We are always trying to prove that we know our stuff at eskimosoup and in this mini blog series, we’re going to have a go at explaining the ins and outs of how we develop a social marketing campaign. Using our own case studies and methodology, we’ll start at the foundation for all good projects; understanding and research.

There’s no such thing as a stupid question

Which is why we ask A LOT of them in the research stages of our projects. Thorough understanding of the topic and opinions is key to a successful project so things will run more smoothly if both client and agency know the exact ins and outs of a project.

So, at the very beginning to ensure we understand the challenge, we look closely at things like:

• Target audience
• Influencers
• Client team and other key partners
• Budget and timescales
• Past and current activities
• Project specific opportunities
• Dependencies and assumptions

We love a good acronym

Once we have a thorough understanding of the task at hand, we set out SMART objectives, meaning that everyone involved in the project knows what our outcomes are going to be and how we are going to measure them.

Getting to know you

We carry out two different types of research; primary and secondary. Secondary research basically means we do a lot of reading; case studies, literature from marketing/business/ project specific perspectives. We often call or meet with people who have experience with the areas regarding the project. Once we’ve compiled our secondary research we gather it together in an insight report which also details any key areas for learning and sets out the next steps for the project.

Primary research is where we excel, whether it’s our core team heading out to run focus groups across different areas or sending out our soupsquad to carry out surveys; we are skilled at getting to the heart of the matter. By being a third-party people often give us opinions they might not say directly to our clients, we also love creating relationships which enable us to call on contacts we have built up trust with whom we know will love to help.

Once we have all our research and have gained an insight into the project and audience, we usually have a team session to get our creative juices flowing and get our plan ready for commencement. At this stage, we involve key partners where appropriate and we come up with a recommendations report which lays out the key interventions and creative processes for the project.

Case Study: Collating Secondary Materials to Feed into Marketing Channels

Client: 

NHS Hull CCG

Project: Tale of Two Wards

What We Did: We utilised data and field research conducted by partners including Hull City Council, Humber Police, Humberside Fire and Rescue, as well as the People’s Panel Hull, Census and pre-existing NHS Hull CCG data. This was the first time that information had been shared and mapped in this way across the city and contributed to some of the key outcomes from the research.

From here a detailed qualitative research project was undertaken that resulted in the creation of the Hull 2020 Champions programme, which amongst other things, supported over 80 community projects to get off the ground within its first year.

Part two: here