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7 Habits of
Highly Digital
Brands
January 2013

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Executive Summary
Digital has fundamentally changed the way brands behave, as well as the way they organize and optimize their
marketing efforts. To be successful in connecting with people in the digital age, brands must adopt new habits and,
in some cases, behave more like people themselves.
While the personalities of individual brands are varied and unique, there are commonalities among strong digital
brands that can be identified as critical to success in the new marketing landscape. We looked at some of the most
successful digital brands and identified seven shared traits across the board. They are:
1 Being a Skilled Conversationalist: Strong digital brands don’t just know how to talk – they know how to
converse, building relationships through their messaging and content.
2 Being Authentic: Authentic brands are able to find a universal truth for their brand and create content that
inspires those ideals among consumers.
3 Being Data-Driven: The challenge for brands is less about collecting data and more about how to leverage it
to optimize current programs and inspire future efforts.
4 Being Discoverable: Successful brands today align their digital footprints with the consumer journey and
meet people where they are online.
5 Being Relevant: Brands that achieve relevancy in today’s digital environment are those able to effectively
navigate the ever-changing currents of conversation.
6 Being a Content Creator: Today’s landscape forces marketers to constantly re-think the creation,
organization and distribution of content in order to better connect with consumers.
7 Being Constant: By being always-on, marketers can tap into how people live every day and respond to their
audiences’ wants, needs and values in a way that is true to their brand’s story and their objectives as a
marketer.
The following report outlines each habit in detail and provides insight into how marketers can embody and act
upon these traits in their own efforts.
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Habit #1 – Being a Skilled Conversationalist
By Chloe Mathieu-Phillips, Community Supervisor at 360i
Strong digital brands don’t just know how to talk – they know how to converse, building relationships
through their messaging and content. Being a great conversationalist means being a great listener –
using insights gleaned from organic conversations taking place in the community to inform your strategy,
as well as your social tone of voice.
What it means to be a skilled conversationalist
Being a skilled conversationalist means viewing digital as more than a broadcast medium – and understanding the
powerful role that listening can have in engaging in relevant dialogue with consumers. In social, listening goes beyond
customer service and responsive messaging. Real-time data collected from social communities will show you which
types of content resonate with your audience, or even uncover new audiences that you had not previously considered.
As such, listening can and should inform ALL content published within social communities. Insights gleaned from social
listening can also be applied more broadly – to overall brand strategy and even product development.
Another key ingredient to being a skilled conversationalist is having a well-defined social tone of voice that is both true to
the brand’s personality and reflective of the audience. Establishing a voice allows brands to be nimble in social spaces
and set boundaries as to what can or should be said in organic conversations with consumers.
For example, 360i client Hanes has developed a social tone of voice used to inform how the brand engages people via
Twitter and other social platforms. Not all of the brand’s messaging is responsive (as is the case below); however, the
brand’s personality shines through no matter what conversation @Hanes is having at the moment.
Why does this matter?
As social communities mature, interactions between brands and consumers are becoming increasingly commonplace.
People used to delight in receiving a mention from one of their favorite brands; today, this type of personalized
communication is generally expected. When people reach out to brands in digital, they are not always looking for
customer service; sometimes, they are simply seeking entertainment or validation. This adds yet another responsibility to
the community manager’s job description: social copywriting.
People are also dealing with more noise than ever before. Social is no longer a novelty, and emerging platforms like
Tumblr are no longer reserved for the early adopter set. As these platforms reach critical mass, they are pushing brands
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to raise their standards. Today, marketers must play at a new level where content is ultra-relevant and timely or, in other
words, conversational.
Three keys to being a great conversationalist
1. Plan for the unexpected. Change your approach to content planning and build flexibility in the editorial
schedule. When planning your content calendar, leave room for organic, conversational posts. Instead of
guessing what users would like, give yourself room to engage them: make them tell you what they want, and
deliver it to them in a timely manner.
2. Use community insights to inform strategy. Use conversations taking place in your community to shape
upcoming content, and make your messaging as timely as possible. You might have planned for great content,
but if people are already engaging around one topic, you’ll be more successful joining the existing conversation
than you will be trying to create a new one.
3. Invest time in developing a brand voice. While developing a brand voice can require increased time and
effort, it quickly pays off by allowing for effortlessly genuine, human and personable content. A brand voice
exercise will not only allow your team to identify a muse, but more importantly, it will help you set a list of filters
to eliminate the risk of being “off-brand” in real-time interactions.
