5. 7
Social Media landscape
The definition of being ‘Social’ in the traditional sense means relating to society or involving activi-
ties in which people spend time interacting with each other.
Ultimately, we are all very primal creatures who require social interaction and community support
to be able to survive and thrive.
A look into the evolution of social media from its early days until today provides an interesting per-
spective on how the trends and user behaviour have changed and where we might be going in this
space.
nected via a telephone modem. Only one person
could dial in and have access at any one time.
They were primarily used for community-con-
tributed file uploads/downloads and message
boards, online games and chatrooms.
During that time, many were strictly under-
ground and dedicated to warez (pirated soft-
ware), H/P (explicit hacking and phreaking infor-
mation discussions), anarchy (articles on fraud,
bomb-making, and drug chemistry), and virus
codes for download. Online pseudonyms were
the norm and real identities were well-guarded.
These rapidly lost popu-
larity in the mid-late 90s
– and today’s forums are
the equivalents of yes-
terday’s BBS.
The Evolution of Social Media
Of course, long before the Internet, people were
already social – from the Neanderthals to the
town crier to the first email sent in 1971, we have
always actively looked for ways to better share
information.
From 1971 to 2001, social media started with
one-to-one and moved to one-to-many interac-
tions via telephone modem to Internet Service
Providers connectivity. The form and function of
social media focused on message boards, blogs,
file sharing, chatrooms and news websites. Pro-
files and information were usually anonymous
or used pseudonyms. The following are some of
social networks that emerged during this period.
Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) ) were the first types
of social networks. The first BBS’s were private-
ly owned and utilised personal computers con-
HI!
HI!
1971 90’s 2000’s
First email sent One-to-one
interactions
One-to-many
interactions
6. 9
Commercial “online services” like CompuServe
and Prodigy rose in popularity alongside BBS
sometime from 1979. These were the first “cor-
porate” attempts at accessing the Internet for so-
cial networking and discussions. Later, AOL was
started as an online service as well and gained
great popularity and critical mass.
On August 6th, 1991, the World Wide Web be-
came publicly available. Private Internet Service
Providers (ISP) began operations around 1994,
giving home users access to unfiltered, unlimited
online experiences. Going forward, more varied
forms of social networks sprung up.
IRC, ICQ and Instant Messaging
IRC (Internet Relay Chat) was born in 1988 and
used for file sharing, link sharing and keeping in
touch. It was the precursor to instant messaging
but most people had limited access due to the
code base. ICQ started in the mid-90s and was
the first instant messaging program for PCs.
Peer-to-peer and “social” media sharing
Peer-to-peer file sharing applications (such as
Napster, Limewire, BitTorrent and The Pirate
Bay) went live starting in 1999. That marked a
significant shift of distribution power from com-
panies to consumers – but the legal challenges
of ‘too much sharing’ proved to be a major issue
for most of these firms.
Social Networking & Social News Websites
Launched in 1997, SixDegrees was the first social
networking site. It allowed people to create pro-
files and connect with friends. It was very popu-
lar, with about 1 million members at its peak, but
was shut down in 2001.
Bulletin Board Systems
1979
1994
1991
Commercial “online services”
Home users have online access
World wide web becomes public
CompuServe
Prodigy
AOL
File sharing
Message boards
Online games
Anarchy
instant
messaging
Friendster was the first of such modern social
networks. Friendster was a very active social
network which started sometime in 2002. With
over 90 million registered users at one point,
about 90% of Friendster’s traffic came from Asia.
Friendster’s model allowed people to discover
their friends, then friends - of - friends and so on
to expand their networks. Friendster had pretty
much run its course by 2009 and relaunched in
2011 as a gaming site.
Hi5 was another social network, established in
2003. Its profile model was based on a user’s
own contacts as well as second and third degree
contacts. Hi5 had a large user base in Asia, Latin
America and Central Africa. The network ceased
in 2011 when taken over by Tagged and has since
then been repositioned as a social gaming site.
LinkedIn was founded in 2003 and, amongst the
B2C appearance of social networks, was one of
the first social networks to focus on B2B. LinkedIn
is a professional network that connects its users
to people, jobs, news, updates and insights with
the goal of enabling professionals to excel in
what they do. With such an approach, LinkedIn
profiles are one of the most reliable.
Web 2.0 From 2000
The start of this century brought about major developments in social media and social networking.
Interactive, social web applications gained momentum. One-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-ma-
ny interactions are now available by choice. The power of engagement has gradually shifted to the
consumers. Profiles and user information have evolved to be representative of the true individual/
organisation instead of being an alias.
2000’s
Friendster
Hi5
LinkedIn
MySpace
Facebook
02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14
MySpace was founded in 2003 and, by 2006, had
grown to be the most popular social network in
the world. MySpace’s differentiation was that it
allowed users to customise their profiles. How-
ever, since 2008, it has lost membership and was
re-launched in 2013 with a strong focus on music.
Facebook started out as a Harvard-only social
network in 2004 and quickly expanded to other
schools, businesses and eventually every indi-
vidual in the world by 2006. In 2008, Facebook
overtook MySpace to become the most popular
social networking site globally. Whilst Facebook
does not allow the same kind of customization
as MySpace, it does, however, allow users to post
photos, videos and otherwise customize their
profile content, if not the design. Facebook has
continuously revamped its functionalities and al-
gorithms to maintain relevance and value added
to users’ lives. Its membership and engagement
with users continues to grow.
7. 11
Other social media sites
As social networking grew, niche sites started to appear for specific interest groups. There are now
social networks for every hobby, passion, interest, industry and group. Social media isn’t just limited
to social networking sites. Sharing photos, videos, and other multimedia content is also a popular
social media activity.
Photobucket became the first major photo sharing site
in 2003, allowing users to share photos publically or via
private password-protected albums. It also hosted video
content. In 2007, Photobucket was purchased by Fox Interac-
tive Media (a News Corporation subsidiary).
Flickr became a social network in its own right in 2004.
It allows users to create profiles, organize images
and video into photo sets/albums and share
them. Flickr is still active although it is not as
popular as it was previously.
YouTube, launched in 2005, was the first major
video hosting and sharing site. Users can upload
videos and share them by embedding them
through YouTube on other websites (social
networks, blogs, forums, etc.). YouTube’s major social
features include ratings, comments, and the option to
subscribe to the channels of a user’s favorite video
creators. It is still the most popular video sharing site
globally, and sits behind Google (its owner) as the
second busiest site on the Internet.
Instagram started in 2010, inspired by Foursquare
and Mafia Wars. It is a photo sharing social net-
working site that allows users to upload pictures,
‘tweak’ them and upload/share them with followers. Brands
have now come to Instagram, which is also developing more
advertising services.
Real Time Updates
With the introduction of
Twitter in 2006, real-time
status updates became
a popular social media
habit that extended to all
social networks. With the
exceptions of China and a
few other countries, Twitter
has become the cornerstone of most social me-
dia campaigns, creating a challenge for market-
ers as to whether to insource or outsource this
service going forward.
Posterous started in 2009 as a major microblog-
ging application. Users were able to post content
via email that could include photos, MP3s and
other file types. No initial signup was needed,
setting it apart from most other social media ser-
vices. However, it ceased operations in 2013.
Tumblr is a cross between a live streaming ap-
plication and a microblogging platform. Tumblr
was founded in 2007 and allows users to post
photos, video, text, audio, links, conversations,
and other content on blog-like sites. There are
mobile applications available for posting to
Tumblr, making it ideal for live streaming. Tum-
blr is well-suited for less technically adept users
as it is also very easy to use.
Social News and Bookmarking
Social news and bookmarking sites
popped up in the mid-2000’s and brought
about a whole new perspective on view-
ing what is going on in the world and dis-
covering interesting content.
From about 2003, news content became
widely available due to sites like Delicious,
Digg, and Reddit. They allowed users to
bookmark and share any interesting con-
tent they found with a much wider audi-
ence. They also enabled popular content to
be featured and viewed by its users, shap-
ing information consumption habits.
8. 13
So where are we moving next?
As can be seen from the above, social networks appear, evolve and disappear pretty quickly. The
ones that persist and survive are of value to users’ lives and are easy to use. With so much acceler-
ated growth and changes in social media in the past 10 years, where or what will social media be
moving forward? The following are some of our thoughts:
Social will be increasingly more mobile and
more social.
Social and mobile have a symbiotic relationship.
61% of smartphone users access social media on
their mobile devices. There has been an increase
in the monthly social media consumption via
smartphone apps or browsers instead of comput-
ers. Smartphones will likely kickstart activities
and therefore a mobile first strategy will proba-
bly work best.
The evolution of content & connectivity
Quality content that means something, is of rel-
evance or of entertainment value to people, will
be increasingly more important to engage with
consumers. A social media survey showed that
46% of respondents actively share content on
their profile, and that number is rising. The con-
tent shared usually helps address an issue or a
cause that people are passionate about or that
is humorous.
Content should not be approached in the iso-
lation of just marketing but should be seen
from the perspective of an entire organisation.
Content needs to be developed from a central
perspective and repurposed (not repeated) for
different functions/channels with the aim of en-
gaging users but with all stemming from a core
thought. When a user goes through a connected
experience, there is a unique but coherent and
multi-textured experience with the brand.
Visual stories will be increasing the content fo-
cus. This can be seen from the 300m photos up-
loaded onto Facebook every day with five times
higher engagement on visual content.
Mobile social ‘ecommerce’
With social media taking up more of consumers’
time, it makes sense to start monetizing or pro-
viding value of your products/services via social.
This does not mean that ‘monetising’ has to be fi-
nancially based; it could be a non-financial trade
that is deemed to be of value and relevance to
the customer.
Social to be more private
With the increase in cyberspace hacks and se-
curity breaches, consumers will be increasingly
concerned about their digital footprint. A social
media platform might be of more value and rel-
evance if it’s private. An example of this is Path,
a closed, private social network with a maximum
of 50 friends allowed.
Behaviour of users
The culture and people in a market are unique
to that market and none other. Social behaviour,
content and language are therefore unique and
specific to each market. Campaigns will need to
be more tailored to individual markets because
of user behaviour on social.
Marketing to segments
With social, it is about listening and understand-
ing the various groups of audiences to which you
have access. People are not homogenous and
social allows us to better understand that diver-
sity. However, reaching an audience means that
marketers need to be able and willing to review
their marketing to look at that audience’s inter-
ests and behaviour during a particular point in
time, essentially going back to old school seg-
mentation marketing. This, however, requires
dynamism and agility in marketing within the
organisation.
More B2B focused
Most social networks have been focused on B2C.
LinkedIn is probably one of the most popular
B2B social network globally. As usual, the B2B
segment is the unglamorous sibling, but it does
deserve some attention.
