Content Marketing Examples (2025): The Complete Guide

Quick Overview

Content marketing examples are just real-life ways brands create content that pulls people in instead of pushing products at them. It could be a campaign, a video, an email, or even a TikTok trend that gets people talking. The idea is that the content itself delivers value, entertainment, education, or just something worth sharing, while also keeping the brand top of mind.

Take Spotify Wrapped. Every year, people wait to see their personal music story, and then they share it everywhere. It’s marketing, sure, but it feels like a gift. Or Duolingo on TikTok. They turned their quirky green owl into a social media personality, and now their content is more entertaining than most influencers. That’s the power of content marketing done right.

Content Marketing in 2025

Content marketing isn’t a side tactic anymore; it’s the main driver of growth for a lot of businesses. The old “just write blogs and hope for clicks” approach doesn’t cut it these days. Audiences expect brands to show up in different formats, on different platforms, and in ways that feel authentic.

Over the last decade, we’ve seen a big shift. First, it was long-form blogs and SEO-heavy guides. Then came visual storytelling, Instagram carousels, YouTube tutorials, and short-form videos. Now in 2025, content has stretched into user-generated campaigns, micro-communities, and highly personalized experiences that feel like they’re made just for you.

This guide is packed with 40 real-world content marketing examples, from global giants to smaller, more niche brands, so you can see what’s actually working right now. You’ll also get a look at the trends shaping content marketing today, and how you might adapt them to your own strategy without feeling overwhelmed.

4 Traits All Great Content Marketing Pieces Share

Not every campaign deserves to be called a great content marketing example. Some look flashy for a week and vanish. The best ones stick, and they usually share a few key traits:

1. Relevance to the audience
   Great content speaks to something the audience actually cares about. It solves a problem, sparks a laugh, or offers inspiration.
   
2. A creative hook
   Originality goes a long way. Sometimes it’s a clever idea, other times it’s just presenting something familiar in a new way.
   
3. Consistency over time
   One-off hits are fun, but consistency builds trust. The best brands show up again and again with content that feels on-brand and dependable.
   
4. Clear business impact
   Engagement is great, but if the campaign doesn’t move the needle, whether it’s sales, sign-ups, or loyalty, it’s just noise.
   

At the end of the day, the strongest content marketing blends strategy with creativity. One keeps it tied to a purpose, the other makes sure it cuts through the endless flood of content we all scroll through every day.

40 Best Content Marketing Examples

Social Media Content Marketing Examples

Duolingo’s humorous TikTok strategy

Duolingo turned what could’ve been a boring brand presence into one of the most entertaining TikTok accounts out there. Instead of posting “learn Spanish in 5 steps” type content, they leaned into humor and internet culture. Their owl mascot, Duo, dances, trolls, and even makes fun of itself. The result? People follow for the laughs and end up staying curious about the app. It’s a perfect example of how brands can loosen up and fit naturally into a platform’s culture.

Ryanair’s “Unhinged” TikTok Persona

You wouldn’t expect a budget airline to blow up on TikTok, but Ryanair has managed exactly that. Instead of trying to be polished and professional, they’ve leaned into chaos. Their videos are loud, self-deprecating, and often downright ridiculous, using goofy filters, trending audios, and memes that feel nothing like a typical airline ad. And that’s the magic. The sharp contrast between a big corporate airline and unhinged internet humor makes people stop scrolling. It keeps Ryanair in front of younger travelers who might not even be thinking about flights yet, but now the brand feels familiar.

The Washington Post’s TikTok Storytelling

A 140-year-old newspaper doesn’t scream “TikTok success,” but The Washington Post has completely flipped that assumption. Their team creates short skits, riffs on trending sounds, and explains heavy news stories in ways that are funny, light, and actually easy to follow. They didn’t just copy-paste journalism into TikTok, they rebuilt it to fit the culture of the platform. As a result, they’ve tapped into an audience that probably wouldn’t have touched a traditional news article, but now feels connected to the brand in a fresh way.

