The R-Team: Your Crack Team Of Reactive Content Creators
Virality (with a positive sentiment) is the Holy Grail of content marketing. A goal which every great content marketing team strives to achieve with every piece of video, image, graphic, animation, copy etc they create.
Being quick off the mark to join world news in a smart and speedy manner can seriously boost your reach. Your “Oreo moment”. (Actually, I never thought that Oreo Superbowl post was as good as was heralded but sure look, sure listen)
There is no real silver bullet here. If your brand or service is the kind that wants to place “reactive” within its content strategy, then here are a couple of skills or heroes you need to have in order to be best placed to jump on something quickly. Think of it as a budget version of the X-men:
An artist. Or a graphic designer with a keen eye for detail and a lightening quick speed. Your reactive piece doesn’t have to be a Carvaggio, but it does need to marry your brand message/detail and creative with the moment you’re trying to latch onto. This person definitely rocks an alternative fashion sense and has hidden piercings.
A wordsmith. More often than not your reactive will come from someone who is razor sharp with language and wit. This can make or break your reactive piece’s potential for viral success, it is a nuanced and subtle skill but invaluable one to have in communications. This person is poetic and comedic and can instantly judge the feeling in a room.
A supercreep. Or rather, someone with their finger on the every pulse. Pop culture and current affairs in our modern social media world tend to dictate the topic of conversations which take off across social media. You need someone who is attuned to all platforms, conversations, occasions and trends that people are going to be talking about. This person tends to live their life on a computer and have as little interaction with the outside world.
A rogue. Most viral reactive content comes at the expense of a person, brand or moment that a “safe brand” would otherwise avoid. If you’re afraid to ruffle a few feathers, then you should just sit back and watch the bold and brave give it their best shot. This person is ballsy and confident with a thick skin and watches too many sports movies.
A shotcaller. Someone who can sign off or reject quickly. This person must be brave but understand the pitfalls that can really hurt a brand or agency. It takes years to build a brand but seconds to burn it to the ground. This person is the guardian of the brand, knows it and its audience inside out, and can makes smart judgement calls on the fly. A balanced individual, probably reads the Sunday papers and goes on hikes.
What’s key is diversity and skill. But all of this falls apart if you don’t have a streamlined system from idea to sign off and launch. Not every brand or agency is in a place to have a “reactive news war room”, somebody’s got to pay the bills, but giving your R-Team headspace to think freely and consume mass amounts of media is a must. Social media moves fast, so you’ve gotta be primed and ready in the starter block waiting for the gunshot. When the stars (and systems) align though, the results can be astounding.
NB: Obviously we stereotyped in the characters above. Not sorry.
-GC