Largely the show was geared up for large companies with marketing departments, who wish to explore and learn new ideas. That’s not to say there were not nuggets of interest and new things to learn.
Despite at some times unbearable heat, Adam and I managed three talks and a look around the stands.
The most interesting talk was by Amelia Torode, Partner and Head of Digital Strategy at VCCP. Amelia discussed the “Compare The Meerkat” campaign. Amelia highlighted the big change from traditional Ad campaigns where it was important to make them ‘sticky’ to remain in the consciousness of the audience, now a successful social media campaign is about ‘Spreadability’.
Love or hate Aleksandr Orlov, follow him on twitter or be his friend on Facebook. The core idea and strong narrative spread across platforms, was key to the success and charm of the campaign. One problem was due to issues with measurability. I have a good guess that many agencies and clients have similar issues with social marketing.
Although Compare the Market had measurable success, with its positioning in the market and many other benefits i.e. increased sales, increased traffic and reduction of costs etc. There is little research and evidence that consumers engaging with social media campaigns will necessarily engage with the product. Will being friends with Aleksander make you a customer of Compare the Market?
Amelia will be starting a research project with the IAB. I will be very interested in the results, as will many others.
There was a general consensus throughout the talks, that good conversations start with questions, so in the words of Adam “ Interesting! How you can’t kill the meerket? What could be the end strategy?
