Lights out and away we go...for successful content marketing

Formula One’s content marketing strategy for reaching new audiences, and utilising social media is something we can all learn and take notes from!

At this point, you have probably binged the last four seasons of Netflix’s ‘Drive To Survive’, and you’re probably highly anticipating the 2022 series to be released, and the F1 race season is not even over yet. With the British home GP at Silverstone this weekend, we thought there was no better time to analyse how Formula 1 markets itself, the impact and success of Drive To Survive, and what we can learn from it.

The hit show has been hailed as a marketing “silver bullet” by Adam Crothers, Formula One’s head of digital media rights, and there is no doubt that it has already had a major impact for the sport. According to Nielsen, interest in the series last year grew by 73 million – equal to 20 per cent – in ten of the motorsport series’ key markets, which were Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. 

Nielsen also cited the 'Drive to Survive' docuseries as a key reason for Formula One’s growing popularity among younger audiences. It seems as though the docuseries has brought a lot more attention to the sport since its debut, and it is still rising as more of the season’s drama is exploited. 

There is no shame if you only started to get into the racing sport after bingeing the show (two of us at DATS are guilty of this - and wish we started it sooner!). The drivers, the unbelievable mechanics, epic rivalries, cut-throat realpolitiks, as well as its melodrama - some could say more than Love Island - it’s near impossible not to be hooked. 

But how did ‘Drive To Survive’ bring a whole new audience to the 1890’s pioneering road race, now called Formula One in 2022?

Times have changed, and Formula One struggled to reach certain audiences, and so they switched up their marketing strategy and this included the docuseries Drive To Survive - which was developed as part of Liberty Media’s - the parent company of F1 - strategy to expand F1 into new markets. 

Looking at ratings data, in 2018 F1 viewership was around 547,000. After the docuseries launch, it jumped by 18% to 672,000. By 2021, that had escalated to 934,000 - an incredible 54% increase, and rising in 2022! 

The interest in the show also appears to be rubbing off on the races too. During the first event of the 2021 Formula One season in Bahrain, UK pay-TV broadcaster Sky Sports recorded its highest-ever viewing figures for a Grand Prix aired on its channels, reaching a high of 2.23 million. In the US, meanwhile, the Bahrain Grand Prix delivered an average 879,000 viewers for ESPN 2, which was bigger than any audience that tuned in to the channel during the entire 2020 season.

The docuseries showed a different side to F1, which sparked the sport interest in many - as the statistics show - which brought new audiences to the races itself, not only in viewership, but to the race weekend itself in-person.

A very clever idea, that paid off!

The series is not the only way F1 has shown brilliant content marketing!

F1 has not always been a global phenomenon, as it has been in the last couple of years, there was a very clear turning point in their journey, and marketing strategy. This happened in 2016, when Liberty Media acquired the Formula One Group. Since then, their vision took effect, almost immediately, the F1 had always targeted older, wealthier men and this had steered the sport away from many audiences. By deep diving into audience attitudes, and big data, they discovered what the fans wanted, and how to reach the audiences they wanted. 

The conclusion of the data helped them understand who they must target, how they must target, and what their positioning should be. To achieve this, they worked on a series of SMART targets. 

What are SMART targets?

Put very sim­ply, SMART objec­tives (or SMART goals) are a form of objec­tive set­ting which allows man­agers and employ­ees to cre­ate, track and accom­plish, short-and-long-term goals - this is essential when creating a successful content marketing strategy.

S - Specific

M - Measurable

A - Attainable

R - Relevant

T - Time-bound

Formula One created their strategy, and tactics through a series of research, and planning and then it was a green flag for them!

They invested in digital, and social media. On all their social media accounts, followers rose pretty much straight away, particularly among younger people - this would probably be down to social media being more popular among this generation - and in just under a year, the number of subscribers on the F1 YouTube more than doubled. Having the social media presence allowed them to acquire a deeper understanding of their audiences and what they want, which influenced future content. 

Formula One also had a rebrand and changed its logo, launched video games on consoles such as XBOX, and PlayStation, and they also established eSports partnerships - which just continue to grow in users every year. They partnered with Amazon Web Services to provide insight on races, drivers, and their teams. The intention was to reach a wider and younger audience through as many channels as physically possible, in doing so they wanted to create the best experience possible for all types of people.

The Formula One brand relaunch is a perfect example of the power of diagnosis, strategy, and tactics, and of the importance of sophisticated, targeted content marketing, and multi-channel approaches.

But don’t just take my word for it….

A survey conducted by Nielsen and Motorsport Network offered an opportunity for fans to tell Formula 1 what they want and what they value about the sport to enable the championship to make strategic decisions for the future.

Nielsen said the sample of 167,302 responses was the largest and most diverse sample ever, with female participation doubling and the average age of a participant dropping four years (since the last survey in 2017) to 32.

The number one brand attribute for Formula 1 is “exciting”, up 7% from 2017. “Competitive” and “entertaining” made into the top five for the first time, while fans also say F1 has improved in terms of providing “exciting racing”, “fast cars”, “close competition” and having “the best drivers”.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Here’s some key takeaways for delivering audience-focused content marketing that are likely to drive brand growth:

• Pay attention to the content that really resonates with your audiences - for example, F1 focused on humanising their brand by sharing driver-focused and behind-the-scenes content which generated much more engagement than just tweeting out race results

• Consider innovative new marketing approaches that will reach audiences in their native environment

• DO YOUR RESEARCH - this is extremely important when trying to be specific in who you are targeting, and who your audience is - use the trusty SMART targets method, it works a treat every time!

Move over hard-selling, and make room for soft-selling!

Social media has created endless opportunities for brands, and companies to showcase their products, and services, and sell-in to specific target audience’s. 

We know it is enticing… You have a few followers on social media, and you want to show them your amazing products, but this is an unfavourable way to utilise your platform.

Hard-selling was always the traditional way to use social media to your advantage when promoting your products, or services, but this is no longer the case. In recent years, soft-selling has become the most effective way of marketing on social media platforms. 

Hard sell VS the soft sell 

Hard-selling is when the marketer gets straight to the sales message. They are clearly there to promote their product or service and make sure you know all about it. This type of approach is typically seen with traditional advertising and promotion such as print, display ads, flyer drops, TV advertising or billboards.

Soft-selling is a sales strategy that uses subtle and causal tactics to build a relationship with a buyer over time to eventually persuade them to make a purchase.

For the majority social media marketing is about getting to know your audience, what they like, and building a relationship with them. Consumers are more attuned than ever, and this makes it more difficult for brands, and businesses to effectively use their social media to sell their products, or services.

Soft-selling is now the more favoured way of selling products and services, especially with social platforms such as TikTok, and Instagram, that are statistically proven to be the most popular of all the social media platforms, for example, according to Later, TikTok was, by a landslide, the most popular app of 2021. With 656 million downloads last year alone (over 100 million more than Instagram), the viral video platform solidified its place in the Gen Z zeitgeist.

Main aims for soft-selling:

• Building customer relationships

• Increasing return customers

• Creating brand loyalty

• Improving your reputation

In today’s generation, people are more intune with what’s out there to sell, and what is out there to entertain. The customer is more likely to avoid your brand, or business if the product or service is shoved in their face, but instead, react more positively to brands / businesses who entertain, and inform without it being obvious they’re trying to sell a product, or service. 

I promise it works!

An example of soft-selling done right…

Greggs:

In 2019, Greggs started a YouTube ad to promote the bakery’s new, fresh item on the menu, the vegan sausage roll. Building traction from the ad which mirrored an ad from Apple presenting a new phone (for humour!). Gregg’s generated even more buzz, and attention by cheekily replying to a tweet from Piers Morgan (see below).

The clever, and viral reply from Greggs gained 131,000  likes, and over 20,000 retweets - whether this was down to the clever marketing and social team or not, but sales spiked shortly after this, so who knows!

Gregg’s continue to use clever tactics, and soft-sell through the use of their social channels, for example, they continue to use their channels for humour, and entertainment purposes which in actual terms is a tactic of soft-selling. Here is another example… 

Now it’s just making me hungry…

Another example of clever soft-selling tactics is getting involved in, and starting social conversations, especially on Tik Tok, and Twitter. This is a humorous approach, and entertaining for your audience, who are most likely also your customers, or future customers too!

Aldi UK’s Twitter feed is a great example of this done well, for example…

They also get involved in conversations with their competitors too, see below:

The soft-selling technique is used by many brands, and businesses now as it is the most effective way to utilise your social platforms, and build on your brand. 

Are you going to try it? 

Glasto is back and we're so excited!

In a post-pandemic world, it’s great to have one of the staple events on a calendar back and roaring again.

