Marketing Briefing: Marketers seek help with organic, social personas amid ‘reinvigorated interest in organic content’
For years, marketers were laser-focused on their paid media strategies for social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. What started as a playbook from direct-to-consumer brands looking to quickly acquire new customers and continue to scale became a standard practice for major marketers.
Of course, the paid media landscape has dramatically changed in recent years with the rise of TikTok, two years of Apple’s ATT and other various privacy shifts. Those changes are coupled with a difficult economy that has marketers looking to cut costs where they can. It’s no surprise then that marketers have expanded their aperture to focus not only on paid media but also to revamp their organic strategies, according to agency execs, who say that marketers are asking more questions about organic now.
“Facebook and Instagram were dominant, but TikTok reignited the fire of organic content,” said Brendan Gahan, chief social officer and partner at Mekanism. “They reinvigorated interest in organic content. Organic reach was/is fairly limited on Facebook and Instagram. Now with TikTok (and the knock-on effect of other platforms running to adopt similar formats) organic reach has become increasingly important again.”
Marketers who were once enamored with the potential for a super personalized paid media strategy are the same ones now enamored with the power of organic social and brands exploding on TikTok, according to marketers and agency execs. At the same time, those execs are being told to spend less on paid media now as they deal with budget cuts due to the economy.
“Over the last year, I’ve had several CMOs say to me, ‘I feel like our marketing strategy is our media strategy and I know that’s not right,’” said Amy Worley, VMLY&R’s global chief connections officer. “[They’re asking] how they can have a marketing strategy that’s bigger than their media plan. They’re thinking about paid, earned, shared, owned and all the places we could be. Organic social is part of that.”
Worley continued, “Marketers are being challenged to do more with less. They realize then that they’re too reliant on paid media.”
The renewed focus on organic has some brands going back to basics and asking agencies to help them suss out what their social personas should be now. Some agency execs say that the ask for help with social personas has been part of recent pitches.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a lot of pitches but it’s certainly more than before,” said Mona Gonzalez, Pereira & O’Dell’s chief growth officer. “Mostly because they need a strong organic content strategy because paid is getting less effective. I haven’t heard any new or existing clients say ‘social persona’ but it’s just another way to say social brand guidelines.”
Grant Ogburn, U.S. chief growth officer of UM, said he has also seen asks for social persona help from marketers. “How we view it is like a fictional representation of a brand’s target audience,” said Ogburn. “Some of the best examples are the fast-food brands on social: humorous, witty, on the pulse of what’s happening in culture. …read more
Source:: Digiday
