Social in 2015 - Five Strategies for Success

Social in 2015: Five strategies for success Warc Trends

Toolkit 2015

At a glance

Takeaways from this chapter

1. Social strategy is diverging rapidly

As social platforms evolve, a growing number of distinct strategies for social are emerging. There are (at least) five ways

for marketers to leverage the power of social media: social as the 'plumbing' through which content is distributed online;

social as a real-time amplification mechanism; social as a data-rich media buy; social as a source of data and insight;

and social as a customer management tool. These approaches are not exclusive, and can be combined within a

campaign.

Implication: As 'social marketing' techniques diverge, it has never been more important for a brand to have a clear idea

of what it wants out of social media activity, and which approach is best placed to achieve it.

2. There is a shift away from community

There are signs that some brands are becoming less interested in building 'communities' on

social media. The changes to Facebook's algorithm have accelerated this shift. Some

commentators argue that the rush toward communities was a mis-step, and that brands

should refocus on social strategies where there is evidence of success.

Implication: Marketers that have invested in building networks of fans and followers should

consider reviewing which social profiles customers use. Brands may still need community

managers, but it may be worth refocusing their activities on areas such as customer

management and data collection and analysis.

3. Twitter loves TV

The relationship between television and Twitter is becoming better understood. The fact that television drives social

conversations is not new news. But there is a growing body of research evidence to support that 'amplification' effect,

and suggest ways brands can take advantage of it.

Implication: Some commentators argue that brands with high-impact content should take an 'omnichannel' approach to

media strategy, and plan where possible for the social impact of their campaigns. As well as advertising, identifying

sponsorship opportunities may be a powerful tool here.

4. Expect more ad innovation

As Facebook's algorithm evolves to enhance user experience brands will increasingly need to optimise and amplify their

Title: Social in 2015: Five strategies for successSource: Warc TrendsIssue: Toolkit 2015

Brands need to

ditch the

community

ideology, then

invest in the parts

of social media

that are working.

Darika Ahrens

Downloaded from warc.com

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content to maximise reach and exposure in the increasingly competitive newsfeed. Brands should expect a growing suite

of ad products built around Facebook's rich user data, and for other social platforms to follow suit. One particularly

interesting development is the potential to use social media login information to follow individuals across devices,

potentially solving the 'cookie question' that has dogged data-driven digital marketing.

Implication: This space changes frequently, but the direction is clear. The boundaries between earned media and paid

media are blurring, and brands should review spend on social media regularly as new products emerge. For brands

interested in cross-device targeting, it is worth keeping tabs on the moves by the big social networks to do more with

their login information.

Briefing

'Social' remains a key topic of interest for marketers both the development of social media platforms and, more broadly, social as a marketing and communications strategy.

2014 saw the social space evolve rapidly. It is clear that social now refers to a number of diverging tools and techniques, and

marketers should be clear which are most relevant to them:

l Social as the 'plumbing' of the internet it is the pipes through which content flows and reaches an audience. The changes Facebook has made to its algorithm are having an impact in this area, though there are, of course, other

channels content can flow through.

l Social as a real-time platform, and in particular the growing link between TV or live events and platforms such as

Twitter.

l Social as a data-rich media buy this is the driver of Facebook's rapid revenue growth. l Social as a source of data and insight.

l Social as a customer management tool.

As the social space diverges, there is decreasing emphasis on brands building communities. A provocative piece by former

Forrester analyst Darika Ahrens argued that the focus by brands on building 'communities' of fans or followers had been a mis-

step. Of course, there are examples of brands that have successfully built and used a community, but Ahrens argued that for

each example of success there will be many failures.

Ahrens' conclusion: "Brands need to ditch the community ideology. Then invest in the parts of social media that are working:

advertising, customer service, and data."

The evolution of social strategies, then, is not only a result of platform developments, but a realisation of what is working.

Social as plumbing

Social media is a key platform for the distribution of content online in effect it is the 'pipes' through which content flows. One of the drivers of investment in content marketing in recent years is the rise of this alternative, 'earned' media ecosystem.