Before the working week ends, and all the chatter of performances, controversies and hangovers takes over your timeline, we wanted to ask ourselves; 

How does a major event like Glastonbury use marketing techniques to take over the internet for a weekend? And what can you learn from its undeniable, unstoppable success?

1. Having a Story Matters

Yes, Glastonbury is an event. But in branding terms, what it really is is a platform. Just like your B2B SaaS business, for example.

It generates impact by providing a space and audience for other brands, creators and creatives to take advantage of. 

But often enough, due to the nature of being a middleman (or a background operator), platforms struggle to create an interest in their brand as well as their product. But Glastonbury proves that, regardless of your industry, having a solid brand story counts for so much when it comes to generating word of mouth, social media buzz and validation to your mission.

You might be thinking; that’s all well and good, but my platform business isn’t rooted in hippie counterculture and also isn’t the biggest music festival in the world. Fair enough. But you only have to look at something closer to home to see that this method marketing rings true with a lot of successful platform businesses.

For example, have a read of this thread from the founder of successful Crypto trading platform MagicEden, or this informative piece about how Bumble’s female founder, Whitney Wolfe, used her experiences at Tinder to build a platform with a story that could connect to women around the world.

2. Social Media

This is the first time Glastonbury has opened the gates to Worthy Farm in over two years due to the pandemic, and they’ve made sure to emphasise this in their social content.

On Wednesday, a video went viral on Twitter of Michael Eavis, the founder of the festival and owner of the farm, opening the gates to cheers from punters and press alike.

It made for a picturesque and symbolic moment as the sun shone down on the scene. Immediately, Glastonbury started trending upwards on Twitter and we’ll bet it’ll be staying there until at least Monday.

Glastonbury has always used social media to its advantage. In 2019, they used it to announce the fact that Paul McCartney would be headlining Glastonbury for it’s much-hyped 2020 50th anniversary (which of course never happened), he tweeted an image of composer Phillip Glass, actress Emma Stone, and legendary artist Chuck Berry. Together, their surnames spelt “Glass-Stone-Berry”; a perfect puzzle. And the perfect way to announce a Glastonbury headliner set in 2022.

But perhaps the biggest weapon in Glastonbury’s marketing arsenal is the amplification of their every move through UGC from those attending the festival.

From tonnes of phone-charging stations, to Insta-friendly scenery, this doesn’t happen by accident.

Glastonbury is aware that the fans and punters will take over the internet for them without much more than a little nudge.

It’s a perfect example of where the true power of social media lies; with the user. It’s time for you to think about how you can nudge your own fans to create organic content for your business.

We recommend starting with this simple 5-step guide from Sprout Social.

3. They love a good stunt (just like us!)

At DATS, we love nothing more than a good stunt. In fact, we live for it. Head to the work section of our site to read about how we’ve used stunts to generate mass coverage and social media buzz for our clients.

And the opportunity to pull a stunt at Glastonbury is every PR team’s dream. It’s the perfect storm; a rebellious atmosphere, tons of space and thousands of punters ready to be impressed by a crazy idea (and share it to their socials).

From Glastonbury’s own tricks (secret underground piano bars, Banksy paintings, etc) to brands buying their way into some of the most attention-soaked real estate in the world (the EE bull, the Greenpeace ship,) stunts and controversy are weaved into what Glastonbury is about.

Have you thought about how you can make your next stunt internet-stopping? If you need some help, why not get in touch at hello@downatthesocial.co.uk.

4. Organic and engaging > paid and boring. 

Given the fact that we’re writing a blog article about marketing at Glastonbury, it’s interesting to note that it seems as though, year in year out, the festival spends exactly £0 on paid advertising.

There’s no billboards, TV spots or paid social campaign.

Any guesses as to why?

It’s because they don’t need it.

And this is a hill we’re willing to die on…

Whilst paid marketing has its uses, it’s so crucial that you make sure your organic content is engaging first. Once you start putting budget behind things, you’re committing yourself to using a crutch rather than forcing yourself and your business to do more with less.

Glastonbury knows that they don’t need paid marketing, and it’s a great starting point and creative exercise for your business, whatever the size.

Remove budget from the table, whether you have it or not; what can you do to grab your business a slice of people’s attention?

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We're Hiring: Credit Control Assistant /PA

An exciting opportunity has arisen for someone who shares these values to join our existing team of 10.

Job Description - Credit Control Assistant  / PA

Salary - £19k - £23k depending on experience

Location - Mostly home based with 1-2 days per week in the office (Manchester City Centre)

Contract  - Permanent / Full time 37.5 hours (can be flexible for the right candidate)

Purpose of the role

We are sociable, authentic, collaborative, bold and experts who continue to learn! The purpose of the role is to support our MD and account managers and to take the lead on invoicing and credit control. 

Our ideal candidate is highly organised, a self starter and someone who relishes the task of invoicing and gets a kick out of working directly with clients to resolve credit control issues.  A keen interest in finance and credit control is essential, as is a driving license. 

Key responsibilities

Finance - Credit control, invoicing and processing expenses.

• Provide assistance to MD including travel booking, arranging meetings and staff inductions

• Assisting the PR and social media teams with research, saving press coverage, generating coverage reports and other admin tasks

• Supporting HR matters such as holiday requests, staff sickness records and return to work interviews - tracking staff time against client billable hours

• General admin - managing budget spreadsheets, creating client and staff contract documents and keeping track of company equipment

Package

You will be rewarded for your hard work with a great package which includes 22 days holiday (plus bank holidays), discretionary bonus scheme, hybrid home / office working, pension scheme, monthly team social and awards, regular training and personal development opportunities, unlimited mental health and wellbeing support through Spectrum Life - plus your birthday off!

For more information or to apply please contact daisy@downatthesocial.co.uk. 

June's DATS Trend Report is Here

Our brilliant PR assistant, Emma, brings a trend report to our monthly team meetings, and we feel they're just too good not to share with you.

Here's Emma offering some context in her own words...

Ah! The monthly DATS trend report, arguably my favourite time of the month.

We know that noticing trends is important. That’s the easy part. We can all read the news, engage with TikTok and check the ‘hot or not’ lists in consumer magazines.

However this month, we’re looking at ‘what’ and more importantly ‘why’. We can all spot the trend but how is it relevant to PR and marketing and where did it come from.

Will I ever buy a pizza oven? I’m not sure. I mean, I don’t have a garden at the moment and I’m not sure my landlord would allow one to be installed in our kitchen.

So why do we care that more people are buying pizza ovens?

Firstly, it shows that outdoor areas and gardens are becoming more important in the UK, alongside the rise in popularity of alfresco dining. This ‘alfresco dining’ trend can also be seen within the hospitality sector and coincides with the Eurocentric diet people are embracing in the UK; think focaccia bread and bruschetta.

Secondly, with Covid restrictions over, Brits are relishing in new freedoms and making sure they socialise. This, alongside an incoming summer, means hosting, cooking and guess what? Pizza ovens.

Nevertheless, it’s not all about the pizza ovens this month, we’ll be looking at the increasing trends of secondhand fashion (ciao Missguided!) and the nationwide dominance of Binley Mega Chippy.

Hopefully you can notice some of these trends and if not, they’ll be ones to spot in the future. Let us know what you think!

Scroll through the images below for the full report.

The best social media platforms for YOUR business

Our social media apprentice Katie is here to walk you through which social media platforms are best for your business, and why.

These days we all use social media, right? Well, so do your customers! Let’s break it down a bit…

With so many social media platforms it can be super hard to choose which one will be best for you. But fear not, we’re here to help. Firstly, different platforms appeal to different audiences and age ranges; for example, Facebook for is great for marketing to an older audience, as the amount of young people using Facebook is dropping year on year.

Let's get into some specifics…

Facebook

Facebook; the first social platform that most of us started on (apart from MSN or Myspace). In the UK alone there are over 44.8 MILLION users, which is almost two users per household! Make sure you use that to your advantage. If you think about it that’s a hell of a lot of potential customers!

The numbers;

• 44% of the UK online population use Facebook every day

• There’s a pretty even split between men (48%) and women (52%) on Facebook

• Users spend an average of 23 minutes a day on Facebook

• Only 16% of users are 18-24

Hot tip: These days every platform is trying to push short video content to compete with Tiktok so use it! Short snappy videos are great for those of us with short attention spans.

Must-do: Make your content colourful, creative and eye-catching.

Twitter

The much-loved bird app! Great for news, information and memes. Want to make jokes about your brand in the hopes your memes go viral? Twitter is the one for you.