Some of the emerging social networks to watch
out for in 2014 focus on business, content and
commercialising/creating value for the content:
Pheed
Sulia
Thumb.it
ShareBloc
Medium
Chirp
Learnist
9. 15
Local Heroes
Global marketers also under-
stand that the world is not flat
– in some of the most important
markets, because of censorship
or due to local growth – Face-
book and Twitter are not the
universal defaults for social.
Russia VK, Odnoklassniki, My World
Launched in 2006, VK had a massive surge
during the Sochi 2014 Olympics and now boasts
over 239 million accounts. In Russia, Facebook
and Twitter rank fourth and fifth behind VK,
Odnoklassniki, My World and despite heavy fo-
cus and investment, have yet to make the same
inroads. Russians spend more than six hours a
month on Odnokassniki, more than any other so-
cial site.
Korea Naver, Daum, Cyworld and me2Day
In one of the most connected markets in the world, local com-
pany Naver has always been the default leader in search and
social – and with the launch of me2Day in 2011, it caught the
micro-blogging trend before Twitter could penetrate the market.
Cyworld, launched in 1999, was the pioneer in Korea in terms of
building communities and is still within the top five in terms of
profile.
China Weibo, WeChat. Taobao and Youku/Tudou
Because of censorship laws, few global social players are avail-
able in China. Local firm Tencent was the pioneer with QQ, which
was followed by rudimentary Facebook clones such as RenRen
and Kaixin. But it was the launch of Sina’s Weibo and, more re-
cently, Tencent’s WeChat, that set the social market alight. The
two of them combined have well over 500m users with plans to
grow globally in coming years.
Japan Mixi and 2ch
With the support of Softbank, Japan is Yahoo’s most successful
market outside of the US – but it still pales in comparison to Mixi,
which claims as much as 80% of all social traffic, and 2ch, which,
since 1999, has been one of the few to allow anonymous postings.
CHAPTER ONE
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Social media will continue to evolve to
be an increasingly significant part of ev-
ery aspect of consumers’ lives.
That means that it will be very much an
integral part of a marketer’s life in every
aspect of the marketing that they have
to deliver to their consumers.
The change will be dynamic and will re-
quire a constant watch of your consum-
ers’ behaviour and the current trends.
Marketers will need to keep up-to-date
and up-to-speed with their customers/
target audience. The Social 40 list show-
cases the social media companies who
have been helping clients reach out and
engage with their target audiences in
this space.
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
11. 19
Who owns social?
Uncertain Beginnings
For marketers who had already been grappling
with a diverse set of Digital channels, from email
to Search, the advent of Social Media presented
another layer of complexity. While it was clear
that consumers were taking to rapidly growing
social networks such as MySpace and their em-
brace of the music, fashion and other content
found on those networks was appealing to adver-
tisers, this burgeoning area remained somewhat
impenetrable. There was an inherent challenge
in getting access to insight and gaining real un-
derstanding of the emerging social networks and
user behaviour.
The growth of social networks meant there was
no question that marketers needed to pay atten-
tion – so they demanded that their agencies gain
the necessary expertise. They started engaging
specialist digital agencies, contacting the social
networks directly (often in Silicon Valley); even-
tually, they sought help from those who special-
ised in social media.
Moreover, a number of internal challenges ma-
terialised, forcing marketers to consider issues
such as which part of the business was best
placed to manage social media – PR or market-
ing departments? Where does the budget come
from to invest in establishing social media pres-
ences? What is its role in relation to other me-
dia channels? Many of these challenges persist
today, particularly as the complexity of engaging
with users intensifies in evolving social networks
with their constantly changing algorithms.
Identifying Frameworks
The consultancy, Altimeter, assessed how com-
panies organise for social media, observing that
most businesses were initially characterised by
some form of ‘social anarchy, siloed, uncoordi-
nated social efforts.’ However, they concluded
that the majority had started to move towards
adopting the ‘Hub and Spoke’ formation, partly
with the goal of providing centralised resources
to business units.
Most organisations are at an ‘intermediate’ stage,
leaving behind reliance on interns to manage
their social media activities, and have embarked
upon recruiting the right resource across their
business.
12. 21
Learning from Social Networks
Marketers have also turned to the major social
networks to learn how they might prepare for
and establish the right resource for engaging
with social media. Twitter, in particular, has been
assiduous in presenting to agencies and advertis-
ers not only information about its proposition but
also about the type of strategies that can be pur-
sued effectively. This has been developed under
the label of ‘Marketing in the Moment’ and en-
compasses the always on and real-time response
nature of the micro social network; thus, they
have helped marketers look at their social me-
dia strategy in the light of a set of key priorities:
Plan for always-on marketing moments.
Create a winning content calendar.
Plan for the best scenarios.
Expect the worst scenarios.
Speed can be a key differentiator.
Key Principles for Making Businesses Social
Social Media approaches developed in the Group Centres of large, global and complex organisa-
tions, ranging from FMCG brands to financial services, are useful guides to developing successful
strategies for social media. These types of organisations tend to focus on and be proficient in a num-
ber of areas that have major implications for how they conduct their business – they can be divided
into the following key principles:
Organisation
Bring people together, especially in complex or-
ganisations with multi-business divisions, varied
functions and different geographies, to collabo-
rate, share best practice and pursue joint initia-
tives. Regular meetings, internal social commu-
nications and work streams can be important
elements of achieving a collaborative approach
to social media.
Strategy
Develop a coherent and concerted strategy that
makes sense for the business and its desired con-
sumers while ensuring that it is relevant to the in-
dividual characteristics of each social network. In
fact, it is imperative to develop a specific strategy
for each social network, for example, LinkedIn,
that pays attention to its particular ecosystem.
Process
Establish processes and utilise the same type
of rigour that would be applied to other media
channels. This may encompass everything from a
register of all the company’s social network pres-
ences to employee guidelines on what can and
can’t be said in social media. Processes become
more critical within highly regulated industries,
such as financial services, where Compliance
and Legal involvement is a requirement
Content
Devise an approach to content pertinent to your
business requirements and brand personality
while being compelling for consumers. This can
be delineated and segmented according to the
needs of a target audience, encompassing com-
munications that range from sheer entertain-
ment to thought leadership pieces; above all, it
needs to match the characteristics of a given so-
cial network, whether the focus in on news feeds
or images.
Insight
Institute an approach to research and tools: met-
rics that are relevant to your business and the
tools to help deliver it. Measurement, covered
in more detail in the next chapter, is essential to
providing insights into target audiences, the type
of communications required and the success of
any activity. Identifying the right tools – from so-
cial media listening to content publishing – will
support the efficient and effective deployment of
marketing initiatives.
Investment
Plan for committed investment since social me-
dia should no longer be viewed as an adjunct to
PR activities or a footnote on a media schedule.
Along with the right type of expertise in social
teams to manage the tools and execute strategy,
there is an increasing need for ad spends to boost
activity within social networks such as Facebook.
13. 23
Culture
Ensure that the company is infused with the rec-
ognition that social media is an essential ele-
ment of doing business and communicating with
customers. Training, inspiration and often, simply
having access to social networks, are all part of
imbuing an organisation with behaviours and at-
titudes that will help it thrive in social media.
Talent
Identify people with the right specialist skills to
build effective social media teams. The roles re-
quired in-house can be diverse and include ex-
perts in content management, customer service,
technology and tools. Moreover, many compa-
nies see the merit in having a focal point and a
leader for their social media involvement.
Partners
Select the right partners since not everything can
be managed internally – nor would it be desir-
able or commercially viable to do so. These part-
ners can be part of existing arrangements (e.g.,
the media agency) or specialists providing need-
ed expertise or technology.
Innovation
Focus on innovation and future development to
keep in tune with the rapidly changing social me-
dia landscape: social networks are continually
changing, new tools are being developed and, of
course, new consumer behaviours are emerging.
The major social networks will work closely with
marketers and their agencies to help fashion rel-
evant social media strategies through initiatives
such as Facebook’s Publisher Garage and Twit-
ter’s Live Studio
Marketer Strategies for Social Media Participation
Marketers have been innovating and building teams in order to match the behaviours of their con-
sumers. Some notable examples are as follows:
Command Centre
Several brands have developed
command centres or news
rooms to exploit social media
during large events, such as
the World Cup or Super Bowl,
where they assemble a social
media team with the specific
task of posting topical and tac-
tical articles, photos and tweets.
Campaign
Jaguar established a war room
along with its agency, We Are
Social, during the 2014 Super
Bowl to post social content in
keeping with its ongoing ‘Vil-
lains’ advertising campaign.
Sponsorship
Adidas sought to enhance its World Cup spon-
sorship and embarked on a three-stage process:
first, Mobilisation by setting up a team of 80 from
Brand and Marketing along with agency per-
sonnel in Brazil; second, Anticipation through
the creation of content via players and teams in
readiness for any opportunity or likely scenar-
io during the tournament; and finally, Reaction,
which involved responding to events in real-time
with the right tone and creativity.
14. 25
Four Companies Leading the Way
Mondelez
Mondelez’s Oreo famously capitalised on the
blackout during the Super Bowl in 2013 by tweet-
ing an ad with the caption ‘You can still dunk in
the dark’. They had prepared for this initiative by
having a 15-strong team (including agency 360i)
in place and ready to respond to whatever hap-
pened online in relation to the Super Bowl. The
ad was extensively shared on Twitter and Face-
book and became a “1984 moment” as one com-
mentator called it, referring to Apple’s famous
spot.
The company is pushing the boundaries for
FMCG companies through smart staffing, strong
agency relationships, a number of key evange-
lists and through strong measurement and ROI.
In 2013, they were one of the first marketers to
announce they were recruiting Twitter writers
inhouse, within the marketing teams, to help
bolster talent. In 2014, they also revealed a 52
country deal with Facebook, to drive out connec-
tions on a global basis. Finally, they hired Social
Evangelist B. Bonin Bough from Pepsi and gave
him the space and freedom to spread the word.
Samsung
As of 2014, Samsung had become the largest
consumer goods company in the world, larger
than Coca-Cola, Unilever and P&G combined,
with $220b in sales. While a large part of this
was due to outstanding products, it was the fresh
approach they took to social that allowed the
brand to truly grow.
Working with Cheil and Leo Burnett, Samsung
built a global team of social experts across 60
markets, expanding their scope with these agen-
cies to include local strategy, posting, monitor-
ing and reporting. They supplemented this with
an investment in some of the strongest digital
agencies centrally to truly drive best practice.
The company was famous for “bringing down
Twitter” in 2014 with its “Oscar Selfie,” a carefully
constructed and planned moment by Samsung
and its agency.
Looking toward the future, Samsung has recently
concluded a global digital review, led by R3. In
the process, Social is front and centre of the new
approach – the company sees this as a competi-
tive advantage for years to come.