Sephora’s AI-Powered Beauty Reels

Sephora has been ahead of the curve for a long time when it comes to digital, and their recent Instagram reels show why. They’re not just posting product shots; they’re using AI try-on features, quick how-to tutorials, and reels that feel like personal recommendations. The brilliance here is in blending inspiration with utility. Followers don’t just watch a makeup reel, they see exactly how it could look on them, which turns a simple scroll into a shopping moment. It feels less like advertising and more like having a personal beauty coach in your feed.

Corona’s Instagram brand storytelling

Corona has always sold more than beer, they sell the idea of relaxation and beach life. On Instagram, their content reflects exactly that. Instead of pushing bottles in every post, they share dreamy visuals of sunsets, beaches, and simple living. It’s subtle but powerful storytelling: you’re not just buying a drink, you’re buying a lifestyle. That consistent, mood-driven content makes the brand instantly recognizable.

Video Content Marketing Examples

Blendtec’s viral “Will It Blend?” series

This one is a classic but still worth mentioning. Blendtec took a simple product demo, blending things, and turned it into one of YouTube’s most iconic viral series. They threw everything from iPhones to golf balls into their blenders to prove their power. It was entertaining, a little ridiculous, and yet directly tied back to the product. That balance of fun and function is why it worked so well.

Patagonia’s environmental documentaries

Patagonia doesn’t just sell outdoor gear, they champion environmental activism. Their long-form documentaries dive into climate issues, conservation, and community stories. What makes it stand out is how little it feels like marketing. The content could easily live on a streaming platform, it’s that good. And yet, it builds trust and loyalty because customers see that the brand actually lives its values.

Girl With The Dog’s pet care YouTube channel

This independent creator turned her passion for animal grooming into a massive channel. While not a big brand, it’s a great example of how video content builds community and authority. People come for grooming tips, funny pet moments, and behind-the-scenes content. Brands in the pet space often collaborate with her because her audience is engaged and trusts her expertise.

Jackson Galaxy’s cat-owner tutorials

Known as the “cat daddy,” Jackson Galaxy uses YouTube to share advice for cat owners. His tutorials mix education with personality, making him both approachable and authoritative. For pet brands, partnering with someone like Jackson is gold, his content not only entertains but solves real problems for viewers, which keeps them coming back.

You Suck at Cooking’s entertaining cooking channel

This channel doesn’t look like your typical cooking tutorial. It’s weird, hilarious, and doesn’t take itself seriously. Recipes are mixed with comedy skits and absurd narration. It’s a reminder that even in a crowded niche like cooking, creativity and personality can make a channel stand out. Brands that tap into this kind of offbeat content often earn cult followings.

Red Bull’s extreme sports media hub

Red Bull is more of a media company than a beverage brand at this point. Their YouTube and streaming content showcases extreme sports, stunts, and athlete stories. It’s so engaging that you almost forget the drinks entirely. By owning a lifestyle (adrenaline, adventure, pushing limits), Red Bull has built one of the strongest examples of long-term content marketing on the planet.

Email Content Marketing Examples

Warby Parker’s personalized emails

Warby Parker has nailed the art of making email feel like a helpful friend instead of a sales pitch. Their emails don’t just push products; they recommend glasses based on browsing history, show style inspiration, and remind you about frames you tried virtually. That personalization makes customers feel like the brand “knows” them, which is rare in a crowded inbox.

Airbnb’s tailored travel guides

Airbnb doesn’t just send booking confirmations. Their email campaigns often include city-specific travel tips, hidden gems, and curated guides based on where you’ve searched. It’s clever because even if you’re not ready to book, the content sparks wanderlust. And when you do get the itch to travel, guess who’s already top of mind?

Superside’s design-first newsletter

Superside, a design services company, runs one of the most visually striking newsletters out there. Instead of cramming text, they treat every email like a mini design case study. Bold graphics, clever layouts, and design inspiration are front and center. It works because the emails aren’t just about promoting services, they’re a living portfolio that shows Superside can walk the talk.