The numbers:

• In 2021, 19 million people had a Twitter account, which is just under half of the adult UK population

• More than half of UK users are men

• More than half of UK users are 35+

Hot Tip: Twitter is also a great way to chat to your customers; if they've got anything to say (whether it's good or bad) you can instantly reply to them!

Must-Do: Be weary and careful of your responses – if you do get negative feedback on Twitter, maybe don’t have a go at them, you never know who's watching… 

Instagram

Instagram ads are everywhere, from stories to reels to sponsored posts, they’re all over the newsfeed. You want one of your ads to be one of them right? 

The numbers;

• Estimated 30.6 million users

• Largest group of users are 25-34

• Around 80% of users are looking for inspiration from the businesses and brands they follow

Hot Tip: Inspire your audience! And by inspire we mean inspire them to buy your products or services (but be careful not to hard sell!).

Remember: You’ve got this. You just need to get started and trial a few different strategies. Whack those ads on, message those influencers, what do you have to lose?!

Must-do: Influencers. Especially on Instagram, they’re a great way to get your products to the masses. A lot of influencers will happily share your product if you send them a sample, so what's the harm in it? Send your product to one influencer and bam, you have a chance of reaching a whole new audience! 

Tiktok

Last but not least, Tiktok. The newest and most popular social media platform. We all tried to resist it and instantly got hooked (it wasn’t just me right?). Do you want to sell to the broadest market and have the highest potential of going viral? Head over to Tiktok.

So many brands have become insanely popular because of Tiktok and the next one could be you. 

The numbers:

• Over 3.7 million users in the UK (and growing by the day)

• Average daily time spent on the app is 41 minutes

• Tiktok is the number one most downloaded app in the UK

Hot Tip: Using trends and filters that distort your face or voice will push you onto people’s For You page. Utilise “banter” to your advantage.

What to do now: Want some inspiration for the weird and wacky content that will get your brand noticed? Check out our ‘Best brands on Tik Tok that you need to follow RIGHT NOW’ blog post and get inspired by some new ideas. What’re they gonna do? Shoot you? I doubt it! They’ll have to catch you first, you're like a whippet… I hope you got the reference or I’m going to sound insane…Right, Time for me to stop writing I think…

One last thing to Remember: Give us a follow on social media for more tips and tricks to help you navigate the world of social and PR

Love Island: The Jack of all Trends

As 9PM approached last night, on Monday 6th June, many of us sat glued to our Twitter feeds as we eagerly awaited the potential #DoubleDrama of a Boris resignation and the first ever Love Island public-voted-coupling…

Credit: https://twitter.com/politicsjoe_uk/status/1533774229413548032?s=21&t=V1Lump7NgRO5DN9Py0v-Rw

Perhaps the pessimists would say that the fact that the potential resignation of a PM, barely 24 hours after the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, was fighting with a reality TV dating show for the nation’s attention is a stark sign of the times.

A sign of the times it might be, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing - we don’t think so anyway! The great thing about marketing is that the consumer comes first; so if the attention of millions of Brits are drawn toward one singular event, brands and their creative efforts won’t be far behind.

For that very reason, in the age of social media, trend-hopping might be one of the most effective, yet underrated, marketing tools available to us. To read about how we recently delivered amazing results for a client using some clever trend-jacking, click here.

You see, marketing at its core is all about finding the attention space and finding room to slip your product, service or idea in. In the early years, marketers favoured billboards in highly-congested urban areas in the hope that drivers and their passengers would glance up and have their thoughts interrupted for just a second to digest the message, product or call to action on the billboard. In the golden age of TV, that interruption evolved into a more sophisticated and efficient one; the TV programs with the highest viewership (i.e. the biggest attention spaces) were abruptly interrupted with advertising.

The bigger the attention space, the more eyeballs at stake. The more eyeballs at stake, the bigger the opportunity for marketers. Though TV advertising has largely been surpassed by social media and other methods of digital marketing, it’s far from dead. Have a read of our blog on the Superbowl to see how big TV marketing is still alive and well. 

So, whatever the method or instrument, advertising is about what it says on the tin; averting the attention of the consumer, at a time when their attention is as clustered as possible. Don’t believe us? Check out the etymology of the word below;

Last year, Sprout Social’s audience listening tool set itself the tough task of trying to measure just how much of a attention space #LoveIsland creates on social media. They found that over its 7th season, the show saw a whopping 2.49 million mentions, 96.83 million engagements, and potentially over 10B content impressions. Even they admit that this is probably an underestimate. You’d be hard-pressed to find another scheduled event that generates these kind of astounding numbers over an eight-week window, year after year.

Credit: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/love-island-trends-using-pop-culture-in-social-strategy/ 

With those kind of statistics in mind, it’s no surprise that a quick scroll through the #LoveIsland hashtag feed last night fielded a tonne of reactive memes and tweets from brands like Boots, Specsavers, Aldi and more. But what’s interesting about this style of marketing is that, unlike billboards or TV ads, it’s tough to interrupt scrollers’ attention directly (in fact, it could be damn near detrimental to try!).

In the age of social, it’s not so much about interrupting the moment for the consumer, but about adding to it. By joining in on the memes, the moment and the memories, brands maximise the opportunity at hand; building up brand awareness rather than breaking down their products. The best brands understand that social media isn’t about hard selling, it’s about slowly converting the consumer towards your brand by being relatable, interesting and interested.

Credit: https://twitter.com/bootsuk/status/1533910602283991040?s=21&t=V1Lump7NgRO5DN9Py0v-Rw

The beauty about social media is that you don’t have to be a big brand with a big budget to have a viral moment. Yes, maybe having a 24/7 social team on call helps brands like Specsavers, Paddy Power and PLT not miss an opportunity. But the fact that these huge brands consistently dedicate capacity to trend reactive social media marketing, tells us that the potential for a huge ROI is always round the corner for anyone, if you play your cards right.

Will you be watching #LoveIsland tonight? Well, why not try tweeting from your brand’s account instead and see what sticks. It only takes one viral moment to change your brand’s story.

If you like the sound of this, but don’t have the time to properly dedicate to social media, why not see if we can help? Get in touch today by filling in our contact form here. 

The best brands on Tik Tok that you need to follow RIGHT NOW

Tik-Tok. We’re all on it. We’re all talking about it. And for good reason.

Tik Tok is the hottest way for brands to engage with their audience in a creative, interactive and organic way, leaving platforms like Facebook in the dust.

Utilising TikTok to increase brand visibility and awareness has proven extremely effective for a tonne of brands. Let’s take a look at which ones have mastered the dark arts of Tik-Tok the best...

1. RyanAir

The biggest budget airline making the most enviable content? How did we get here? We’re not entirely sure - but one thing we know is that it’s hard to hate on their content right now. 

For starters, they understand that TikTok is a platform that’s all about having fun. So, where other brands can be precious and strict about their precious image, RyanAir understand that as a multi-billion-dollar company, you better be ready to take the mick out of yourself a bit if you’re going to appeal to a younger audience on Tik Tok. 

From using face filters on planes to ridiculous trend-hopping, they’re insanely popular and their strategy has paid off. The stats back it up; they’ve got 1.6 million followers, and their most viewed video has hit a staggering 11.2 million views. But maybe most importantly, they’ve introduced humour into their brand and tapped into a generation-sized new audience. 

2. Duolingo

Duolingo has made learning languages fun.

An app designed to help people learn new languages, its mission is to ditch the ways of your old French teacher and actually try and engage you in your learning, day in day out.

One of the ways they do this is through their mascot, Duo the owl. When you don’t complete your lessons for the day, the owl gets upset with you; you’re bombarded by notifications from the app as well as emails to let you know that the owl is upset with you.

Duolingo is self-aware enough to know that Duo the owl harassing you has become a bit of a joke online, and they’ve used it to their advantage…in their Tik-Toks, they play on the joke and place the owl in each video, lingering in every corner ready to snap at you.

By not taking themselves too seriously, just like RyanAir, they’ve produced eye-watering results. Over the past 6 months, every video has racked up 1 million views. The page on a whole has 78 million likes and 4.2 million followers. 

3. Scrub Daddy

Scrub Daddy - have you heard of them? I hadn’t until I found them on Tik-Tok, but now I’m obsessed.

If you haven’t heard of Scrub Daddy, chances are you have heard of the “satisfying video” Tik Tok trend. If you’ve been living under a rock, get a crash course on them here.

Scrub Daddy saw their opportunity and ran with it, producing video after video of “clean-porn” using their products. They literally sell specially-designed brushes as well as a variety of cleaning products, so it’s like this trend was designed just for them. And, with it being one of the biggest trends on Tik-Tok, it’s no surprise the brand has seen some astronomical results. 1.6 million followers, 33.7 million views isn’t bad for a scrubbing brush, right?

