Huskies’ New Elite Social Media Squad
As the Dublin-based independent agency continues to grow, In the Company of Huskies recently announced that it would be expanding with several new hires to strengthen its social media department.
The new appointments will be key to build on Huskies’ reputation as an agency that combines creativity with expertise in digital, or as they like to call it: ‘Magic and Machines’. Having won the Grand Prix, two golds and two silvers at ADFX in October - the award that celebrates the most effective advertising in Ireland - the agency’s new social media team will be led by Thomas Ryan to expand on this success.
As the agency embarks on a new era with more social capability than ever, LBB’s Alex Reeves caught up with Thomas to find out his approach to and philosophy on this aspect of marketing.
LBB> What attracted you to Huskies?
Thomas> My attraction to Huskies was to work with the best independent agency in Ireland and to be able to learn from some of the best creative and analytical people in the business. With social media and digital marketing, the learning never stops so it was really important for me to be inspired by my work colleagues on a daily basis. They haven't disappointed me on that score and they're also a very funny bunch of people to be around.
LBB> What sort of uses of social media do you find particularly exciting?
Thomas> Any cause-related social media that works for the good of people or the planet we live on.
LBB> How were the team selected and what were your priorities?
Thomas> The team was selected to find the best balance of individual specific platform expertise, and secondly, for experience from outside the agency world e.g. music industry and PR to enhance our perspective and lens of what's possible in social. It's important from a team perspective to bring people together who add to the team through their external interests. Being creatively inspired or having personal project passions brings personality to the team.
LBB> Can you run through the team - your new elite social media squad - and what you hope each will bring?
Thomas> Mark Folens, our social media manager, has a proven record in growing online communities, copywriting strategy and creative ideation having held many marketing roles including senior editor at the Irish Independent and Maxmedia Ireland.
Jack O'Dea is an expert in youth trends with his experience of delivering innovative social campaigns for Festival Republic, Body&Soul Music & Arts Festival and Java Republic.
Wynona Grant, former social media manager for HolidayGuru and Escapes.ie, brings travel and tourism social and brand expertise.
Johanna Torwesten, as our newest recruit and recent alumni of DCU's digital marketing Masters, brings a fresh perspective on social media use and adds performance analytics strength to the team.
LBB> How do you want the team to work alongside other parts of the agency?
Thomas> Properly integrating social media is essential to any brand campaign with more and more people spending their time on social and digital platforms versus terrestrial TV. We need to move beyond the bolt on mindset and understand that achieving real results means thinking social and digital from the outset. For the team, this means cross-department collaboration on campaign ideas and projects is essential to bring new perspectives to our work. Examples of this might be changing the narrative arc in a TVC video and shortening the edit to account for user newsfeed scrolling behaviours so we can engage people in an active way on social rather than throwing the full the TVC on a social platform and calling it job done for the client.
A representative sample of the Denny's school of Twitter
LBB> Do you have a favourite brand when it comes to use of social media?
Thomas> Lots I could mention but here's just a few:
Purple mattresses for their ‘Most Boring’ Facebook campaign. One of the best of the last few years.
Denny's Twitter (USA) still showing that Twitter for brands is about knowing your audience and making the channel work for a specific consumer journey stage. It's pretty funny too.
Visit Scotland Instagram – absolutely love the very personal and non-corporate tone of voice which shines through in the copy and of course, the amazing UGC images of Scotland.
A project I loved working on was the Call of the Wild for The Wild Atlantic Way for Fáilte Ireland. This campaign sets out to find brand advocates and motivates them to share images and videos of their favourite spots and hidden gems along the Wild Atlantic Way using the hashtag #MyWildAtlanticWay. There was a massive response with over 7000 entries in week 1 of the campaign, which is a testament to the brand love that exists for the Wild Atlantic Way. We then used the UGC content to create videos to promote the Wild Atlantic Way to both domestic and international audiences and received an overwhelmingly positive response and generated significant earned reach through social sharing.
