portland. You think it’s one thing as the narrator talks up everyday athletes, and then it becomes something else entirely as he loses all control of the narrative.

LG USA Mobile, "Damn Daniel"
After a slew of brands rushed to get in on the Damn Daniel meme in February, LG USA Mobile and agency SuperHeroes New York brought it back months later for this Facebook video for the LG V20.

Airbus, #A350
Airbus taught us all the meaning of the term "applied biomimicry” in this otherwise simple, design-focused and green post, and people evidently really enjoyed it.

 

Along with its distinctive black mask, the #A350 XWB is famous for its snazzy winglets. Did you know this is applied biomimicry? Inspired by nature, these morphing wings contribute to 25% lower fuel burn. Beautiful and green! #avgeek #airbus #airbuslovers #instaplane #plane #aerospace #aviation #aviationlovers #biomimicry #inspiredbynature

A photo posted by Airbus (@airbus) on Sep 22, 2016 at 6:41am PDT

Nike, "Worlds Collide"
Italian World Cup winner from 2006 and avowed sneaker head Marco Materazzi talks engagingly about his obsession with Michael Jordan and basketball in what turned out to be the year’s most favorited brand post on Instagram, according to Unmetric’s data.

 

Worlds collide. ⠀ @iomatrix23 reflects on the moment that started his @jumpman23 obsession.

A video posted by nike (@nike) on Oct 7, 2016 at 6:58pm PDT

Sprite, #WannaSprite
This was one of the brand’s 15-second spots in a larger campaign from Wieden + Kennedy New York featuring LeBron James not telling you to drink Sprit, despite scenarios such as this one in which Lil Yachty writes songs about the drink.

Cadbury Dairy Milk India, #InterstellarPartyIsHere
Cadbury Daily Milk India scored the most likes by a brand on Facebook with this post featuring the loony aliens from one of Adweek’s most viral ads of 2016.

John Lewis UK, #BusterTheBoxer
Retailer John Lewis’ Christmas ad was the most shared Facebook post by a brand, according to Unmetric. In the lighthearted, brilliantly crafted ad by London agency adam&eveDDB, Buster the Boxer just wants to jump and have fun. Was that too much to ask after the year we’d had?

Amazon Prime, "A Priest and Imam meet for a cup of tea"
This poignant holiday spot, which was created by Joint of London in collaboration with Amazon's in-house marketing, legal and PR teams, beautifully promoted tolerance at a time when America really needed just such a reminder.

Tarte Cosmetics, "Giveaway"
How do you get the most comments on Instagram of any brand post? Run a travel-themed contest, like Tarte Cosmetics did in this post, for a chance to win a suitcase full of swag from a bunch of brands—and make people tag friends in the comments section to enter. Done and done.

 

‘Tis the season to get away! Enter to win a @heysluggage suitcase filled with our holiday collection and swag from @shopcosabella @frends @impressionsvanity @julessmithjewel @shopbando @ultimateears @sofiacashmere & @crownsbychristy. Here’s how to enter: 1. Follow @tartecosmetics 2. Like & tag a friend in the comment section below 3. Open internationally 4. Contest will end on November 23rd at 11:59pm EST. Make sure your account is public before the contest ends. The winner will be chosen at random and announced in the comment section below on November 24th. Good luck, tartelettes!

A photo posted by Tarte Cosmetics (@tartecosmetics) on Nov 16, 2016 at 2:33pm PST

Boohoo.com, "Melt"
Turns out you can do the same thing in a Facebook post. Encase a golden shoe in a block of ice, and ask users to comment "melt" to turn up the heat on the ice. Last one to comment before the shoe drops—literally—wins! The result: yep, most comments on a brand’s Facebook post.

Dove, "The Mannequin Challenge… with a twist"
In the latest installment of Dove’s "Real Beauty" campaign, the brand provided a creative take on the Mannequin Challenge fad while managing to make a statement in one simple, quirky swoop. In the ad from Ogilvy & Mather London, the actual mannequins—not the humans who pull off their mannequinlike poses admirably—are the ones getting challenged.