4. Adidas

You might not have heard of Scrub Daddy, but we’d bank on you knowing who these guys are.

A lot of household brands, like Adidas, might think they don’t need to jump on the latest social media, but Adidas understands the power of speaking to a new generation at any opportunity.

Their content isn’t as funny as Scrub Daddy or RyanAir’s, but it doesn’t need to be. It manages to successfully blend its two core audiences - sports and fashion - together through smart and slick content.

Whilst they might not be taking the mick out of themselves, they know Gen Z love a bit of drama and they feed it by poking fun at unnamed competitors in their videos... *cough* Nike *cough*. And it’s working for them; they’ve racked up a cool 2.1 million followers and their most viewed video has 34 million views. Worth that bit of extra effort to make sure you’re a household name for the next generation too. 

5. Xbox

To round off the list, we’re ending with another household name.

Xbox is a brand that has spent its lifetime battling with rivals brands like PlayStation, and Tik-Tok is the perfect new battleground. They understand that the gaming community is digital-first, and have moved onto platforms like Twitch and TikTok, bringing huge audiences with them. It’s the perfect chance for them to position their brand as the top option for gamers, whilst also upselling their products and services.

Overall, brands who make light of themselves and poke fun at their customers seem to do the best on TikTok, increasing their brand awareness by a staggering amount. Will you give it a go?

If you’re ready to make the jump into cultivating a new audience for your brand? Get in touch with us to see if we can help you at hello@downatthesocial.co.uk

Written by our Social Media Apprentice, Katie McDonnell

Interview with Mel Hill, Founder @ MJH Comms

Q: What do you think the future holds for women in marketing?

A: I think we are already seeing a really promising shift in women entering the board room, but there’s still so much more to do. In terms of marketing, I have personally always been lucky enough to work with and for excellent women in this industry. I also think, with the growth of digital marketing now you can literally market in any sector, from anywhere.

The accessibility of this means that, as women are still seen as the main caregivers, it’s an industry that feels very inclusive.

Q: What do you think is the biggest obstacle for women today?

A: Still men. Sadly. It sounds very anti-men, but it’s true. I think, unfortunately a lot of men still don’t see women as equal. There still aren’t enough opportunities for us to get equality, especially in terms of the gender pay gap. It’s frustrating, but as long as men lead most of the board room, we’ll never get gender equality in our workforces.

Q: How has the industry changed for the better over the last 10 years?

A: I think it’s changed because of online accessibility, as mentioned earlier. Anyone can be in this industry from anywhere, and creativity knows no bounds. Because of this, there are people accessing online courses and degrees and learning about the whole marketing industry. Whether it’s web dev, content writing or anything in between.

Q: What’s your favourite thing about being a woman in your industry?

Its really corny, but I really think women support women in marketing.

Often a lot of the referrals for work I get come from females who could have done the project, but instead recommended me. I’ve done the same and I think its a great community to be part of because of it.

Sometimes you know you can do a project, but someone else specialises in that field of marketing more than you do.

Q: What makes women really great at marketing?

I think we’re just creative people. They say our brains are very “pro-communication” which definitely helps. I think we have a different level of empathy, which allows us to get into the minds of the people we’re marketing to. It’s easy for us to understand the thoughts and processes of other individuals (not that men can’t, I’m not for one minute saying they can’t — FYI).

I just think women do it better. Sorry!

New work with some old friends!

We kicked off 2022 with a strong Q1 as we began fresh journeys with a number of new exciting clients.

Well, some of them, not so new! Let us explain…

As some of you may know, last year we were tasked with launching and building Kampus’ social channels. 

Kampus is a vibrant new neighbourhood in Manchester’s city centre, a collection of old and new buildings which offers a melting pot of architectural styles and builds on a rich cultural heritage, making use of historic buildings that lay derelict for years, right next to the famous Canal Street in Manchester’s Gay Village and just minutes from Piccadilly Station. 

Kampus is operated and managed by Native Group, a property management company that focuses on restoring and refurbishing lost and forgotten areas of iconic cities in the UK. With over £2bn in assets under management, Native has an impeccable reputation for converting investors’ ideas into tangible success, and with Kampus being the company’s biggest and most ambitious project yet, getting the social media right was absolutely crucial. 

Our brief for Kampus was to start from scratch and build up a formidable social media profile that captures the unique vision and wide scope of the project, from its revolutionary built-in commercial communities to its thriving event spaces to its unrivalled apartment design and residential perks.

Alongside this all-out campaign for brand awareness and buzz, it was also crucial that it converted into tangible leasings and leads for the client. We blew expectations out of the water by making Kampus’ social media its primary source of leads during the period in question. Below are some statistics that we delivered in the month of March, that illustrate how well-rounded our range of results had become…

View our case study on our success with Kampus here.

So that’s exactly what we did; we delivered. And as we head towards 9 months of stellar success with Kampus’ social media accounts, you can imagine how happy we are to get the call from Native’s Marketing Team asking us to get on board with three other brand new assets…

A month or so later, we are now up and running and operating the social media for four of Native’s build to rent assets across the UK, with Kampus here in Manchester, two developments in the South of England in Woking and Milton Keynes, and a really exciting new project in Leeds.

One of the things that we’re most proud of as an agency, is our evolution from a “Manchester” agency with local and industry-specific clients, to an agency that, whilst still supporting a wealth of local businesses achieve their goals, has branched out into new, national industries, with new partners, as can be seen with Native in the built space.

But this new business isn’t just a sign of what’s to come for Down At The Social when it comes to who and what we work on, it’s also a sign of our ever-growing ability to offer industry-topping social media services. 

As we look ahead to 2022 and beyond, we’re overjoyed to say we are still delivering value to our clients every single day. And there’s no better feeling than seeing that value be recognised and rewarded through an expansion of a partnership with such an exciting client as Native.

DATS Design Trends on Social Media 2022

We shouldn’t follow design trends. Here’s why, according to our social media and content exec Lucy.

Staying on top of trends keeps your content fresh BUT it can end up looking the same as everyone else’s (especially using templates such as those on Canva).

We shouldn’t follow trends at the expense of your brand guidelines and aesthetic.

Clunky design often gets in the way of performance, so keeping a balance is key.

1. Modern Gradients

Gradients are nothing new, using them add depth to your content and can completely change a design.

It can be bold or subtle, the focal point of a design or a background element. Because they mix and blend different shades of colour, gradients can create new colour combinations that feel different and modern, lending a completely unique feel to designs.

New gradient usage on social media will include shapes, loose swirls, grain and dialled up colour contrasts.

2. Flourescent Colour Palettes

From neon green to acid yellow, fluorescent colour palettes are infiltrating every corner of Instagram – bringing a perfectly progressive, Gen-Z aesthetic to the table.

As these colours can be quite ‘in your face’ it’s often better to tone them down and mix in with other colours.

3. Barely Readable Fonts

Spotify confused users back in 2021 with their hard to read genres from ‘Spotify Wrapped’ with some people thinking it had glitched. A lot of people hated it, but it caused people to talk and the design became as discussed as the actual music listed.

Taking Spotify’s design as inspiration and not literally, we see experimentations happening with different typefaces added to a single word or sentence. Or different effects too.

This isn’t right for all brands but can be a fun and rebellious look on event posters or launches.

DATS March 2022 Trend Report

What’s trending out there according to our PR exec Emma? Here, she pulls together our latest trend report, sharing our secrets (and our favourite trends right now).

THE RISE OF TIKTOK & TRENDS

TikTok has seen undeniably fast growth. In fact, the term 'TikTok' saw a 61% increase in mentions year-over-year during the beginning of 2021, and was the first non-Facebook app to reach 3 million global downloads.

How does this influence trends?

• TikTok is an incredibly quick and reactive form of social media 

• Extremely popular with Gen Z 

• Created a digital microcosm for subcultures to grow

• ‘Rise of the Creative Class’ (Richard Florida)

TikTok is the social media for the new creative class

The creative class consists of individuals who ‘share a common ethos that values creativity, individuality, difference and merit’ (Florida, 2014) and are highly educated (Florida, 2014), in turn boosting the economy and altering the traditional socio-economic structures of society.

What are the top trends we’re seeing right now?

5. Indie Sleaze

“The resurgence if indie sleaze has started to filter from the parameters of peoples memories to now a full on trend… taking the details of Y2K fashion and making it relevant for Gen Z is a really clever way of creating retro style modern visuals and creditability” - Nick Ede (popular culture expert).

How is this relevant to PR?

