A large supermarket retailer in the UK released its latest holiday ad offering this week to much fanfare. The one key difference for this campaign is that they released it ENTIRELY via digital media.

In the first week of the Sainsbury’s online video being available its racked up over 1m views alone on You Tube and over 1m views on Facebook. Its lo fi “non ad” production quality and cultural nods to the popularity of dubstep in the UK are helping to make it a viral success and gain traction during a busy and noisy ad period.

The trend for retailers to create elaborate holiday campaigns isn’t a new one nor is it showing any signs of slowing down but what’s interesting is the shift from creating heartfelt TV ads with a social effort on the side to full scale digital focused marketing campaigns where TV is only a part of the story.

The fact is that digital ad spending is on the rise whilst TV ad spending slows down. According to the Wall Street Journal and Magna Global  “Mobile and social media were the primary drivers behind digital media’s 17% growth in ad dollars this year” The firm expects global digital revenues to reach 30% of total ad revenues in 2015, and to catch up with television in 2019.” These figures have a massive impact for brands and agencies who are not focusing their creative attention and ad budgets on the digital space and creating immersive brand experiences.

Ads have to work harder than ever nowadays to have impact, be more viral and likeable in order to deliver returns to marketers. This time of year in particular makes standing out hard. The more brands invest in sharing emotional stories that can resonate with an audience on a multitude of levels and platforms the more success will be found. We already know from research that emotional and positive stories are shared more frequently than negative ones – its one of the major factors in getting content to go viral.

Take John lewis for example and their recently debuted  “Monty the Penguin” Holiday Ad. This tearjerker of a campaign was akin to that of a movie production with a budget of over $7m, teaser trailers, a hit soundtrack featuring a young up and coming artist,  a primetime TV spot (and ensuing feature on a hit tv show) and a supportive outdoor campaign. However the agency chose to debut the concept via twitter, which had the #montythepenguin trending and captured peoples attention before the ad had even aired and as a result drove increased interest in the brand, the penguin’s profile on twitter now has over 32k followers actively engaging with the brand character.

This digital juggernaut of a campaign barely mentions the brand and isn’t promotional at all, yet it has a reach that is currently sitting at over 19m views on You Tube, 150k likes and 159k shares on Facebook. Many stores have sold out of the accompanying merchandise (another play taken from the movie studios) because really, who doesn’t want a cute fluffy toy penguin for Christmas? The proof is in the pudding – sales for the retailer are up YOY by 5.1%  and 17% online giving it a great start to the holiday trading season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iccscUFY860

Now there’s no doubt John Lewis has seen such huge success because it fully invested all its marketing and $ resources into this campaign. They didn’t just make a cute ad, post it online and hope it would go viral for their brand – they created a full 360 digital marketing campaign that supported and promoted the brand message at every possible turn – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Social advertising, You Tube, outdoor, PR, TV, charity partnerships, and in-store merchandise too. This was a carefully thought out and well executed campaign.

In summary the delivery of great content and sharing it online is only the beginning of a successful digital campaign, brands need to think about, and have answers too, the bigger questions. Why would a consumer care about this content? Why would they want to share and engage with it? How can I make this a seamless and enjoyable experience for them? Investing in creating a full 360 marketing & advertising strategy that not only answers these questions but supports the content with marketing spend and sales promotion is the key to making an even bigger impact – no matter the time of year but especially during the holiday’s.

In the frenetic and short attention span of the social media world its almost impossible to stand out and make an impression but its not unheard of. I read this amazing article yesterday from the Huffington Post about a 4 yr old photographer, Hawkeye Huey, who through his natural ability and interest in analog photography has taken the Instagram platform by storm. Its a fascinating and beautiful story of a talent being nurtured and shared online by a father who also happens to be a National Geographic photographer.

So how exactly did a 4 yr old gain a follower base of over 38k in a matter of weeks? And what can a brand learn from this little artist? The key elements here to the success of Huey’s Instagram account are two fold 1) Authenticity and 2) Story.

Lets Start With 1) Authenticity.

In the social media game authenticity is EVERYTHING. All the images on Huey’s account are taken by Huey or are of Huey in action. There’s no manipulation or even digital trickery here – these are analog images, simply shared on a digital platform. In the photography world image manipulation is at an all time high and so for the viewer its refreshing for them to see authentic art created by someone who is doing it simply for the LOVE of the act. Huey is 4 – he isn’t creating these images because he will win some internet popularity contest or it will secure him his next big contract – he’s doing simply because he wants to and because he enjoys it. He’s sharing his point of view and his followers resonate with this completely authentic message. If your message is NOT true to your brand then it will not resonate and people will not engage with it.

Which Brings Me Onto Point 2) His Story.

Huey is 4 (only 4! Just let that sink in for a minute!) and he is already creating images that MANY of us wish we were capable of making. How many of us are lucky enough to find something we are so passionate about at such a young age? Its a very powerful story and as a follower knowing it makes his art that much more enjoyable.

Now you can argue that there are those who are only following due to the “cute celeb” factor – because Huey was featured in a news article or because he’s 4 and pretty darn cute and you might be right initially but I believe that people will continue to follow and engage with the images because they are good. Huey is not a flash in the pan – this is not a marketing stunt – he will continue to create beautiful images and so there is longevity in his story.

The Bottom Line

If your story is what drew people to you in the first place then your follow up work also better be good enough to keep them engaged because in this digital age retaining someone’s attention for longer than 5 mins is a challenge. Its not enough to just have a great story – its how you share it and embody it in EVERYTHING that you create moving forward.

To follow Huey on his photographic journey click here. For more  Social Media tips & tricks and interesting brand stories follow us on twitter @Howesocial or join us on Facebook here.

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