In 2014 Warc announced the winners of the inaugural Warc Prize for Social Strategy, a competition that looked for campaigns

that drove earned media and could also demonstrate a business impact. A follow-up report, Seriously Social 2014, analysed

the shortlisted entries and drew a number of conclusions on the types of 'currency' that work in social and the role social can


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play within a marketing strategy (see data section). For example:

l Brands that use cause-driven messaging appear to drive greater business results than those who rely on brand 'stories'.

l Social media is most effective when used as a support for activity in other media.

This is a space that is evolving rapidly. In 2014, Facebook made changes to the algorithm that determines what users see on

their newsfeed. The upshot is that organic reach of branded posts are reaching, according to some estimates, just 2% to 8%

of a brand's Facebook following.

Facebook argues that its priority is the user experience. So brands producing very high-quality content that consumers will

want to share should not see significant declines in reach (Red Bull and Newcastle Brown Ale are examples of brands that

have succeeded in this space). However, the easiest way to ensure reach is to pay for the privilege. As such, the lines

between earned media and paid media are blurring.

It's also worth pointing out that social distribution of content is broader than social networking sites. One Australian study

looked at 'dark social' copying and pasting website links into email, text or instant messages. It estimated that sharing via these methods was three times more common than sharing via Facebook.

Social as a real-time amplifier

A related approach is to use social media, and particularly Twitter, as a real-time amplification mechanism for example, by building interest in and reach of a high-impact TV campaign, or by linking brands with 'current' events.

In itself, that is hardly a new strategy. What has emerged in 2014, however, is research evidence to support it.

One study used Steady State Topography (SST), a brain-activity recording methodology to explore the relationship between

TV and social media. Participants' neural responses were recorded while they watched a live television broadcast and were

allowed to interact on social-media platforms Twitter and Fango. The results indicate that engaging in social media while

viewing television can significantly enhance neural indicators of viewer engagement in the television program.

A separate study, from FOX Broadcasting and Twitter, concluded: "Tweets about television programs and their sponsors earn

a large audience and trigger a variety of actionsalmost universally both on and off Twitter and other platforms."

The power of Twitter, according to this study, is not just reach. It's action. "Television programs may benefit from marketing

campaigns that are optimized for and cognizant of earned audiences." And, for brands whose messages appear as part of the

programming mix, the authors suggest:

l developing a Twitter strategy that treats tweets as an extension of both your content and promotional efforts;

l programming Twitter like you program your network: combine paid and owned tweets for maximum impact.

The upshot is what comScore's Gian Fulgoni calls an "Omni-Channel" strategy. Because there is now a quantifiable bounce,

marketers (and programmers) should consider developing social strategies hand-in-glove with their content strategies to get

the biggest bounce.

This application of social media is also having an impact on sponsorship. In the UK, Continental Tyres leveraged its

sponsorship of the 2014 World Cup through a Twitter-based campaign designed to engage fans during matches. The brand


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asked people to predict how players would perform, with questions that engaged people of different football-knowledge levels.

The Twitter campaign reached over 40 million fans and generated 11,000 competition entries.

Social as data-rich media buy

Among the US-based social networks, Facebook has led the field in terms of monetising its platform, and audience, with

revenues exceeding $3 billion in Q3 2014. In some cases it is now doing big-money deals direct with advertisers a recent example being Reckitt Benckiser.

Facebook's revenues are driven by its ability to offer targeting capabilities based on its user profiles. By cutting back on

organic reach, it has also been able to charge advertisers to reach the networks of fans they have spent time and energy

building up these become low-cost advertising networks as opposed to communities.

Brands should expect to see a lot more innovation in this space. Facebook has been rolling out a suite of ad tools to give

advertisers more options on its platforms and beyond. For example:

l Local ads to capitalise on the rise of access to Facebook by smartphone.

l Video ads, in recognition of the popularity of video content on social media.

l An ad platform that uses Facebook login information to track consumers across devices. This development has the

potential to help advertisers solve the 'cookie question' the difficulty of reaching the same individual as they access the internet from different devices.

Where Facebook leads, it is likely other networks (and their third-party ad partners) will follow. One of the key trends in social

media marketing is for 'native' ad placements that fit into a user's feed and timeline one study predicts these will generate $9.4 billion in the US in 2018, making up 60% of all social media revenue. The study predicted that native social adspend

would overtake social display in 2015.

