On social, every customer, employee and creator has the potential to be a powerful brand advocate. But tapping into this unique opportunity to harness authentic voices and build deeper connections requires a less traditional approach to what many telcos are used to.
So, in partnership with TikTok, Campaign and Performance Marketing World brought together a roundtable of industry experts to discuss insights, strategies and best practices to turn affinity into advocacy. Hosted by Campaign tech editor Lucy Shelley and PMW’s multimedia editor Joseph Arthur, the roundtable dived into ways for telco brands to embrace the power of democratised marketing.
Opportunity knocks
The results of a recent TikTok survey, ‘TikTok Marketing Science UK Telco Survey April 2024’, conducted via AYTM, found that 54% of TikTok’s audience would consider switching their mobile or fixed provider, within the year. And 68% of immediate switchers will terminate their contract early to switch mobile providers. “This is a great opportunity for our telco partners to tap into,” said Stephen Naughton, group vertical director at TikTok.
Naughton and Anastasia Nicholl, tech and telco lead at TikTok, revealed that growing partnerships in the telco space has been a priority for the platform in the last 12 months, with a focus on building brand affinity by creating connections with communities. Telcos aren’t perceived as the most exciting category, recent research by TikTok polled 1000 people across the UK to explore attitudes and behaviours around researching mobile or fixed subscriptions. While three-quarters of respondents find the process boring, three-quarters of respondents also said that TikTok allows users to build a connection or community around telco brands. “TikTok can take something that might historically be boring, such as CleanTok, and turn it into entertainment,” said Naughton.
Getting passionate
Naughton said that leaning into passion points is the foundation for building advocacy. He cited EE’s campaign throughout Euro 2024, where it sent creators like Harry Pinero to the football tournament to create content leading up to the Euros final. At the end of the tournament,TikTok had 3.5bn views across Euros content.
Georgina Bramall, marketing strategy director at Giffgaff, said leaning into passion points enabled the brand to enjoy rapid growth. “We are a community-led brand and taking that ethos into platforms like TikTok has been a relatively easy step for us,” she said. “We know that if our audience gives us their time and commitment we have to give them something in return, and fueling that advocacy is one of the big reasons we took off as quickly as we did.”
Another start-up brand that has been built through advocacy and by listening to what its community says is World Mobile. “Telco is such a hidden gem because of the way we can communicate with people,” said Jonathan Foan, World Mobile’s head of marketing. “The stories we can tell with people are so fun, and I think if we’re sincere and genuine and add value to those stories it’s gold dust.”
Passion doesn’t always mean finding the most exciting topic and running with it. Sometimes, said Jay Richards, co-founder of Imagen Insights, it comes down to exploring the mundane things in life to build an authentic connection. “Customers often want to do something sexy, but qualitative research enables clients to explore the mundane things that people who aren’t customers do every day. It’s normal stuff that people connect to on TikTok, like just moaning about how long a travelator takes! Mundane stuff feels more authentic.”
A whole lot of love
The expert panel explored how to transition from getting people talking about your brand, to people loving it. Lots of brands find it simple to just shout the loudest and get noticed, but that kind of attention rarely sticks.
The panel felt that Telcos must aim to journey from being a brand that people communicate with only when they want to complain, to being a brand that communities can have an emotional connection with. “It’s about creating opportunities to create connections, such as brand love campaigns where a brand talks about the feelings of having a connection more than just talking about the functional side of what they do,” said Cassia Colling, social strategy lead, content and campaigns at Vodafone.
Connections also come from making communities “feel heard and represented,” said Dom Hyams, global client director at Purple Goat Agency. “Brands must act in a way that shows they care and are representing the people they are trying to communicate with authentically.” This means investing in value exchanges to give communities that love your brand the opportunity to shout about it. Suggested ideas ranged from engaging in one-to-one conversations and providing free – but, crucially, relevant – merchandise.
Getting paid right
Building advocacy must be done carefully, respectfully and authentically, which makes putting paid media behind campaigns a tricky balancing act.
“We talk about targeting communities rather than audience on socials now,” said Melody Meacher-Jones, head of social and influence at Accenture Song. “We work with media agencies to target communities on platforms where they over-index, and target them by their interests rather than by demographics.”
Tamara Cross, head of media creativity, partnerships and social at Manning Gottlieb OMD, said brands should be “crystal clear” about exactly what they want to get out of paid media when working with creatives. “If you haven’t done any measurement up front then that’s where you’re going to trip up, overspend and reach the wrong audiences.”
Finally, remember to have fun. Naughton said over three-quarters of TikTok’s audience comes to the platform to be entertained. “You’ve got to remove your shackles on social,” said Edward. “Look at Burberry. What it’s doing on TikTok doesn’t feel like a typical luxury brand, but it’s had massive success because the tonality is quintessentially British and it’s really playful, and you’ve got to be playful on these platforms.”