[Interview] Pawan Sarda, Future Group India on fbb's social media strategy

Fashion is a competitive segment - one which keeps brands on their toes. Amidst the cluttered segment, fbb is attempting to leave a mark on the social world with their marketing strategy. Social Samosa gets in conversation with Pawan Sarda, Group Head- Digital at Future Group India, with an aim to understand the space of social media and fashion.

As a brand what is your objective from social media? Please describe your target audience 

Our objective is clear, we only want to chase online-offline and conversion. Our target audience for fbb is 19-30, Male and Female.

Fashion is an extremely competitive industry. How does your social media strategy give you an edge over your competitors? 

I see it otherwise. I feel, social media is all about opportunities. This is the only medium which has very high engagement level and can help us speak to our audience in a personalised manner. Therefore it depends on the marketer, how one uses it.

How would you describe your brand voice on social media? How different is it from the parent company? 

fbb is India’s fashion hub. We want to have conversation with our audience about fashion, style, trends. We learn a lot from them and we also pick up new trends.

fbb recently concluded it's #DropThePants campaign. Please share the idea behind the campaign and the kind of results it achieved 

Shorts is one category which resonates best in the digital world. As a category it’s exciting and we knew we can engage with our customers with unique conversations. Therefore when our agency came back with #DropThePants as conversation point we decided to go with it. The campaign saw huge response from our customers, in fact we achieved 80% rise in sale of shorts.

What kind of content hooks work for your brand the best? 

Anything which is act and interact and creates conversation.

Influencer marketing has played a very important role in the fashion industry. Please share your views on the same 

Yes. We do use influencers according to their relevance to the category / brand. They are helping not only us but the industry to create awareness about new trends and happenings.

How often do you work with influencers? How has the experience been so far? 

It’s been great. At the recent IPL, we conducted #LookOfTheDay which had some of India’s best fashion influencers. The feedback we received for this was extremely good.

What is the biggest challenge faced by you on social media? 

I think most of the marketers and the platforms only think engagement and brand stickiness. I think the industry should look at social media as creating conversion for brands and businesses.

Which has been your most successful social media campaign and why do you think it worked well? 

Infact many- #DecideYourPrice on twitter, #DropYourPants with Facebook, Women’s day with Google and so on. I think the idea worked, more than anything else.

How often do you post on your social media handles? Give our readers a peek in your social content calendar

Almost every day.. For the sneak peek just follow us across…

Facebook organic reach is a major concern for most marketers. How do you battle this constraint? 

One doesn’t need to…Just do Paid reach.

How much per cent of your social media mix is reserved for paid push? 

80% of our social media mix is reserved for a paid push.