Building Brands Through Social Media 1 Building Brands Through Social Media

Today’s Consumer Mistrustful of authority figures: media, marketing, government Embracing of diversity: experiences, people, structures, definitions Grown up immersed in technology and marketing Believes anyone can be a star Believes media is interactive Heightened desire to ‘give back’ Link product loyalty to corporate behaviour Want socially responsible brands

A New Dimension It’s no more about “Brand Exposure” to consumers – it’s about Engaging the Consumer in meaningful conversation It’s not about the hog - it is a lifestyle It’s not about the ad sound – it’s about how it makes consumers feel It’s about consumer choices, places and time It’s about “their” space It’s about “my” video It’s about “my” opinion It’s about the experience

Implications It has reached a tipping point Monologue marketing communication obsolete Information becoming transparent & authentic Word travels fast People likely to act on peer’s recommendation Changing Consumer behaviour and expectations Social Media drives the world….. The Arab Spring?

What Should Be Done…? Stop calling me Consumer & stop feeding me with what you think I will like I am a Person – allow me to express myself….!

Why is Social Media Relevant for Brands It’s where consumers are spending their time It’s the most trusted medium for consumers Social media allows to engage with consumers in a powerful new ways. By default, brands are already there.

The Reality 34% of consumers post comments about brands on their blogs and feeds Source: Universal Mccann 2010 36% think more positively about brands that have blogs Source: Universal Mccann 2010 EVERY 1 POINT INCREASE IN WORD-OF-MOUTH ADVOCACY = £8.8 INCREASE IN SALES Source: LSE/Bain 2005

Top Brands on Facebook & Twitter Top 10 Consumer Brands Coca Cola 34,511,504 Starbucks 25,446,846 Oreo 23,092,391 Red Bull 22,427,254 Converse All Star 20,780,055 Converse 20,141,021 Skittles 19,348,317 Play station 17,420,065 Pringles 13,602,128 Victoria’s Secret 15,343,727 Top 10 Trending Topics on Twitter Twitter Google Facebook Apple McDonalds Nike MySpace Nissan Wall Mart HP

Building Brands on Social Media

The Approach Requires as much strategic planning as any other marketing activity. Brand presence must be developed & equipped for long term rather than individual campaigns. Develop a master brand tone for conversation Engage consumers in their own language. Regular update & consistency in tone of voice. Benefits to be gained from interconnectivity & Social Ecosphere. It is an own media – care must be taken with what is broadcasted

Social Media is a commitment, not a campaign.

Getting it Right

1. Do Not Rush… Is You Brand Social Media Fit? HW LSM 11-15 70% web access Online dating, IM & chat, pod casts, shopping and banking Male/Female LSM 5- 8 Entertainment, Gaming, Technology, Sports, News, Community, Share HW LSM 6 -10 Young working class 20 – 40% web access Connect with friends & family HW LSM 1 – 5 Limited/ No web access Parenting & Homecare Brand Prioritisation: Opportunity Analysis with Brands/Target/Preferences

2. Brands as Story Tellers … Develop a Brand Tone In a multi-channel world of advertising, the brand with the best stories win. “Think like a publisher, not a marketer.” – David Meerman Scott, DavidMeermanScott.com

3. Let Them “Talk” About You Brands people talk about “Make meaning beyond Money” Become a platform to encourage others to participate & contribute

4. Create Empathy, Understanding & Openness Converse & engage consumers in their own language Understand the conversation & invest in research (3rd party research, reports etc) Stand for something worth engaging about Listen & never stop listening to your consumers Identify your influencers Take a long term view & plan for the long term

5. Connect with Consumers through the Social Ecosphere Meet them at different touch points YouTube Video & Photo Sharing Web 1.0 Sites Linking and image sharing Twitter Micro blogging Facebook / SNS Social Network + Content Aggregator Advertising Drive awareness of content/presence Wikipedia Crowd sourced Encyclopedias Search (SEO) Awareness

6. Know the Social Techno graphics

Finally: You can’t Control Everything Let go – control is in consumers hands (Moderate))

How can we Evaluate Social Media

Reach Like any other medium, digital must qualify and quantify the reach of campaigns. The best campaign in the world is a failure if only 50 people see it! Whatever we do; branded games, video series, applications, facebook pages, youtube channels or jus plain old display, we MUST capture the reach of the activity. In addition, it is vital we capture

Impact The impact of activity on the consumer is most often overlooked by media people as this has typically been a creative agency concern. This is not the case in digital; in order to coax budgets into the channel we must constantly prove the impact that digital activities have had. This means that if 100,000 people watched a video, it is VITAL that we also know whether it had any effect on their attitude towards the brand – do they love it more? Are they more likely to buy it? Has the key message landed and resonated? The same goes for every other form of digital activity.

Cost Cost must be the final piece of the equation – it’s all very well for a campaign to have a positive effect on 100,000 people, but the activity must be affordable – the marketing director of Audi, who made his name setting up an Audi TV channel, later remarked that it would have been cheaper to give each viewer of the channel their won Audi TT! Costs can easily be benchmarked and compared across channels and against previous activity.

R.I.C.E. Reach – Impact – Cost – Evaluation

Some suggested metrics for Reach, Impact and Cost

Reach Volume Targeting Views Impressions Users Interactions Arrivals Composition/Profile Intent Relevance Reach

Impact Brand Survey Awareness TOM recall Message association Consideration Favorability Purchase Intent Engagement Metrics Time spent Views completed Interaction rate Repeat visits Advocacy Share rate Likes Retweets Sentiment Impact

Cost Benchmark CPW Other Media Channels Past campaigns Value analysis Cost per… Thousand Arrival Interaction View User Registration Benchmark Other Media Channels Past campaigns Value analysis Cost

“Revolution doesn’t happen when societies adopt new technologies “Revolution doesn’t happen when societies adopt new technologies. It happens when societies adopt new behaviours.” – Clay Shirky Here Comes Everybody Thank You!