ADVERTISING 

• 00s advertising styles coming back

• ‘Sleaze’ becomes popular again

THE CONSUMER

• Understanding what consumers want

• Consumers dominate sales 

• Tapping into younger market and nostalgia for older gen

4. Jellycats

Owning cuddly toys for adults is becoming less shameful, emphasis on individuality

• A 2021 Consumer Culture Report by 5WPR found that Gen Z is now spending 43 minutes more per on online shopping than they did before the COVID-19 outbreak.

• Jellycat is a TikTok trend but are also a successful company in their own right - they’ve been around since 1999. 

• ‘Collection videos’ are rife, can we tap into that market somehow?

3. Julia Fox - a change in celebrity culture

(C) Marc Piasecki

Who is she?

• Ex dominatrix

• Significant because it seems the media care less about this than they would do… see Chloe Cherry in Euphoria

• Un-cut gems actress

• Kanye West’s gf (for about a month)

• Brought back the word MUSE

• Does this symbolise a shift in celebrity culture? Have influencers and celebrities become too entwined?

2. Internet Satire

Chicken Shop Date

Such a simple idea has become huge & propelled Amelia and her humour into the mainstream

Signifies an increased societal appreciation of dry, satirical humour

Francis Bourjois 

National treasure 

DATS already running with train idea, influenced from Francis.

1. Metaverse

• Buzzword

• Domination of Facebook

• Rise of VR

October 2021 Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was rebranding Facebook to Meta.

“The next platform will be even more immersive” - Founding letter

VR influences how people are expected to consume (e.g. trying on clothes, seeing how furniture looks in their house)

The technologies that make up the metaverse can include virtual reality—characterised by persistent virtual worlds that continue to exist even when you're not playing—as well as augmented reality that combines aspects of the digital and physical worlds.

Interview with Kelly Byrne, Chief Growth Officer @ Atterley

Q: What do you think the future holds for women in marketing?

A: Hopefully the same that it would for men. I sincerely hope that after the last two years, most companies are fully embracing flexibility in the workplace which will open up more opportunities for working mums by allowing both parents to be around to be caregivers. It’s a balancing act for all but importantly this greater flexibility  we are now experiencing allows parents to support family AND personal needs better.

Q: What do you think is the biggest obstacle for women today?

A: I think inherently women are always a few steps behind because naturally as child bearers, once physical recovery has taken place, most women take time off to look after their little ones. If a woman has a few children then that’s a few years out of their career which in most cases makes it harder to catch up to male colleagues who are zooming ahead on the professional ladder, likely a few pay rises ahead, the benefit of time allowing them a promotion or two more. I’d love to see a more embracing attitude to true shared parental leave, and this being normalised. I don’t think it really is.

Q: How has the industry changed for the better over the last 10 years?

A: Shared parental leave, more embracing attitude to flexible working to make it work for families, greater understanding and respect for what women can bring to the workplace in terms of attitude and impact

Q: What’s your favourite thing about being a woman in your industry?

A: Being a role model. I want my girls to see how important having a career is in terms of personal reward and growth. I love standing side by side female colleagues, mentoring and challenging them and seeing their development journeys.

Q: What makes women really great at marketing?

A: I don’t think being a woman makes you any different at marketing than a man, that’s not determined by sex. I think we perhaps bring different things to the table, a different style of communication, potentially a more empathetic approach that possibly creates a different end outcome.

How to Hijack the News Successfully

There’s one thing that anyone who works in communications aspires to achieve, and that is newsjacking. 

Newsjacking in simple terms is ‘the practice of aligning a brand with a current event in an attempt to generate media attention and boost the brand's exposure’.

Here at Down At The Social, would you believe it when we say the combination of the perfect storm, a man live-streaming from Heathrow Airport and a can of pale-ale successfully led to us hijacking the news agenda? Well batten down the hatches because this is the story of Big Jet TV and Beartown Brewery. 

Storm Eunice really got everyone talking and, during it, nothing gripped the nation and united us more than Big Jet TV. 

As hundreds and thousands of Brits were gripped to Big Jet TV’s live stream of planes attempting to land at Heathrow Airport, an idea was born…it was a Friday afternoon and suddenly it all made sense. Could we create a limited-edition can commemorating the occasion?  

After a very blustery phone call with Joe Manning, managing director of Beartown Brewery, an independent brewer based in Congleton, Cheshire, who just so happens to be one of our most beloved clients, the wheels were set in motion and he was off to brief his designer on creating a special can to commemorate the occasion - introducing ‘Big Jet TV’ - a stormy pale ale. 

We got the mock-up of the can at about 5pm and quickly drafted a news alert, we also got it straight on social media and started a conversation going - and would you believe it, Big Jet TV started talking about it! 

By Monday morning, coverage had landed everywhere and social media was a buzz, with people asking could we sell the cans…well after another conversation with Joe, we launched a limited-edition run of them which sold out in under 30 minutes and actually crashed the website! 

Joseph Manning, managing director of Beartown Brewery said: “What a day, what a storm, and what a time to be alive to watch that epic broadcast from Big Jet TV. I should have guessed I’d get a call from the ‘Creative One’ from Down At The Social asking if we could do a special can, it’s just been amazing to see the reception to it.  We’d like to dedicate this special can of pale ale to the absolute heroic nature of keeping the nation gripped. Nothing has united us more than watching those jets land safely, so cheers to you Jerry and Big Jet TV.” 

The Big Jet TV Beartown story achieved 8 pieces of coverage and an overall reach of 953 million, we also grew the social following of Beartown Brewery by 1,270 followers (an 11% growth!) in just 7 days - with social reach up by a staggering 780% percentage on all platforms across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. 

The Beartown Brewery story began in 1632, when Congleton, a town in Cheshire, sold its bible to buy a Bear.  From that day forward Congleton was given a new name, Beartown.

Beartown Brewery was officially born in 1994, and blossomed in a world of cask beer – the pinnacle of craft brewing and has over the decades added bottles, cans and kegs to the range. Regardless of beer style or vessel, the one thing that runs through the core of all Beartown Brewery beers, is quality craftsmanship and flavours.

World Book Day: Our Favourite Books

Yes, we are aware that for people with kids, World Book Day can be just another day of running around trying to keep your child (and their school!) happy…

But we thought, why not flip it around this year? Adults are allowed to have fun too (we think?!)

(Disclaimer: This seems like a good time to tell you - don’t worry, we haven’t got the team to dress up as their favourite book characters).

So, what did we do? We asked the DATS team to revisit their favourite book of all time, and tell us a bit about why it’s so special to them. We wanted them to take a break from the work, the clients, and the world of marketing, and to focus on them (for 5 minutes at least!).

So here we go, here are the team’s favourite reads, complete with links for you to buy them, if you find yourself inspired by our recommendations… 

Verity (Account Manager)

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

“My favourite book is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. An immensely dark yet intelligent thriller that draws you in with a mix of sharp-edged wit and a gripping plot line - making it my all time favourite thriller.”

Emily (Director & Head of Influence)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

“The Great Gatsby, to me, will always be one of my most beloved books. Set in the roaring 20’s, we are introduced to the ideology of the ‘American Dream’ - the orgastic future that year by year recedes us. It was a story that always resonated with me, that despite his lowly social standing, Gatsby transcended into wealth and status - all whilst retaining his humility and above all, his open heart - something which unfortunately would be his undoing. Just like Gatsby, I think we all do believe in the green light, that anyone from anywhere can make it if we get a lucky break, “so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Emma (Account Executive)

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

“My all-time favourite book is American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I've read several of Ellis' books and whilst I love Less than Zero and Rules of Attraction, the disturbing and unpredictable narrative of American Psycho had me hooked. The novel follows Patrick Bateman, a narcissistic serial killer in New York, who is obsessed with material wealth. American Psycho is a true case of gore soaked in glamour, proving to be addictively repulsive. I love it!”

Lucy (Creative & Social Media Executive) 

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolizer

“My favourite book I’ve read in recent years is The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolizer. It’s a feminist novel about a young woman trying to figure out who she is, and who she is supposed to be in the world.

I saw a lot of myself in the character of Greer but I also liked how it was spread over many years and followed her career and personal life. We could really understand who she Is as a person and how she grows throughout the book.” 

Reuben (Social Media Manager) 

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

“I feel a bit like the odd-ball at the party: everyone has these classic works of fiction and I have the most matter-of-fact, ruthless book in existence on here. But I probably learnt that from the book. I haven’t read much fiction since I was a kid - I’m one of those annoying people who finds there are enough great stories out there in the real world to keep my mind occupied. As a 19-year-old drifting along aimlessly through life, this book changed my life as soon as I dived in. It’s chapters are full of controversial advice, harsh realities and ruthless perspective. But, if like me, you’re curious about the dark arts that govern much of our daily life, it’s obligatory reading.”

