WOMMA part 2: The power of community
Sharyn Smith, of Social Soup, returns with a final recap of this year’s WOMMA summit. She shares the best bits from day two and three, despite feeling the effects of a few too many glasses of moonshine the night before.
A room full of copycats
As the undisputed home of country music, Nashville is admittedly a unique place for a conference. The Country Music Hall of Fame next to my hotel holds Elvis’s gold guitar and Cadillac and there’s a whole street of honky tonk bars hosting many live bands every night. But, while the setting has been a hoot, it’s second to the insights gathered over the past week.
The headliner today was a Brit – Mark Earls. He wrote a famous book called The Herd, which is a must read for anyone who wants to understand what drives human behaviour. Mark starts off by telling us that marketers tend to conceptualise behaviour only at the individual level and forget social behaviour. He claims that the most important influence on individual behaviour is actually the behaviour of others – we are hardwired to be social creatures and mimic and copy what others do. (We act as a herd!).
He explained his thinking by getting everyone to stand up, find a partner and hold hands. (This was tough for the audience at 9am, day 2 into a conference!). He asked us to try and get our partner off the ground. After awkwardly standing there for a few seconds someone in the room started jumping with their partner and pretty soon the whole room was jumping with their partner. You guessed it…. we all acted like a herd.
Social TV
Speaking of herds, next up were some staggering statistics from Ed Keller, Keller Fay and Beth Rockwood about social TV. The group shared the result of a large-scale project designed to understand the social TV phenomenon. The research was conducted through an iPhone, where 1,700 people noted their social TV usage over seven days. The initiative resulted in over 27,500 entries and a collection of really interesting insights such as: 37% of people in the representative survey talked about something to do with TV (shows, characters etc.) across the week. The most talked about genres were Sci-fi, sports and reality TV. Most interestingly, the amount of social conversation whilst watching TV was about the same as when they weren’t watching TV.
Influence happens
The next session I attended was actually my own. Myself and Lars Groeger from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management spoke about how influence happens and why people recommend using influence. We took the audience through examples of how people in our campaigns discovered a new product and their journey to recommending and discussing the product across their networks. We called it the story of influence. Lars also looked at motivations for sharing around status, social and altruism. We finished off by urging the audience to treat influence as a much more complex system – it’s not a linear or even two way process, but more a message that gets bounced around between groups like a social pinball.
A crazy good campaign
The last session was a presentation around a highly successful campaign for Kelloggs after they found Pop Tarts were experiencing a big challenge – the need to reconnect with Teens.
The brand team decided to bring back an old campaign idea they knew worked with the audience called Crazy Good Summer, but gave it a new social twist. They identified music as their core platform and signed up a number of big artists. They then announced a special tour, however, kept the locations secret. Fans had to secure a place to the concert through their social media activity.
The next activity is where it gets more interesting. A lot of the buzz in the US at the moment is about real time advertising. (The best example to date of this is probably the Oreo cookie response to the lights going out at the Superbowl). So, over the lead-up to their concerts, Pop Tarts planned a number of real time social responses to further engage their audience. For example, they had a cartoonist ready to capture the reunion of ‘N Sync at the VMAs. Drew Hodges from Kelloggs said a lot of it was planned but made to appear random and gave the approach a name I hadn’t heard before… ‘plandom’. In addition to all this, they also took a large toaster across the country whilst on tour dropping into cities along the way and giving out samples and ‘concert cash’.
When it was time for the actual events Pop Tarts created a tattoo station, where fans could make their own sign for the artist. They were encouraged to share the content on social media for the chance to win backstage passes.
The overall results of the campaign speak for themselves. Pop Tarts connected with 1 million, highly engaged fans, reached a total of 40 million people and saw 534 million social media impressions. Most importantly, the brand is now in growth and no longer declining.
It was an excellent campaign that demonstrated the importance of delivering real value to consumers, which exceeded expectations and was genuine – all in real time. As Drew said: “Its no longer enough to tell people you are a great brand you have to demonstrate it”.
And on that note, I’ll end the highlights of a crazy good downtown Nashville conference.
Click here for a recap of day one of the WOMMA conference.
Sharyn Smith is the director and founder of The Influence Group, which includes Social Soup.
Please login with linkedin to comment
Latest News
Kantar: AVOD Subscribers Double In 12 Months
Study finds Aussies happy to watch ads on their streaming services. Or, are they just putting the kettle on more often?
Val Morgan Digital Exceeds All Campaign Uplift Benchmarks Via A 12-Month Brand Metrics Study
Val Morgan announces it has exceeded all its campaign benchmarks. Still can't get under an hour for the City To Surf.
Australian Retirement Trust launches monster of a campaign, by M&C Saatchi and Bohemia
Get offered a seat on the bus today? Knees creak like an old pirate's galleon? This retirement ad may be of interest.
Print Audits To Discontinue As Audited Media Association Of Australia Pivots To Support Influencer Marketing
Is it just B&T or are audits in the media industry suddenly becoming murkier than Roxy's husband's tax returns?
News Corp Australia Launches 2024 National Education Advocacy Initiative With Expanded Program
News Corp set to shine a light on the nation's schools in new series, giving illegal bikie gangs a well-earned rest.
Decoding The Consumer Maze: Urban List Report Reveals How Modern Shoppers Spiral From Discovery To Purchase
Latest report unravels a shopper's journey from the joy of discovery through to a nasty letter from a debt collector.
Cosmo Returns To Australia!
Ever get the feeling we've weirdly warped back to 1988 at the moment? Confirm it with the relaunch of Cosmo in print.
People & Culture Consultancy Human Kind Collective Launches To Plug HR Gap For Media Agencies
Does the very mention of HR have you struggling to remember last year's Christmas party? Get the sweats with this news.
