“There’s no playbook to what trust and transparency is on social media right now — it is catered to each brand — and so we like to take a step back and say, what do you truly stand for and, more importantly, what are the things that you’re not proud of?”
Kristin “KB” Busk is the Director of Social Strategy at The Many (formerly known as Mistress), an award-winning advertising agency based in Santa Monica. You may know The Many from its high profile campaigns including tripadvisor, GoFundMe and PayPal. In this episode of Velocitize Talks, Busk provides insight into what makes a brand authentic, knowing your audience and how to create an award-winning campaign.
Take the Bait: How to deal with internet trolling [1:16]
“The trend right now for trolling is to always see it as a negative. But trolling doesn’t have to be negative, there’s also a positive association with it.”
In a column for Ad Age, “Bait & Win: What Super Bowl Trolling Teaches Us About the Future of Marketing,” Busk defined trolling as a marketing tactic that can bait and provoke, one that can succeed or backfire. (After all, the purpose of social is “to experiment and have fun.”) But Busk also cautions that “no brand should be on social without first developing its brand strategy.”
Get Real: Which brands are excelling at authenticity? [3:21]
“It’s not necessarily about promoting the brand. It’s their brand personality.”
Busk cites Qdoba Mexican Eats (a client) for staying true to their brand values and cultivating a loyal fan base, and Wendy’s for taking risks that paid off.
Get Shorty: The award-winning FX campaign [4:52]
“When you work on TV shows or movies, you have to be very particular about how not to spoil a plot line.”
The Many won a shorty award for its social FX campaign for American Horror Story, successfully translating that season’s apocalypse into an online platform and engaging with its fans.
Know Your Audience, Know Your Competition [9:13]
“You don’t have to compete against your competitors, you have to compete against the influencers, the celebrities, the media properties, the Buzzfeeds.”
The Money incorporates what Busk calls a “complete integration” approach when analyzing their audience, with an emphasis on who the consumers are and, more specifically, what their feeds look like.
Meet Them Where They Are: Targeting Gen Z [10:55]
“We built this social currency where your self-worth is based on followers and likes.”
Busk cites TikTok, Twitch and reddit as hugely popular platforms to reach this demographic. But Instagram, which Busk refers to as “the new dot-com,” continues to be the favorite for Gen Z when it comes to brand marketing (70 percent, according to a new study).
In a rather significant shift, Instagram is experimenting with hiding “likes” from its posts. Busk views this potential change as an exciting one for the industry, providing the opportunity to truly engage with your audience and build authentic communities.
“We need to know what’s behind the curtain because if there is something behind the curtain, we’re going to have to face that and be very mindful of that because the internet knows everything.”
To learn more about The Many agency, check out their website and follow them on Twitter.
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