Kurio

A random forester as the star of Europe’s best B2B campaign, a million-dollar launch done solely on TikTok and a social-first agency making it to the top 3 of the most creative agencies in the world. Social has truly changed the game – and we love it.

Did you know that 89% of Cannes Lions winners have social media at the core of the campaign? Or that 81% of the campaigns feature real people as the faces of the campaign? Or that a company’s purpose generates more buzz than product features? What the figures show is that advertising has become harder than ever. We need to create not only memorable, but also shareable content. We are up against the consumers of the social era: master content creators, super-fast adopters, connected to each other 24/7.

Some call it hype; for us it’s a passion. We want to create marketing that turns people into ambassadors of a brand. We have seen it time and time again: once we get people engaging, talking, sharing, clicking – the results skyrocket and the business effect follows. We have learned the ropes in legacy agencies and then carefully adapted our agency to do many things the opposite way; social first. We believe social has changed how marketing works, for good.

#1 Social-first redefines creativity

Say no to overly polished images and pretty pictures. If an idea is not engaging, it’s outdated. A truly interactive idea is different from a traditional creative idea. An interactive idea involves its viewer and invites them to be part of the story – or better yet to make a brand part of their own story; that is a challenge that keeps us motivated and working hard every day.

#2 Actions and evidence redefine storytelling

Forget storylines, slogans and professional actors. Social media should be fueled by real people and their real actions. Blunt and outspoken beats rehearsed and relatable wins over flawless. The magic lies in capturing the authenticity in people and actions in social-first content. People of the social media era are convinced by what feels real. If you need to convey an image of a brand, think about evidence instead of slogans – evidence that shows a claim to be irrefutably true in any content.

#3 Always-on as the new backbone of marketing

Remember when you bought media as “space”? When you paid more for a 30 second TV ad than for a 15 second one? Unlike traditional media, social works better for continuous content streams than for one-off campaigns, so you need to redefine what production value means for you. Social needs new content every week. You need to do more with less and to have at least two versions of everything in order to be able to test and adjust it according to audience feedback. In social the actual numbers beat creative intuition any day.

#4 Rethink the media-production split

The relationship between media and production investment has changed significantly in recent years. Traditionally, at least 60% of the client budget went to media and this cost was fixed, no matter how creative your content. Social channels work differently; they are significantly more cost effective and transparent in their ROI, even more so if your content is relevant. So now the new split is 20% to media and 80% to great content.

#5 Forget sprints, social is a marathon

More and more investments are flooding towards social, against a backdrop of a constantly changing media environment. In this environment, a firm strategy is the one thing keeping you from getting lost in all the options available. That means having a solid process, flowing from strategic planning to creative concepts, and measuring ROMI for all your activities.When we, the partners at Kurio, started our careers in marketing, there was no way we could have foreseen how our industry would change. Look at TikTok, which didn’t exist before 2017. Now the platform has 500MM monthly active users and agencies like ours need to be able to leverage it. Looking into the future, the only thing guaranteed is change, and the only way to deal with that is to adapt. As our name suggests, we firmly believe in staying curious. Being open needs to be built in. So, we say: bring it.

CASES IN POINT

SurfaceTheWomen – Microsoft

IT industry is far from inclusive and diverse, both of which are core values for Microsoft. So, for the International Womens Day, #SurfaceTheWomen was born. A social-first campaign that turned the product name into a call-to-action, and turned the distant giant into a dynamic force for equality – and helped women get the recognition and encouragement they deserve.

With a first-ever LinkedIn profile pic movement, and no paid media, we reached more than 1,5MM people in a week. It moved not only the target group, but also juries – the campaign has received international acclaim in various PR awards shows.

Zero Exclusion – Neste & Mantsinen

Mantsinen 300 is the world’s largest hydraulic material handling machine. Despite its 380-tonne magnitude, it is the most precise in its size range. In order to communicate this benefit to the business decision makers, we selected a medium every board room has: paintings.
We crafted a brush for the Mantsinen 300. Took three teen artists, trained them to drive the machine and gave them a challenge: to express themselves with it.
Our exhibition with 42 paintings broke all previous PR records. We made something the business leaders can’t unsee: the crane as precise as an artist’s brush.