‘We Want To Be A Growth Partner, Not Just A Media Buyer Or Someone That Makes Ads’ – Bohemia Boss On Agency’s Ambition
B&T's chatting with Bohemia boss Paul ‘Hutch’ Hutchison. Although we do think 'the dagger' a far superior nickname.
Initiative’s Geoff Clarke: ‘Youth Hits Targets With Enthusiasm, Experience Hits The Targets You Can’t See’
Initiative’s CCO Geoff Clarke on the value of experience in agencies. Not to mention quoting lines from Pulp Fiction.
The Iconic Teams Up With 5 Aussie Athletes For Latest Campaign
Fashion label brings in the athletes for new campaign, many of whom appear to have prepped with re-runs of Zoolander.
Seven West Media Secures New Director Of News & Current Affairs
After a tumultuous few weeks, Seven unveils director of news & current affairs. And B&T never uses tumultuous lightly.
Seven Network Expands NSW Sales Team With Two New Group Business Directors
Seven ramps up its NSW sales team. Both of whom are well versed in pronouncing Manu Feildel's croque-monsieur.
New PR Subscription Changing The Game For Aussie Start Ups
Need better PR? You can now buy it via a monthly subscription. Price does not include a fascinator or Moet piccolos.
Paul Kent At Centre Of Fresh Scandal After Alleged Street Brawl
Do you long for the fights, gouges & testicle grabs of footy's glory years? So too, it appears, does Paul Kent.
DiDi Taps Disney’s Tim Farmer For Head Of Brand Marketing Role
Disney's Tim Farmer shifts over to rideshare company DiDi. Taking with him his Donald Duck coffee mug & mouse ears.
As Sure As Night Becomes Day, The End Of Third-Party Cookies Has Been Delayed
The question remains: what will we see first? The end of cookies, alien invasion or Jesus's second coming?
Fast 10: Scoundrel’s Tim Bullock Explains What Shane Warne & Salt-N-Pepa Have In Common
It's a Fast 10 with Scoundrel's Tim Bullock. Make it sound even faster by sucking on helium while reading it.
Outbrain Snatches Chris Oxley From Foxtel Media
Foxtel's Chris Oxley shifts over to Outbrain, but not before having his press photo taken in the wilds of the Daintree.
oOh!media & POLY Partner With Greening Australia For OOH Awareness Campaign
Like to quell the road rage with super cute pics of fluffy marsupials? This outdoor's just the ticket.
Are Media Cares For The Carers In Its Latest Social Change Campaign
Are Media calls on the government to add super payments to carers' payments. Remains silent on AUKUS, however.
In A Fragmented World, Engagement Is King
Today, B&T TV's talking fragmentation & engagement. But not in a down-on-one-knee sense of the word.
Kyle Sandilands On Advertising: “We Want Return Business. It’s No Good Just Taking Someone’s Money”
Kyle & Jackie O finally arrive on Melbourne radio. As yet, no sign of the monotonous and bitter AFL-NRL debate.
Sydney Comedy Festival: Taking The City & Social Media By Storm
Sydney Comedy Festival 2024 is live and ready to rumble, showing the best of international and homegrown talent at a host of venues around town. As usual, it’s hot on the heels of its big sister, the giant that is the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, picking up some acts as they continue on their own […]
Global Marketers Descend For AANA’s RESET For Growth
The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has announced the final epic lineup of local and global marketing powerhouses for RESET for Growth 2024. Lead image: Josh Faulks, chief executive officer, AANA Back in 2000, a woman with no business experience opened her first juice bar in Adelaide. The idea was brilliantly simple: make healthy […]
Is Meta’s New AI Chatbot Too Left-Wing?
Meta's chatbot accused of being left-wing after being caught wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt & listening to Billy Bragg.
TV Ratings (23/04/2024): Why Did No One Tell Angela That Farmer Wants A Wife Is Set On A Farm?
As wonderful as this headline is, let's face it, we all know an 'Angela', don't we?
PubMatic Unveils New AI Partnership To Turn Social Posts Into Ads For Any Digital Channel
Here's some nifty tech for turning social posts into ads. Assuming said posts aren't one-star character assassinations.
Intuit Mailchimp Makes A Splash With Its First Australian Brand Campaign
Ever laugh along at a gag you didn't get so as not to appear dumb? Get ready for more feigning with this new work.
GumGum’s Rob Hall: Advertisers Can No Longer “Rely On Binary Descriptions” Of Consumers
If anyone's got their finger on adtech's pulse, it's Rob Hall. He also avoids using the good paper in the office printer
Mastercard Nabs Florencia Aimo From Marriott International
Marriott International's Florencia Aimo jumps from the hotel business to the exploitative credit card one.
Bastion Agency Appoints Cheuk Chiang As New ANZ CEO
Cheuk Chiang takes the reins over at Bastion Agency. But not the rains down in Africa.
Spotlight On Sponsors: Major Sponsorship Wins After A Disappointing Week In Sport
B&T continuing our deep dive into local sport sponsorships & that's despite not a single offer of a free ticket as yet.
Macca’s Marketing Director, Samantha McLeod On Big Mac Chant: “What Was Once Old Is Now Cool Again”
Macca's using the power of nostalgia in latest Big Mac campaign. Well, only for those who've ever eaten one sober.
World Premiere Of Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line To Open Sydney Film Festival 2024
Oil's biopic to open Sydney Film Festival. Here's hoping Molly Meldrum will take his pants down at the premiere.
Entries Are Now Open For The 2024 Brandies, IntelligenceBank’s Annual Brand Marketing Awards
The Brandies are, of course, a prestigious marketing gong and not the mystery tipple favoured by nannas everywhere.