20 Content Marketing Examples From Brands That Get It Right
Content marketing works best when it doesn’t feel like marketing at all. The strongest examples entertain, educate, or genuinely help an audience first, and let brand awareness follow as a side effect. Here’s a breakdown of what content marketing actually means, followed by real examples of brands that have done it well, and what each one teaches about building a strategy that works. What Is Content Marketing? Content marketing is the practice of creating and distributing content, such as blog posts, videos, infographics, and social media posts, that doesn’t explicitly sell a product but builds interest in a brand by being genuinely useful or entertaining. Done well, it builds rapport with an audience, establishes a brand as a credible source of information, and drives leads and sales as a result, rather than as the direct pitch. Common content formats include: If you’re just getting started, it helps to understand the basics of content marketing before studying examples. From there, here’s a look at brands executing it well. 20 Examples of Content Marketing Done Right Canva’s Design School Canva built out an entire library of design tutorials and tips through its Design School, positioning the company as a resource for design education, not just a design tool. Canva has also run recurring social media challenges encouraging followers to recreate featured designs using its platform, generating user content while showcasing what the software can do. Key takeaway: Publishing genuinely useful educational content in your industry builds authority, and inviting your audience to create their own content with your product extends your reach organically. Spotify Wrapped Spotify’s annual Wrapped campaign compiles each listener’s personalized data, their top artists, songs, and total listening time, into a shareable summary. It has become one of the most anticipated content marketing moments of the year, largely because users do the promotion themselves by sharing their results on social media. Key takeaway: Personalized content that reflects something specific about the user, rather than generic messaging, drives far higher engagement and organic sharing. Duolingo’s TikTok Presence Duolingo built one of the most recognizable brand accounts on TikTok, growing from a few thousand followers to well over 17 million by leaning into humor, trend participation, and a recurring mascot character rather than direct product promotion. The account has gone through real ups and downs since its peak, a reminder that even a strong social strategy needs to keep evolving rather than repeating the same formula indefinitely. Key takeaway: Entertainment-first content can build enormous reach, but sustaining it requires ongoing creative risk-taking, not just repeating what worked before. HubSpot Academy HubSpot built its reputation in content marketing partly through HubSpot Academy, a library of free courses and certifications covering marketing, sales, and customer service. By giving away genuinely useful education, HubSpot positions itself as an authority that companies turn to when they’re ready to buy software. Key takeaway: Free, high-quality educational resources can be one of the most effective top-of-funnel content strategies, especially in industries where buyers need to build expertise before purchasing. BlendTec’s “Will It Blend?” BlendTec’s YouTube series showing its blenders pulverizing objects like phones and marbles turned a fairly ordinary product demo into genuinely entertaining content. The series built a loyal following and became closely associated with the brand’s identity. Key takeaway: Demonstrating a product’s capability in an unexpected, entertaining way can outperform a conventional product demo by a wide margin. Red Bull Media House Red Bull took content marketing further than almost any other brand by building an entire media division. Red Bull Media House produces sports, music, and lifestyle content that has little to do with energy drinks directly, distributing it through its own channels, a magazine, and streaming platforms. Key takeaway: A brand doesn’t have to constantly mention its product to build brand equity. Becoming a genuine source of entertainment or information in a space your audience already cares about can build loyalty that direct advertising never could. GoPro’s User-Generated Content Strategy GoPro built much of its marketing around content its own customers create. The brand curates and features user-submitted photos and videos on its website, YouTube channel, and social accounts, and runs an annual awards program that rewards top submissions with cash and gear. Key takeaway: When a product is genuinely built for capturing great moments, the most convincing marketing often comes from letting customers show what it can do, rather than producing every piece of content in-house. Amazon’s In-Garage Delivery Content Amazon has used its Key In-Garage Delivery service, which lets couriers securely deliver packages inside a customer’s garage, as a way to highlight both innovation and a direct solution to package theft, a real and growing concern for online shoppers. Key takeaway: Content built around solving a specific, relatable customer pain point tends to resonate more than content that’s purely promotional. Neutrogena’s Creator Studio Neutrogena launched a platform inviting influencers and everyday content creators to share their experiences with its products, with the chance to be featured on the brand’s own channels or included in sponsored campaigns. Key takeaway: Inviting creators to generate authentic content on your behalf can produce more relatable marketing than in-house production alone, while also surfacing real customer feedback. Buffer’s Blog and Educational Content Buffer, a social media management tool, built a loyal following through consistent, genuinely useful blog content on social media strategy, paired with visual content like infographics and video tutorials. Key takeaway: Consistency matters as much as quality. A steady publishing rhythm on topics your audience actually cares about builds long-term organic reach. The Washington Post on TikTok The Washington Post uses short, engaging videos to cover news headlines and current events on TikTok, making news more digestible for a younger, mobile-first audience. Key takeaway: Adapting long-form or traditional content into short, platform-native formats can reach audiences who wouldn’t otherwise engage with your brand. Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” Campaign Apple’s long-running campaign showcases photography taken entirely on iPhones, often through public photography challenges where winning entries are featured across Apple’s own marketing channels, stores,