The Engine Room 005 | Social Content Planning: Maths or Magic? ??

This week we’re getting deep on The Engine Room and attempting to answer a question that has quite profound implications for agencies and brands in the world of sport in relation to how they should structure their content and creative departments and create a culture that delivers the best.?

For a bit of context on what’s triggered this newsletter, I’ve worked in the industry for 12 years now. I’ve seen this slow creep in the industry towards an over-reliance and almost obsession with data and science. It’s our opinion that this is now coming at the expense of magic, which for us is the real ingredient to social media success for the majority of brands in the world of sport.

An obsession with data and science is coming at the expense of magic, the real ingredient to social media success.

Having worked in the industry for so long I absolutely understand how and why this paint-by-numbers culture has come about. We have such an abundance of choice in the world of social, the possibilities across formats and channels is almost endless. So a bit like a scout reducing his potential list of transfer targets for the manager, we use data as a crude device to whittle down our possibilities. We implement processes, assuming there’s a magical formula we can follow to get to the right answer.?

Data has also fuelled a protectionist mindset where we’re desperate to defend our approach with numbers, almost like it absolves of any responsibility if something goes wrong. So we believe that the right answer to a brief lies in data and processes and we treat briefs like exam questions. We look at what’s worked well for other brands, we look at what’s trending on social, we look at audience data and we think we’ll get to the right answer.?

The challenge is, once we’ve done all this number crunching, we’ve usually absolutely killed any potential for magic. We’ve killed the potential for any random ideas and connections that you might make in the shower or in a chance encounter. Briefs are handed over to creative teams with an incredibly rigid framework of rules, channels and formats that apparently must be followed to guarantee success. I’ve seen brilliant ideas shot down by clients and agencies because they didn’t fit these frameworks or rules of best practice that have typically been landed on by people with a great grasp of maths but a poor understanding of humans.

Heavy number crunching kills the potential for any random ideas and connections that you might make in the shower or in a chance encounter.

Last week, I talked about the huge success of Burnley FC’s transfer content. I have absolutely zero inside knowledge of how Burnley’s content division is run, but I’ve been in the industry long-enough to know it almost certainly won’t have come from data and a rigid planning framework.?

Now, before I get accused of trying to put data departments out of business, there is of course an absolutely huge role for data in any successful social content operation. Algorithms, whether we like it or not, change and we need data to inform how to distribute an idea to give it the best chance of success. However, this is about where data sits in the process. Here at End Product, we firmly believe that the best ideas win, our number one focus with any brief is landing on a bit of creative magic. We then use data to adapt our ideas to channels and to learn and optimise our executions.

Here at End Product, we firmly believe that the best ideas win, our number one focus with any brief is landing on a bit of creative magic.

So if you want to transform your social content maybe try focussing on magic with a little bit of maths rather than leading with maths and expecting magic ??