Cerebra

Social media is an integral ingredient of any integrated communication campaign. It can serve to highlight and improve the effectiveness of all other aspects of your campaign, especially if it has been incorporated from the start.

But how do we get the most out of this remarkable and dynamic mix? Easy, just follow the recipe:

Ingredients:

• All the teams you can get your hands on (Digital, Advertising, Radio, PR, Activations, etc)
• One campaign (note: if you don’t have this on hand, it can easily be substituted with either a strategy, long-term goals or objectives)
• A healthy pinch of creativity
• Two spoonfuls of time
• An healthy supply of budget

Preparation:

• Be sure to remove all egos from the consultants involved – even the hint of ego has the potential to spoil the outcome.
• Mix time, budget and teams in a room. This needs to be done well in advance to get the best outcome.
• Once the initial ingredients are mixed, each team can look at their respective field of interests and contribute to the greater picture.
• At this point, value will be added and you will get buy-in from all parties involved.
• Sporadically inject creativity and the willingness to think outside the box to get the best out of the team.
• Mix these ingredients until there is clear direction, set outcomes and tasks.

Bake:

• Set the oven to 140 and see how the ingredients start interacting
• If all egos have been removed, this will lead to successful, creative engagements bubbling with ideas
• As the heat rises with the nearing deadline, ensure that all teams are on the same page.
• Note: each team will have their own tasks and outcomes, but the initial thorough mixing should allow each team to add value to the greater campaign.

Enjoy:

• Voila, you’ve just baked social media into an integrated communications campaign. Sit back and watch your hard work pay off
• Remember to do a report at the conclusion of the campaign, to highlight its failures, successes and learnings.