Coca-Cola
As in many areas, Coca-Cola started early in Social
andhasalwaysbeenattheforefront. A2006promo-
tion in China involving codes printed under bottle
caps built a database of 20m contestants through
local social media QQ. In 2010, they launched “Ex-
pedition 206”, an Amazing Race lived out on social
media, as three lucky winners visited the 206 coun-
tries around the world where Coca-Cola is made
and sold. This was a tour de force for social – with
daily updates of an ongoing website linked with of-
fline appearances to keep the news fresh.
The company continues to be a leader in new areas
– a recent global Fanta campaign was run almost
entirely through Vine, and went viral very swiftly.
Every two years, the World Cup and the Olympics
continue to serve as global launch pads for new so-
cial trends from song sharing to other promotions.
McDonald’s
McDonald’s was in some ways late to social, but
is now using it in ways that will determine the
future for all retail. Mostly driven through their
global partnership with Golin and Tribal, the fast
food giant has been innovating on NFC (Near
Field Communication) to get social messages to
consumers at the right time in the right places.
Rick Wion, the Head of Social Media for McDon-
ald’s worldwide, offered a number of key insights
in this interview:
“Start with goals . . . not a quest for tweets and
likes. Nothing worthwhile is successful unless it
starts with goals. If your goals for social media
start with gaining followers, likes, retweets and
such, than you probably don’t have the right fo-
cus. Your goals should sound more like typical
marketing goals . . . building awareness, driving
trial, engaging with customers.
Think orchestration . . . not control. If you are using
social media for a brand, you already know that
you cannot control the conversation with your
customer. The way that we do that at McDonald’s
is to develop content and engagement opportuni-
ties at both the national and local level.”
15. 27
“Know who is saying what. Monitoring social me-
dia is an absolute essential for any company to
understand what people are saying about your
brand and your industry. Set up monitoring to
measure the overall conversations, how con-
versations flow, what topics drive those conver-
sations and who influences those conversations
the most.
Look offline for online opportunities. People get
excited about McDonald’s food so we are always
challenging ourselves to figure out how we can
connect our yummy food to the social conversa-
tions that they drive. Combining offline and on-
line opportunities also allows us to connect na-
tional marketing efforts with local promotions.
Interesting new functionality from Twitter, Face-
book, Instagram and Vine also show fun poten-
tial to easily engage with our fans and share their
excitement . . . even if they don’t share their fries.”
Start with goals . . .
not a quest for
tweets and likes.
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
CHAPTER TWO
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Planning for Social is like Planning for Marketing – but it’s always on. Market-
ers should approach social with a strategic rather than a tactical intent – try-
ing to build a framework in which creativity can flourish.
No two marketers have followed the same path – While Coca-Cola was early
to move, others like McDonald’s started later, but with real innovation.
Agencies are crucial partners in growth – The breakthrough work from Mon-
delez and Samsung came about through close collaboration with agencies,
not working independently of them. Agencies can bring fresh perspectives,
disciplined processes and creativity.
All successful companies have measurement at the core of social – You can’t
move what you can’t measure and as the next chapter will cover, off–mea-
surement is critical to driving growth and output
17. 31
Measuring Success In Social
Measuring Success In Social
Social media has changed the game of marketing – and so too, the measurement tools of tradi-
tional marketing have to be re-imagined. If engagement is truly what you should be tracking, what
does it mean, and how do you track it?
The key challenge for marketers is to remember that social media is so much more fluid than an
email blast – it’s about peering into a discussion, a dialog, and then determining how that can be
leveraged.
It starts at the end.
Ironically, one of the best social tools is your
current websitemanagementtool,GoogleAnalytics
- it offers a great perspective into what is driving
traffic to you. Under the Traffic Sources tab,
you can click on Referring Sites and gain rich
knowledge into what is working and what needs
to be modified.
Go beyond “vanity metrics’.
Every marketer is looking at the basics of
followers and retweets, but the key goal should
be to look for the quality and relevance of your
content. For each piece of content you produce,
you should be looking at unique page views,
time on page and total page views. If unique
views go up, it suggests that reach is growing.
Time on page is one level of engagement and
Total Page Views can reflect the overall interest
a consumer has in your content. This can all be
tracked within Google Analytics, or with your
agency partner.
18. 33
Invest in a Good Social Tool.
A social tool will help aggregate your data into
a dashboard, allowing for a quick reference into
the way forward. This should also allow you to
look at something called sentiment, imperfect
at best, but useful as an overall view of where
you are within your category. A social tool will
also allow you to look at Influencer Tracking -
identifying , monitoring, and perhaps rewarding
those key opinion leaders who can make all the
difference to your overall impact.
Look at Share of Voice.
In this case, we’re talking about the total num-
ber of conversations about your brand versus
others in your competitive set. You might find
that some of your work on certain channels is
just not working while, in other areas, you are
exceeding benchmarks. You should also track
the size of your collective community – if you’re
measuring the impact of a campaign for wash-
ing powder, there’s no point comparing yourself
to Apple or BMW.
Look at Organic Traffic.
By this, we mean people who find you through
sources other than paid promotion. Through the
right tools, you can test which campaigns are
delivering and whether you are getting true so-
cial engagement . . . not just reach. Just because
someone follows you, that doesn’t mean they
are engaging with your brand – other tools such
as Feedburner will give you insights into your
social reach.
From Followers to Revenue
In the end, success will come not from social
followers and engagement but through busi-
ness results. The best companies are building
measurement to link their social work to sales,
understanding the true impact of their work.
This might be the single hardest thing you as a
marketer need to do – but achieving it will truly
build the right foundations with the CEO and
CFO for further investment, further learning and
better results. Be brave, be bold, and be per-
sistent.
20. 37
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
The agencies
The Agencies
Here are the agencies we have identified as the Social40 – those in the world that are truly break-
ing through and making a difference in connecting brands and consumers.
Methodology
Selecting the Social40 was a systematic quanti-
tative and qualitative internal process at R3 that
utilised our own experience with clients such as
Unilever, Coca-Cola, VW, McDonald’s, Samsung,
adidas, AB InBev, Walmart, Microsoft, Kimberly
Clark and others – along with Desk Research,
Marketer studies and analyses.
In the end, we considered over 100 social agen-
cies against four basic criteria.
Proven on top clients
We wanted agencies that worked with some of
the world’s best marketers, supporting them as
they grew.
Proven on their own
While we do have a fair number of social agen-
cies owned by holding companies, in the end,
we heavily weighed those independent agencies
that had totally found their own way – without
the shared clients of other sister agencies.
Proven on Strategy and Creative
We avoided social execution agencies to instead
look at those who are truly leading in thinking
and ideas. Big ideas matter in social – and these
agencies are delivering.
Proven Around the World
Although the 40 largest social agencies might
all be in the US, Europe and China, we wanted
a broader geographic spread, to identify local
heroes in new markets where brands may be
looking and moving.
21. 39
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
ampfy
Riot
Loducca
WebAr
Fanscape
Contactica
Mr Youth (MRY)
Laundry Service
Kinetic Social
Flock
Phantasia
Story Worldwide
Vayner Media
Big Fuel
Socialab
Dentsu Razorfish
arkr
Vocanic
Social Eyez
The Online ProjectCerebra
Gorilla
Promoqube
Reborn
KRDS
Buzzman
TLGG
Dorst & Lesser
Think Kong
Patchwork Teein
Soap Creative
We Are Social
TBG Digital
Tempero
Emoderation
Social Noise
Born Interactive
GoZoop
22feet Tribal
Worldwide
22. 41
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Ampfy
Headquartered in Brazil, Ampfy was originally an adver-
tising agency that saw the value of social. What makes
them unique is their ability to work with such diverse
clients as L’Oreal and Mitsubishi Motors to tackle very
different target audiences. Their team of 73 people is
divided across three offices in Brazil.
General info Key personnel
Rio de Janeiro and Brasília
Other offices
São Paulo, Brazil
Headquarters
www.ampfy.com
website
2011
Year founded
73
Headcount
L’Oréal Brasil
Mitsubishi Motors
SKY / Direct TV
Top Clients
Fred Siqueira
Executive
Creative Director
Fabiana Baraldi
Media & Bussiness
Director
Douglas Bocalão
Operations Director
Gabriel Borges
CEO
BIG IN
BRAZIL
Mascara Mavens on Instagram
After surveying the market for make-up, May-
belline in Brazil discovered the lack of knowledge
around its Colossal Washable Mascara. To bring the
product to the forefront, Ampy worked with the cosmet-
ics brand to create a fun educational program for young
women through 15-second video tutorials on Instagram
under the title ‘Make Express’. Nationally known make-
up expert Vanessa Rozan hosted and presented make-
up tips in these short videos, and within just one week
after launch, the Instagram channel had reached ten
thousand subscribers with no media investment.
Sharing Auto Love in Brazil
To celebrate the Mitsubishi Pajero TR4’s 10th
anniversary in Brazil, Ampfy created the Mitsubishi
MyCover: a Facebook application that enabled people
to design their very own TR4 tire covers. The campaign
reached more than 147,000 people, nearly double the
number of all Mitsubishi Pajero TR4 owners in the entire
country. In two weeks, more than 5,000 covers were
created using the app. By leveraging the power of social
networks, Ampy was able to tap into TR4 owners’ desire
to express and share their creativity for the Mitsubishi
brand in a very authentic way.
23. 43
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
arkr Group
Based out of Shanghai, arkr GROUP represents the com-
bination of arkr digital and vitamine, two of China’s lead-
ing independent social agencies. Utilizing interactive
digital media, a spirit of innovation in user experience,
and expertise in social media content creation, they
pride themselves on building integrated digital ecosys-
tems for brands like Johnson & Johnson, Sephora, and
Michelin. With a staff of more than 100 spread across
Shanghai and Guangzhou, the team uses a mix of digital,
mobile, and social media to create chemistry between
brands and consumers. The company recently became
part of the Leo Group
General info
Guangzhou
Other offices
Shanghai, China
Headquarters
www.vitaminegroup.com
website
2009
Year founded
100+
Headcount
Johnson & Johnson
Sephora
Michelin
Top Clients
Jason Zhan
Managing Partner
Steven Lee
Managing Partner
Jancoo Lee
Creative Partner
Aaron Zhang
Managing Partner
MAKING
CHINA TALK
Pump it Forward
With no adequate spaces designated for new
mothers to pump breast milk, many women hide
in office restrooms or conference rooms. arkr GROUP
partnered with Johnson’s Baby to raise awareness and
provide nursing rooms for work-and-pump moms. By cre-
ating a reusable tag featuring the Johnson’s Baby logo
that moms could attach to any door as a nursing room
sign, arkr GROUP was able to directly link the plight of
nursing mothers to the brand without actually having
any of the company’s products featured as a focal point.
The campaign proved to be a huge success, with 208 mil-
lion people reached, 1.8 million video views, and a 120%
increase in Weibo followers.