Daisy (Managing Director & Founder) 

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

“So, my favourite book is Atlas Shrugged By Ayn Rand - it sort of goes against everything I believe in because she’s a conservative and developed objectivism from it. But it’s a really interesting take on a dystopian society and where we could all end up.”

Superbowl - DATS - Top 10: This Year’s Superbowl Ads Ranked By Us

Each year, teams around the world are given the biggest budgets, the biggest stage and the biggest brief in the world of marketing; create a Superbowl ad. 

Work on Superbowl adverts (or commercials, as the Americans say) begins up to a year before the ad actually airs. Brands pay in excess of $5m for just 30 seconds of airtime, making it some of, if not the most, expensive and valuable TV real estate in the world. 

Marketing agencies, like ourselves here at DATS, also have a crucial part to play. The sheer scale, expectation and deliverables that come with embarking on a Superbowl campaign are so intense, that almost all brands will defer to a highly-esteemed agency to do the work for them. As an agency ourselves (we’re yet to do a Superbowl ad!), we thought it would be fun to rank our team’s favourite picks from this year’s lineup. 

In 2022, all successful Superbowl ads have a few things in common; 

• They must evoke emotion, just like any other good piece of marketing

• They must position and engrain the brand and their products into that emotion, enough so that people remember it the morning after

• They must be relatable to the viewer; they need a point of familiarity so they can feel involved.

• They must facilitate easy follow-up and buzz on social media

So we’ve included the following criteria in our rankings; 

• Emotion Score

• Product Positioning Score

• Relatability Score

• Social Media Score

So, lets get started!...

10. Planters - Mixed Nuts: Feed The Debate (VaynerMedia)

For this year’s #BigGame, Planters created a clever promo for their Mixed Nuts snacks. They recruited stars Joel McHale and Ken Jeong, who both recently starred in the cancelled-too-soon TV Show, “Community” together. They started a debate about their product which may well continue for viewers at home, poked fun at America’s instinctive tribalism, and used celebrities to make the ad relatable, emotive and highly shareable on social media. 

Emotion: 6/10

Product Positioning: 8/10

Relatability: 7/10

Social Media: 7/10

Final grade: 7/10

9. ClickUp - The Declaration: Stop working like it’s 1776 (ClickUp)

On ClickUp’s website, they say “One major thing that sets ClickUp apart from other productivity platforms is definitely our sense of humour,” and they nailed that message home with this year’s Superbowl Ad (their first venture into advertising during the #BigGame).

They nailed their value proposition home by recreating the Declaration of Independence, but with a twist. One of the founding fathers had lost some crucial documents, and only when ClickUp offered a solution, was America saved. They also followed their ad up with a great social media competition which extended the campaign’s value. 

Emotion: 8/10

Product Positioning: 8/10

Relatability: 5/10

Social Media: 9/10

Final Grade: 7.5

8. Mcdonalds - Can I Get Uhhhhh (Wieden&Kennedy) 

This year, Mcdonalds chose to hone in on what is, perhaps, the most relatable element of the McDonalds experience: The Drive Through. They conjured up a very meme-worthy catch phrase, had a surprise appearance from Kanye West, and drove home the (quite true) message that picking your McDonalds order is no easy feat for anyone. They followed it up with a simple but effective blurb on Youtube & social media which just said “yes u can”. 

Emotion: 5/10

Product Positioning: 8/10

Relatability: 10/10

Social Media: 9/10

Final Grade: 8/10

7. Crypto Com - The Moment of Truth (SpringHill)

If there was one thing that defined this year’s Superbowl ad landscape, it was Crypto adverts.

They were everywhere, which is not surprising. Trading platform crypto.com separated themselves from the pack with a simple but effective ad that encapsulated the crypto ethos; futuristic, risk-taking, ambitious and fun. They gave the viewer some great relatability by creating a CGI, 2003-era, Lebron James, who meets current day Lebron James and they both have a conversation about the future. The ad also had a viral reception on Twitter, a place packed full of crypto fans and Lebron James fans.

Emotion: 6/10

Product Positioning: 8/10

Relatability: 10/10

Social Media: 9/10

Final Grade: 8.25/10

6. Alexa - Mind Reader (Lucky Generals)

What’s more relatable than Amazon’s Alexa chirping up at the wrong time? Even if you don’t own one yourself, I’m sure, by this point, you’ve seen someone get angry with an Alexa because it’s just TOO responsive. Well, the team at Amazon did a great job of poking fun at people’s worries about AI, by creating a scenario in which Alexa could read a couple’s minds. That couple just happened to be everyone’s favourite; Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost. 

Emotion: 7/10

Product Positioning: 10/10

Relatability: 9/10

Social Media: 7/10

Final Grade: 8.5/10

5. Squarespace - Everything to Sell Anything (Squarespace)

One of the surprise runaway hits from this year’s set of Superbowl ads, we didn’t see one person complain about Squarespace’s ad. Through simple storytelling, clever celebrity leveraging (Zendaya and Andre 3000 are the perfect pull right now) and some great choreography. The ad’s clever use of alliteration aligns Squarespace and alliteration together in viewer’s minds, meaning they don’t just remember the ad, they remember the brand and their products too. 

Emotion: 7/10

Product Positioning: 9/10

Relatability: 9/10

Social Media: 9/10

Final Grade: 8.5/10

4. FTX - Don’t Miss Out (DentsuMB)

Another crypto highlight, the exchange and trading platform, FTX, found a clever way to poke fun at the Crypto sceptics and dooms-dayers.

Who better to recruit for the idea than the king of cynicism himself, Larry David? (If you’ve ever watched Curb Your Enthusiasm, you know what we mean!). The ad places Larry at crucial points in human history, and has him make momentous, sceptic decisions that result in catastrophe. At the end, he’s is told about FTX and crypto, and reacts in a similar way. The ad simply ends with one message; ‘Don’t be like Larry.’ 

Emotion: 7/10

Product Positioning: 10/10

Relatability: 8/10

Social Media: 10/10

Final Grade: 8.75/10 

3. Michelob Ultra - Welcome to the Superior Bowl (Wieden&Kennedy)

Michelob Ultra is a rising star in the world of lite beer, and has been treated as such by parent company Anheuser-Busch (who also owns Superbowl favourite Budweiser) with over four minutes of spend totalling over $30M.

Michelob’s ad uses a clever combination of nostalgia, starpower and aesthetic to create an ad you could watch over and over. The ad has a 70s theme running throughout and features multiple callbacks to classic films like The Big Lebowski (they even have Serena Williams turn up in an outfit from the movie as a surprise at the end). With a star-studded cast from Peyton Manning to Steve Buscemi, this is ad is so well executed, everyone wants to tell everyone about it. Not just because it subtly raises some great points about gender equality in sports. 

Emotion: 8/10

Product Positioning: 8/10

Relatability: 10/10

Social Media: 10/10

Final Grade: 9/10

2. Liquid Death: Breaking The Law (Liquid Death)

It’s basically a beer ad. But for water. And that’s why it’s so effective. We’d never heard of Liquid Death, the rockstar water brand from the US, until this ad. But it’s so daring, so shocking, and ridiculous that everyone was locked into it from beginning to end.

This is a brand who’s self-aware about their products, unique in how they market them and isn’t afraid to push the envelope in any direction. The ad is on its way to going viral and has completely divided the online audience. Some people are still laughing. Some mums are furious. But they’re all still feeling the emotion from the ad 48 hours later.

A huge win for a fairly small company, with an even smaller creative team, who must be grinning after scoring higher in ratings than most big agencies did. 

Emotion: 10/10

Product Positioning: 10/10

Relatability: 8/10

Social Media: 10/10

Final Grade: 9.5/10

1. Coinbase - QR Code (Coinbase)

Each year, there is normally an ad that is completely clear of the rest of the field. Someone who has thought completely outside of the box for their campaign and ends up shocking everyone. This year, that was Coinbase. Coinbase basically did…. Nothing with their ad. And they didnt just buy a 15 second slot. They played it for a minute. Watch it and see what you think for yourself, we don’t want to ruin it for you.

Just know that their website crashed instantly from the amount of traffic it got them. And social media went insane. Other brands scrambled to jump on the hype train and make replica ads of their own. This tweet sums it up perfectly:

Literally $0 of production costs & @coinbase just won the Super Bowl.

— Alex Lieberman (@businessbarista) February 14, 2022

Emotion: 10/10

Product Positioning: 10/10

Relatability: 10/10

Social Media: 10/10

Final Grade: 10/10

The History of Valentine's Day

Love & marketing…

The roots of Valentine’s Day stretch all the way back to Ancient Rome and a courtship and matchmaking festival which took place each year on the 15th of February. However, legend has it that when St. Valentine was executed on the 14th of February, 278 A.D. he wrote a letter to his lover and signed it “From Your Valentine”, and sometime after the festival was moved from the 15th of February to the 14th to honour St. Valentine. 