Headspace’s motivational daily email series

Headspace takes a softer, more mindful approach with its daily emails. Subscribers often get short motivational notes, breathing tips, or links to quick meditation exercises. It’s simple, but it matches the brand’s mission perfectly. Instead of emails feeling like a nudge to buy something, they feel like a small daily act of self-care. That’s why people stick with them.

Interactive Content Marketing Examples

Marriott’s vacation planning quiz

Marriott’s online quiz helps travelers pick destinations based on their personalities, interests, and budgets. It feels more like fun travel inspiration than a sales funnel, but of course it gently guides users toward Marriott properties at the end. Quizzes like this work because they’re both playful and practical, and people love sharing their results.

Climate FieldView’s fungicide decision tool

In agriculture, practical tools can be better than flashy campaigns. Climate FieldView created a tool that helps farmers decide when and where to use fungicide based on field data. It’s highly specific, but that’s the point: it delivers real value to the exact audience they want to reach. This is content marketing at its most functional.

Venngage’s free product templates

Venngage, the design tool, hooks users with interactive templates they can customize right away. Instead of telling people how great their platform is, they let prospects “play” with it first. This form of interactive content doubles as both marketing and product experience, which is why it’s been such an effective strategy for them.

IKEA’s AR “Place” app for home visualization

IKEA’s AR app lets people drop virtual furniture into their actual living spaces using their phones. It’s not just a cool gimmick, it solves the age-old problem of “will this couch actually fit/look good in my room?” The app is interactive, useful, and naturally leads people toward making a purchase. It’s one of the best examples of blending tech with customer needs.

User-Generated Content (UGC) Marketing Examples

GoPro’s hashtag-driven video campaigns

GoPro is practically built on UGC. Their cameras are great, sure, but the real magic comes from the videos users shoot and share online. By encouraging people to tag their adventures with hashtags like #GoPro, the company gets an endless stream of authentic, jaw-dropping footage to repost. It’s smart because it turns customers into marketers while showing off the product in action better than any ad ever could.

Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” personalization campaign

This campaign is one of the most famous UGC plays ever. By printing names on bottles, Coca-Cola invited people to find their name (or a friend’s) and share it. Social media exploded with photos of people showing off “their” Coke. What made it work wasn’t just the novelty, it was the personal connection. Suddenly a global brand felt like it was speaking to you directly.

LEGO Ideas: fan-submitted product sets

LEGO’s Ideas platform is a brilliant mix of community and product development. Fans design and submit their own set ideas, the community votes, and the best ones actually get produced. It’s UGC with real stakes, fans don’t just share content, they help shape the product line. That level of involvement builds loyalty most brands can only dream of.

Glossier’s Community-Led Beauty Content

Glossier didn’t rise by pumping out glossy ad campaigns. They leaned into what their customers were already doing—sharing selfies, reviews, little tutorials. It wasn’t staged, it felt real. People saw themselves reflected in the brand, and that’s rare in beauty marketing. Over time, Glossier stopped being “just another cosmetics company” and started feeling more like a beauty club where everyone’s voice mattered.

Data-Driven Content Marketing Examples

Spotify Wrapped & Personalized Playlists

Every December, Spotify Wrapped hits and suddenly everyone’s posting their top songs like it’s a personality test. That’s the beauty of it—it feels personal, almost intimate, but it’s also designed for sharing. The slick design, the bite-sized stats, the way it taps into nostalgia—it all adds up to a moment people look forward to. And Wrapped is just the loudest example. The real magic is how Spotify quietly uses your listening habits year-round to keep feeding you playlists that feel handpicked.

Semrush’s Annual Industry Reports

Semrush isn’t out here trying to entertain the masses. Their big play is authority. Each year they roll out these chunky reports full of search and marketing data pulled from millions of sites. It sounds dry, but for marketers it’s gold. They take overwhelming amounts of information and carve it into trends you can actually act on. It positions them not just as a tool you use, but as the expert you trust to explain what’s coming next.