Tires 101
With the development of the automotive after-
market, the demand for car maintenance has risen
significantly. But without proper knowledge, consumers
were in the dark about where to get the best tires. In
response, arkr GROUP worked with Michelin to launch
a ‘Tire Class’ campaign that used layman’s terms to help
audiences make informed decisions when purchasing
new tires. For Michelin, this became the foundation for
ongoing initiatives across multiple social media chan-
nels in China.
24. 45
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Big Fuel
Acquired by Publicis Groupe in 2011, this US-based social
leader brings 100 staff members and over a decade of
experience to clients like T-Mobile, Aflac, and Ally. With
a focus on consumer engagement, their core ability is to
connect product stories to people stories through mean-
ingful content that is personal, engaging, and relevant to
brand audiences.
General info
San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago,
Dallas
Other offices
New York, USA
Headquarters
www.bigfuel.com
website
2004
Year founded
100
Headcount
T-Mobile
Aflac
Ally
Top Clients
Rob FitzGerald
Managing Director
John Resnisk
ECD
Avi Savar
Founder and Chief
Strategy Officer
FUELLING
SOCIAL
INNOVATION
Depicting a Life without limits
As the only mobile company in the US with a truly
unlimited nationwide data plan, T-Mobile wanted
a social campaign that would bring the benefits of a
nationwide unlimited network to life. Collaborating with
award-winning director Eliot Rausch, Big Fuel created a
branded four-part video series featuring pioneering indi-
viduals living life on their own terms. Accompanying the
release of the videos, eight influential Instagram photog-
raphers were hired to shoot, upload, and tag photos that
they felt best represented a ‘life without limits’. 27 mil-
lion individuals were reached through social media, and
video views reached 2 million, resulting in fans inspired
to convert from Sprint to T-Mobile.
Getting Behind-the-Scenes with
Gatorade
Gatorade was looking for a way to reinforce its role as
the authority in athletic excellence and sports nutrition.
To generate scalable conversation around nutrition
among teen athletes, Gatorade sought out a group of 11
rookie NFL players to tell their story of what it was like
to be in the NFL across their own Twitter handles and
the brand’s Facebook page. Big Fuel captured behind-
the-scenes footage of the athletes training and distribut-
ed the content among Gatorade’s social media channels.
The campaign exceeded all projected KPIs and boosted
website visits by more than 330%, garnering more than
60 million impressions.
25. 47
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Born Interactive
Born Interactive is a new Lebanon-based independent
media agency dedicated to offering result-generating,
state-of-the-art digital and interactive communication
solutions to meet the evolving needs of their clients.
Founded in 1995, their top three clients include Blom
Bank, with whom they have a 14 year track record, and
SACO and Azizia, both based in Saudi Arabia. Born is cre-
ating big ideas in a part of the world where social is new,
challenging and in many cases, still unproven.
General info
Beirut, Lebanon
Headquarters
www.borninteractive.com
website
1996
Year founded
70+
Headcount
BLOM Bank
SACO
Azizia Panda United Inc.
Top Clients
Joze Kabakan
Head of Design
Haytham Sawma
COO
Riad Afyouni
Business Development
Manager, KSA
Fadi Sabbagha
Founder & CEO
Mohammad
Kandil
CTO
BORN TO
BE SOCIAL Creating a Mega-community
around a Mega-store
To spark a dynamic community around the Virgin
Megastore in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, Born created a
social media strategy to better leverage Facebook, Twit-
ter, and Instagram. The experience resulted in consistent
engagement and increased online brand equity that
allowed an average reach of 300,000 people per week.
The agency also created a mobile application for An-
droid, allowing users to download the Virgin Megastore
magazine and browse all the products offered in-store.
Today, the online community contributes 25% of Virgin
Megastore sales.
A Trip to Outerspace with Chupa
Chups
Born Interactive created a friendly environment where
people could spend time with Chuck, Chupa Chup’s
Mascot, and win a variety of prizes. Users would reverse
bungee jump with Chuck and reach ‘outer-space’ – a
simple and fun concept that went viral and gained a lot
of buzz around the community. During the campaign,
59% of the participants were from Egypt, 11% from Saudi
Arabia, while Lebanon and the UAE both drew in 8%. The
campaign lasted for 30 days, during which, on average,
1.4 million people were reached per week and 100,000
new Facebook fans were acquired.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ymLsOCOG6s
26. 49
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Buzzman
Claiming 70 awards with a team of 70 across Dubai and
France, Buzzman is a powerful boutique agency that
was founded in 2006. Known for their unconvention-
al approach to creative work, the agency works with
world-class brands like Mondelez, Burger King, and
Virgin Mobile. By mixing products with advertising, the
team transforms products into objects of communication
through an approach they call ‘productizing’.
General info
Dubai
Other offices
Paris, France
Headquarters
www.buzzman.fr
website
2006
Year founded
70
Headcount
Mondelez
Burger King
Virgin Mobile
Top Clients
Thomas Granger
Vice President
Julien Levilain
Associate Director
Georges Mohamed
Cherif
President & Creative
Director
DRIVING
BUZZ IN
THE GULF
& FRANCE
White & Re-write with Pharrell
For Tipp-ex, Buzzman developed a campaign that
would make history – the first crowdsourced book
instantly translated into 5 languages. To make this hap-
pen, Tipp-Ex and Buzzman asked celebrity Pharrell Wil-
liams to write a book about the source of his inspiration.
A few hours before the book launch, the brand staged a
complete white-out of the book’s contents using Tipp-Ex.
The brand sought out the help of users all around the
world to rewrite the entire book, with the help of clues
dropped by Pharrell. The more words found, the better
the chance the finder’s name would be published in the
credits along with Pharrell’s name. The campaign result-
ed in reaching 144 million people in 155 countries.
The Return of the King
After a 15-year absence, Burger King wanted to
make a grand comeback in France. The return of the
King began with the generation of rumors in the Twitter-
sphere and around media outlets, gaining momentum
and fomenting excitement throughout the country.
To determine in which cities they would open up new
stores, the fast food brand rallied their Facebook fan-
base to choose for themselves. Fans commented on
Burger King’s post with votes on which cities the newest
restaurants should open, and in only 24 hours, 1,300
comments were logged and 65,000 people reached with
a 4.5K fan base.
27. 51
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Cerebra
Headquartered in South Africa with a team of 40, Cere-
bra is an award-winning strategic communication agen-
cy with capabilities in Insights, Agency, Advisory, and
a Digital Academy to help corporate brands navigate
digital platforms and principles. The team has assisted
brands such as Barclays Bank and Vodafone to inspire
creative communication with customer audiences
through content production, community management,
and online campaigns.
General info
Johannesburg, South Africa
Headquarters
www.cerebra.co.za
website
2006
Year founded
40
Headcount
WPP
Holding Group
Absa (Barclays) Bank
Vodacom (Vodafone)
Altech
Top Clients
Craig Rodney
MD
Mike Stopforth
CEO
THINKING
SOCIAL IN
SOUTH
AFRICA Vodacom instawalk with a
difference
It’s not often you get the chance to introduce an Insta-
gram account to South Africa, so when you do, you need
to make it special. At the end of March, Vodacom asked
the agency to put together an Instawalk to introduce
Vodacom’s Instagram account to the local community.
The key to Instagram is the community of people who
make the social network so special. Cerebra knew that
introducing Vodacom to the local Instagram community
was a great first step in being able to actively participate
in South Africa’s burgeoning mobile photography scene.
A Red & Gold Prank
Cerebra and Absa Bank saw an opportunity to
challenge the perception that financial service provid-
ers lack a sense of humor by playing an April Fool’s joke
on the whole of South Africa. A long-time sponsor for
the Springbok rugby team in South Africa, Absa decided
to play a prank by making an announcement that the
original green and gold colors of the jersey would be
turned to red and gold to match Absa’s red logo. In the
early hours of April 1st, Cerebra helped execute a coor-
dinated social, digital and PR campaign introducing the
red and gold jersey. The launch of the jersey proved to
be more successful than any of Absa’s previous cam-
paigns, surpassing over 95% of the strategic targets set
and accounting for 25% of the national April Fool’s day
conversations online.
28. 53
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Contactica
Contactica is a full-service digital agency founded in
2004 in Puerto Rico, with a second office in Colombia.
Blending interactive experience design for platforms and
strategic planning for campaigns, they work with a mix
of global and local brands such as Pepsi and Triple-S.
With a multidisciplinary bilingual team of over 40 pro-
fessionals, the agency serves as a partner for companies
building relationships in Latin America, Caribbean, and
US Hispanic markets.
General info
Medellin, Colombia
Other offices
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Headquarters
www.wearecontactica.com
website
2004
Year founded
60
Headcount
Banco Popular de Puerto Rico
Pepsi Puerto Rico
Triple-S
Top Clients
Nicolas Vega
VP Strategy
Joseam Laboy
Account Director
Stefan Maganto
VP Operations
SOCIAL WITH
A TWIST
Making Insurance Digital
Insurance company Triple-S wanted a way to
reach the pockets of opportunity within the digital
ecosystem that were not yet defined. To reach them,
Contactica created a campaign driven by search engine
marketing with a landing page that provided basic infor-
mation about health care plan options. The campaign
was designed to generate relevant traffic based on the
context of every user’s search, and the insurance brand
was able to gain more comprehensive knowledge about
the behavior and interests of their online audience. The
website resulted in a 50% increase in traffic, 84% more
leads than projected, and a 22% lead-to-sale conversion
rate.
Becoming the Bank of Choice
BPPR wanted to distinguish itself from the thou-
sands of other banks so that they could attract new
customers. To do that, Contactica uncovered an insight
showing that Puerto Ricans conduct thorough research
on the Internet prior to buying a car. Based on this
knowledge, BPPR aligned itself to be the leading bank
for providing car loans through an online advertising
campaign combining the power of search engines, social
networks, and funneling of organic traffic that came
through the BPPR website. The campaign surpassed
projected KPIs by 5%, with 52% of visitors returning to
the site and 29% of unique visitors interacting with the
content and tools offered.
29. 55
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Dentsu Razorfish
Dentsu Razorfish is an interactive agency born from a
strategic partnership between the Dentsu group and
global digital and social leader, Razorfish. They have
offices in Tokyo and Osaka.
They are a leading agency in the digital marketing field
in Japan, providing a one-stop business solution with
strong capabilities in social media, strategic planning,
content marketing, experience design, brand building,
technology platforms, data analytics, retail/commerce
and media services.
General info
Osaka
Other offices
Tokyo, Japan
Headquarters
www.dentsu-razorfish.com/en
website
2001
Year founded
over 200
Headcount
Japan Airlines
Estee Lauder
Panasonic
Top Clients
Tomita Masayoshi
Account Director
Kenmochi Yuta
Social Ad Planner
Akiyama Nao
Senior Planner
Shimizu Nobuhira
VP Social Media
Marketing
Takayanagi
Hiroyuki
Analyst
LEADING
SOCIAL IN
JAPAN
Dentsu
Holding Group
Helping Japan Airlines Take Off
With a huge quantity of fans on Facebook, the
key assignment for Japan Airlines (JAL) is to revive
the highly engaged fans from their static page posts.
