Commentary

Social Analytics: A New Blueprint for Ad Campaigns

Many ad agencies are still in an experimental, see-what-sticks stage with creative designed for social channels -- mostly because brands are only now asking them to explore social media. By and large, the campaigns we're seeing are meant to make a big splash, with millions being spent in the hopes of generating at least some short-term buzz that might lead to a measured sales boost. 

This approach has worked for some brands, but the returns can be fleeting. The greater challenge -- and reward -- is figuring out how to create a social campaign that provides long-term value even when a campaign inevitably loses momentum. So that even when the cannonball splash of the latest marketing message is reduced to an indiscernible ripple, the relationship with consumers can keep on growing, along with brand affinity.

Why is it so important to ensure brand affinity builds? Because it offers more value to a brand. Brand affinity helps to hasten consumer loyalty toward new products, heighten the adoption rate, and shorten the sales cycle. And by enhancing their line extensions, brands can grow their business.

Building brand affinity isn't easy, but delivering longer-term brand benefits and enduring business value is what sets agencies apart. To grow brand affinity and strengthen consumer relationships, more agencies are turning to social media analytics for insight or "social intelligence." Progressive shops view social analytics as a practice, not just a tool. And the emergence of pure-plays in this area is evidence of the growing importance of social media analytics in advertising and marketing.

TBWA/Chiat/Day is one agency that recognized early the value of social intelligence derived from social analytics. By applying this insight into its "We're All Fans" campaign for The Recording Academy's 2010 Grammy Awards, TBWA/Chiat/Day was able to tap into and heighten the audience's passion (affinity) for the 20 featured Grammy-nominated artists (brands).  
The multimedia campaign included portraits of the artists composed entirely of real-time, fan-generated content from leading social sites. The agency also launched the FanBuzz Visualizer -- a real-time data visualization tool -- served as a "barometer of fandom" online. TBWA/Chiat/Day relied on sophisticated social analytics to hone in on data that truly represented the active fan base online, helping to foster a sense of community and motivating fans to generate online conversations in support of the artists.

Another example of a social campaign that leverages the deep passion an audience already feels for a brand is the "DEWmocracy" effort for PepsiCo's Mountain Dew soda. The campaign -- which allows brand loyalists to pick new Mountain Dew flavors -- began a few years ago as an online game, but incorporated social in 2009. One way Mountain Dew has kept the audience talking about their flavor pick is "White Out," an active Facebook fan page. Now, with its "Show Your Love for Dew" campaign, Mountain Dew is ratcheting up audience engagement even further by asking them to submit photos and videos in support of limited-time flavors, including White Out. So far, the response has been impressive, and what Mountain Dew is learning about its fan base is invaluable.

Agencies that rely on social intelligence and understand the importance of maximizing brand affinity are ultimately empowering their clients to become masterful "conversation architects." They're using social analytics as a new blueprint to build meaningful online conversations about their brands, and to recognize the structure and dynamics of a social conversation that can generate long-term value.  Following are four ways to help clients relate better to customers and establish leadership in the online conversations taking place about their brands:

 

  1. Know your audience. Brand affinity is when a consumer has a strong, personal, even emotional, connection with brand. This is why it's critical to know your audience, so you can relate to them better, understand the social content that resonates and any relevant action they've taken because of it.
  2. Engage in a meaningful way. Social intelligence allows agencies to better advise their clients. Businesses will learn what's required to create engaging customer experiences (leading to brand affinity) that will remain relevant in a highly dynamic social environment and positively impact bottom-line results.
  3. Learn customer insights related to purchase path. Explore paths to purchase and decision-making, drivers and influencers, as well as identifying any pertinent media-lifestyle connections.
  4. Use insight for forecasting. The social intelligence gained by listening and engaging in social channels, and collecting and analyzing quality data, should be used to predict with some measure of certainty how media and messages will influence the way people feel and act. This knowledge will help you speed the expansion of the community of loyal followers of your brand.


By underscoring the value that exists and can be harnessed beyond the last touch point, agencies can help brands make informed - and better -- decisions when developing marketing and media plans. And with the social intelligence gleaned from analytics, agencies can create compelling social campaigns with "stickiness" that keeps consumers engaged and grows brand affinity.

Brands can still pursue big-splash social campaigns, but as conversational architects who understand what motivates audiences to engage and then share information with others, they'll be able to apply that learning to traditional campaigns and to overall brand stewardship.

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