Personally, the main reason I believe most brands and services fall short in social media campaigns is because agencies carry over the ATL mentality of running a 14 week hit and run campaign. Why does it fail? Simple, ATL is quantitative marketing, constantly flood the market with short bursts of witty and memorable ads to enhance brand awareness and yes, you will experience a sales rollercoaster of spikes and depressing troughs. On the other hand, social media is about qualitative marketing – the power to humanize a brand, build a long term relationship with the consumers and generate brand advocacy – as Kevin Roberts famously quotes – ‘Builds loyalty that goes beyond reason.’ Evidently, it is completely incompatible to exercise ATL principles on BTL channels.

A perfect example of this is one of my all time favourite snacks - the Picnic bar

I’ve being a long time fan of the Picnic chocolate bar, those delicious layers of crispy wafers, nougat and peanuts ensconced in a luxurious coat of velvety chocolate (free plug, all Cadbury reps, feel free to send samples ;). It is the kind of confectionary that chef Anthony Bourdain will conceptualise as ‘delicious’ but not before adding a string of expletives to complement it… as you would to anything you love dearly

So yes, you can imagine my delight when the marketing heads at Cadbury decided to launch Picnic into the social media landscape. How was the initial execution?

FANTASTIC!

The campaign’s catch phrase ‘Deliciously Ugly’ is witty and memorable. To launch a microsite that focused on a flash game where players can create their own Lucha Libre character and wrestle against other competitors for points and glory was a brilliant idea. It was addictive, it spread quicker than sun lotion in January and most importantly, for the pointy heads at Cadbury, the campaign captured vital user information (name, email, age etc) by running a great CPA campaign that appealed to our interests.

Tragically, the campaign ended in 3 months, the microsite was taken off and the only whimper of communication between the brand and the Picnic members was an initial sign up email notifying that my wrestler La Chupa Mejor will be dishing out the pain on all those who oppose his awesomeness.

It’s disappointing to see a campaign start on such a strong premise yet melt away to a chocolaty mess. How could Picnic run it more effectively?

Personally, I’m heavily invested in the idea that a great social media campaign is a 4 stage process

Awareness -> Interaction -> Engagement -> Retention

And whilst clichéd, it is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain, which in this campaign were definitely engagement and retention.

Engagement & Retention

The key here is to constantly create touch points allowing Picnic consumers to interact and engage with, once these touch points become a relevant and frequent part of people’s lives, it automatically generates loyalty and retention.

• Integrate the campaign – The buzz should ultimately culminate at the site, BUT it needed greater online presence. The importance of social media is not about invading every channel, but synergizing the channels that can best deliver your message. Think word of mouth proliferation through a Facebook fan page, alerting users with instant Tweets, humour members with Lucha Libre videos and user submissions on Youtube. That said, it is pivotal to provide a widgets that allow users to easily access these channels.

• Converse – The hardest and most expensive thing to do online is to build and sustain a following. Picnic has already climbed that hill by collecting member details. That database represents the perfect window to start a dialogue and build a relationship. Don’t just sit on it.

• Lets the users do the talking – Delicious by the Deliciously Ugly could be a blog that encourages user generated content. Encourage conversation by competitions, best comment of the week and interesting topics such as ‘Best way to eat a Picnic Bar’ or ‘Your most deliciously ugly photo’. The key here is for the brand to start and (within reason) moderate the conversation, but always give your consumers the power to drive it.

• Continue to humanise the brand – What Lucha Libre has done is build Picnic’s image as light hearted and funny. Akin to Red Bull’s association with all things cool and hip, this becomes the crux of Picnic’s personality, a representation of the brand that its members have come to love. Foster and develop this niche image, the next series can be to sponsor a comedy circuit, run a campaign such as ‘Most cream pies in the face’ challenge or ‘Add another ingredient to the Picnic’ competition