The Importance of Localized Branded Content on Social Media

The best performing and most valuable content provides relevance for the user as well as the brand with a great respect for the context. What is happening right now in your local community? And do you take local context into consideration when creating Social Media content for your global brand?

The importance of localized branded content on social media

We believe that it takes a local to tab into a certain location’s tone of voice and cultural understanding. It takes a Community Manager who grew up in the given location and is based there. Only then it will be possible to create authentic branded content that works for a local market, embracing the local trends, traditions and humor. The popular social media platforms support this fact with a range of functions.

Facebook

First the “Nearby” feature helped local businesses to be discovered by letting Facebook users in the local areas recommend them to their friends.
Another step was the Global Pages feature highlighting the value of local community management. International brands were now able to have one global identity – a global page – directing users to a localized version of the page.
Two months ago Facebook released yet another feature in the name of localized content called Local Awareness Ads that lets businesses target the people in their community with local ads – taking the “Nearby”-feature to another level.

Instagram is a location-based platform by nature, since location has been part of the founders visions since the beginning. Users are encouraged to location-tag their content, in order to create engagement to their own profiles. This automatically ends up being customer engagement for brands, when users tag a certain geographic place, shop or restaurant.

Twitter lets brands geo-target organic tweets to specific countries through an application created in collaboration with Sprout Social.

Pinterest is about to launch “Promoted Pins” (though only available in the US for now), which lets businesses target the right (local) community.

So… what to take away from this? By creating local pages, handles and profiles, you can increase your brand’s international reach and engagement. So why not get started?!

Few cookies have reached the same level of iconicity as Kraft Foods’ Oreo. Its round shape, blackish color and white cream stuffing have undeniably added to its success but as a social media agency we wonder: where would the crowd-pleasing, twistable cookie be today without effective social media marketing?

Let’s zoom in on one of their global digital and social media campaigns that reached millions of hearts (and mouths) and delivered proof that even cookies can provide endless food for thought. We are talking about the wildly successful ‘Daily Twist’ campaign that saw a 110% growth in fan interaction per social-media post only a few months after the campaign was launched. Even though the campaign dates back to 2012, in our view, it earned a spot among the best food branding campaigns on social media ever. Here’s why…

It used milestones and pop culture events to create engagement

2012 was the year that America’s favorite cookie turned 100. Needless to say, it was a cause for celebration.

Every day for 100 days, the Oreo was given a different “twist” – styled to look like Elvis, a panda bear or like the surface of Mars after the Mars Rover had driven over it. On the ‘Daily Twist’ site, users could suggest their “twist”. The campaign was driven on Facebook and also featured on Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest.

The Oreo twists were especially created to spark conversation and sharing, referring to milestones or pop culture events that people could relate to and share their thoughts about.

It had timely and shareable content combined with an element of surprise

While some of the cookie designs were planned ahead like the Olympics or Labor Day, others were more agile, tapping into events like the premiere of ‘Batman: The Dark Knight Rises’, the release of the iPhone5 and the birth of a Chinese panda bear. Monitoring trending topics and utilizing current events ensured the content was always relevant and timely. Couple that with the surprise of what each day would bring, and you’ve got a campaign worth tuning into.

They exercized strong brand values

The campaign kicked-off with the Gay Pride rainbow cookie in recognition of the LGBT community, much to the chagrin of conservative crowds.

The Facebook post set off a heated online debate that even led opponents of gay marriage to call for an Oreo boycott. But while supporters and opponents were fighting their online battle, the rainbow cookie doubled Oreo’s fan growth.

By having a strong stance and sticking to it, Oreo established itself as a courageous brand amongst its more liberal fans.

The campaign had an integrated marketing approach, combining the offline and online worlds

The campaign finale took place at Times Square in New York. They set up a pop up agency there, from which they designed the last ‘Daily Twist’, based on suggestions from fans. Earlier that morning, the brand had asked its Twitter followers and Facebook fans to offer ideas, which were going up live on a billboard. Creatives would select the best ones and three of them were then put to an online vote. The winning cookie, celebrating the anniversary of the first high five, was designed on the spot and was displayed on a big billboard.

A seamless flow between the online and offline worlds, and the mix of social and traditional marketing allowed for a greater experience and showed that Oreo mastered the integrated marketing approach.

It put the product in the center – without being self-centered

Oreo’s ability to put their product at the center of the campaign and still make the content relatable and entertaining for a massive range of users is (in our opinion) the most important factor in the success of the ‘Daily Twist’ campaign. The content was heavily branded, yet still relevant, timely and shareable – without ever begging for likes, comments and shares.

Lessons learned

The ‘Daily Twist’ campaign set an example of how important it is to create content that resonates with your audience. There are many ways to find out what moves your fans. For Lurpak®, we identified what kind of recipes the audience was searching for. As a result, we created content that we already knew people wanted to engage with. Read how we did it here.