Why Creative Content is Equally Imperative on Social Media

If there was once a time when you enjoyed a piece of art (advertisement) on any traditional medium and stopped to digest the content for about 30 secs, you just made that advertisers day! However, in today’s fast moving world of Social Media, content is spread across multiple mediums on the digital spectrum and the only time span you have, with a potential consumer to engage with, is about 2-3 secs. And if you are a brand, those precious seconds will either make or break what you are trying to convey.

Content can come in multiple forms on Social Media, such as textual updates or tweets, updates with images, updates with videos, infographics on LinkedIn, 15 secs Instagram videos or even 6 sec Vine videos and much more.

There are so many brilliant platforms that display your content but what and how you display it makes a big difference to earn that eyeball. But the big question is : do we need to make every piece of content equally creative?

The answer is a big fat YES! Sometimes, we tend to get into a comfort zone with the kind of content being generated and before you realize it, the engagement levels drop.

Metaphorically, a consumer’s memory is like a gold fish because there is so much of content to consume and if you don’t strike the right chord, they will swim away to other interesting waters. Sometimes, the understanding of your audience maybe far from reality, or the content consumption pattern might be completely different from traditional mediums for your audience on the digital spectrum.

By conceptualizing and delivering creative content you are bound to receive positive responses and engagement. The reason is simple, you have hit the sweet spot by understanding what works for your target audience. And this understanding happens only because of valuable time spent on R&D about your TG. Creative content adds value to the business and will eventually bring in organic growth.

When necessary, it is great to also experiment with Real Time Marketing based content, as it is exciting for both the agency and consumer which helps boost engagement to a whole new level. RTM will also bring in organic growth and positive impressions only if it is executed at the right time. If the brand has about 50 levels of approvals, think twice before executing RTM.

These pointers may help increase the creative quotient for your brands:

• Talk with Mr. CMO from the brand or even go for a walk if that helps to understand their quarterly and annual marketing objectives.
• Ask foolish questions that help you understand the profiling of your audience.  Data Analytics will help you to a certain level, but real-time on the field research which the brand has achieved over the years is going to clear that confused cloud above your head. Walk some more, talk even more now.
• Research on how your target audience consumes content.
• Try and experiment with focus groups (apart from your team members) before your launch.
• Anything trending today may not work for every brand, understand what tone and voice suits best for the brand's vision and work around that.
• After deploying the creatives, closely watch how people are reacting and make changes accordingly for the following week.
• Analyze. Experiment. Research. Believe. Deploy.
• Repeat step 7.

Just to site an example, we had the opportunity to meet with the official marketers of Chennai Super Kings and, after a bit of brainstorming, we thought there was so much we could do for the die-hard fans to engage and enjoy with on Social Media.

One fine day, out of sheer passion, our Social team, designers/illustrators and analysts came up with a simple concept of arm-wrestling between CSK and the competing team. Our passionate Illustrator and Graphic Designer worked their magic and came up with this creative (Note: only out of sheer passion for the sport and with no business interest).

Branding & Marketing Agency for CSK - OPN Advertising Pvt. Ltd

After releasing the creative, we saw that people were positively reacting to the artwork and by all means related to the kind of content. Eventually, after noticing the reactions, the official marketers were generous enough to roll out many of our creatives on CSK’s Facebook and Twitter page.

We were glad to note that our timely and creative content brought together fans across the globe to give CSK its second highest engaged piece of content, within less than a month, on its official Facebook page.

Branding & Marketing Agency for CSK - OPN Advertising Pvt. Ltd

The artwork shown below was created for our client, a Punjabi restaurant based out of Chennai. The idea was to integrate the kind of food they serve with the timely release of the movie.

This piece of art was aimed at being minimal while conveying the brand's belief, leaving a discreet thought lingering in the mind. The amount of focus brands give on print medium should equally or, in fact, be more on Social Media.

So, do not ignore the importance of creative content for every medium you use, as every medium or touch point when utilized appropriately can work wonders for the brand. Learn to make the best out of it in the most practical sense. Until you strike the right chord, stay hungry, stay foolish.