However, there remain questions over the degree of advertising consumers will accept on these platforms, and on the use of

their data on behalf of advertisers. The recent buzz around ad-free social media site Ello underlines the delicate balance social

sites have to perform when pursuing this agenda.

Social as data and insight


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Social remains a useful source of data, and a consumer research tool as a recent research paper into social media-generated insight concluded, the "less formaland more honest" nature of online discussions generates "new ways for brands to understand consumers more deeply."

An emerging area is using social data to help in ad testing and ad tracking. Cadbury Creme Egg, the chocolate brand owned

by Mondelez International, has shown how Facebook can be used as a forum to pre-test ads by posting its creative directly on

the social network, identifying which messages and images achieve the most viral traction, and then translating them into paid-

for display and print executions.

There may be an even bigger prize in the area of cross-screen research. A recent paper from comScore noted that social sites

tend to have greater usage on smartphones than the average internet site.

Percentage of online time spent on content categories by device used

Source: comScore Media Metrix Multi-Platform

Future adspend shifts may be driven by the big social media players facilitating marketing-effectiveness research; specifically,

the creation of a multi-platform effectiveness metric.

As the paper notes: "Much of the value of such abundant sources of information stems from researchers' ability to synthesize

data sets at scale and produce measurement samples that are many orders of magnitude larger than what was available

previouslyBoth Facebook and Twitter have developed measurement partnerships with third-party data providers that, through anonymized cookie matches, enable a tight linkage between their users' advertising exposure and offline buying data.

As a result, marketers have powerful quantitative data on brand return on investment (ROI), which, in turn, gives them the

confidence to invest more in social marketing and advertising."

Social as customer management tool


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Social media is growing as a tool to communicate with and reward customers. One brand that has pushed this model is

American Express. For example:

l An initiative conducted through a partnership with Foursquare, the location-based app, allowed Amex customers to

receive special offers when they visited certain retailers and restaurants.

l Working with Twitter, the firm secured customers special deals on products which could be ordered simply by using a

hashtag.

l Tie-ups with taxi app Uber and travel website TripAdvisor provided different benefits for customers on the move or

thinking about booking accommodation.

The importance of social media within the customer journey was underlined by a research paper on Consumer Moments of

Truth. The 'Moments of Truth' model is used by a number of successful multinationals (initially Procter & Gamble and

subsequently Google), and describes key instances of contact between a potential customer and a brand. The model

emerging gives prominence to online word-of-mouth, as recommendations are shared and searched among digitally connected

consumers.

Consumer decision-making journey in a digital world

Viewpoint

Tools, talent, technique: harness the social revolution Nikki Jones, Senior Consultant, Customer Advisory Practice, Deloitte Digital

Over recent years, brands have spent a great deal of time and effort investing in social brand

communities. Now it's time for brands to think carefully about where to invest to be able to connect

with customers in a way that matters to them.

Customers are changing. They are more connected than ever, with 62% of people in the UK owning a smart phone (Deloitte

Mobile Consumer Survey 2014), and the internet enabling customers to be more informed about brand's products and

services. Technology is enabling them to connect and engage anytime and anywhere. Brands have to find new ways of

working to cope with this changing customer landscape and ensure they maximise their access to valuable customer insight.

Increasingly, we are seeing more clients looking to enhance their CRM capabilities to include social and leverage powerful

analytical tools to help them understand and engage their customers in more insightful ways. These tools help brands have

visibility of who's buying their products, allows them to analyse the sentiment of the conversations customers are having about

them, find out their needs and even reward them for their valued interaction. This customer insight can help brands make more

informed decisions and ultimately help them engage their transient and time-poor customers more effectively, decreasing the


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pain and effort customers have to go through to engage and transact with brands when it matters most to them.

However, to engage customers in the right way brands can't just rely on tools alone, they need the right talent to leverage

those tools. That talent needs to be in the right place at the right time and have a unique combination of skills across creative,

analytics, media and have a desire to help customers. We've also seen our clients' marketing and service functions collaborate

more closely. Argos's 'Badman response' in March1 was a great example: a creative and simple response, in a tone of voice

that engaged the customer, generated 1,500 retweets in just an hour. Equally, a negative response could have the reverse

effect, so brands need to have the capability to respond quickly and effectively in a crisis.