Habit #2 – Being Authentic
By Shankar Gupta, Director of Social Marketing Strategy at 360i
Brands today are not only competing with other brands to cut through the clutter and reach an audience
– they now have to compete with authentic content created by millions of consumers every day via social
media. The quality of consumer content is improving every day, with platforms like
Instagram, Cinemagram, iMovie and GarageBand helping to narrow the margin between professional
and amateur content.
What it means to be authentic
As people become more and more like brands in how they create content and influence brand perception, brands are
becoming more and more like people in a quest for authenticity – that crackle of humanity that makes a brand about
more than just selling a product. Authentic brands connect with consumers on an emotional level, engaging customers in
their brand story and ideals.
Ultimately, authenticity can’t be faked: It’s a wholeness of purpose and action, which means taking a stand for something
beyond selling, and then taking actions to prove it. If the brand and the people behind it don’t truly believe in the brand’s
fight, consumers will know it – and they’ll change their buying habits accordingly.
Why does it matter?
On YouTube, or any social channel for that matter, there’s way more to see out there than what brands have to offer –
from talk show-style “vlogs” made by a creative amateur in their living room to an iPhone video of a grandson’s first steps
posted to Facebook. Brands should pay attention to this content, be it amateur or not, to find what makes a post or video
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viewable. On social platforms, nobody wants to be friends with someone who only ever posts about their work and the
same holds true for brands -- companies who post promotion after promotion find their fan base dwindling.
The key is to find something universal and true beneath a brand’s product base or tagline and create content that
inspires those ideals. This type of content will more successfully connect with and engage audiences and, ultimately, sell
products.
For example, Red Bull sells consumers a belief in the extreme. With a focus on inspiring its audience with the essence of
the brand rather than pushing the product, Red Bull creates authentic connections with its consumers. Consumers
identify with the brand’s image and share the brand’s passion – turning customers into loyal fans and an energy drink into
a symbol of their fans’ energetic lifestyles.
Image via OurSocialTimes.com
The most iconic example of this philosophy is the Red Bull Stratos stunt, in which a professional daredevil attempted a
128,000-foot free fall to Earth from space. More than 8 million people tuned in live, and to date more than 30 million
people have viewed the YouTube video.
Three keys to being authentic
1. Do some soul-searching. When it comes to the types of content you share, look deeper than product
promotions or information. Think about the core values and brand truths your company is built upon. Ultimately,
these are the attributes that will make your brand identifiable and relatable in social.
2. Think BIG. Humans take risks – and brands can, too. Ambitious endeavors have become commonplace in
social media -- from the death-defying Red Bull stunt to real-time content series like Old Spice’s “The Man Your
Man Could Smell Like” and Oscar Mayer’s “Great American Bacon Barter” – brands are stretching the
boundaries of marketing. Utilizing social listening ahead of attempting these kinds of campaigns can educate
you on potential hidden risks and pitfalls before getting started and improve your chances of success.
3. Be consistent. Maintain a consistent social tone of voice and aesthetic throughout your content efforts to
ensure that your brand’s personality rings true no matter the format. Marketers have been adhering to brand
guidelines for years, but with the plethora of media and content formats (think a Facebook post versus a Tumblr
GIF), this becomes more complex.
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Habit #3 – Being Data-Driven
By Kate Paulin, Group Director of Insights Planning at 360i
In the Digital Age, knowledge is power – and there’s a lot of it. Social media is the world’s largest focus
group, as consumers are increasingly sharing their opinions publicly all of the time. The challenge for
brands is less about how to access or collect this data and more about how to leverage it. Marketers
able to effectively sort through this information will find a wealth of knowledge, consumer insights and
new opportunities to inform their marketing decisions and build better relationships with their customers.
What it means to be data-driven
To be data-driven, a brand must always seek an understanding of its consumers’ behaviors, mindsets and motivations at
all touch points. Marketers today can identify where their audience is engaging in conversations online and meet them
there – listening to them and interacting with them in the spaces they call home.
The results of this could range from optimizing a media campaign based on insights gleaned from advanced analytics to
recognizing an untapped demographic talking about your brand. A data-driven insight can even provide the spark to an
innovative approach to a larger business challenge.
Why does this matter?
More data is created each day than was created during the entire span of human history up to the year 2000. Consumer
insights that were difficult to garner in the past are now at the tips of our fingers, and smart marketers are adjusting their
research practices to capitalize on it.
