YOU DON T NEED A
SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY ERIC WEAVER • @WEAVE • #140CONF LA

Hi, my name is Eric
and I am an advertiser. (“Hi, Eric.”) I love this business. I really do. I freaking love it. Well — maybe not some intrusive ad techniques. But I love the craft – the wonderful, Madmenny creative craft of advertising.

Probably because, back when I
was a kid in the 1960s, I used to love the show Bewitched. Besides my crush on Elizabeth Montgomery, I loved that ad execs Larry Tate and Darren Stephens used art, clever copy, acting, photography and sometimes even magic to persuade, educate and sell. And at the end of every meeting, they had BOURBON! AWESOME! “Mommy, that s the job I want!!”

I m also old enough
to have been online since 1977 - before the dawn of the social web. This is my blog, which back in 1995 we called a “Personal Web Site.” That s me, 15 years and, oh, 30 pounds ago, sharing photos, opinions and helpful tips. And on my site, people could stop by and leave their names and comments on something we called a “Guest Book.” The web WAS social, and it was a place free of advertising.

Advertisers saw an opportunity to
reach people in social venues, and initially approached them the same way they approached everything else: with a publishing 150 YEARS OF INERTIA mindset. And why not? Our profession has 150 years of inertia behind it. We re still paid and rewarded based on our ability to persuade, educate and sell.

This publishing mindset created a
massive backlash from social media gurus, social media ninjas, jedi masters, senseis, rockstars — 16,000 self- “Join the proclaimed gurus as of conversation!” “Marketers need last year, just on Twitter. training pants!” They ve largely scolded “Advertisers “It s about a only think in business owners and dialogue!” terms of marketers with campaigns.” dismissive statements like these, i.e., “new is good, old is stupid.” Many of them talk about marketing yet have NO marketing experience whatsoever. #ironic

THE LATEST SCOLDING: “YOU NEED
A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY!”

WE DON T NEED NO
STEENKEENG SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

THAT S LIKE A CELL
PHONE STRATEGY.

OR A FREEWAY STRATEGY.

THAT S A FOCUS ON
THE TOOL,

RATHER
THAN THE
BUSINESS
OBJECTIVE.

BOTH MARKETERS & “GURUS” HAVE
TO STOP PLANNING SOCIAL MEDIA IN A VACUUM,

INDEPENDENTLY
OF TRADITIONAL
MARKETING
PROGRAMS,

LIKE SOME KIND OF BOLT-ON
PUBLISHING PLATFORM,

BECAUSE THAT
REDUCES ITS
POWAH.

BOTH TRADITIONAL AND SOCIAL HAVE
THE SAME END GOALS…

INTERACT. We want SHARE. people
to interact with our content. To share it GET OFF with friends. To get up and take YOUR ASS. action, to DO something.

IN OTHER WORDS: ENGAGEMENT. INFLUENCE.
ACTIVATION.

MARKETERS MUST BREAK OUT OF
THE PUBLISHING MINDSET Marketers often stop at the Publishing step, and frequently leave out Study and even Listen. How much more could we accomplish if aimed beyond? STUDY LISTEN PUBLISH ENGAGE INFLUENCE ACTIVATE STEP 3: STEP 1: STEP 4: We STEP 5: Even STEP 6: Our NOW you Study the don t just better if we can ultimate goal STEP 2: can publish competition, want eyeballs inspire faving, is activation: Listen for what the right the tools & and reach. sharing, liking, advocacy, your market content, the trends. Content fanning, loyalty, wants to hear. cost- should be forwarding. preference. effectively. engaging, interactive. Activation is a greater CREATIVE CHALLENGE It’s also a greater REVENUE OPPORTUNITY

TO ACHIEVE ACTIVATION, NO MATTER
WHAT THE MEDIA, THERE HAS TO BE A IDEA THAT MOVES YOU.

Research done by Nobel Laureate
Daniel Kahneman shows that we have two systems for making decisions: rational processing & emotional processing. DECISION-MAKING The problem is that emotions are easy to process rapidly, and on IS 95% EMOTIONAL, parallel paths. Emotions are effortless. 5% RATIONAL. But rational thinking is single-threaded, takes effort, and is slow to process. So guess what? 95% of our decision making is based on emotions! flickr.com/photos/ myklroventine

CREATE AN IDEA TO EMOTIONALLY
MOVE PEOPLE …OVER RICE? UNILEVER CPG PRODUCT WITH A VERY RATIONAL HEALTH BENEFIT SIDEKICKS MARKET SHARE WAS DECLINING DUE TO INCREASED COMPETITION AND A PERCEIVED HIGH SALT CONTENT COULD 25% LESS SODIUM BE ANY LESS INTERESTING?