With the right tools and talent in place, there's one last piece to the jigsaw: technique. The way in which brands engage can

have a real impact on reputation. Brands have to become more agile in their approach, and this is proving a major challenge,

especially for those larger organisations that have not had to operate cross-functionally within their organisations before.

However, with the rise of mobile and social, online customers' expectations have increased to expect an always-on

experience, and brands have no choice but to change to meet their expectations. The recent Waterstones and Airbnb tie-up

(after a customer was mistakenly locked in a Waterstone's bookstore) is an excellent example of how both brands' agility and

creativity gained huge reach.

Being able to step on social trends fast has also proved extremely profitable for not-for-profit organisations such as Cancer

Research UK, which has raised over 8 million from its #nomakeupselfie campaign in March. The ALS Association raised over $100 million with the Ice Bucket challenge in July and August. Combining this agility and creativity with the right media mix is a

powerful combination for brands to increase their share of voice disproportionally.

Through working with our clients we've experienced the powerful effect social has had on brands. It's time that more brands

took their social cue and turned it into a competitive advantage. Social can offer brands a powerful and effective tool not only

to engage with fans and followers, but also to drive business value and create a competitive advantage. Through developing

an agile approach and enhancing capabilities across the organisation, brands can keep up with the pace of innovation in this

space and set themselves up to be successful. Investing smartly in the right tools and talent, and encouraging the most

effective techniques, are the foundation to future social success.

Footnotes

1. 'Safe, we gettin sum more PS4 tings in' (10 March 2014)

Data points

A report by Warc analyses the difference between employing a brand story campaign and cause-driven

campaigns:

l Analysis of shortlisted entries to the Warc Prize for Social Strategy by marketing consultant Peter Field uncovered

evidence that using social media in conjunction with cause-driven campaigns is more effective than it is in conjunction

with conventional brand story campaigns.


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l Cause-driven campaigns are more strongly associated with business effects (in that they cited more business effects in

the case study), despite the presence of not-for-profit brands in the mix, for which business effects are of limited

relevance. Excluding not-for-profits from the calculation leads to a starker comparison (1.7 business effects versus 1.1).

l The business effectiveness of cause driven-campaigns also increases markedly over time, whereas that of brand story

campaigns does not; again, this is a reflection of the short-term outlook of the latter group.

l The apparent weakness of cause-driven campaigns at generating brand effects may in part be a consequence of the

challenge of ensuring that the halo of goodwill anchors to the brand. This is one of the biggest challenges of cause-

driven social strategy: developing a strong 'fit' between the brand and the cause.

Chart 1: Short vs. long-term nature by strategy

Chart 2: Number of effects by strategy

Source: Seriously Social 2014

The same report highlights the role of social media in the mix:

l The Seriously Social 2014 analysis also looked at the effectiveness of campaigns for which social media was the lead

channel versus those for which it was not.

l The case studies suggest that social should not be used as lead media, especially if long-term business effects are an

objective.

l The study also found that the optimum number of channels to use with social media was eight.

l An important broad conclusion is suggested by these case studies: that it is not wise to think of "social media strategy" in

isolation it is best to devise a brand strategy capable of driving powerful social effects, led by whichever channel is most appropriate for the brand strategy, and then supported by social media activity.

Chart 3: Impact of social as lead on hard effects

Campaigns using social media vs. others as lead channel


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*'Uplift' refers to the percentage increase in the average number of business effects recorded by campaigns that used social

media as lead, versus these campaigns that did not include it.

Source: Seriously Social 2014

Case studies

Case study 1: Newcastle Brown Ale: 'If we made it'

This case study explains how Newcastle Brown Ale, the beer brand, worked with agency Droga5 to apply its 'no bollocks'

approach to advertising during the Super Bowl build-up in the US. Its an example of the power high-quality content still has to gain reach via social platforms, and how it helps for content to resonate with real-life events such as the Super Bowl.

