ZAK Agency share their insights on the future of social media

Today, 3.48 billion people use social media – that’s 45% of the total world population. The popularity is ever-growing, with more than a million new people joining social media networks every single day in the past year alone. With this in mind, it comes as no surprise to learn that 90% of brands now use social media to increase brand awareness and 77% expect their social media use to increase.

We spoke to Dominic Weiss, Head of Planning at ZAK Agency, to shed insight on how brands can adapt and stay relevant in the ever-changing social media marketing world.

ZAK Agency are an independent creative agency with a singular focus of creating big brand ideas to engage with under 30-year olds.

When targeting the under 30’s, how do brands avoid a one size fits all approach?

Attention is the currency of advertising. If you’re going to get it, you need to be interesting, surprising and entertaining. The best brands take the local, and make it global. The reason for this is that they understand the power of cultural resonance. Just look at the way Spotify use local data to tell stories that resonate on a mass level. Brands needs to steer clear of catch-all/means nothing insights. For global fame, get to the heart of local culture.

In your recent white paper ‘The New Rules of Social’ you said that the under 30’s favour deeper, richer connections found in smaller, bespoke communities. How are global brands evolving to achieve this?

The bigger you get, the harder it is to foster a community of like-minds. That’s the challenge. But, it’s not impossible. Take Glossier. They are still fledgling versus their cosmetics competitors but their growth is eyewatering. What they have done is singled out the value they offer to their community – expertise and empathy in make-up – and zeroed in on that proposition. This gives their audience a clear reason to return and therefore creates a group of people who are all interested in the same thing. Add a layer of intimacy and humanity to their language and tone of voice and you have the makings of a community.

Read ZAK Agency’s latest white paper ‘The New Rules of Social’ in full for further insight into the evolution of social media and the direction it is taking.

We are always looking to speak with inspiring individuals in the creative industry, please get in touch if you’re interested in sharing your views on this topic by emailing info@x4communications.co.uk