Late

The creators of the "SagesderSchweiz" campaign launched at the beginning of October for the Swiss Media Association must have thought the same thing. They went into the fast lane and created a campaign with a modern twist. 480 advertisements in two months. It is set to be one of the biggest print campaigns in Switzerland. Is this campaign on track? It's too early to predict. The goals are ambitious: Print is to be brought into the conversation as an emotional, highly regarded online composite medium in order to halt the decline of print.

The campaign is powerful and progressive. 480 print advertisements in eight weeks - you're in the realm of advertising giants. Leading advertising and social media professionals were also brought on board. With ContentFry, an extremely sophisticated tool also performs the aggregation work. And the idea? Wringing opinions from people in public is en vogue, and the hashtag as a symbol provides the right impetus for cross-screen media consumption.

But there are also points of criticism. Allow me to make a comparison: hashtags, microsites and aggregators without campaign editors behave like a carriage without a horse. The traction of this type of campaign depends on how everyone involved gets involved once the campaign has started. 13 followers with 0 following and 7 tweets as of 20.10.14. Not enough traction. During the World Cup in Brazil, I took a close look at the advertising strategies of participating brands and gained three insights into how to bring traction to modern, cross-media campaigning.

The first insight - boosting your own presence

If you want to motivate people to take action, you should set a good example. In Persönlich you can read that Mr. Wanner, member of the executive committee of the Swiss Media Association, will not be posting a statement. Pete Cashmore is the founder and CEO of Mashable, an extremely successful news portal. Mashable is gaining ground worldwide, particularly in the Connected Generation segment, which is of interest to advertisers. One reason for its success is the presence of Pete Cashmore as a person and the presence of Mashable as a brand on all social media channels. To date, I know of no truly successful example where a hashtag has been at the center without also having a strong presence of its own, at least on Twitter or Instagram. A social home base like this is essential. The majority of the World Cup brands analyzed pursued a three-pronged strategy. Catchy hashtags, strong social media profiles and lively social media hubs were used. The hubs included web-based microsites for desktop users and mobile apps for smartphone/tablet users. I think we need both today. Ultimately, however, this decision depends on the context in which the exchange should take place: Is it on the move, stationary, private, professional, etc.? It is often a mix. At #SagesderSchweiz, "only" the strong integration of its own social media profiles is actually missing. But it is relevant to success. Twitter in particular can be used to give such campaigns additional momentum via influencers - I'm thinking of all the permanent and freelance journalists in the press who are very active on Twitter by profession. However, such activation only makes sense from your own profiles. There is also another argument. In the run-up to the World Cup, Adidas opened its own product profile @Brazuca on Twitter for the Brazuca match ball. During the World Cup alone, the number of followers more than tripled. Adidas can now use these followers for future campaigns. Adidas is pursuing the same product profile strategy for its Töggeli shoe models. It is a form of advertising sustainability.

Second insight - working with triggers

This is where we open the advertising propaganda box. With technological development and the growing diversity of media, the arsenal of available effect drivers (Neudeutch: triggers) has also grown steadily. One of these is the cooperation approach used in our present campaign. Print readers become online users by contributing something. The reward is a few square centimeters of presence on newsprint that is seen thousands of times. A second trigger is the event approach. We inject campaigns with topicality. We differentiate between events that can be planned and events that occur spontaneously. Halloween and Santa Claus Day can be planned. Why not a #daysofSwitzerland series as - for example - Samichlausversli? There is even an official name for the impact technique with spontaneous events: newsjacking. This involves specifically looking out for stories that are making waves on Twitter, Facebook or elsewhere on the web and that fit into your own context. Newsjacking requires two things, and both are generally essential for digestible social media advertising: open eyes and hearts for the true interests, needs and sensitivities of your own stakeholders as well as quick-wittedness with a little pinch of mischief. Adidas started the World Cup with over 1000 ready-made contents. They were prepared for many things. However, spontaneous events performed best. For example, the hammer goal by Colombian top scorer and Adidas shoe wearer James Rodriguez.

Third insight - setting up a campaign editorial team

Once the hashtag, microsite and social media aggregator are up and running, the actual campaign work really begins. The #SagesderSchweiz campaign does have an editorial committee. However, its main task is to sift through the messages and approve those that suit the creators for publication. However, anyone who ventures into social media territory or explicitly directs others to do so must engage in relentless work on individual moments of impact. Every post is the result of hard work. However, this work is more reminiscent of the work done in newsrooms than the work we know from the creative departments of traditional advertising agencies. Stories need to be launched, conversations need to be held, their impact and progress monitored and the setting constantly adapted. Online and social media are both 24/7 businesses. You have to be able to seize the moment, and this sometimes happens after work or at weekends. Sony, Adidas and FIFA operated publication centers to keep their World Cup appearances going. You need a good infrastructure, talent, rules and, above all, uncomplicated development and decision-making processes. Are we really late?

Beat Hürlimann

Are we really late? Answers to the question and opinions on the article are very welcome at www.huerlimanncc.com.