Consumers today expect more from brands than just a high-quality product or service; they expect an experience. The
best way to satisfy the demand of consumers and
communicate with them in a meaningful way is to harness
data to understand their consumer journey and where a
brand can fit in. The challenge for
For example, we recently partnered with a popular juice and brands is less about how to
bar brand on a social listening initiative aimed at gaining a
access or collect data and more
better understanding of how people viewed its brand and
where it had the most opportunity to build upon that about how to leverage it.”
connection. Raw data could only hint at general information
so, to fill in the gaps, 360i scored social conversations against our Brand CompassSM social listening framework to
uncover a much larger story.
The analysis showed that consumers lacked an emotional connection to any brand in the category, revealing a key
opportunity for our client to own this untapped space. The brand utilized this core finding to inform its marketing strategy,
which focuses on elevating the unique essence and personality of the brand, rather than solely communicating product
attributes.
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Three keys to being data-driven
1. Develop a tailored social listening program. The Internet is the world’s largest focus group, but the challenge
becomes how to mine the information to find succinct, actionable insights that can be used to inform marketing
strategy. Marrying quantitative data with human analysis – which provides a strategic lens through which you
can view the information – is the ideal. Customized research and analytics might manifest as forward-looking
trend reports specific to the brand, or daily tactical listening around key conversations and topics. No matter the
approach, social listening is a vital part of any brand’s digital health.
2. Adopt a test and learn approach for emerging tools. Almost constantly, new platforms emerge to give
brands more opportunities to get to know their audiences – often, in a highly cost-effective way. Whether it’s
testing a new polling method from Peanut Labs, conducting online ethnographies with GutCheck or turning
street interviews into a brand topic video with Snippies, marketers will want to become acquainted with what’s
out there. Having a small innovation budget for testing new methodologies will keep your research plans fresh
and your brand ahead of the pack.
3. Develop a Digital Health Scorecard. Establishing a framework for evaluating the data and tracking key metrics
over time is critical to making the information you collect actionable. A Digital Health Scorecard allows
marketers to understand online metrics within a similar context as traditional programs by creating common
definitions that can be applied across paid, owned and earned media. For example, 360i has several indexes
that measure and weigh different KPIs depending on specific program objectives.
Habit #4 – Being Discoverable
By Amie Dowker, Digital Strategist at 360i
Today’s consumers are digital. They shop online, play online and socialize online. This creates
more opportunities and touch points for a brand to connect with a consumer than was ever
possible before. Amidst the clutter of all things digital, brands can get lost or they can be
discovered and, in the ever-changing digital space, search isn’t the only place for brands to be
“found.”
What it means to be discoverable
To be discoverable, a brand needs to align its digital footprint with the consumer journey. In practical terms, this
means that the brand meets people where they are online. Regardless of whether they’re searching, socializing, or
seeking entertainment or inspiration – the brand is available when and where consumers are looking to engage.
Why does this matter?
Each brand’s footprint is a canvas for discovery. Gone are the days when brands could rely on a search strategy
alone to ensure discoverability online. Search will always play a critical role in ensuring digital shelf space and
getting more eyeballs on content but, if people can’t encounter the brand content and experiences in their go-to
digital channels, brands will not be able to secure any meaningful mind space.
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Kraft Foods, a 360i client, is one example of a
brand that has enhanced discovery by engaging
consumers where they live online. As Pinterest
first began to emerge as the number one digital
destination for visual inspiration, we knew Kraft
Foods’ target would be increasingly utilizing the
site for recipe inspiration.
To meet our audience there, the brand launched a
Pinterest community from which it could share
content with everyday consumers and influencers
alike. Today, Pinterest is the highest third-party
referral source to KraftFoods.com, a hub that sees millions of unique visitors each month.
Three keys to being discoverable
1. Ensure your brand’s footprint aligns with your consumers’ mindset. Assess your gaps by
understanding where your consumer’s journey and your brand’s current digital footprint are misaligned.
Staying on top of website analytics is critical to uncovering the right insights. If a brand is seeing above
average mobile referral traffic and very low time on site, there is a mobile-optimization gap that needs to
be addressed.
2. Determine the emerging behaviors and platforms that are relevant to your brand. Track innovations
across the digital landscape and evaluate opportunities that bubble up early and often. A test and learn
approach can humanize a brand’s approach to discovery.
3. Know the role that influencers can play. Research existing conversations being had about your brand
online and understand who is talking. Ideate around the relationship between your brand, potential
influencers and pop culture to think of new ways for your brand to get noticed.
Habit #5 – Being Relevant
By Julian Long, Digital Strategist at 360i
Relevancy requires an astute grasp of what’s going on outside your brand’s walls – and even
outside of your communities. Brands able to incorporate cultural trends into their marketing will
find common ground with their audience and provide a shared understanding through which
valuable engagement can take place.