ENTER SALTY: A CREATIVE HOOK
WITH STRONG EMOTIONAL & SOCIAL APPEAL

WE STARTED THE CONVERSATION WITH
TRADITIONAL BROADCAST

AND THEN TOOK SALTY TO
PRINT, DIRECT, ONLINE AND RETAIL

In addition to the traditional
media, our DDB social media team came up with a plan to give Salty a social media stage for his life after being snubbed. We engaged with people directly through various social channels in the “voice” of Salty, to raise brand awareness and engage users, influence behavior and activate them to create content.

ENGAGEMENT. Our team posted photos
of Salty and Pep on hikes and in unexpected places. People immediately began engaging with Salty and Pep online.

We also created three film-quality
spots for YouTube distribution only, which continued the story of Salty s Life away from the dinner table. Poor little Salty couldn t catch a break anywhere. This let us continue the story after the original broadcast campaign concluded and was pulled.

Our Radar DDB team even
had Salty and Pep showing up in unexpected places like creepy webcam site ChatRoulette. Instead of some shirtless dude with a chinstrap, people connected with a salt and pepper shaker. Surprise!

INFLUENCE. Immediately, Salty came to
the attention of both the traditional press (Creativity, Communication Arts, Strategy, Financial Post) as well as numerous bloggers, who talked about how Salty corresponded with them, in this case, with a link to his dating adventures. Let s see how that went.

The response has been incredible.
We ve inspired and incented people to create and submit their own content… receiving responses like this.

Some who acquired the shakers
shot and uploaded their own YouTube videos — some with thousands of views.

ACTIVATION. People staged their own
photo shoots and posted to Salty s Facebook channel.

Some people even took time
out of their busy days to create pasta art. Pasta art around a brand icon. Think about that.

6000 FACEBOOK FANS – 1
MONTH 375,000 VIDEO IMPRESSIONS IN FIRST 30 DAYS; TOTAL MEDIA COST: $0 SO DID IT 20,000 SALTY & PEP SHAKERS WORK? OUR SOLD OUT IN FIRST 25 DAYS RESULTS FOR HIGHEST WEBSITE TRAFFIC EVER KNORR UNIT SALES ROSE BY 24% OVER PREVIOUS YEAR SIDEKICKS SURPASSED UNCLE BEN S AS #1 BRAND IN THE CATEGORY

WHAT RESULTS WOULD WE HAVE
SEEN IF WE D ONLY PLANNED SOME SOCIAL MEDIA TACTICS? OR JUST A COMMERCIAL?

AND WHAT IF WE HAD
NO EMOTIONAL HOOK?

SO, NO, YOU DON T
NEED A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY. YOU NEED AN ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY. AN INFLUENCE STRATEGY. OR AN ACTIVATION STRATEGY. WHATEVER THE MEDIA.

AN EMOTIONALLY APPEALING IDEA +
A MEDIA-AGNOSTIC APPROACH = ENGAGEMENT, INFLUENCE AND ACTIVATION ACROSS ALL MEDIA

SOCIAL MEDIA PROPONENTS: LET S
STOP TALKING ABOUT THE TOOL AND START TALKING END BUSINESS GOALS

MARKETERS: USE TRADITIONAL TO START
AND/OR SUPERCHARGE A SOCIAL CONVERSATION USE SOCIAL TO REVERBERATE AND AMPLIFY THAT MARKET IMPACT WHEN TRADITIONAL IS OFF-AIR

BECAUSE A STRONG IDEA WITH
EMOTIONAL APPEAL, INTEGRATED ACROSS ALL MEDIA, WILL MOVE THE NEEDLE.

AND THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS
A GOOD STRATEGY.

I m employed by DDB
Canada, which has been named Strategy Magazine s Agency of the Year – 5 of last 10 years – that s hot. DDB CANADA Our Vancouver office includes 20 CREATES full-time social media moderators, cultivators and specialists. ACTIVATION. Our specialties: TRADITIONAL. DIGITAL. MOBILE. SOCIAL. USER-GENERATED. AND STUNTS.

SALTY CRIES WHEN YOU WORK
WITH OTHER AGENCIES. Don t be mean. Call us instead. Eric Weaver, DDB Canada +1 604 640 4350 Engagement, influence & activation can be found at ddbcanada.com