Sharon McLaughlin of McLaughlin Gibson Communications discusses how Black Bottle whisky used social media like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to promote various events and drive awareness of their brand. This included creating videos and images from festivals to share online and hosting competitions. Colin Walker of Everyone recommends planning events with social media in mind by developing pre-event content, optimizing the event for capturing social media content, and ensuring there is an online destination for post-event content and ongoing engagement. The case study provides examples of how two companies successfully used social media to promote their brands and events.

1. Socially Adept or Socially Inept?
How to Do, Use and Learn from
Social Media for business
Part 6: Case Study: Sharon McLaughlin (McLaughlin Gibson
Communications) and Colin Walker (Everyone)
A Social Media Week Glasgow event by Interactive Scotland and Creative Clyde
1

3. Sharon McLaughlin
McLaughlin Gibson Communications Ltd

4. t
In 2010 /2011 Black Bottle embarked on a repositioning
exercise. The main thrust of the communications strategy was
to create a diary of events which would support the brand
objectives:
• Engage with new and existing audiences in a creative way
• Drive consumer / trade awareness
• Use events diary to create interesting and engaging content for
both traditional and digital platforms

5. West end festival:
• Using various social media platforms to promote Black Bottle
activity during the festival.
• Created Black Bottle video to capture the Festival atmosphere.
Content posted on You Tube and Facebook
• Conversation encouraged via Facebook and twitter
• Images posted on Facebook
• Activity updates via twitter and Facebook
• Competitions via Facebook

6. Merchant City festival:
• Merchant City Festival Cocktail Challenge launched.
• Using various social media platforms to promote the event.
• Promo staff wearing Black Bottle Twitter “follow me” and
Facebook ”like me” t-shirts with QR Codes
• www.connosr.com – whiskypod
• Video content created

7. Halloween Club Night:
• Created an event via Black Bottle and promoting event via
Facebook
• Using twitter to promote the event and drive ticket sales
• Various competitions to win tickets
• Asking people to share the event with their friends via social
media to achieve a larger reach
• DJ’s promoting via their social media platforms
• Using video content to help create awareness and activity

8. Colin Walker
Technical Director - Everyone

9. Plan your event from the outset with Social Media in mind.
• Consider your audience geographic – large but scattered
audiences don’t make a busy event!
• Carefully plan your email campaign schedule and build interest
in the run up to the event.
• Develop competitions with event related prizes as pre-event
content e.g. tickets for the event or VIP access.
• Seed social networks with event related updates throughout the
campaign and beyond.

11. Develop Creative which harnesses social media
• Ensure Social Media is promoted throughout all marketing
material both offline and online. Form a unified approach
between all agencies involved.
• Build Event related Facebook apps that increase awareness.
The more Viral the better!
• Convert offline to online and in turn, turn online into data
capture, event recruitment or new ‘likes’.

13. Optimising your event for Social media content.
• Take Pictures / Videos
• Record Audio Snippets
• Gather Feedback / Quotes
• Gather user data at the event or provide tablet / kiosk input
stations.
• Develop Case Studies from user experiences.
• Promote social media destinations at the event.

15. Create an online destination for your event.
• Use Services such as Facebook, KILTR, Plancast or Eventbrite to
promote the event.
• Ensure destination sites allow for recruitment and post event
content, especially for recurring events.

17. Recruit Attendees online for your event and gauge
popularity throughout.
• Report trends and spikes, correlate traffic with activity. Match
‘post type’ to recruitment spike!
• Give organisers daily updates in case plan B is needed!

19. Make your content last long beyond the event! Ensure you
have a destination for post event content.
• Drip feed content throughout the forthcoming months and
develop themes or regulars.
• A quiet event can still provide weeks of valuable content.
• Thank attendees for attending with email campaigns or other
media.
• Encourage attendees to go online to access media from the event
and post images from the event.
• Promote the next event to the social media recruits you have just
gained!
• Start all over again!!

21. Socially Adept or Socially Inept?
How to Do, Use and Learn from
Social Media for business
To find out more about why the Creative Clyde business hub is a natural home for
media, technology and creatively-minded businesses, visit www.creativeclyde.com.
To watch a summary video from the event, listen to audio recordings, view more slidecasts, and find
out how Interactive Scotland can help your digital media business, visit: www.interactivescotland.com.
Audio, video and slidecast production by Creative Clyde and Interactive Scotland by creative content communications company Inner Ear: www.innerear.co.uk