LAST CALL 5.24

This month, we're sitting down with the Spirited Media collective and asking all the hard hitting questions. Join Michaela Mueller , Samantha Harris , and Michaela Lucas as they share with us their favorite brands across social media, influencer marketing, and design in our first fireside chat.

Social Media Marketing Moments with Michaela Mueller

• What is a good example of a brand that is the blueprint for omni-channel social strategy right now?

If you haven’t heard of poppi by now, you’re likely living under a rock. The prebiotic soda brand founded in 2015, by Allison and Stephen Ellsworth is, without a doubt, the blueprint for omni-channel social media strategy. With 333K followers on Instagram and 499K followers on TikTok, this brand has mastered its strategy through effective community building, hyper-dynamic content, genius IRL activations, and a pointed approach to influencer marketing. They meet their target audience where they are at, provide them with genuinely entertaining content, and make them feel like a part of the brand. It’s the perfect recipe for success on social media and beyond.

• What was your favorite social media campaign to work on at Spirited Media?

12 Days of Kate - The holiday season can bring a very cluttered social media landscape to consumers. In 2023, we set out to cut past the noise, boost traffic to the direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform, and increase sales for our client, Big Nose Kate Whiskey. Our strategy? 12 Days of Kate. For the first 12 days of December, we curated branded gift guides, incorporated special offers, shared seasonal recipes, and more. This campaign was part of a longer OND DTC push, that was a smashing success and resulted in a 10.6x return on their marketing spend.

• Do you have a brand that comes to mind who is crushing it on content creation and curation?

At the moment, I have a huge crush on Casamigos Tequila . In my opinion, their content strategy is the perfect mix of educational and entertaining. While they consistently share classic cocktail recipes, product glamour shots, and lifestyle content, they also know how to have fun with it and not be too serious. A few of my favorites are this Casa-role they shared around Thanksgiving, these branded baseballs to mark the start of the season, and this Casamigos necklace tan to mark the Spring Equinox. Striking this balance as a brand can be tricky, but they are doing it with ease and constantly have me wondering what will be next.

Creator Craze with Samantha Harris

• What's one way you leverage community growth tactics to build relationships with fellow brands and creators?

From brand to bestie! Making Instagram besties through brand community management requires genuine connection, related interests, and a strategy that extends beyond a single interaction. First step to this is finding influencers or brands that reflect similar interests regardless of industry. Finding those that have a similar feel or follow brands in a similar industry is a great place to start. Maintaining the brand tone is essential when engaging with these potential brand besties, but a slight push of boundaries can come as a welcomed surprise. Tailoring to demographic and showing that the brand is “in the know” can be eye-catching and translate into fuller engagement. Speaking their language and meeting them where they are isn’t always easy, but it pays off. Once the baseline relationship is established, it’s important to stay updated and celebrate each others’ wins, leave thoughtful comments, consider how you can promote their content in a way that’s authentic to both brands, and make them feel at home!

• What brand is executing 10/10 paid partnerships?

The tequila brand Lo Siento is taking the paid partnership game seriously. They’re skipping the fleeting mentions by influencers solely for their follower count, and diving headfirst into well-produced, fitting partnerships. Lo Siento is better controlling their return on investment by partnering with those with true talent rather than their big platforms. They show off what partnerships can look like if we seek a good fit, build a relationship, ensure the person truly loves the product, and empower the creators to create. Their social content is captivating, good quality, and goes beyond the walls of the influencer’s at-home bar. With their affinity for the brand, they're sporting brand merchandise, inviting the product into their social clubs, and finding ways to make the Lo Siento brand their own.

Design Developments with Michaela Lucas

• What has been your favorite email campaign so far and what was your process like?

Email campaigns allow brands the opportunity to connect with their audience through longer-form lifestyle content outside of social media. An email campaign we have developed that conveys the sophisticated, cultured lifestyle of the brand is the Alfresco Dining newsletter for Chopin Vodka. This newsletter outlines tips for creating an outdoor dinner party accompanied by beautifully lit photography, simple layout, and charming line illustrations. All the details combine bring the essence of the spring season to life and support the effortlessly luxurious, yet down-to-earth, backstory of the brand.

The most important consideration when beginning a design is how the overall direction will visually express the concept of the content. This often requires research of the historical or background context, in addition to compiling visual inspiration and examples. From there, each stylization and detail? is ideated to ensure that it reinforces the concept, maintains the brand identity, and connects with the audience.

• What's an example of a recent brand's digital ad campaign that caught your eye?

This series of four digital ad campaigns by Superlost Coffee is so thoughtful in its visual storytelling, mission, and audience appeal. Designed by Max Kolo, the animation itself brings sensory details to life through engaging visuals, tactile hand-drawn elements, and the sight and smell of coffee, which are all orchestrated to the sound of quirky background music. The appreciation of every detail is amplified upon realization that the videos are highlighting the work of independent artists, as well as the illustrators that created the coffee’s package design. By putting creators at the forefront of the ad, the brand fosters community while supporting their mission of doing good and drinking creatively.