The consumer shift from solitary electronic hearth-like television viewing to the simultaneous digestion of broadcast, narrowcast and socially produced content and ads across channels and devices has clearly occurred. At the same time, real world examples and studies measuring time spent by media type prove that, at our core, consumers are social animals. Lately, moves by two of the savviest brands took advantage of these phenomena.

First, as everyone in the digital advertising world surely knows by now, Oreo brilliantly responded to the surprise power outage at the Super Bowl Stadium with a perfectly timed and humorous “You can still dunk in the dark ^[1]” social campaign. Honestly, what’s not to love about a great brand taking advantage of what we all knew was an immediate shift of eyeballs from the big screen to social networks to its advantage? As several Fortune 500 brands poured millions into less than memorable 30-second spots, Oreo stole the show with a free campaign that was truly driven by the behavior and interests of the viewing audience.

The very next morning, Swiss luxury watch brand RAYMOND WEIL boldly acknowledged the power of social as well. In a very unconventional move ^[2], the brand turned off its corporate website and redirected its website traffic to its Facebook page to honor the social giant’s 9th birthday.  Why did the brand do this?

According to Alain Duchêne, Head of Digital for RAYMOND WEIL, “The reason may not be obvious to a classical marketer that thinks in purely awareness or DR metrics. You see, while we were hopeful that some of the thousands of website visitors that we drove to our Facebook page would ‘like’ us, it was more about providing our fans and customers with a social experience. By connecting our brand and its audience with their social hive, we extended the meaning and impact of the brand experience. To us, that is priceless. Feedback from our customers confirms this perception.”

^[3]

^[4]

What should other marketers make of bold moves like those made by Oreo and RAYMOND WEIL? In my opinion, there are two real takeaways.

1. Social provides an unprecedented ability to respond to multi-channel unknowns that cannot be reacted to as quickly through other, more static channels. Oreo’s Superbowl campaign was a great case in point. Think about how your brand can use social to “listen” and “respond” to your customers in real-time.
2. Social provides a means for extending the meaning of your brand. RAYMOND WEIL’s campaign serves as a great example of this strategy.. Think about how you can use social to establish a connection between your brand, your audience and their social communities to stimulate interaction and engagement in ways you have not before.