Last week I (Kirsty, Marketing exec) attended the Marketing Week Live event at Olympia which consisted of insightful presentations, informative talks, hundreds of stands and, of course, freebies!
The event ran Wednesday and Thursday (although the name would lead you to believe it was on all week) and I was keen to learn as much as I could in those two days. With talks from Ricc Webb, Mischief Maker (Yes, that is his real job title) at Microsoft Mobile and Amy Nicholson from StickyContent being my highlights. Ricc has been responsible for the creation of great campaigns, the Nokia spacemen being my favourite, which went viral in May this year. Samsung had Heathrow Terminal 5 renamed to Terminal Galaxy S5 and Ricc was quick in creating the idea of sending himself and some Microsoft bloggers into the airport for this little stunt dressed as astronauts. ‘This isn’t the Galaxy we’re looking for’ swept social media and showed the personality of Nokia (now Microsoft Mobile).
Ricc’s top tips for ensuring social media campaigns are a success;
- Know the personality of your company- Microsoft aims to be ‘fun, witty and intelligent’. Know what you want to be and be consistent!
- Planning- make sure all necessary departments are aware of what is going on and if needed, have a team ready to respond to comments/tweets- these are often called social media war rooms.
- Advocacy works better than buying opinions- get people involved and value their opinions.
- Measure everything so you can see what works and what doesn’t, then actually use that information!!
The two days were hugely insightful and I will encourage all marketers to attend next year, I certainly will be.
For those of you who love a good marketing gimmick, here is a spoof video Nandos (the chicken restaurant) did of a Santam advert which not only went viral, but actually led to something great. Take a look at the full story here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xjQAYZCQAc