The agency led the content production and planning
project in response to the assignment. Dentsu Razorfish
conducted a lot of research with the best customers to
understand the needs and tailor make a response. The
final result showed that the new page posts by the agen-
cy have achieved higher number of actions and interac-
tions compared to previous posts produced by JAL.
Building a Beauty Base
In order to expand the market share in Japan,
Estée Lauder started their Facebook activity as part of
overall branding strategy. The agency optimised overall
strategy by closely monitoring the engagement rate of
page posts and then maximized the effect through con-
tent that directly related with Japanese women’s lives.
New surveys and promotions were developed, and a
community was built to inform and improve knowledge
of beauty. The result is a significantly improved brand
image for Estee Lauder in Japan.
30. 57
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Dorst & Lesser
Dorst & Lesser is a social media agency in Amsterdam,
one of Europe’s most creative cities. With a small but
mighty team of 11, they’ve grown their business to
encompass a diverse portfolio of national and interna-
tional high-end brands such as Renault, Microsoft, and
Transavia.com. Connecting brands with people through
powerful stories, the team helps companies develop
online strategies, create interactive content, and activate
fans through diverse digital platforms.
General info
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Headquarters
www.dorstenlesser.nl
website
2011
Year founded
11
Headcount
Renault
Transavia.com
Microsoft
Top Clients
Niels Verhoeven
Co-founder
Brand engagement
manager
Niels Oude
Luttikhuis
Co-founder
Managing director
Robert Withagen
Co-founder
Social strategist
TAKING
SOCIAL
DUTCH Inheriting Grandma’s Classic
Renault
To promote the Renault Netherlands Facebook page,
Dorst & Lesser came up with the idea of a ‘Grandma
Hilda Renault 4’ campaign to reach potential Renault
drivers. The agency created a story around Grandma Hil-
da and her Renault 4. In the story, Grandma Hilda wants
to pass on her classic Renault to a deserving heir, but
the key is nowhere to be found. Using a Facebook app,
people could search through Grandma Hilda’s living
room to find the key. By the end of the campaign, more
than 10K tags had been placed, and the number of fans
on Renault’s Facebook had doubled.
The First Facebook Hotel
To enable vacationers at the Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach
Hotel to share their holiday experience, Dorst & Lesser
brought the world of Facebook into the world of Ibiza
with real-time social sharing online. Guests could share
their Ushuaïa experiences with an RFID wristband that
could automatically connect to the user’s Facebook pro-
file by holding the wristband in front of specially-made
pillars placed around the hotel. Users could snap and
share pictures, and also check-in to different events to
share their location with others. News of the campaign
caught on in major tech blogs and was even featured in
the New York Times. In just a few weeks, thousands of
visitors shared their offline experience of the hotel on
Facebook, with over 67,000 people becoming fans of the
hotel’s Facebook page.
31. 59
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Emoderation
Emoderation is a global social agency which delivers
high-quality multi-lingual community management and
moderation, social listening, data and insight and consul-
tancy services. It also offers crisis management training
and simulations via its subsidiary brand, Polpeo (www.
polpeo.com). With offices in London, Los Angeles, Miami,
New York and Sydney, the agency works with leading
global brands, including HSBC, MTV, Moshi Monsters and
the Oprah Winfrey Network. Emoderation was founded
by CEO Tamara Littleton in 2002. In 2014, it was listed at
number 65 in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100.
General info
New York, Los Angeles, Miami,
Sydney
Other offices
London, UK
Headquarters
www.emoderation.com
website
2002
Year founded
350+
Headcount
HSBC
MTV
Oprah Winfrey Network
Top Clients
Wendy Christie
Chief Production Officer
Ashley Cooksley
Chief Business
Development Officer
Blaise Grimes
Viort
VP Social Media Services
Treena Hales
COO
Tamara Littleton
CEO
Rachel Boothroyd
General Counsel
SOCIAL
LISTENING
ONSTEROIDS
Making MTV Social
With limited resources, communities spread over a
large number of sites, and the challenge of a ubiqui-
tous American counterpart, MTV UK approached Emod-
eration’s community management team to help it deliv-
er the social networking experience expected of such a
high-profile entertainment brand. The first step was to
provide a snapshot of where MTV UK stood, and make
suggestions to drive usage. This involved re-organising
the applications into tabs that more closely mirror the
MTV UK site, reducing clutter, creating daily, topical up-
dates around music, celebrity culture and popular shows
and responding to fan comments and feedback to foster
two-way communication. MTV is now a “Go To” site for
music fans in the UK.
Mindy Candy- Moshi Monsters
Moshi Monsters is one of the most successful and
entertaining children’s games in the world, with 70+
million players (children between six and 13, and their
parents) in 150 countries. Emoderation provides mod-
eration to Moshi Monsters, something that is incredibly
important to ensure that children don’t behave badly, or
bully each other. Moshi Monsters uses a combination of
technology and human moderation, which is important
to give both speed and context: The game is now con-
sidered best practice in terms of the social environment
for gaming.
32. 61
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Fanscape
Fanscape is a US-based social media marketing agency
with 16 years of experience helping clients reach and ac-
tivate consumers and influencers to foster positive word-
of-mouth sentiment about their products. Leveraging
expertise in niche audiences and consumer behaviors,
the agency amplifies the voice, brand awareness, and
sales of every client it works with. Made up of a team of
100, the agency has worked with blue-chip brands like
Gamestop, Mars, and Blue Diamond Almonds.
General info
Dallas, New York
Other offices
Los Angeles, USA
Headquarters
www.fanscape.com
website
1998
Year founded
100
Headcount
GameStop
Mars
Blue Diamond Almonds
Top Clients
Larry Weintraub
CEO
Greg Boles
COO
Terry Dry
CEO
FINDING
U.S. FANS
Omnicom
Holding Group
Generating a community for
Gamers By Gamers
To distinguish GameStop from its competition and es-
tablish itself as the first choice for video game purchas-
es, Fanscape created a comprehensive digital ecosystem
where consumers could engage with other gamers in the
online community. With nearly 8 million fans across their
social channels, GameStop has been able to generate
high engagement through the sharing of photos, re-
tweet campaigns, and requests for feedback hauling in
thousands of likes, comments, and shares.
Almonds for Medals in the
Winter Olympics
In time for the Winter Olympics, Blue Diamond part-
nered with Fanscape to create buzz around their spon-
sorship of the US ski and snowboarding team through a
digitally-focused campaign. To help consumers connect
with the athletes and the brand, the brand introduced
the team of skiers and snowboarders through video tes-
timonials shared on Blue Diamond’s social channels. The
almond brand offered consumers free cans of almonds
each time the teams scored gold medals. The activa-
tions enabled Blue Diamond to achieve visibility despite
significant branding restrictions by the Olympics. Over
620 million impressions were generated and the athletes
received over 10,000 well-wishes to cheer them on.
33. 63
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Flock
Headquartered in Mexico, Flock is a creative agency that
scales ideas with technology to solve the challenges of
brands, industries, and people. Seeking fresh ways to
share powerful stories and experiences, the team prides
itself on a talented team with an exceptional capacity for
innovation, creativity, empathy, and leveraging technolo-
gy. With an impressive roster of clients like Nike, Google,
and Sony, the agency is made up of a team of nearly 200
people.
Mexico
Headquarters
www.flock.mx
website
2009
Year founded
100+
Headcount
General info
Nike
Google
Sony
Top Clients
Chile
Other offices
FLOCKING
BRILLIANT
Sebastian Tonda
CEO
Mario Nissan
CIO
Mayra Hara
COO
Eduardo Salles
Creative VP
A movement around Random
Acts of Kindness
To spark random acts of kindness (RAK) across Mexico,
Flock created a digital strategy for Coca-Cola involving a
mobile application and a landing page for a ‘Volvámonos
Locos’ campaign. The landing page for the campaign was
filled with user-generated content, videos of commercial
spots, and featured the top user photos and their RAKs.
Users would tag the location of their RAK so that other
users could see where the RAK’s were happening around
town. Later, users could personalize their RAK with social
tagging to show who had participated. By the culmina-
tion of the campaign, 33 million were reached through
online conversation and the mobile app was downloaded
more than 90K times.
Running for the Barrios
To encourage different communities to run and
participate in the We Run race, Flock created the
‘Move More’ campaign for Nike in partnership with local
barrios in Mexico City. The campaign sought to deepen
consumer connection through the ‘barrio’ culture, and
play on cultural heritage by creating an emotional con-
nection. To make that happen, icons were designed and
posted around hotspot neighborhoods so that partici-
pants could run for their neighborhood by logging kilo-
meters with the Nike+ app. By the end of the campaign,
208,620 km were logged, the Facebook page reached
1.1 million fans, We Run race entries were sold out in a
month, and the Nike+ app was downloaded 375K times
over the course of three months.
34. 65
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
THE AFRICA
ONLINE
GORILLA
Gorilla
Based in South Africa, Gorilla is a social media agency
that aims at building brand love through creative digital
solutions. Working with brands such as Unilever’s AXE
Deodorant, Pond’s and Hansa Pilsener, the agency takes
on the voice of the companies it works with to create
brand advocates and fans. The team of 31 pivots on the
needs of every client through design, creative, and strat-
egy services.
General info
Kelly Orsmond
Senior Account
Director
Craig Miles
Senior Art Director
Jordan Wallace
CEO Co-founder
Dorin Bambus
Co-founder
Michelle McEwan
Managing Director
Durban, South Africa
Headquarters
www.gorillacreativemedia.com
website
2008
Year founded
31
Headcount
AXE Deodorant
Pond’s
Hansa Pilsener
Top Clients
Johannesburg
Other offices World Baking Day
On World Baking Day, Gorilla developed a portal
where amateur bakers could make a public pledge to
bake for someone important to them. The commitment
was shared on Facebook, tagging the loved one that the
baker would bake for, and pledgers were offered digital
coupons, in-store discounts, and recipe ideas through the
website. Key influencers were also sent pledge packs so
they could share their experiences and stories around
World Baking Day. Over the duration of the campaign,
more than 10K digital coupons were redeemed in 6
weeks, and 500K facebook fans participated in World
Baking Day.
Access through AXE
To create an experience for users of AXE, Gorilla
developed a platform called ‘AXECESS’ that would
provide members with an exclusive pass into the latest
music and nightlife events. Users would get free music
downloads and earn VIP entry into the hottest night-
clubs. The AXECESS portal was launched through TV, ra-
dio, print, in-store, and social media promotions and had
celebrities like Big Sean as the headliner at the launch
of the platform. 5,000 people attended the event, and
nearly 360,000 watched the event through live-stream.