Atlassian’s Storytelling With Internal Data

Atlassian has a clever angle: instead of tossing out generic teamwork tips, they mine their own products for insights. With so many companies using Jira and Trello, they’ve got access to patterns nobody else sees. Then they turn that into stories about productivity, collaboration, or what makes teams click. It’s data-driven, but it doesn’t feel cold, it feels grounded, like advice that actually came from watching real people work.

Netflix’s “Top 10 Today”

Netflix doesn’t just want you to watch, they want you to watch what everyone else is watching. That’s where the “Top 10 Today” list comes in. It’s a simple little feature, but it hits that human curiosity nerve: what’s popular, what am I missing, what should I be talking about? Suddenly a show you never planned on watching ends up on your list just because it’s trending. It’s marketing, sure, but it doesn’t feel like it. It feels like you’re in on the conversation.

Evergreen Content Marketing Examples

HubSpot’s comprehensive marketing guides

HubSpot has practically written the playbook on evergreen content. Their in-depth guides on topics like email marketing, SEO, and sales funnels show up in Google search results year after year. The secret? They keep the content updated so it never feels stale. It’s the kind of resource marketers bookmark and return to, and it quietly funnels them into HubSpot’s ecosystem.

Notion’s ongoing tutorial series

Notion knows its product can be a little overwhelming at first. That’s why they invest in tutorials that live forever on YouTube and their own help hub. These guides cover everything from beginner basics to advanced workflows. Because people are constantly searching “how to use Notion,” these tutorials bring in new users month after month without extra ad spend.

Slack’s customer success stories

Slack leans on case studies that show how real teams use their tool. Instead of writing hype-driven content, they highlight customer stories, whether it’s startups or big enterprises, to explain the actual value of the platform. These stories stay relevant over time and give new prospects social proof in a way ads can’t match.

Mailchimp’s long-running Email Marketing Benchmarks

For years, Mailchimp has published benchmark reports showing average open rates, click rates, and performance by industry. It’s evergreen gold because marketers constantly need this data. People return to these benchmarks again and again, which quietly reinforces Mailchimp’s authority in email marketing.

B2B Content Marketing Examples

Salesforce’s no-fluff B2B blog

Salesforce produces a huge amount of content, but what makes it effective is the lack of fluff. Their blog posts often focus on real business challenges and practical advice, not just product promotion. That mix of insights and thought leadership has helped them stay the go-to resource in the CRM world.

Moz’s SEO research & topic clusters

Moz has built authority through deep SEO research, like their annual ranking factor surveys and Whiteboard Friday sessions. They also pioneered using topic clusters to dominate search visibility. This kind of structured, data-driven B2B content positions them as trusted educators, and it still pulls in leads.

Townsend Security’s gated content offers

In cybersecurity, trust is everything. Townsend uses gated whitepapers and reports to generate leads while showcasing their expertise. These resources provide high-value information upfront, making prospects more willing to share their details. Gated content isn’t exciting, but when executed well, it’s a cornerstone of effective B2B marketing.

Digital Olympus’s expert roundup collaborations

Digital Olympus built a name in SEO by publishing expert roundups, long-form content featuring contributions from dozens of specialists. It works for two reasons: readers get a wide range of insights, and contributors naturally share the content, expanding reach far beyond their own audience. It’s collaboration as a growth strategy.

B2C Content Marketing Examples

Canva’s Design School & AI design tutorials

Canva doesn’t just give people a tool; they teach them how to use it. Their Design School offers tutorials, templates, and now AI-driven design tips. This educational content helps users become better creators, which, in turn, makes them more likely to keep using Canva. It’s smart retention marketing disguised as free value.

Calm App’s meditation & relaxation content

Calm doesn’t stop at being an app. Their blog, podcasts, and guided audio sessions extend into lifestyle content focused on mindfulness and stress relief. Instead of “selling” meditation, they weave it naturally into people’s daily routines. The result? Content that feels like self-care, not marketing.

Procreate’s artist-led tutorials

Procreate knows its audience is creators, so instead of polished corporate content, they feature tutorials from real artists. Seeing pros use the app in creative ways inspires new users to try it out themselves. It’s authentic, community-driven, and adds credibility to the brand.

