Rethinking Digital: Key Takeaways - Part 1: Igniting Anticipation

Continuing our Rethinking webinar series, Matt Lockhart, Head of Digital, and Laura Winter, Group Account Director, recently sat down to discuss how the power of going 'digital first' can supercharge your brand experiences before, during, and after, reaching and engaging not thousands but millions of your audience.

This blog is the first of three in the series and will be going into the first part of the webinar - Igniting anticipation: How can we boost awareness and excitement in the early stages of your campaign?

Igniting Anticipation

Rising above our competitors and helping our clients stand out in a crowded marketplace is integral to what we do.

The first step toward this, in any campaign, is figuring out how we can excite and engage our audiences in the lead-up to that key moment—how we can build anticipation.

Creating this marketing crescendo can bring a greater sense of reward for the customer. The journey toward reaching that key element of the campaign helps build brand loyalty and a sense of belonging. When that moment arrives, customers enjoy that element of engagement even more.

By igniting anticipation in the run-up to a key moment, customers remember that time positively and become the engaged audience all brands aspire to create.

Digital Channels

From existing digital channels that we're all familiar with to new and emerging technologies, there's an ever-growing number of platforms that brands can use to ignite anticipation in their audiences. We've examined three specific examples: social media, AR gamification, and influencer collaboration.

Social Media: Spotify

Spotify’s ‘Wrapped’ campaign, launched in 2016, stands as a brilliant example of utilising social media to engage the audience. For those unfamiliar with the initiative, Spotify notifies its customers annually with a hyper-personalised ‘review’ of their listening habits over the year. Users are then presented with an Instagram story-style visual representation of this data, which they can share on social media.

Loyal Spotify customers eagerly anticipate Wrapped each year. The built anticipation culminates in a key moment that delivers on various levels for the brand, from increased social media interactions (over 400,000,000 tweets in the three days following the launch) to heightened usage and ultimately new subscribers.

For users, it's another way to share who they are and what they like with their friends and followers on social media. For Spotify, it's a viral marketing tool and has become a cherished moment for music enthusiasts, creating a year-end surge on the platform that continues to grow.

Coca-Cola: AR & Gamification

Coca-Cola launched its 'Take a Taste' campaign in 2022, recognising the need to drive trial of Coke Zero and Cherry Coke Zero, specifically within the UK market.

In this innovative campaign, consumers could dynamically change the creative displayed on digital billboards in real-time using their mobile phones. By scanning a QR code on the screen, they received a 'digital' bottle of Coca-Cola and then downloaded a digital voucher to claim that bottle at a Tesco store.

Generation Z attests that billboards featuring dynamic content capture their attention effectively. This type of digital interaction with the brand yields better conversion rates and significantly longer dwell times compared to traditional mediums such as TV or radio.

Solo Stove: Influencer Collaboration with Snoop Dogg

Snoop Dogg is an incredibly famous figure, boasting over 83 million Instagram followers and around 40 million across other platforms, including Facebook, TikTok, and X. With such astronomical reach, brands are eagerly seeking collaborations with him.

One notable recent collaboration was with Solo Stove, a smokeless firepit manufacturer, which cleverly played on Snoop’s habitual smoking—a trademark of his career and personality.

The video, broadcasted across his social media channels and on TV, generated interest from followers, other brands, media outlets, and more, achieving a massive reach with around 4.7 million likes and well over 100,000 comments.

The campaign proved to be extremely press-friendly, creating a huge buzz. Snoop’s audience eagerly awaited to understand the meaning behind his initial teaser posts, building anticipation from the start.

Watch the Webinar

Of course, this is just a snapshot of the wide-ranging discussion from our recent webinar, ‘Rethinking Digital: Supercharge Brand Experiences Before, During, and After.’ Next time, we will release part two of the series, where we will be discussing driving engagement: Once the buzz has been generated, how can we continue to drive as much engagement with a brand as possible? 

You can watch the entire webinar, along with others, on our YouTube page.

If you’re looking for ways to ignite anticipation for your brand’s campaigns, do not hesitate to get in touch with one of our strategists today.