If you work in advertising, you know how important ‘special days’ are to clients. The brief is always to “stand out, break through the messaging clutter or even go viral”, but we tend to see the same clichéd campaign messages across our social media timelines – you’d swear that all brand managers give their agencies the exact same brief.
If it’s not the usual #ShareTheLove campaigns, it’s the ‘keep up to date with trends’ campaigns.
Although trends are important, we believe that there are ways to break through this clutter, and still being creatively creative.
1. Tell stories that your audience will connect with
The best way to connect with your audience is to curate stories that are relatable to their own lives. Everyone loves a good throwback or a bit of humour about their day-to-day challenges. Or a real life stereotype… Remember that not every brand can be as ballsy as a Nando’s or a Tommy Takkie, but you too can own the space and create narrative, suited for your brand.
2. Don’t underestimate your social media insights
Before you put together that content strategy for the same campaign you ran in previous years, take a moment to do a little bit of research. It’s important to assess how that campaign performed previously. If it didn’t gain too much traction, it’s most probably not going to be a miraculous hit this time around.
Use your research and insight tools to see where and what your audience are engaging with on your pages and create content bespoke to your findings. You don’t want to spend time creating amazing content that’s not going to be seen or engaged with by anyone.
3. Digestible content always wins
Instagram stories offer a great way to get your messages out there quickly and effectively, with proof of them actually being ‘seen’. There are many ways to use the platforms’ functionality to be creative and get your audience engaged with your content, e.g. tap to explore more, swipe up for more, or have really engaging polls.
If you’re asking yourself why your audience is not engaging with your content, it’s likely because you have fallen within the cracks of social media clutter. According to My Broadband, people spend an average of 32-minutes a day on Instagram – that’s enough time to cook a family dinner, but takes less than a second to scroll through images because they are not captivating enough.
4. Turn your customer into the marketing machine
One of the hardest, but easiest ways to turn your customer into a brand advocate without actually knowing it, and reward them for their efforts… Yep, there’s a fine line between getting it right and getting it absolutely wrong. You’d think that there’s only so much you can say about a doughnut, but Krispy Kreme does it so well with their #KKSuperFans campaign – make it to the number the one spot by commenting, liking and sharing. Get your name on the tally and win yourself a dozen Original Glazed doughnuts. A little competition never hurt anyone!
In essence, it’s important for brands to remain authentic to their brand values, and understand the human element when creating content. Remember that people are moved by content that reminds that they’re human and evoke emotion, but at the same time, digestible content.
Raffaele Mc Creadie is managing director of Decimal Agency, a through-the-line advertising agency with a global footprint. The business’ core focus consists of creative concept, social media management, content creation, video editing and animation, web development and digital management as well as SEO/SEM.