But that was not the Valentine’s Day we have become so familiar with today. 

Historians believe that Valentine’s Day began to be romanticised by classic authors like William Shakespeare in the the 1600s, in works like Hamlet and Sonnet 18. 

But, of course, it wasn’t until our friends the Americans began to run with the idea of Valentine’s Day in the 1800s that we saw it turn into its modern incarnation. 

1822: On English shores, in 1822, British chocolate company Cadburys sells the first ever heart shaped box for Valentine’s day.

1847: It’s believed that one American woman, Esther Howland, was so intrigued by a Valentine’s greeting from an English lover, that she fell in love with the idea of bringing the idea to the U.S. She was an early entrepreneur, and perhaps the first person to envisage a mainstream market for Valentine’s day cards. 

1849: Howland produces a sample of a dozen Valentine’s Day cards, hoping to make $200. Instead, she makes 25X that, proving for the first time the widespread demand for Valentine’s day products. 

1866: New England Confectionary Company (NECCO) are the first sweet producer to dye words onto confectionary for Valentine’s Day. 

1948: By this point, Valentine’s Day cards have become a huge market in the US, with multiple card producers competing with each-other for the demand. To set themselves apart, De Beers diamond company runs a “Diamonds are forever” campaign that encourages people to buy jewelery as a Valentine’s Day gift.

1985: Card producer Hallmark begins to set itself apart from competitors, spending huge money on Valentine’s Day commercials throughout the 80s. 

1986: Hershey’s Chocolate begin packaging their Hersey’s kisses in pink and red foil, making them a Valentine’s day staple. 

2005: Valentine’s day goes digital: On February 14th, Youtube, which originated as an online dating site, debuts on the internet. Co-founder Steve Chen still credits its invention as the brainchild of “three guys on Valentine’s Day that had nothing to do”. 

2013: Ride-sharing company Uber rolls out its “romance on demand” campaign, allowing users to send flowers on Valentine’s Day via their app. 

2017: NetBase, a social media analytics platform, releases a Valentine’s Day Sentiment Analysis report, detailing how people engage with the holiday online. In total, it measured nine million mentions of the #HappyValentinesDay alone. 

Sign up to our newsletter to get more interesting insights into key marketing dates, and check out @prshopmcr on Instagram or sign up for a free trial at www.prshop.co.uk to know how to implement those insights into a campaign of your own.

We're hiring!

PR & social job roles

Join our team NOW!

2021 was a beast of a year for us, with our best turnover and profit ever, so we’re on the hunt for new PR and social pros to join our passionate and hard-working team.`

We are keen to meet PR and social media people of all levels and are particularly interested in:

• PR manager

• Senior account exec

• Digital PR exec

• Digital PR manager

• Social media exec

New team members will work across national brands such as Skinny Lager, Chopstix, KBK and Native whilst also delivering campaigns for regional and national hotel brands, consumer events from London to Glasgow and restaurant brands from Vapiano to Dylan's.

We believe that traditional and digital PR and social media all thrive best together so our teams are fully integrated, working together on accounts to get the best results for our clients.

Qualities we look for are:

• a thirst for generating results

• a passion for building great relationships with clients, media, influencers and everyone else that we work with

• At least four years experience in a PR agency or similar role (managers)

• a drive to build creative and effective campaigns

• a love of working in a team

• a thorough knowledge of the media

• experience of the full suite of PR and social techniques

• keep up to date with industry trends, practices and developments (digital industry, clients’ industry and agency industry)

• able to multi-task with excellent organisational skills, allowing them to manage their own time and workload

Why work at DATS?

• 22 days holiday and your birthday off.

• Wellbeing and mental health support via Spectrum.Life

• Inclusion in a company wide profit share bonus

• Pension scheme

• A brilliant social life with regular team get togethers and events

• Training and support across all levels of the business

• The opportunity for everyone to be involved in planning the future of the business

• We are offering a bonus contribution of 5% of the salary for successful candidates who start before March.

PR manager

The guardian of our day to day campaigns and planners. Planning workflow and working closely with the director to ensure that our output is always the best it can be.

The manager organises monthly meetings, manages clients day to day, leads campaigns, runs budgets and is always one step ahead with an eye on what’s next.

They are our media guru, writing releases, finding media hooks and selling in.

Quality control is embedded in everything they do and they are nurturing in their approach to coaching and training. They continuously work to ensure that the PR and social teams are working together.

Their main goal is ensuring that we have happy clients and a productive team!

We are looking for someone with solid agency experience.

Account exec

Our account execs are all about the coverage. Creating media lists, reading media, writing, selling in and looking for opportunities.

They know all the best influencers and are always on the hunt for the newest ones! They’re organised - saving coverage, evaluating it and reporting it back to clients.

Their main goal is delivering brilliant coverage for all clients.

Digital PR exec

Our digital PR execs develop and manage the delivery of digital publicity campaigns. They work with the PR and social teams to deliver truly integrated

campaign outcomes for clients that include on and offline PR activity. They work closely with key journalists, bloggers and other media influencers, growing and maintaining their own little black book.

They are responsible for digital PR initiatives and online community management for multiple clients, across a range of industries. They work with the digital and traditional teams to plan and implement digital PR campaigns in line with clients’ business goals.

Regularly research and source partners/influencers, create relationships and maintain a database of online and offline contacts.

Use search and insight tools to support campaigns.

Plan, source and evaluate content for multiple social media platforms.

Work across internal teams to collaborate on creative ideas, online strategy and PR opportunities.

Develop client communications plans with schedules, priorities, responsibilities and briefs; identifying key influencers and channels that will increase the client’s online visibility and support business goals.

Digital PR manager

Our digital managers are highly creative, taking the lead with the creation and delivery of content and stories.

They lead the production of data-led stories, creative campaigns, reactive PR, in-depth opinion pieces and thought leadership. Plus they identify relevant opportunities to feed stories to journalists with the aim of securing coverage and, ultimately, links to boost our clients’ SEO performance. 

They lead the way in their field in SEO and content creation. They are the guardian of our client relationships ensuring that ideas, results and everything in between is clearly communicated internally and externally.

They are proactive and innovative both for DATS and our clients, always looking for ways to use digital PR techniques to help them grow. They are our media gurus, building strong relationships with journalists, whilst delivering and gaining coverage with their teams.

They live to monitor and report success.

Quality control is embedded in everything they do and they are nurturing in their approach to coaching and training. They continuously work to ensure that the PR and social teams are working together.

Their main goal is ensuring that we have happy clients and a productive team!

Social media exec

Our execs are the agency’s key content creators. Designing artwork and writing copy.

They love all things social - always ahead of the curve with the latest trends and channels with experience with Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram and Tik Tok.

They spend their days writing and creating plans and managing channels.

They support DATS marketing and work together to run the agency’s social channels.

Their main goal is to confidentially achieve the growth and engagement that meet our clients’ goals.

2022 Trends

1. Potato milk

Potato milk, coming to a latte near you soon! We’ve all seen the boom in alternative milks - visit any independent coffee shop or even the well-known chains and you will find options aplenty. 

Oat milk has been the one we’ve all gone crazy for in 2021, but here comes the humble potato to shake things up. 

According to Veg of Lund, the Swedish brand behind Dug, the potato-based drink is made through a patented method of blending and emulsion of potatoes and rapeseed oil, a technique developed by Professor Eva Tornberg at Lund University in Sweden.

The blend is "deliciously creamy, makes perfect foam in coffee, works just like any other milk”.

Not only that, potato milk is highly sustainable! Growing potatoes is twice as land-efficient as growing oats and has far smaller climate footprint than dairy milk and requires a whopping 56 times less water than growing almonds. We’re sold. 

2. Sustainability 

Following COP26, a number of significant declarations were made to help the people directly affected by and leading the way in the fight against climate change. With this in mind, 2022 will be all about us working together to make changes, from reducing our meat consumption, reducing plastic waste, shopping local, consuming what’s in season and sustainable travel. 

3. Supper Clubs 

A supper club refers to an underground restaurant, a home bistro, a guerilla dinner, a pop-up or even anti-restaurant.

These have been incredibly popular as of late and the trend is set to continue into 2022, with people looking for more unique and intimate dining experiences. 

4. NFTs

With Boohoo Man recently launching a full NFT collection of three-dimensional clothing including T-shirts, outerwear, tracksuits and hoodies, it comes as no shock that NFTs will dominate in 2022. NFTs are digital works that cannot be replicated, which until now have been more often used by luxury brands. This however is all set to change...