What it means to be relevant
Being relevant is the difference between being heard and remembered – or being dismissed and forgotten.
Relevance is the automatic filter through which every human being receives a message. Whether it is cultural
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relevance, situational relevance, emotional relevance or practical relevance, a message must read as current and
meaningful to its receiver if there is to be any hope for retention amidst the flood of constant communication.
Relevance can be found at many levels. For marketers, being relevant means being aware of and responsive to
the current cultural climate in a manner that hones in on consumer points of passion and interest and expresses
your brand’s unique point of view on them.
Why does it matter?
People today demand more from the brands that solicit their time and interest, as they are exposed to
exponentially larger amounts of data than those that came before them. Accordingly, digital consumers are both
consciously and subconsciously selecting the conversations they will take part in. Certainly those media-driven
conversations that are most relevant will rise to the top of the considered set.
The challenge to be relevant in today’s digital environment is largely based on knowing how to navigate the
currents of conversation. Some topics, trends and conversations fundamentally alter the current; they stick, persist
and become cultural memes. A brand that is adept at recognizing these changing currents can ride them to
successful interactions with their consumers.
Authenticity is central to relevance and is discussed at greater length in the earlier section. It’s not enough to be
aware that something is important to consumers; true relevance is identified by how it is important to the brand
speaking about it. For example, our client Oreo recently indulged in this idea with great success. The Daily Twist
campaign placed Oreo at the center of cultural conversations through a social media content series that put the
brand’s twist on daily headlines and social trends.
The series enhanced the essence of Oreo’s brand image – which exudes a company that is completely integrated
into the fun moments that make up a happy life. Fans rallied around their favorite cookie – liking, commenting on
and sharing Oreo’s Daily Twists.
Three keys to being relevant
1. Keep a finger on the digital and cultural pulse. Successful marketers today are culturephiles –
obsessed with consumer behavior and the ways in which digital is shaping culture every day. Study how
other brands are maintaining relevancy and using social listening to quickly identify emerging patterns,
behaviors and opportunities.
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2. Find a point of commonality and seize it. Instead of merely jumping into the fray of a meme or trend,
first consider how your brand can provide further value – perhaps in the form of information or
entertainment. Adding a layer of value to the conversation – and putting your own stamp on the dialogue –
is critical to staying relevant.
3. Get in at the right moment. Timing is everything. If you jump on a trend too soon, you’ll disconnect from
too many consumers who haven’t discovered it yet. However, if you’re too late to the game you risk
looking dated and slow. Conversely, get out while they’re still smiling. Don’t ride the wave too long.
Remember, the life of digital conversations – even heavily trending ones – is short.
Habit #6 – Being a Content Creator
By Matt Wurst, Director of Communities at 360i
Brands have always been content creators, with output first taking the form of advertising content,
like :30 spots, print ads and display creative. But the ever-changing digital landscape forces
marketers to constantly re-think the creation, organization and distribution of content in order to
better connect with consumers.
What it means to be a content creator
To be a content creator means to have the ability to manifest your brand essence through the development of
assets that are inherently social and sharable. Content can take many forms – text, an image, a blog post, a video,
an event, a game, an activity, a sweepstakes, or even products themselves. Strong brand content is developed as
part of a holistic strategy within a uniquely identifiable brand voice. It will appeal to an engaged audience and fit its
intended platforms.
Content, when done right, can become the center around which all activity revolves. As such, brands must find
their own balanced mix of content that aligns with marketing strategy. This mix can include content that drives
reach, engagement or both. Reach-oriented content includes the bigger ideas, tent pole promotions and
campaigns that generate impressions, buzz and views. The creation of engaging content on websites and social
communities like Facebook and Twitter will drive likes, comments, re-tweets and shares.
Why does this matter?
Branded content allows people to connect with brands in the same ways they are already connecting online with
other people. Successful branded content initiatives leverage cultural relevance and open the door to
conversations.
The challenge, though, is that the space is getting more crowded. Every company, brand and product has a
Facebook page, Twitter feed and YouTube channel and the brands are competing for the same prominent, yet
limited, real estate in users’ News Feed. Only the most compelling, captivating, engaging content can drive reach
and interactions.
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Moreover, since consumers have become a distribution model themselves as sharers of content to their network, it
has become increasingly important that brands provide opportunities for co-creation. “Happiness Is,” Coca-Cola’s
Tumblr community is a great example of this concept in action, as the brand often elevates community content as
part of its overall content mix on the platform.
