Social Media Club Atlanta

L-R: Jon Caddell (ING), Michelle Batten (SMCATL), Diane DeSeta (SMCATL), Dan Greenfield (SMCATL). Photo credit: Mike Schinkel

Last week’s SMC ATL June meeting was an interesting one. In Brand + Consumers: Dating and Mating in the Social Arena — part one of our three-part “The Social Media Love Affair” summer series — the focus was less on great, new social media innovation and more on the real-world applications and interactions at larger brands.

ING’s Digital Advertising Director Jon Caddell gave an honest perspective on both the difficulty and challenges of implementing social media at a large, reserved company. Jon’s essential message was that in organizations that are slow-to-adapt and focused very heavily on traditional ROI metrics, the best strategy is to go in small and deliver ROI value that is already understood and embraced by the company.

In Jon’s case, it was his decision to marry a social media campaign to accepted and tested targeted advertising initiatives with LinkedIn and Facebook that allowed ING to enter social media on their own terms and at their own pace. By utilizing data-driven engagement ads that tapped into social media user profiles and by offering up value to the consumer (a popular retirement calculator application), ING was able to subtly introduce their brand into the social media conversation and deliver ROI that was significantly higher than a traditional banner-only campaign.

Jon was able to deliver great advertising impressions AND also backdoor his brand into social media by working closely with his analytics team to adjust KPIs and show greater ROI than a standard banner run. His ROI success has allowed Jon to demonstrate internal proof of concept to senior management and allow ING to inch further along into opening up the brand to a larger social media engagement. A real world lesson for many big brand marketing folk looking for ways to move the social media needle in cautious organization.