10 May A Brand Innovators Chicago Brand Week Special Edition | Social You Should Know
Last week, several members of our team attended and lead panels at Brand Innovators Chicago Brand Week. These one-day symposiums bring together brand leaders and media-focused technology companies at the headquarters of major brands to share their experiences in emerging media. This week’s events were held at Miller-Coors, Kraft, McDonalds and United Airlines with a ton of great content shared by some of the marketing industry’s foremost practitioners.
Trinh Le from Kellogg’s shared her story of how she is working to make Eggo relevant in a digital age. By leveraging a variety of content across media channels, the brand is becoming more relevant to consumers in a crowded space for attention. For example, Le is using high-impact print in the form of box stickers that mask the contents of the box, so people can protect their Eggo from others. Many consumers have made social content from print media about how they have tricked their friends and family. Kellogg’s also deployed an improv artist as an Eggo grocery sampling representative and captured entertaining content for YouTube. “Consumers really aren’t that interested in seeing your commercial on social channels,” said Le, “You have to do something that entertains them to capture their attention on social channels.”
McDonald’s is bringing back the Hamburglar after a 10+ year stint in brand jail. Like Eggo, McDonald’s is seeking to leverage social channels as a way to create relevancy among new generations of consumers. The new “Hipster Hamburglar“, is a reimagined character with a mystery alter ego that is already driving a fair amount of conversation about his story and even a poll about his suitability as a hook up partner. Relevancy is what you make of it.
Finally, Jeff Caswell from Hillshire Farms shared the story of how a high-touch brand like Aidell’s can begin to think about how it can transcend one-to-one relationships. Aidell’s uses store based brand ambassadors to introduce and inspire consumers about the quality and story of its sausages and meats. “The Aidell’s brand was built on real conversations and engagement. We have to understand how that relates on social channels to maintain a consistent experience, brand and touch points across the physical and digital path to purchase.” Mr. Caswell shared.
There was a ton of great content shared about how brands and retailers are leveraging social to build better relationships with consumers. Much of it was shared via social, of course. If you’re interested in learning more, follow the #bisummit hashtag on Twitter.
