Washing your Smalls with Social Media

Seth Godwin once said “99% of the time, in my experience, the hard part about creativity isn’t coming up with something no one has ever thought of before. The hard part is actually executing the thing you’ve thought of” and that’s the key to being creative with social media…

After attending a recent conference with many leading agencies I am convinced that nobody truly understands or knows what to do with social media. Client’s increasingly request ‘A social media site’ because they want to be seen on getting on the bandwagon but not enough questions are asked or research is undertaken by the clients before the brief is sent out, surely the obvious answer is to ask ‘WHY’. I don’t think of myself as an expert in Social Media but I have had enough experience both personally and professionally to help guide clients through the minefield and help them leverage the mediums involved.

Social media assists and informs the creative and marketing process but clients need to understand why and how!! We advise our clients that active listening, learning and ongoing dialogue with the consumer actively encourages consumers to become engaged and entrenched with brands, by being creative, social media allows brands to communicate directly to it’s audience without having to go through a third party. However the key to the dialogue and the conversation is the idea, a great idea.

Without the idea, social media as an application becomes useless. As an agency it is our job to educate and inform clients that the idea, is the key driver in making social media successful for brands. More importantly when social media is used it is important that brands understand the importance of transparency and honesty with the consumer. So clients must always ask:

• What is the issue / problem?
• Is Social media the appropriate channel to correct these issues?
• What is the idea?
• How will we communicate and create dialogue via the idea?
• How we will we respond effectively with our consumers day in day out?
• How do we measure a successful social media?

The importance of creative Lets take a hypothetical brand, washing powder for example!! and lets create a social media site that engages an audience to create dialogue with it’s brand. First and foremost you need common sense. No one in his or her right mind is going to be directed online to have a conversation on how much whiter you smalls are after you pulled them from the washing machine, no matter how powerful the brand. So common sense is paramount, but by using everyday insight in understanding the mundane day to day of washing smalls you can develop an idea that works perfectly for its audience. So, we have the product and the insight, all we need now is the idea.

Which can lead to a conversation which will drip feed unknowing insights to the brand which inturn can be used to better their product and keep them intouch with consumers needs and wants. By being creative, agencies have to understand that it is the underlying idea that creates the dialogue, social media just becomes the avenue in which consumers can debate. But what is it they need to debate and why? So here is an idea Folk’s creative director came up with after two many sherbets How about a ‘national wash your own smalls day’.

Stemmed from a great idea, which has legs across all media disciplines, you create a campaign that relates to the target audience which is humorous and light hearted but also creates an aspect which is in touch with everyday consumers. The power of social media now comes into action You run an app on Facebook on how the fact that men’s failure to wipe their backsides properly is resulting in women losing the will to live and resulted in women on masse lobbying government, via the branded social media app to ensure that a ‘wash your own smalls day’ becomes a reality.

As ridiculous as it may seem the idea is key to the success of the campaign and by understanding the needs of the user and being sympathetic to issues as well as being lighthearted you can always create something that is fun, dynamic engaging and allows the creative idea to manifest itself into something incredibly powerful. Social media is just the best application to deliver this idea. So in this order get the idea and then use social media to become the facilitator of that idea. If any washing powder brands want to take me up on my idea you can call me anytime although I reserve the right to wash your smalls