YOU DON’T NEED A SOCIAL
MEDIA STRATEGY

THIS DECK WAS PRESENTED AT
THE 140 CHARACTERS CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON DC ON 6/17/10. IT WAS WRITTEN FOR A TEN-MINUTE “LIGHTNING TALK” FORMAT. IT WAS CREATED IN RESPONSE TO ABOUT MYRIAD PUNDITS CONTINUING TO THIS GUSH OVER SOCIAL MEDIA AS A SUPER-SPECIAL SPECIALTY AREA. PRESO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS FAR PAST THE EXPERIMENTATION AND “SHINY NEW OBJECT” PHASES. TIME TO STOP GUSHING, START THINKING ABOUT INTEGRATION, AND START SHOWING RESULTS. 2

I’m an American, but work
in Vancouver, so here’s a shout-out to all the Canadians in the audience at #140conf! IM IN YER COUNTREE, STEELIN UR HELTHCAREZ 3

I’m an ad guy, a
marketer, a suit — but also a mega-nerd, one of the first bloggers (see above) and podcasters. I’ve seen the web move from experimental to commercial to search to social. i.e., I’m not predisposed to either social or traditional media. I’m fortunate that I’ve been able to explore marketing innovations to see which trends and tools have legs — or don’t — for my clients. 4

2004-2009 WAS A RIOT, AN
EXPERIMENT, A FUN CULTURAL EXPERIENCE. IT’S BEEN A WE MARVELLED AS OUR TWEETS SCROLLED BY AT SXSW. FUN FIVE WE SIGNED UP FOR JAIKU, POWNCE YEARS, AND TWITTER. HASN’T IT? USTREAM, KYTE AND JUSTIN.TV. SNAPVINE, TROTTR AND UTTERLI. IN SHORT, WE TRIED EVERYTHING. 5

In the early days of
the social web, we joined Flickr meetups… 6

We attended Ignite, TechLive, Facebook
Developer Garages. Wrote blog posts in podcasting lounges at social media conferences. 7

We marvelled at (and endlessly
played) the “Did You Know” video. 8

And we watched as Justine
talked about her iPhone bill from AT&T. 9

WE WATCHED OPRAH, ASHTON, LARRY
KING AND CNN POUNCE ON TWITTER. WE STOPPED RANTING THAT IT WAS “ABOUT A DIALOGUE” AND STARTED TALKING ABOUT CO- CREATION, CROWDSOURCING AND UNPAID ARMIES. AND THEN PEOPLE STARTED TALKING ABOUT THE NEED FOR A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY. 10

WE DON’T NEED NO STEENKING
SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY. 11

THAT’S LIKE A CELL PHONE
STRATEGY. 12

A FREEWAY
STRATEGY.
13

BECAUSE SOCIAL AIN’T NO BOLT-ON
PUBLISHING PLATFORM. 14

AND IF YOU’RE IN MKTG/PR,
15

SOCIAL SHOULD BE WOVEN INTO
EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. 16

My job is to OUR
GOALS: think past mere communication. To get my INTERACT. clients’ customers to interact with our SHARE. content. To share it with their friends. To get them off GET OFF their asses and get them to DO something. Join a loyalty club. YOUR ASS. Show up at a company event. Choose us at retail. 17

IN OTHER WORDS: ENGAGEMENT. INFLUENCE.
ACTIVATION. Rather than a “social media strategy,” we need an Engagement Strategy. An Influence Strategy. An Activation Strategy. Focused around our clients’ end business goals, not media specialties! Srsly. 18

REIMAGINING OUR APPROACH STUDY/ PLAN
LISTEN PUBLISH ENGAGE INFLUENCE ACTIVATE Too many companies approach social from a Publishing mindset. We recommend rethinking marketing using a MIX of traditional and social, in the context of Engagement, Influence & Activation. An activated customer spends more, shares more and cares more. It’s a harder creative challenge but a better one. CREATIVE CHALLENGE REVENUE POTENTIAL

36,053 PEOPLE WHO COMMITTED TO
LEAVING FACEBOOK ON “QUIT FACEBOOK DAY” (MAY 31) NEW USERS WHO JOINED THAT DAY ANYWAY 794,000 (GIVE OR TAKE A FEW THOUSAND) HUMOROUS ASIDE: On May 31, 2010, 36,000 people were activated to quit Facebook. Ironically, that same day, another 794,000 were activated to join Facebook anyway. 20

