Marketers on social media
Marketers and agencies are getting together at this week’s OMMA Global Conference on social media in New York, which should produce some fascinating insights into the extent to which brands are getting their heads round channels like Facebook and Twitter.
Take this comment from Rob Master, Unilever’s North American media director. Two years ago he was asked how social media could be used to help market unsexy brands like Hellmann’s Mayonnaise and Lipton Tea? He hadn’t a clue, he admits. Now he wonders how he could have been so unimaginative. “We’ve gotten a lot more focused and a better understanding of where the consumer is going,” he says. Social media plays “a role underneath everything we’re doing.”
According to Master, Unilever has invested heavily in raising the company’s understanding of social media, including a drive to educate marketing staff on using Twitter.
Ford’s Scott Monty has gained a reputation for some savvy thinking about social media. At the conference he talked about how Ford set out to “humanise” the brand. “It was about how to connect people with Ford. The common elements of a great company are great products and leadership to drive the vision forward — sticking with a plan while being flexible. We applied that to social media strategy, creating a broad vision statement that would bring us forward, even without knowing what the future would hold.”
Social media isn’t like other forms of advertising, Monty stressed. You don’t just show up at a party, hand round some business cards and leave. You have to invest some time and cultivate relationships.
More on Monty’s remarks here. I’ll flag up more comments from the conference as they come.
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