Campaign details:

l The brand didn't have the budget to create a Super Bowl ad but still wanted to generate social buzz with a 'breakthrough'

strategy.

l Newcastle Brown Ale mirrored the approach of other brands in the build-up to the Super Bowl, including behind the

scenes interviews, films of focus group responses and a trailer all for an ad it never made. l The campaign generated 1.1 billion impressions in total, was included in almost every Super Bowl best of list, and

increased brand awareness and purchase consideration.

l As a result of the campaign, trial of the product increased by 6%.

Read the full case study

Source: Jay Chiat Strategic Excellence Awards 2014

Case study 2: Mercedes A-Class: #YouDrive

//www.youtube.com/embed/LsrPZPZi94s?rel=0


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This case study shows how one brand leveraged the relationship between TV and Twitter. It describes how Mercedes-Benz,

working with AMV BBDO, monetised social engagement when real and virtual worlds converged in 'YouDrive'; the world's first

interactive driving experience conducted through a television commercial in the UK.

l Low consideration for the Mercedes-Benz brand amongst drivers aged 25-44 years old presented a significant marketing

challenge when faced with the launch of the new A-Class.

l Tapping into the convergence between social platforms and broadcast content, the driving experience allowed a

television audience to influence an advertisement in real time via a digital social platform.

l The result was unprecedented levels of real-time social interaction, consideration and sales in the UK, and YouDrive

achieved a return on marketing expenditure of over 9-to-1.

Read the full case study

Source: Warc Prize for Social Strategy, 2014

Find out more

The following articles on Warc expand upon the arguments in this chapter:

1. Social's future is not community

Darika Ahrens, Admap, October 2014

2. Facebook pushes brands to pay

Warc News, November 2014

3. How Red Bull uses events and content to create brand lovers

Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, Content Marketing Summit, September 2014

4. How Newcastle Brown Ale brewed up a digital success story

Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, Advertising Week New York, October 2014

5. Aussies ahead in dark social

Warc News, November 2014

6. The Power of Social Television: Can Social Media Build Viewer Engagement? A New Approach to Brain Imaging of

Viewer Immersion

Peter Pynta, Shaun A. S. Seixas, Geoffrey E. Nield, James Hier, Emilia Millward and Richard B. Silberstein, Journal of

Advertising Research, Vol. 54, No. 1, 2014

7. The Value of Earned Audiences: How Social Interactions Amplify TV Impact: What Programmers and Advertisers Can

Gain from Earned Social Impressions

Judit Nagy and Anjali Midha, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 54, No. 4, 2014

8. Omni-Channel Retail Insights and the Consumer's Path-to-Purchase: How Digital Has Transformed the Way People Make

Purchasing Decisions

Gian M. Fulgoni, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 54, No. 4, 2014


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9. Boost sponsorship's impact: Continental Tyres Socialise the event Dave Grainger, Admap, November 2014

1 Facebook and RB ink $100m+ deal

Warc News, August 2014

1 Facebook launches local ads

Warc News, October 2014

1 Facebook will roll out video ads

Warc News, March 2014

1 Facebook solves cookie question

Warc News, September 2014

1 Social media drives US ad revenue

Warc News, May 2014

1 Advertisers face social media backlash

Warc News, September 2014

1 Agency-Generated Research of Consumer-Generated Content: The Risks, Best Practices, and Ethics

Sonia Dickinson-Delaporte and Gayle Kerr, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 54, No. 4, 2014

1 How Mondelez used Facebook to sell more Creme Eggs

Joseph Clift, Event Reports, MRS Annual Conference, March 2014

1 American Express continues to raise social bar higher and higher

Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, ANA Digital & Social Media, July 2014

1 Consumer Moments of Truth In the Digital Context: How "Search" and "E-Word of Mouth" can Fuel Consumer Decision

Making

Gillian Moran, Laurent Muzellec and Eoghan Nolan, Journal of Advertising Research: Vol. 54, No. 2, 2014

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At a glanceTakeaways from this chapterBriefingSocial as plumbingSocial as a real-time amplifierSocial as data-rich media buySocial as data and insightSocial as customer management toolViewpointTools, talent, technique: harness the social revolutionData pointsCase studiesFind out more

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Social in 2015 - Five Strategies for Success