We’ve seen incredible success DDB
IS for our clients using a blend of traditional and social media. FOCUSING EXAMPLE: DDB Canada was asked to build a ON A traditional media campaign for Knorr’s Sidekicks® BLENDED low-sodium packaged meal product. We created a APPROACH character, Salty, who was no longer needed at the dinner table. 21

Once we had started the
conversation through traditional media, we then brought Salty to life through social. 22

Our Radar DDB Cultivation Team
engaged with consumers in character, on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and elsewhere. Visitors were encouraged (and activated) to participate with Salty through activities like photo contests. 23

Through the social sites, Salty
could come to life and engage with consumers, who would use their influence to forward, fan and like him. 24

Even teenagers surfing ChatRoulette were
stunned to find they were chatting with salt and pepper shakers, instead of some random shirtless dude. Surprise! 25

We got traditional press as
well as lots of blogger pickup, and our cultivation team engaged with these bloggers to stretch our reach and influence further. Let’s take a look at another traditional commercial that followed after the initial Salty creative.

We encouraged user-generated content. Consumers
started uploading videos of their kids interacting with the salt and pepper shakers, some getting thousands of views.

People enthusiastically submitted photos in
our photo contests. And then shared those photos with friends.

They even put together photo
shoots featuring their culinary dishes, along with Salty and Pep.

And pasta art submissions prove
that activation CAN defeat time starvation! So how did the campaign do?

6,000 FACEBOOK FANS 400,000+ VIDEO
VIEWS 1,000 TWITTER FOLLOWERS 18,000 SALTY & PEP SHAKERS WE MOVED SOLD OUT IN FIRST 25 DAYS THE NEEDLE. HIGHEST WEBSITE TRAFFIC EVER SIDEKICKS SALES ROSE BY 10% SIDEKICKS SURPASSED UNCLE BEN’S AS #1 BRAND IN MEAL ACCOMPANIMENTS 31

BRANDED SITE EXTERNAL MKTG-MANAGED PRESENCE
EXTERNAL THIRD-PARTY SITE Integrated Traditional/Social Marketing Mix TRADITIONAL MEDIA/PR TOPICAL COMMUNITIES: IP, HELPFUL TIPS D E T E R M I N AT I O N E V A L U A T I O N / C O M P A R I S O N A W A R E N E S S PRODUCT LAUNCH MICROSITE P U R C H A S E S T O R Y T E L L I N HELPFUL G RECIPE L O Y A L T Y SEO RESOURCES EVENTS DOT-COM SITE S COMMENTS COMPANY BLOG (IP) ONLINE SAMPLING FACEBOOK E-COMMERCE FAN PAGE N E E D PARTNER ONLINE YOUTUBE CHANNEL: STORYTELLING, IP PRINT EXTERNAL BLOGS: IP, TIPS OUTDOOR PR SAMPLING PGMS Blended, integrated efforts WORK. It takes a lot more effort, cost and brand interactions to move consumers through the funnel these days. So why not RETAIL grease the skids using a mix of traditional and social content? 32

SUMMARY
POINTS
33

PROPONENTS: WE NEED TO TALK
MORE ABOUT END BUSINESS GOALS THAN SOCIAL MEDIA 34

COMMUNICATORS: PLAN YOUR TRADITIONAL AND
SOCIAL TOGETHER Too many marketers are looking at social as an add-on. They hire social media enthusiasts with no traditional experience to handle their social efforts, resulting in marginal market response. Your traditional and social media efforts should be planned together. By experienced strategists. Using impactful creative work. 35

SO USE TRADITIONAL TO START
AND/OR SUPERCHARGE A SOCIAL CONVERSATION 36

AND USE SOCIAL TO REVERBERATE
AND AMPLIFY MARKET IMPACT WHEN THE CAMPAIGN IS NO LONGER RUNNING. 37

BECAUSE STRONG CREATIVE, INTEGRATED ACROSS
BOTH TRADITIONAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA, WILL MOVE THE NEEDLE. 38

AND THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS
A GOOD STRATEGY. 39

MUCHAS GRACIAS. ERIC WEAVER DDB
CANADA @WEAVE +1 604 640 4350