How agencies are reinventing their social teams and practices

As marketers invest further in the creator economy and new business opportunities in the discipline continue to rise, many advertising agencies are shaking up their social teams and strategies. Shops are exploring many avenues to do so—some are siloing their teams, while others are integrating them. Some are hiring talent in untraditional areas, such as comedy or editorial, while others are marshaling freelancers. And some agencies aren’t just hiring influencers, they are hiring people to manage influencer teams. More news: Creator and influencer trends to know right now Below are some of the ways shops are approaching this burgeoning practice. Social-first approach Stagwell’s Gale has established a 50-person “social-first marketing team,” composed of employees with expertise in PR, social, influencer, content, creator, organic and paid social, community management and paid media, including 14 new hires. The unit, led by Erin Lyden, VP of consumer PR, and Colleen Saporito, VP of marketing strategy, supports clients such as Hard Rock, Fogo de Chao, Bomb Pop and Halo Top. Gale CEO Brad Simms said the social-first marketing team is designed to be agile and act quickly, unearthing insights from online conversations and turning around campaigns that are measured against metrics such as comments and shares. After Gale helped the Milk Processor Education Program develop its Wood Milk campaign, for example, it discovered in social media communities that many people were being bullied for drinking milk. The agency’s social-first team used that insight to pitch MilkPEP a facetious public service announcement with Queen Latifah featuring the stories of shamed milk drinkers. The campaign involved a media buy on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, as well as extensive PR and influencer work, along with long-form content. “It wasn’t a social media activation, but it was a social-first activation,” said Simms. The freelance route Last spring, creative shop SuperHeroes established the Robins, a group of more than 80 freelance Gen Z influencers, students and young professionals, which it taps for insights and strategy. SuperHeroes also created a digital street art studio called Jimmy, which is made up of 12 freelance creators from around the world, in August. The offering creates digital art that is run where Gen Z lives—on social. That has helped the agency, which has offices in Amsterdam and Brooklyn, find new stateside business opportunities. Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards Join us July 23 & 24 in Boston Learn more here “For us to get in touch with brands [in the U.S.] is really quite challenging,” said Rogier Vijverberg, founder and chief creative hero at SuperHeroes. “Jimmy has enabled us to start working with probably 25 new clients in the past year.” To drum up excitement for Netflix’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender," Jimmy created realistic portrayals of one of the show’s characters, a flying bison called Appa, sleeping in locations including New York and San Francisco. The effort raked in 81 million organic views across Instagram and TikTok within two weeks, according to SuperHeroes. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Netflix US (@netflix) Seeking non-traditional talent Recruiting social employees necessitates looking outside the box and exploring niche communities and areas. Caitlin Riddell, VP of social at Tombras, which is looking to add some stand-up comedians to its team, said it’s essential to proactively seek out this type of talent. “The core to building a great social team is not just hiring great traditional agency people,” Riddell said. “We love lurking on the platforms … to spot the social accounts that are leading the way and driving the culture, and then identifying the talent that’s behind it.” Recent news: Creators are being hired by ad agencies Finding talent that has previously demonstrated an ability to tell stories is crucial, too. Some of the 14 new employees on Gale’s social-first marketing team, for example, have editorial backgrounds, Simms said, adding that the agency also hired from brands. Influencing the influencers Some agencies stressed the need to bring influencers into the business—but others are taking a different route. Heather Hosey, Droga5’s new head of social, said she has been investing in influencer managers, who help the agency find and contract talent for clients such as Huggies. “It’s a very involved role, and that’s something we didn’t have in-house [before my] time. We were using partners,” said Hosey, who started at the agency in January. “If we’re doing it, we might as well bring it in so we can control it and maintain creative excellence.” Managing the sheer amount of social media platforms, especially as decentralized apps such as Bluesky and Mastodon continue to grow, is a difficult task. Matt Mills, executive VP, creative at Fuel, BarkleyOKRP’s 85-person social-first content studio, said employees are assigned platforms to follow closely, reporting new developments and updates back to the team. “We [essentially] create beats,” said Mills. “You can’t be a social media or digital master. That sort of implies that you know everything there is to know. I think the better approach is to say, ‘We’re going to be students of this space and continuously learn.’” Also: Creators and Cannes—what to know for next year’s festival 40 under 40 entries are open The final deadline for nominations is Aug. 2 Enter here No-silo strategy There is no one-size-fits-all approach for building a social practice—some agencies are separating social from other disciplines and others are integrating it throughout the business, according to several executives. VaynerMedia claims to have “no social media team,” according to Nick Miaritis, its chief client officer. Instead, the whole company is “built with social at the center,” he said. Read: Gary V on the ‘TikTokification of social media’ The agency, which employs hundreds of creators, begins its strategic process by identifying “cohorts,” a brand’s various audiences, for which its creatives then make dozens of social ads. VaynerMedia uses the feedback to those ads to inform next steps, such as media buying and creative. Miaritis pointed to VaynerMedia’s 2020 Super Bowl campaign around Mr. Peanut, where it killed off Planters’ 104-year-old spokesnut, as an example. “I could show you 150 social ads that informed that decision,” he said. “We’re creating social media advertising for insights every day to inform those things, rather than doing it in a fake setting, like a focus group.” Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Since January, Wieden+Kennedy Portland has been working to eliminate silos and increase collaboration with its social-first creative studio, Bodega, according to Jason White, the agency’s president. “We kept the businesses separate intentionally for quite a while, and they were almost competitive in a weird way,” he said. “Now we’re very intentionally not letting business get in the way. We’re not letting people say, ‘Oh, well, I’m not scoped to be on that project.’ Right now, it’s like, ‘If you’re the best person for that project, get in there.’” While planning its Titanium Grand Prix-winning “DoorDash All the Ads” campaign for this year’s Super Bowl, W+K Portland convinced the food delivery service company to expand Bodega’s scope. “We knew this thing was getting so interesting and complex,” White said. “We went back to them and said, ‘Guys, we need to really increase the role of Bodega on this.’” Prioritizing culture first Producing successful social work requires first understanding what brands are trying to achieve culturally—a step many agencies neglect, said Ryan Ford, president and chief creative officer at Cashmere, which helped coin the term “Culture Agency of Record” back in 2021. “I think a lot of places, quite frankly, are getting it wrong,” said Ford. “They’re telling brand X, ‘Hey, we could do your social media because we’re optimized to do social media [and] find efficiencies.’” Cashmere, alternatively, begins by first helping brands establish an “overall cultural platform,” which it can build through various social channels. Ford also warned about brands and agencies hopping in on every trend or viral moment—lest they upset audiences for being inauthentic. It gets even more “dangerous” when brands put money behind the posts, “butting in” to users’ social feeds, Ford said. “You’re buying your way in, trying to figure out a way to be culturally relevant,” he said. “But if you were culturally relevant, maybe I would follow you to begin with.”

How agencies are reinventing their social teams and practices

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