5. Tequila 

Perhaps one of the greatest comebacks of all time, tequila is set to be the alcohol of choice in 2022. Nearly 80% of retailers plan on stocking more tequila next year and if all goes well, tequila is actually set to outsell vodka! 

6. Tik Tok 

The Tik Tok phenomenon is set to continue in 2022, with the platform looking to move into more educational and editorial content. This move will see Facebook and it’s Metaverse absolutely terrified and could cause a real shake up in the social media publishing world. 

7. Cold Water Swimming 

Call us crazy for recommending this as a trend, but actually cold water swimming has a number of health benefits attached to it! 

It can boost your immune system, gives you a natural high, improves circulation, burns calories and reduces stress! Yes, it will not be pleasant, but the rewards will be plentiful. 

8. Mob Kitchen 

The power of Mob Kitchen shows no signs of slowing down, in fact we predict the social media phenomenon will go even bigger in 2022.

Starting off as a how-to guide to cook, Mob Kitchen is now a forced to be reckoned with and works with some big name brands. Gone are the days of BBC Good Food and Nigella, this is quick and easy videos that can help you become a culinary genius. 

9. Hibiscus 

Hibiscus is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae and something that is set to be big in 2022. Starbucks have already started doing a hibiscus iced tea and believe it or not, hibiscus is known as ’natures botox’ and can be super firming and full of antioxidants and Vitamin C. So what are you waiting for, go grab a cup of hibiscus tea and enjoy the benefits. 

DATS in 2021

January

In January, we joined forces with Simon Wood to help feed families in need, through our campaign ‘Feeding Families with Simon Wood’. 

We found ourselves outraged by the failure to provide children with substantial meals, something they would receive if they were in school, but due to the current lockdown restrictions they went without. We were also incredibly inspired by the work of Marcus Rashford and his continued fight to ensure that children across the UK were fed. 

Joining forces with acclaimed Masterchef champion, Simon Wood, we went on to showcase what £30 worth of food from a supermarket should actually look like, compared to the free school meal parcels provided by the government and hopefully held them to account and make them do better in the future.

FeedingFamiliesFor30 invited people to show what £30 of food really looks like when done properly, buying dried goods, tinned produce and essentials from a supermarket of their choice and donating the goods to a local food bank. 

Simon Wood also created a series of quick and tasty recipes which used dried goods and tinned produce, so that families can easily make them at home. An absolute masterpiece was the Spam Biryani. 

February 

Our client, Chopstix Noodle Bars loves to think outside the box and so do we! Due to lockdown restrictions, Chinese New Year 2021 was cancelled. With this in mind, and taking inspiration from the viral Tik Tok cooking videos making the rounds, we worked with them to create the first ever pizza made in a wok! 

The recipe allowed people to celebrate the occasion from the comfort and safety of their own homes and also showcasing the Chopstix brand as fun, quirky and tasty. 

March

Led by a team of women, Diablesse Rum, is an independent female-owned rum brand based in Manchester, disrupting the landscape of a predominantly male rum industry.

For International Women's Day in March 2021, with the country in lockdown and IWD events forced online, we worked with Diablesse Rum and Manchester-based illustrator and graphic designer, Alexandra Francis, to create two limited edition prints of two inspirational women, past and present.

Featuring Kamala Harris and Emmeline Pankhurst, the prints were designed in the IWD colours of purple, green and white, seeing all proceeds going to The Pankhurst Trust.

Alongside the prints, female mixologist Sammie Cox has designed three International Women’s Day Diablesse cocktails, with each one representing the IWD colours and meanings. Plus, in collaboration with Femme Forward, male & female bartenders from around the UK were invited to post their own Diablesse white, purple and green cocktails on social on the day to honour the occasion. The perfect tipples to toast International Women’s Day and powerful females doing great things. 

April 

Have you even worked in PR in the North West if you haven’t had a client in Blackpool?

April saw us  appointed to work with ART B&B an exciting new boutique art hotel at the heart of the resort.

The hotel, which was set to launch in early 2020, was shut for the majority of 2020 and 2021 following an initial soft opening period and was ready to welcome guests and make a huge splash.

That’s where we came in.

The work we have done was to clarify and refine the positioning for the hotel and how to describe its very unique position in the Blackpool accommodation market. 

The hotel features 30 rooms designed by 30 different contemporary artists, it has suites with bars in and incredibly comfy beds right on the famous sea front.

May

May saw us put down our roots into a permanent office in Manchester City centre! We took up residence in the Treehouse at Buffalo 7, a great place for us to work and meet. 

June 

June saw a great win for our SOCIAL division, we welcomed Kampus to our portfolio. 

Kampus is a vibrant new neighbourhood in Manchester’s city centre, a collection of old and new buildings offers a melting pot of architectural styles and builds on a rich cultural heritage, making use of historic buildings that lay derelict for years, right next to the famous Canal Street in Manchester’s Gay Village and just minutes from Piccadilly Station.

We started working with Kampus in June 2021, from here we have helped them build a loyal, engaged and inclusive community online to reflect their growing community of residents. In under six months with Kampus, we have almost doubled their Instagram following which is now 7,200+ people strong. 

Through the creation and implementation of expert social media strategy and consistent account management, Kampus now reaches over 4,000 individual accounts each week. We have grown reach significantly on Facebook and Twitter despite the challenge of those channels being less visual-centric than Instagram. What’s more, we’re proud to say we have built a healthy and sustained engagement rate of 2-5%, which is way above the average for a brand on Instagram.

July 

July saw us solidify our London operation with a national launch for Islington-based disruptive wine bar, Bar Liber. The venue, which promises to make wine fun again with signature services such as the £100 cocktail The Empire Punch, appointed us to handle PR and social to promote on a regional and national level to consumer and trade media.

Bar Liber’s Empire Punch is the first full recreation of the infamous amazing wine cocktail in many decades. Sourced from Harry Johnson’s seminal Bartenders Manual, first published in the 1880’s, a combination of liqueurs, wine and Champagne including Hennessy Paradis Imperial Cognac, Dom Perignon 2010 Champagne, Patricius 6 Puttonyos Tokaji, Blandy’s 1980 Serical Madeira and Chateau Lafite 2008, the Empire Punch is worth a staggering £5k, and will be made in specialist batches, costing £100 per serving.

August

We were so happy to work on delivering an in person Manchester Pride Festival in 2021.

This saw us continue the vital work we do in raising the profile of the charity and working with media and influencers to keep the conversation about equality and inclusion moving forwards.

We announced that the festival was happening in February to give everyone time to digest the plan and then last Thursday at 9am tickets went on sale. 

The weekend rainbow passes to Manchester Pride Live sold out in less than an hour! 

September 

Clementine’s, is a newly renovated boutique hotel situated in the heart of York. We were tasked with creating a full-scale PR campaign in September to raise awareness of the hotel, making sure to highlight its quirkiness. 

Blending classic art with modern-day mischief, Clementine’s sees cheeky interior touches, where Parisian chic meets Yorkshire heritage. So, what did we do to stand out in the hotel market?

Looking to pay homage to the iconic Chocolate Orange, we worked with Clementine’s to create a dedicated Chocolate Orange hotel suite!

The aptly named Chocolate Orange Room gives chocolate orange lovers the chance to indulge in a chocolate paradise with the room, including chocolate orange-themed gifts upon arrival.

A series of themed chocolate cocktails were also created by Clementine’s in-house mixologist, with Chocolate Orange Daiquiris and After Eight Mojitos available via room service, or to be sipped in the hotel bar, providing guests with the full chocolate experience. 

It all started with a very fun and slightly cheeky photoshoot at Clementine’s. Our wonderful model looked to recreate a scene from the cult-classic American Beauty, covered in orange rose petals. 

The campaign was met with rapturous applause from the press with one journalist describing it as ‘Genius PR’. 

October 

Something wicked this way comes! 

We were so pleased to be working with The Spooktacular in October, a Halloween fairground in Silverburn, Glasgow featuring a ton of spooky rides and surprises. 

November

November saw us get not one, but TWO new alcohol clients! 

First up, Skinny Lager, a 4% ABV lager with only 89 calories per bottle! Not to mention it’s also gluten-free and vegan-certified. 

Putting the bear in beer, Beartown Brewery was born out of Congleton in 1994, blossoming in the world of cask beer. Over the years they have evolved with the market, adding bottles, cans and kegs to their range.

December

Rockin around the DATS Christmas tree, looking back at 2021 is really quite something! From new team members, new clients and of course some epic campaigns. We have so much more in store for 2022, the question is, world, are you ready?