Three keys to successful content creation
1. Build with the right foundation. The first step is to get the right individuals or team in place. Content
creators are people who understand the brand/product, are experts in publisher platforms and can actually
bring the content to life. The second step is to consult social listening to better understand the target
audience and their interests across the digital landscape.
2. Develop a content strategy and distribution plan. Content creators should identify meaningful topics
and sources within a framework that will excite brand stakeholders and fans. This may include bigger,
campaign-based content as well as ongoing “conversational” content. Planning must also include a
publishing strategy that may involve paid media as a necessary boost in reach.
3. Monitor results and measure success. The digital content creation process is not over once the
creative is published or shared. It is important to use real-time feedback and community management to
monitor the conversations surrounding the brand and content. Ongoing monitoring and analysis can and
should inform the content creation process. Aligning on key metrics in advance will help creators know
which content is engaging users, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
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Habit #7 – Being Constant
By Lee Maicon, SVP of Insights Strategy at 360i
Being constant means being prolific with a purpose, creating currency that will keep a brand top of
mind with its audience and elicit action. By being always-on, marketers can tap into how people
live every day and respond to their audiences’ wants, needs and values in a way that is true to
their brand’s story and their objectives as marketers.
What it means to be constant
To be constant contains two critical, but almost contradictory definitions: 1) to have a strong core set of values
from which you do not deviate; and 2) to be always-on and willing to adapt to new realities.
To be constant as a brand means having a strong filter for creative and strategy but, even more importantly, it
means constant vigilance as a creative idea launches and beyond. It means not thinking in terms of launches and
campaigns at all but rather creating a body of work that has many hooks that sustain interest and engagement
over time. Although brands should not sway from their core brand voice, they must always be on – 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
Why does it matter?
In the big brand campaigns of the past, launch and leave was something you could get away with,-- with the right
well-tested proposition, GRP plan and copy-testing. If you had the pieces lined up, you might even pull off equity
and sales growth. In digital campaigns, on the other hand, constant editing and optimization is the path to drive
results.
Today’s new marketing reality forces us to learn from each. Marketers need to take the constant vision and scale
of “traditional” approaches and the constant optimization and iteration of digital to build a new model for success.
The new reality forces brands to constantly react to
an ever-shifting landscape of trends, memes,
information and entertainment. One brand that has
thrived in this climate is 360i client Bravo, which The new reality forces brands
has leveraged a deep understanding of its digital- to constantly react to an ever-shifting
savvy audience to craft programming and
promotion that builds and sustains a unique
landscape of trends, memes,
cultural currency over time. information and entertainment.”
Bravo coordinates social and digital activity from
talent such as Andy Cohen, on-air promotion, and in-show content to produce a constant feed that sustains
engagement with the brand, network and community. This always-on, transmedia approach to content has allowed
Bravo to build a core brand voice over time but to do so in a manner that can change by show, season or viewer
interest.
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Three keys to being constant
1. Follow a constant north star. Establish the core values that you stand for. This is probably not a product
feature or attribute but rather a value that can be a constant north star for you to improvise off of, push off
against and focus on as the theme of your conversation.
2. Listen closely. Once you have your focus, stop and listen to everything going on around you. Hear what
memes, conversations and human problems are relevant. It may seem simplistic, but listen to the
competition as well. It’s up to you to maintain freshness and differentiation.
3. Make a plan, but keep space to improvise. Implement a calendar and plan that allows for improvisation
at the eleventh hour. This may involve educating the “back office” functions of your organization to
prepare them for a new way of working. Traditional rules of production, legal and even in-store promotion
and packaging can hamstring innovation so consider how processes can shift to allow for greater
flexibility.
About 360i
360i is an award-winning digital marketing agency that drives results for Fortune 500 marketers through insights,
ideas and technologies. 360i helps its clients think differently about their online presence and evolve their
strategies to take advantage of the new world of marketing communications – one where brands and consumers
engage in interactive and multi-directional conversations. 360i was named iMedia’s 2012 Agency of the Year and
Best Agency for Social. Ad Age also named 360i the #1 Standout Shop in its 2012 A-List issue and named it one
of the Best Places to Work in Marketing Media for two years running. Current clients include Oreo, Capital
One, Coca-Cola, Bravo and Diageo, among others. For more information, please visit blog.360i.com or follow us
on Twitter @360i.
Ways To Connect With 360i
360i.com/reports blog.360i.com twitter.com/360i editor@360i.com
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