35. 67
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
FRESH
THINKING
IN INDIA
Gozoop
Gozoop is a global digital services & product company.
Headquartered in India with a team of 125, they focus
on leveraging web, mobile, and social experiences that
enable the world’s best brands to thrive and win in a
connected world. With two acquisitions under its belt,
the agency has a presence across India, UAE, and Singa-
pore. Clients they work with include Dell, Lipton Ice Tea,
Tim Horton’s, and Cold Stone Cream.
General info
Rohan Bhansali
Founding Director
Ahmed Naqvi
CEO
Dushyant Bhatia
MD, Gozoop UAE
Valentina Sanna
MD,Gozoop Singapore
Mumbai, India
Headquarters
www.gozoop.com
website
2010
Year founded
125
Headcount
Mad Over Donuts
Dell
Xpress Money
Top Clients
Dubai, Singapore, Delhi,
Bangalore, Chennai
Other offices
Gozoop Online Pvt. Ltd.
Holding Group
Making a cricket team famous
As a highly popular Indian Premier League, Kolk-
ata Knight Riders was looking to engage with viewers
on a deeper level. To convert TV viewers into online
fans, Gozoop launched a 17-day campaign in which fans
could engage with the show’s characters through Face-
book and Twitter. There was an excellent response to
behind the scenes and relaying content about the shows;
thus, we decided to extensively promote Living with KKR
on social media. In addition, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
was a perfect blend of Bollywood and cricket – two
things worshipped in India. The campaign generated
152K new fans, 10K tweets, and 235K video views.
Generating Loyalty in India
To combat a shrinking fanbase on Dell India’s
Facebook page, Gozoop launched an app called
My Dell Rewards that could track likes, comments, and
invites to the Facebook page. The app would reward
positive engagement with the page and allowed for
customization for different occasions such as Dell PC Lit-
eracy Week or the celebration of Women’s Day. Since its
inception, the app has garnered more than 18K followers
and increased engagement by 400%.
36. 69
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
MAKING
AMERICA
SHARE
MORE
Kinetic Social
With a team of 70 across NYC and Toronto, Kinetic Social
is a social advertising technology company. The agen-
cy offers a holistic approach to social advertising, and
provides sophisticated analytics and guidance to help
clients optimize their campaigns. Kinetic Social delivers
leading-edge social advertising solutions for brands like
Mars, H&M, and American Express.
General info
Rocky Appiah,
CTO & co-founder
Don Mathis
CEO & co-founder
Charlie
Nowaczek
COO & co-founder
John Findeisen,
General Manager
Michelle Schiano
EVP Marketing
New York City, USA
Headquarters
www.kineticsocial.com
website
2011
Year founded
70
Headcount
Mars
H&M
American Express
Top Clients
Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco
Other offices
Driving credit card results
For an anonymous financial services and credit
card provider, Kinetic used their Testing Suite to
optimize specific creative messages across more than 58
options, including 12 age breaks and other demograph-
ics. The result of this analytics work was to reduce CPA
by 75%, and ensure that 88% of the budget was invested
in the best performing half of the campaigns. As a result,
the card provider increased their paid Social Media bud-
get with Kinetic by approximately 400%.
Mario Lopez for Mars
Kinetic worked closely with Mars’ digital agen-
cy, Digitas, to drive reach and awareness for a new
promotion featuring Mario Lopez. Kinetic implemented
an open targeting strategy to achieve broad reach and
used their Social Trend Tracker Database to drive better
targeting. The result was a 10x higher CTR than goal, a
43% action rate and a campaign that exceeded its goals
by 28x.
37. 71
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
KRDS
Launched in 2008 by four young graduates, KRDS is a
leading social media & mobile agency based in Europe
and Asia. Headquartered in France, KRDS boasts a range
of services including community management, creation
and optimization of Facebook ad campaigns. Since it’s
beginnings, KRDS has evolved into a full-fledged social
media agency and works with platforms such as Twitter,
Instagram, Tumblr, Sina Weibo, and Wechat to create
integrated campaigns. Working with brands like Air
France, Canal+, and McCain, the agency is made up of a
team of 130 people.
General info
Singapore, Shanghai, Chennai,
New Delhi, Mumbai.
Other offices
Paris, France
Headquarters
www.krds.com
website
2008
Year founded
130
Headcount
Air France
Canal+
McCain
Top Clients
Thomas Guenoux
Co-founder
Thomas Jestin
Co-founder
BORN IN
FRANCE,
GOING
GLOBAL Making Cavalli fragrance
memorable
For the launch of its new “Just a Bite” fragrances, Ca-
valli wanted to offer its over 1 million fans a truly unique
and glamorous experience on Facebook. KRDS created
a multi-device immersive app that allows its fans to go
back in time to search for a mysterious man or woman
met the previous night at Cavalli’s private party in New
York.
Through four major sequences in New York (room, road,
club, stranger’s apartment), the Cavalli fan experiences a
race against the clock in an immersive setting. Over 100
000 players from 10 different countries have enjoyed
the experience. They have generated 1.2 million social
impressions on the fans’ timelines with an average time
of over 3 min spent with the brand!
Making Danette big at Christmas
With Facebook changing its Timeline contests
policy earlier that year, KRDS thought it would be the
perfect opportunity for us to create an original Christ-
mas campaign fully based on fans’ engagement and on
Timeline contests – an extraordinary participative Christ-
mas adventure for Danette’s fans, called “Once upon a
time, there was Christmas”! Each day from December 1st
to December 25th, fans were to help Ludo the elf locate
and retrieve Santa’s disappeared Danette desserts. Over
1000 fans made the effort and inboxed their person-
al Christmas wish lists. The number of Danette fans
reached was 4 times greater than every other month in
2013.
38. 73
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Laundry Service
Laundry Service is a US-based full-service social media
agency, with core competencies across owned, paid and
earned media. Comprised of a team of 45, the agency
takes a data-centric approach to inform strategy, and
strategy to inform creative and targeting, in order to
keep business objectives at the forefront. Drawing on ex-
pertise in content creation, media buying, and digital PR,
Laundry Service works with world-class clients such as
Nike, Starwood, and Amazon. The agency also manages
Cycle, a unique Influencer group on Instagram, giving
brands access to a massive range of potential advocates.
General info
Los Angeles, Portland
Other offices
New York, USA
Headquarters
www.247laundryservice.com
website
2012
Year founded
45
Headcount
Jordan (Nike)
Starwood
Amazon
Top Clients
Don Middleberg
CEO
Jason Stein
President + Founder
WASH,
FOLD,
REPEAT
A new Rush Card
Russell Simmons launched RushCard to provide
instant access to basic financial services for millions
of Americans who cannot or choose not to establish a
traditional banking relationship. The agency worked
in tandem with RushCard’s legal team and Bancorp to
ensure that every message responsibly informs users to
take actions that empower them and make their lives
easier. By the end of month one, they had resolved 96%
of user questions and concerns, decreased RushCard’s
call center volume and costs, and increased impressions
by 95% and engagement by 119%.
Making Rachel Roy loved
The Jones Group challenged Laundry Service to
build brand awareness, increase social engagement
and drive e-commerce sales . Rachel Roy is a designer,
entrepreneur, philanthropist and mother, under parent
company The Jones Group. Working across owned,
earned, and paid media, Laundry Service helped keep
the RR audience highly engaged, while driving brand
awareness, recognition, and a 10:1 return on ad spend.
39. 75
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Loducca
Founded in 1995, Loducca is one of the largest digital
and advertising agencies in Brazil. Formed by a group
of passionate people combining experience and talent,
Loducca is made up of a team of 200 and is a member of
the Grupo ABC network. Working with brands like Ney-
mar Jr and PepsiCo, Loducca has a proven track record
of helping lead the way into social on one of the world’s
largest developing markets.
General info
São Paulo,Brazil
Headquarters
www.loducca.com.br
website
1995
Year founded
200
Headcount
Neymar Jr.
PepsiCo/Toddy
Cia. Muller/51 Ice
Top Clients
André Paes de
Barros
Partner and VP
Operations
Ken Fujioka
Partner and VP
Planning
Daniel Chalfon
Partner and VP Media
Celso Loducca
Partner and President
Guga Ketzer
Partner and Creative VP
A BRAZIL
DIGITAL
LEADER
ABC Group
Holding Group
Sending Toddy viral
To launch Toddy’s new positioning, the agency
developed an innovative series of videos that were just
like Toddy: fun, young and daring. The characters of the
videos were renowned Brazilian bloggers who, besides
hosting the sketches, took part in the development pro-
cess and interacted with the fan page’s fans. The themes
of the videos: Cow Games. The result? More than 25.5
million users impacted per month; more than 800 thou-
sand new fans on Facebook; more than 4 million views
on social medias; and 85% of comments on the social
media were positive.
Fighting racism
Racism is still a reality in football pitches around
the world. However, Neymar Jr. decided to fight back
and start a discussion beyond the pitch. The idea: the
best way to eliminate any type of prejudice is to make it
less powerful by diminishing the author of the offense.
Neymar Jr. posted a picture and a video on his Facebook
page taunting offenders with the hashtag #weareall-
monkeys. In one week, there were more than 1.5 million
interactions in a single Neymar Jr’s Facebook post, more
than 16 million mentions to the campaign in different
pages on the Internet and more than U$ 49.5 million in
earned media estimated.
40. 77
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
MRY
Headquartered in New York, MRY is a youth marketing
agency specializing in social media. Blending social
media to reach Generations Y & Z, MRY uses data to
strategically lower the barriers to sharing brand content
and experiences across every consumer touch point.
By socializing the existing assets of a brand, the agency
maximizes the amount of earned reach and has reengi-
neered the way brands like Visa, Volvo, and J&J measure
digital and offline marketing activities. Comprised of a
437 member team, MRY delivers scale and generates a
remarkable return on investment.
General info
San Francisco, London
Singapore
Other offices
New York , USA
Headquarters
www.mry.com
website
2002
Year founded
437
Headcount
Johnson & Johnson
Coca-Cola
Visa
Top Clients
Cedric Devitt
Global Chief Creative
Officer
David Berkowitz
Chief Marketing Officer
Jeff Melton
Chief Analytics and
Media Officer
Matt Britton
Founder and CEO
Clare Stutchbury
Head of Client Services
THIS IS OUR
YOUTH
Publicis Groupe
Holding Group
GO IN SIX
In the credit card world, if you’re not top of mind,
you’re not top of wallet. MRY developed a new
approach for Visa called #GoInSix: 6-word stories,
6-picture vignettes, 6-second films helping consumers
go do what they love -- more quickly and easily than
ever before. They used a predictive model to anticipate
what people would be talking about and when, and then
designed content for the share. Visa’s Facebook Unmet-
ric score jumped from 7th place (56) to 1st place (72) in
the finance category, but more impressively, ranked 2nd
when compared to all top-ranked lifestyle competitors…
only outdone by the magic of Walt Disney World.
