Curious to discover what new innovative ideas will be powering the future of modern marketing, I, along with associate digital strategists Marc Phillips and Sona Martirosian attended Advertising Week. After listening to industry leaders from both the agencies and corporations share their favorite case studies from the past year and offer their current strategies, we walked away with an optimistic outlook for the year to come. Here are our top-5 takeaways from this interactive week of learning…
1. Embrace the Consumer/Producer:
Embrace disruption and honor consumers who are helping co-create your brand. Doing so can provide new opportunities for businesses. Brands that regularly interact with their influencers see exponentially better success metrics simply by collaborating with brand ambassadors.
2. Creative > Curation:
Many brands are altering their social strategies and Facebook calendars from three posts per week to one high-quality creative post per week along with one high-impact boosted post per month. To maximize ROI, companies are ultimately placing emphasis on quality over quantity.
3. What did I Miss?:
Shows and websites that use cleverly-written summary descriptions are winning on the social web. In an age of information overload, summarizing content keeps a large audience in the know without ostracizing apathetic readers. Examples include: Last Week Tonight, The Daily Show and Vox.com.
4. The Data Dilemma:
Data is good at predicting and reporting based on controlled factors, but it doesn’t account for real-time social trends. Brands have been burned for creating content calendars months in advance only to find out prior data isn’t appropriate to share` in real-time.
5. Stay Focused:
Instagram, SoundCloud and Vine are winning the day because they focus on one interest: pictures, music and videos respectively. Studies are finding that singularly focused niche social networks have more engaged followers.
The insights and knowledge gained at these sessions confirmed that digital best practices, along with the platforms they support, are constantly evolving. What’s “in” or “out” regarding the social web can change in an instant. It’s one of the many reasons the social web is an exciting and dynamic place for brands to engage.
