[Bookmarks] The secret to digital success

The most important part of a digital campaign, and as digital agencies we need to be cognisant of this, is human behaviour. Not just in digital spaces but all-encompassing. This is according to Etiket's Executive Creative Director, Ricardo Rocha. Their campaign for the Samsung S5 has earned them a finalist place - their first - in the IAB Bookmark Awards tomorrow evening.

The three 'Ps'

"When we sat down to conceptualise the campaign, we started off with an understanding of what we call humankind, which has three parts: People, purpose and participation", explains Rocha.

"'People' is about a human insight gained from human behaviour. For this campaign, that behaviour was that there is a very specific way of opening the screen of the S5 and people lie to try and break that code. That is the human behaviour. We combined this with what the product stands for (purpose) and build the campaign around this."

The beauty of doing this means that human insight is the core of your campaign. It helps to keep it simple, because too often we make things too complicated, he says.

Engagement

Brands do not engage with people; people engage with people around brands. Understanding this was the key to the campaign's success: "The social media component of the campaign connecting people to people around the brand. We started the conversation but it was the people that pushed it, not the brand. In other words, participation," he says.

Hellocomputer sets out Key Performance Indicators (KPI) with their clients to benchmark their campaigns and products successes against. Therefore, there are a number of factors that when combined, equate to a success measure, explains Executive Creative Director, Simon Spreckley.

"That's the science. At Hellocomputer, we pride ourselves on creative storytelling and moving people, but we always underpin that with strong strategic insights around the brand and people's behaviour. If we can create stuff that solves a business problem with a strong creative layer that is meaningful and affects change in someone's life... then we consider that a success."

Going social

For example, with Social Feed, they observed that more and more brands were investing larger portions of their marketing budgets in advertising on social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, with people also spending a lot of time on those platforms sharing content.

He explains that Social Feed is a new media platform for good, where marketing spend goes towards feeding hungry kids instead of the usual publishing channels. "So now there's a way to deliver on the brand's marketing objectives and at the same time empower all people sharing content to affect real change, giving them control over what advertising they're putting on their personal pages." He adds that when they approached Facebook with the idea and they turned them away, they knew they were onto something.

To date, Social Feed has received exposure across multiple channels, even getting a mention in Parliament. But, he says, "At the end of the day we've given people the chance to do good by simply doing what they do anyway, share content. While we're holding thumbs for our Bookmarks finalists, the biggest measure of success won't be the number of awards we win but rather the number of hungry kids we feed."

Big data

To uncover the secret to digital success, you first have to interpret what digital success is. A few years ago, it was the number of Facebook fans a brand had, then engagement score was the Holy Grail. Today, it is big data, says Brian Carter, Executive Creative director, Liquorice.

The fact is that you'll never convert users to fans or get them to engage if you don't have good content, he says. "For many marketers, it's an inconvenient truth, because great content requires hard work and innovative ideas. Many people opt for the quick fix to get numbers. They pay for views, fans, clicks - but you simply can't buy loyalty. There's no price tag when it comes to making a consumer feel an emotional connection to your brand."

This does not mean he is against media spend. "Don't get me wrong. Increase your media spend. Get as many relevant people as you can to see your content."

But he says to make sure that once you have their attention, you have something memorable to tell them. "It all starts with knowing your audience. Create content that your audience will relate to, then select the right channels to distribute that content. These days, you can get very specific with targeting. As a result, your Return On Investment (ROI) on media spend should be really high... that's if your content is great.

The Bookmark Awards take place in Johannesburg on Thursday, 19 February. Click here for more on the Bookmarks.