Return of the pizza thrower
For Pizza Hut’s sponsorship of the new Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, MRY sought to bring
the nostalgia of the original TMNT franchise to life for
an audience who had experienced the Turtles as kids.
What could possibly be better than to recreate the epic
Pizza Thrower, a toy from the 80’s, by building a life-size,
pizza-chuckin’ version to bring to Comic-Con? This feat
of engineering was used to create a video content series
that inspired excitement for the Pizza Thrower unveiling
by having actors Will Arnett & Megan Fox, stars of the
movie, throw pizzas in front of thousands of consum-
ers at the event. The Event and content drove massive
amounts of earned media on social channels and over
50 press hits in local and national media.
41. 79
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Patchwork Group
Patchwork Group is a Scandinavian-based social mar-
keting agency group founded in 2009. Patchwork devises
and executes successful social marketing strategies
across brands and industries, using a carefully crafted
‘patchwork’ of people, systems, and processes. With a
team of 35 people, the agency delivers strategy, concept
development, and community management for brands
like PepsiCo and the Carlsberg Group.
Copenhagen, Denmark
Headquarters
Stockholm, Sweden
Oslo, Norway
Other offices
www.patchworkgroup.com
website
2009
Year founded
35
Headcount
Martin Olesen
Group CEO
& CO-founder
Emma Blom
CEO & Partner,
Patchwork Sweden
Christian Green
CEO & Partner,
Patchwork Innovations
General info
Carlsberg Group
Robert Bosch
PepsiCo
Top Clients
PATCHING
DIGITAL
TOGETHER
Making Doritos big in the
Nordics
With a goal of creating awareness of and preference
for the Doritos brand in the Nordics, Patchwork created
the world’s first Instagram-activated canon and used it
to sample Doritos chips at music events. Based on up-
loading selfies with the right hashtag, when the counter
reaches ’0, the cannon is fired with 50 sample bags of
Doritos. 10.000 sample bags were fired from the cannon
during the first two days. +1m online impressions were
achieved on Facebook, Instagram and news sites in the
first week.
The world’s biggest GIF-ITTI
For Pepsi, Patchwork’s task was to launch a new
Battery Energy Drink can and gain credibility in their
target group. The agency aimed at getting awareness
and street cred by engaging a handful of Norway’s most
talented graffiti artists to create the World’s biggest
GIF-itti. (Combination of GIF and graffiti).
350 spray paint cans and 9 days later, they seeded
the GIF-itti and a show reel on Facebook, Instagram,
Snapchat and relevant online sites / blogs. The content
reached more than 2m people, received more than
250,000 video views and created an equivalent media
value of €1m.
42. 81
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Phantasia
Affiliated with the Wunderman network, Phantasia was
founded in 1998 and currently houses a team of more
than 200 professionals. As the most awarded agency in
Peru, they are widely acclaimed for strategic planning,
creative development and execution of experiences on
digital platforms. An ever-growing client roster includes
Movistar, SAB Miller, and Banco de Crédito del Perú.
Lima, Peru
Headquarters
www.phantasia.pe
website
1997
Year founded
208
Headcount
Paul Thorndike
Managing Director
Jose-Carlos
Mariategui
Managing Director
Jose Aburto
Executive Creative
Director
General info
Movistar
SABMiller
Banco de Crédito del Perú
Top Clients
PHANTASTIC
PERU
AGENCY
Gastronomic Fight
Inca Kola, one of the country’s most important
brands in social media, wanted to strengthen its
credentials as a Peruvian brand with a youth audience
through one of our sources of national pride: Peruvian
food. So, the agency decided to host a tournament be-
tween the most delicious Peruvian dishes: Gastronomic
Fight (Lucha Gastronómica). Youngsters could vote for
their favorite dish. The contenders battled it out on Face-
book over a two-week time period. The dish with the
most votes and comments was crowned the winner of
that fight and went on to the next round. The campaign
achieved Facebook posts with over than 16,000 interac-
tions, making a total of 116,171 interactions (29% over
the goal). Lucha Gastronomica impacted 2.8 million
Peruvian youth, with over 23 million impressions, in just
46 posts during the 18 days of the campaign.
Ñam Ñam Boys
In another case for Inca Kola, the agency lever-
aged an asset called the Ñam Ñam Boys: the first boy
band that would sing and perform to serenade Peru’s
favorite dishes. Each week, Inca Kola would post one of
the country’s most beloved dishes. Selected comments
created the lyrics for a new hit. Only days after that, the
hit was launched with a video clip, surprising fans on
Inca Kola’s official channels. With only nine posts in 24
days, the campaign reached total impressions of over 13
million and a total reach of over 4 million people over
the course of the 28 day campaign.
43. 83
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Promoqube
Promoqube is Turkey’s first social media agency and one
of the leaders, focusing on marketing solutions for brand
assets on social platforms. In addition to global brands
such as Starbucks, Johnson’s Baby, Clean & Clear, and
Neutrogena, the agency also works with clients like Tür-
kiye Bankası and Efes Pilsen. Promoqube’s core team
consists of more than 40 experienced social media strat-
egists, analysts, online advertisers, software developers,
and designers who are among some of the most talented
people in Turkey’s digital marketing community.
Istanbul , Turkey
Headquarters
www.promoqube.com/en.html
website
2010
Year founded
40
Headcount
Korhan Kurt
Co-founder & CEO
Özgür Alaz
Co-founder & CEO
General info
Türkiye Bankası
Bridgestone Turkey
Johnson’s Baby Turkey
Top Clients
FROM
TURKEY TO
THE WORLD
IPG
Holding Group
Dominant Domino’s
On their first anniversary on Facebook, Domino’s
Pizza in Turkey was looking to do something special.
Promoqube created “The Social Pizza” – a chance for
all their fans to literally create options from scratch
and vote for the best new flavor combination. The final
choice went live for everyone after two weeks – and
one year later, it is now the pizza chain’s 2nd bestselling
pizza combination on the menu.
Kuveyt Turk – Your big loss
This was a cheeky promotion for one of Turkey’s
strongest banks, Kuveyt Turk. The idea was that
through a Facebook app, people would type in their
current savings with other banks, and the app would
showcase how much money they were losing from not
being with Kuveyt . The results could be easily shared
– and they were, and this had a major impact on the
bank’s new account openings.
44. 85
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Reborn
Headquartered in Australia, REBORN is an integrated
creative agency with a team of 40 across Sydney and
Melbourne. Using human insights to guide the work, they
tackle brand challenges with a wide offering of capabil-
ities grounded in strategy, creative, technology, media,
and invention. Clients include Nestle, LION Drinks &
Dairy, and Colgate.
Sydney, Australia
Headquarters
www.reborn.com.au
website
Melbourne, Australia
other offices
2008
Year founded
40
Headcount
Sabir Samtani
Director & Co-founder
David Easton
Director & Co-founder
General info
Nestle
Lion Drinks & Dairy
Colgate
Top Clients
SOCIAL IS
REBORN
IN OZ
The naked espresso.
Breville’s newly launched BES900 espresso ma-
chine is the only domestic dual boiler on the market
giving everyday consumers the ability to achieve cafe
grade results. Reborn developed a highly integrated
campaign that drove consumers to truly appreciate
the difference between normal coffee machines and
this one. It was a highly connected campaign through
Facebook, Twitter, Online videos and instore activation.
Results are confidential, but the Breville team has spo-
ken to campaign success.
Making mum proud
Milo, part of Nestle, is a drink engrained in the
psyche of Australian families. The “Sport is a great
teacher, Mum is a great coach” campaign features real
Aussie mums and kids, and talks about the important
role parents play in helping their kids participate in
sport, be active and learn the important skills of team-
work, resilience and confidence. So far, the overall
campaign has delivered 30 million impressions – and the
videos have received over 250,000 video views, including
approximately 6,250 hours of one-on-one interaction
with consumers, as well as over 18,000 comments and
1.8 million additional endorsed impressions through
social sharing.
45. 87
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Riot
Founded in 2006 as the first Brazilian agency specializ-
ing in social media, RIOT is now one of Latin America’s
largest independent agencies with over 200 employees
working across four offices. The agency works with
world-class brands like Johnnie Walker, PepsiCo, and
LG Electronics across six different countries. RIOT seeks
contextually relevant ways to tie technology with user
satisfaction across all digital, mobile, and social plat-
forms.
São Paulo, Brazil
Headquarters
www.riot.com.br
website
Rio de Janeiro, Fortaleza, Brasília
other offices
2006
Year founded
200
Headcount
Alberto Blanco
CEO
Walter Motta
Junior
HeadofGlobalPartnerships
Fiamma Zarife
VP of Business
Development
Camilo Otto
VP of Media
Thiago Arantes
VP of Planning
General info
Johnnie Walker
PepsiCo
LG Electronics
Top Clients
A RIOT IN
SOUTH
AMERICA
Keeping Brazil’s roads safe
A cool campaign to make sure Johnnie Walker
drinkers travel home safely, on weekends, consumers
have been taking cabs for free up to 10km, simply by
tweeting the hashtag #HOJENÃODIRIJO. All they need
to do is to call the taxi center and tell them the pass-
word that goes up on the Facebook Page. The campaign
not only drives awareness of the danger of drinking and
driving but has also been converting new fans.
A magic lamp for fast food
Habib´s is the largest Arabic fast-food chain in
the world that is proudly Brazilian. Although Habib´s
receives delivery orders via phone, mobile, and digital,
São Paulo is the 5th largest city in the world, and food
delivery is always a challenge. Riot built a physical mag-
ic lamp that makes delivery orders by rubbing it. Three
lamps were given to three biggest Habib´s fans. The
fourth lamp was delivered in a promotional campaign
on the Facebook Page on which, in a week, fans found
a series of enigmas on the brand´s history, shared their
searches, and had to discover where the lamp was.
46. 89
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Soap Creative
As one of Australia’s leading digital and social agencies,
Soap brings brands and consumer together through
playful experiences across every screen. With a team of
50 across Los Angeles, Dallas, and Sydney, Soap partners
with brands like Unilever, Xbox, ING Direct, Ferrero, and
Disney. Soap creates elegant and engaging experiences
with end users in mind.
