SOCIAL
Social marketing provides a huge opportunity, but only if you have clear goals and understand which metrics are the most valuable to help you reach those goals. It's important not to let yourself be completely led by numbers, as it's hard to stand out that way, but it would be equally bad to ignore the data when it's telling you your great idea isn't resonating. I've always worked closely with our social strategists to figure out what is working or not and to adjust.
UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA WITH W. KAMAU BELL
Social marketing for USOA almost exclusively happened through CNN's very popular organic channels. CNN audiences engage most often with content that informs them, so that’s where we put our focus. It paid off with some of the highest engagement of any CNN Original Series. We mined the show for interesting and relatable information, and then customized it for social. Sometimes this simply involved some editing and reformatting, while in other instances we completely redesigned or animated the information. Content selection was the biggest driver. Kamau personally had a strong social social presence, and was well liked by CNN audiences, so we also made room in our plan for assets that showcased his sense of humor and personality.
THE DECADES
CNN's social accounts experienced exponential growth over the run of Decades series. By the time we ran The Eighties, we had a good sense of what people responded to. CNN social audiences were still news consumers and responded strongly to informative content, but they were also older than the average social audience so the nostalgia factor was important in the context of this series. The series covered a lot of ground tonally from episode to episode so our campaign did as well. Nearly all the social assets for these series were completely original as the show did not really lend itself to clipping. We found success with custom graphics, including shareable quotes, and original digital videos.
THE HISTORY OF COMEDY
Licensing was the biggest challenge for The History of Comedy. We had access to very few clips of the shows and performances featured in the show, and the ones we did have weren’t always the most relevant. The show featured a pretty heavyweight roster of interviewees, but even using these involved navigating significant restrictions. We tried a few options to get around these challenges, and found that what worked best were the quote graphics. We leaned into those and worked hard to find things that would inspire to people share. We also worked to feature high profile talent involved in videos where we could. Sean Hayes was an Executive Producer on the series, and lent his talent to custom videos.