Nike By You’s personalized shopping experience

Nike’s customization platform, “Nike By You,” lets customers design their own shoes. The marketing behind it focuses on showcasing real customer creations, not just stock photos. That combination of personalization and user-driven content makes the product itself a form of marketing.

Chewy’s pet-owner YouTube channel

Chewy has grown beyond being an online pet store by creating YouTube videos for pet owners. From training tips to health advice, their content is educational but approachable. It positions them as more than a retailer; they’re a trusted partner in pet care. That emotional connection is what keeps customers loyal.

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Tools That Power Great Content Marketing Examples

Behind every strong content strategy, there’s usually a set of tools making it possible to scale. These aren’t just “nice to have”, they’ve become essential for keeping up with demand and personalization in 2025.

• HubSpot – Still one of the best all-in-one platforms for content marketing. Brands use it for blogging, automation, analytics, and lead nurturing all in one place.
  
• Semrush – A go-to for SEO research, competitor analysis, and keyword planning. It helps ensure content is built on solid search insights, not just guesswork.
  
• Jasper – Widely used for drafting content, generating ideas, or helping teams keep up with volume. It speeds up creation without sacrificing quality.
  
• Canva – The design backbone for a lot of social media content. Quick templates, brand kits, and now AI features mean even small teams can churn out polished visuals.
  
• Notion AI – Perfect for organizing content calendars, brainstorming, and even building playbooks. Many brands lean on it for managing the back end of content production.
  
• Mailchimp – Still a leader in email marketing, with solid automation features and analytics. Its benchmarks and reporting tools also give marketers real performance context.
  

The takeaway: the best content examples we’ve covered don’t just happen because of good ideas. They happen because brands are using tools to scale, personalize, and stay consistent.

Content Marketing Trends in 2025

If there’s one thing about content marketing, it’s that it never sits still. Here are some of the biggest shifts shaping strategies this year:

1. AI-driven personalization at scale

Personalization is no longer a “bonus.” Customers expect it. From product recommendations to dynamic email content, brands are using AI to make content feel tailor-made for each user.

2. Rise of interactive & immersive formats

AR and VR are creeping into mainstream marketing. Quizzes, gamified experiences, and try-on apps aren’t gimmicks anymore, they’re becoming standard parts of the customer journey.

3. Dominance of video-first strategies

Video continues to eat the internet. Short-form video on TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts drives attention, while long-form video builds authority. It’s not either/or anymore; brands are using both.

4. UGC + branded storytelling for authenticity

Audiences trust other people more than polished ads. That’s why user-generated content combined with brand storytelling is the sweet spot, authentic, but still tied to a clear message.

Key Takeaways from the Best Content Marketing Examples

After looking at dozens of examples, a few lessons keep showing up:

• Creativity + strategy = success
  Flashy content without a strategy fades fast. Strategy without creativity gets ignored. The strongest campaigns always balance both.
  
• Evergreen + interactive + UGC = long-term growth
  Brands that invest in content people can keep coming back to, while also mixing in interactive tools and community-driven content, build compounding results over time.
  
• Works across B2B and B2C if aligned with audience needs
  It doesn’t matter if you’re selling software or sneakers; the principles are the same. Understand what your audience cares about, and create content that delivers value first.
  

Final Thoughts

Looking at real content marketing examples isn’t just interesting, it’s practical. It shows what actually works out there in the wild, not just what sounds good in theory. When you study them, you start spotting patterns: the way certain brands lean into humor, or how others use data to make people feel seen. Those patterns are like shortcuts. They save you from guessing in the dark.

Of course, it’s never about copying what someone else did word for word. A campaign like Spotify Wrapped works because it’s built around their product and their audience. But the idea behind it, turning personal data into something fun and shareable, that can be adapted by almost anyone, even on a small scale. The key is finding the piece of the example that fits your own business, then making it your own.

In the end, the best campaigns usually do two things at once: they provide genuine value and they feel natural, not forced. If you can create content that people want to engage with, and do it consistently, you’re already ahead of most brands out there.

FAQs: Content Marketing Examples