Sydney, Australia
Headquarters
www.soapcreative.com/au/
website
2002
Year founded
50
Headcount
Ash Ringrose
Founder
Brad Eldridge
Founder
Ross Raeburn
Managing Director
Tom Ragg
Head of Social
General info
ING Direct
Unilever
Ferrero
Top Clients
CLEANING
UP IN
DIGITAL
FERRERO
Tiny tasty world of Tic-Tac
TIC TAC is an iconic brand that just about every-
body could love but it had become tired and outdated
– standing still whilst competitors stole its fresh and
fruity credentials. This led to a dwindling fan base which
was increasingly saying ‘meh’. In lieu of traditional ATL
advertising, there was a need to create an ongoing social
campaign that got noticed, shifted perceptions of the
brand and grew Facebook fan numbers across all major
product launches. The agency created “The Tiny, Tasty
World of TIC TAC” – a miniature world inhabited by TIC
TACs, brought to life through engaging, interactive social
content. Results were significant increases in brand
saliency and impact
FOXTEL
100 Days of Summer
Foxtel, the local cable network in Australia, wanted an
idea to promote 100 days of summer. The agency took
the campaign title literally and every day during sum-
mer, they rewarded the FOXTEL fans with hot content
and exclusive prizes. High-performing content types
were added into a higher rotation. At the end of the
100 days, FOXTEL ended up with over 120,000 fans with
positive sentiment outweighing the negative by a ratio
of 10:1. Key learnings from the campaign are to be im-
plemented and shared with other owned and operated
channel profiles.
47. 91
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
SocialEyez
SocialEyez is an award-winning leader in social media
analytics, engagement and marketing services, offering
the full breadth of social media services. Based out of
Dubai, the team is comprised of 150+ members in 15
countries across three continents. Working with clients
such as Etisalat, Canon, and McDonald’s, they offer a
unique service proposition revolving around a measure-
ment-based approach to customer engagement.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Headquarters
www.social-eyez.com
website
2010
Year founded
176
Headcount
Fadl AL Tarzi
CEO
Marwan El Nemr
Head of Business
Development
Ambreen Kazi
Creative Director
Tarek Esper
Head of Client Strategy
General info
Etisalat
Canon
McDonalds
Top Clients
SOCIALEYEZING
THE MIDDLE
EAST
Jordan, Egypt, Morroco,Lebanon
Bahrain, Buenos Aires
Other offices
News Group International
Holding Group
An ID card for the UAE
The agency also did a major campaign to drive
registrations for the EID card. They reached over
250,000 users through the campaign. One of the great-
est challenges was that these residents were difficult to
reach through traditional media, so SocialEyez analyzed
their nationalities, identified which social media plat-
forms they used & who the influencers were that could
reach them. The campaign was executed in English,
French, Russian, Urdu, Farsi and Tagalog to reach all
the different nationalities we identified. The campaign
played a major role in helping EIDA meet their deadline
and received excellent press coverage as well as inter-
national awards.
Getting a job made easy
On behalf of the UAE at a jobs fair, SocialEyez
leveraged key influencers to drive connections. They
were approached with pre-set key messages and seeded
them with those messages which they then published
online. The messages all tapped into emotions and Na-
tionalistic pride. Through the key influencers, they were
able to increase followers across social media platforms
by over 8,000 across 4 weeks and this resulted in larger
on ground attendance at the event.
48. 93
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
SociaLab
SociaLab is an award-winning marketing agency spe-
cializing in social influence marketing. Headquartered
in Beijing, the agency helps clients to gain social influ-
ence by leveraging consumer insights. Comprised of a
team of over 100 people, SociaLab works with blue-chip
brands like Coca-Cola, Reckitt Benckiser and Lenovo.
Beijing, China
Headquarters
www.socialab.com.cn
website
2012
Year founded
113
Headcount
PengYuan Jin
Chief Knowledge
Officer
XiaoAo Tang
Executive Creative
Director
Randal Zhao
Group Account
Director
Apple Xu
Planning Director
Amanda Zhang
Group Account
Director
General info
Reckitt Benckiser
Coca-Cola
Lenovo
Top Clients
CHINA’S
SOCIAL LAB
Shanghai, Chengdu
Other offices
Travel with love
Durex is popular with those who use condoms, but
its sex toys are barely known here. The goal was to
drive awareness about Durex Vibe. The agency created
a live show –“Travel with Love” – One couple travelled
across 5 major cities in China, exchanging all they
needed during the trip with their only belongings - Durex
Vibes. Chinese are too shy to talk about sex, but they are
always happy to help others. The Trade-up successfully
drove huge attention. Altogether, the campaign inspired
220,000 tweets, making #TravelWithLove a trending top-
ic on SINA Weibo, along with 3,596,919 video views, and
285,064,698 impressions across social networking, online
media and TV.
Share a Coke
Coca-Cola launched a series of ‘nickname bottles’
labeled with the IDs of various social groups, inspir-
ing young people to share a Coke with friends in the
same social nickname or with other groups. At warm-
ing-up, SociaLab were seeding the suspenseful content
by official creative and cooperation with 1000+ key
influencers. During the campaign period, they engaged
consumers via daily content, events & activities, mobile
end communication, popular star concerts, crossover
and Apps. 4,820,963 brand mentions were received on
Sina Weibo. Total impression reached to 7 billion. The
campaign also won the Grand Prix Effie in China.
49. 95
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Social Noise
Social Noise is a digital creative agency in Spain, now
having a presence in Mexico and Sweden. They help
their clients digitalize their brand, their communications
and their business, producing cross-media relevant con-
tent for their audiences and working in three main areas:
strategy, technology, and creativity.
Madrid, Spain
Headquarters
www.socialnoise.com
website
2009
Year founded
65+
Headcount
Miguel Pereira
CEO
Miguel Ángel
Hernández
Partner & Managing
Director at Social Noise
David Alayón,
Partner & Innovation
Director
Pedro Ample,
Creative Director
Sabrina Tahiri
Business Development
Director
General info
Vodafone
Stage Entertainment
IKEA
Top Clients
MAKING
NOISE ONLINE
FROM SPAIN
Mexico City
Other offices
Merry Ikea Christmas
A highly integrated campaign from Social Noise
mobilized Spaniards to celebrate Christmas with
IKEA. For current customers, there was the option to
create and share a customized carol, and for others,
there were social messages, banner ads and discounts
to encourage them to become a part of the IKEA family.
The campaign saw more than 6.2m visit the IKEA web-
site, more than 10.3m social interactions and more than
1.5m people created their own carol – a great success
and a merry Christmas.
12 Grapes of New Year
It’s a Spanish tradition to eat 12 grapes every
December 31st at midnight in a square in Madrid, but,
every year, the clock makers of the square were unable
to celebrate. So MasterCard took their families to the
Ritz Hotel in a completely priceless campaign, and sup-
ported it through social media – with 650,000 views on
YouTube – more views than Beyoncé. Almost 62m im-
pressions came through on Facebook and it became one
of the most successful campaigns of the year in Spain.
50. 97
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
Story Worldwide
Founded in 2006, Story Worldwide is one of the world’s
first content-driven agencies. Today, brands are compet-
ing with filmmakers, writers and entertainers, not just
other brands. And unless they create campaigns and
content that are at least as compelling as what their au-
dience can find online, on TV, in a newsstand publication,
book, app or elsewhere, they will be ignored. Simply
put, Story is purpose-built to create advertising programs
that are great stories – engaging, entertaining and use-
ful. Their work spans integrated campaigns, through-me-
dia editorial, digital, film and innovations assignments.
New York, USA
Headquarters
www.storyworldwide.com
website
2005
Year founded
75
Headcount
Kirk Cheyfitz
Co-CEO +
Chief Storyteller
Simon Selly
Co-CEO + Chief
Enthusiasm Officer
Josh Golden
Chief Marketing
Officer
Rob Rasmussen
Chief Creative Officer
General info
Beech-Nut
Unilever
Lexus
Top Clients
TELLING
THE STORY
Seattle, WA
Other offices
Next Fifteen
Holding Group
A bewitching new show
WGN America needed support to help redefine
their network by launching its first original program,
Salem. Story Worldwide utilized social media to gather
legions of fans and fired up a community of loyal “Hea-
thens” before the show even launched, grabbing the
attention of key influencers with a series of personalized
burning Vines and mysterious hex tweets from historic
witches. Once fans were assembled, they were encour-
aged to tweet in questions for the cast, which were
answered in videos of the actors from set and shared
with a growing community in social, along with highly
sharable behind-the-scenes photos and other multiple
daily social posts. The Salem premiere broke records for
WGN America, drawing 3.4 million viewers from only 62
million homes (a 996% improvement over the network’s
previous best A18-49 rating).
Helping a university give back
Purdue University set out to engage recent alumni
and first-time donors to give back to the Universi-
ty, while also reinvigorating the existing donor base.
“Purdue Day of Giving” used social media, amplified with
a bit of game theory, to raise the profile of the Univer-
sity and spark donations from disengaged alumni in an
innovative 24-hour fundraising event. Guided by the
work of Story Worldwide, the Day of Giving’s “Opportu-
nity Granted” campaign emphasized stories of donors’
impact on funding financial aid and world-changing
research through a series of motivational story posts,
sharable infographics and animated video. The Day of
Giving shattered records for Purdue University, raising
$7.5 million in a single day, in 6,500 gifts from all 50
states and 17 countries.
51. 99
CASE
STUDIES
Key personnel
TBG Digital
TBG is a social media specialist offering end-to-end solu-
tions for brands. By measuring tangible value, TBG’s media
and creative services work towards enabling meaningful
advocacy. With a team of 120 working in offices across
Europe, US, and Asia, the agency offers social strategy,
content creation, application builds, paid media, and
measurement. TBG partners with clients like Vodafone,
Heineken, and Dell to identify problems and then devise
data-led strategies using social media.
London, England
Headquarters
www.tbgdigital.com/
website
2001
Year founded
120
Headcount
General info
Vodafone
Heineken
Dell
Top Clients
New York, San Francisco, USA
Hamburg, Germany
Other offices
THE POWER
OF GLOBAL
SOCIAL
Simon Mansell
Chief Executive
Officer
Diogo Freire
Chief Financial Officer
Ian Cassidy
Executive Creative
Director
Lee Griffin
SVP Client Services
Dean Snook,
Head of Client Services
EMEA
Topman 360 degrees
For Topshop’s Topman, the agency was charged
with driving traffic to their autumn and winter fashion
show, and giving users a front row experience. Using the
Facebook page as the hub for all activity, four lucky fans
were given the chance to win a seat at the real event.
Using an interactive 360° live stream, fans were also able
to join in on the action, as well as looking in real time at
influencer comments from Sunday Times Style, Henry
Holland and others. The Topman campaign became
the number one trend on twitter, with 50,000 live stream
viewers and 100,000 new fans.
Music to Heineken’s ears
In a campaign covering 29 markets, TBG developed
a Heineken Music Matcher for music festivals, a pas-
sion point for their fans. As fans recruited their friends,
they were able to win tickets to the Open’er Festival.
TBG measured a 246% uplift in Brand Awareness be-
tween Heineken fans and non-fans – and connected with
more than 4m fans over a 14 month period.