7 Best Digital Marketing Case Studies & Insights

As digitalization continues to grow, fewer people prefer shopping in physical markets. Instead, more individuals are turning to online platforms for their needs. With the ability to reach a wider audience faster, Digital Marketing has become essential. This is why many professionals and branding experts are now enrolling in top digital marketing certification courses.

Since most of the audience is online, digital advertising has become the most effective way to connect with potential customers. Technological advancements have reduced the impact of traditional marketing, encouraging brands to shift towards digital channels. With people spending more time on smartphones, tablets, and computers, marketers are leveraging these platforms to reach and engage audiences more effectively.

Before we dive into inspiring digital marketing case studies, let’s quickly understand the basics of digital marketing.

Table of Contents:

• What is Digital Marketing?
• Digital Marketing Case Studies
• Digital Marketing Channels vs. Effectiveness
• Advantages of Digital Marketing
• Digital Marketing Career Opportunities & Average Salaries
• Conclusion

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is all about promoting brands and products online through devices like phones, tablets, and computers. Over time, people have shifted from shopping in physical stores to buying online, thanks to these digital platforms. Marketers use various channels like social media, email, search engines, and ads on sites like Instagram or TV to reach customers.

Digital Marketing Case Studies

Various companies, startups, and individuals earned success through different Digital Marketing strategies. They aced their careers and made it to great achievements.

Let’s explore and discuss their journey and steps to success.

1. Swiggy

• It started with an app.
• This app connected the public to various restaurants and provided them with their choice of food at their doorstep.
• This application turned over their whole business.
• People used the application more and more and Swiggy grew more towards success.
• They used new techniques like sending them texts which would pull them towards buying the food. These texts are “Ghar ka khana Khao “, and  “Hungry? Pamper yourself with something delicious“.
• The food delivery revenue of Swiggy grew 56% from April to March.

2. Lays

• In October 2019, Lay’s which is a potato chip-selling company started a campaign named “Smile Deke Dekho“.
• The idea behind this was that ‘ a smile can unite people from all over the world globally’.
• They distributed 350 customized packets to the influencers.
• They promoted the brand with the help of influencers through different social media platforms.
• This came out to be a great idea which happened to be a great success.
• The marketing techniques they chose resulted in a good way of not only bringing smiles to their face but also increasing their customers.
• The annual revenue of Lay’s as per research in 2021 is $500 Million and the net profit equals $67 Million in 2020.

3. McDonald’s

• McDonald’s is basically a famous burger-selling company. It sells hamburgers, wraps, and other different items.
• McDonald’s was the first one to introduce us to a Happy Meal and not only this,  they have a unique Joker-like statue sitting on a bench outside the outlets, people click a picture along with it and post it on their social media accounts.
• This plays a major role in their promotion. McDonald’s always keeps its social media account updated and keeps posting regularly and is active on all its accounts.
• The content they post on Instagram is attractive and engaging.

4. Spotify

• Spotify is a renowned company that is known for audio streaming and providing media services.
• It has around  433 million users who are active monthly and 188 million out of these are paying subscribers.
• Spotify was accused by a few singers like Taylor Swift as it was a ‘Freemium‘ application that was providing free music listening to the public.
• The only aspect of Spotify that the general public did not appreciate was the in-between advertising that disrupted the musical flow.
• Therefore, they came up with a premium version of the application, which is ad-free, and now has millions of subscribers paying for it.

5. Cadbury

• Cadbury is a famous chocolate-selling company that started by selling chocolate drinks and now has a number of products of its brand.
• It advertises using taglines that attract customers, for example, ‘Kuch meetha Ho Jaye‘.
• The campaign named “Maa Kabhi retired ni Hoti“  attracted a large number of customers.
• Cadbury has different accounts on social media for its different products and all of them have a great number of followers and the engagement rate of all of them is great.
• It is known to be India’s favorite chocolate and all of its products may be chocolates or gems or toffees or bournvita, all of them are loved by children as well as adults.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk leads with a 10.54% engagement rate on Instagram, driven by romantic and personalised content. Celebrations (7.40%) and 5 Star (5.37%) follow with strong festive and humorous appeal. In contrast, Dairy Milk’s main Instagram (0.49%) and YouTube (0.67%) have lower engagement, suggesting a focus on reach. This highlights the impact of tailoring content to each product’s audience.

6. Starbucks

• Starbucks started with a campaign named Tweet-a-coffee.
• In order to buy someone a coffee on Twitter, users could participate in this campaign by tweeting @tweetacoffee along with their friend’s handle.
• This would grant them a $5 gift card and allow them to link their Starbucks account to their Twitter account.
• The major strategy they worked on to target the customers was by writing the name of the customers on their cups or glasses. And the customers clicked pictures of the same and posted them on their social media accounts.

7. Coca-Cola

• Coca-Cola is the leading soft drinks company. Research said that 95% of the population knows about its logo.
• Earlier Coca Cola could only sell just a few bottles in a day but, as time flew and its marketing strategy worked, it became a successful leading brand.
• They analyzed that their product named Coke Zero was not bought much, so they collaborated with a famous Bollywood actress ‘Kriti Sanon’ to promote Coke Zero.
• Also, with the help of campaigns and their engagement in social media, they touched the heights of success.

Digital Marketing Channels vs. Effectiveness

This table will inform you about the most impactful digital marketing channels across the brands.

Advantages of Digital Marketing

We already have talked about what Digital Marketing is and also that Digital Marketing has come a long way. Talking about the advantages of Digital Marketing, there are many.

Let’s discuss a few of them

1. Low Cost

A traditional market requires a huge setup and takes a huge cost for that setup.

But no huge setup is required when talking about Digital Marketing and the digital exchange of goods.

Not only locally but globally, exchanging them too, Digital Marketing provides you with various cost-effective ways.

2. Global Coverage

Traditional markets are available only at the places where they are made. A shop or a showroom from a different city can not walk and come to you.

But Digital Marketing has made things from various cities available to you at your fingertips.

3. Easy exchange of goods

The process of buying and selling becomes easier for both ends. The seller sends the goods through transportation to the customer and the customer gets them sitting at home.

He has to do no hustle to get his items. A delivery partner comes, rings the bell, and provides you with your products.

Digital Marketing Career Opportunities & Average Salaries

Digital marketing is changing how brands connect with people. It’s also opening up many interesting job opportunities. No matter if you’re good at being creative, enjoy working with numbers, or love technology, there’s a place for you in this fast-growing field.

Below is a breakdown of some of the most in-demand digital marketing roles and their average annual salaries (based on industry data from the U.S., India, and global sources as of 2024):

Salaries vary by experience, location, and company size.

Conclusion

With the use of Digital Marketing, numerous other individuals and businesses have had remarkable success. Some of them used Digital Marketing to help them start from scratch, while others used it to assist those who were experiencing loss. Enrolling in a CMO course can provide valuable insights and strategies to effectively harness the power of Digital Marketing, helping businesses thrive in any situation.

Hope this blog helped you to know about various Digital Marketing strategies used by various people.