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Wolfgang Digital won Best Large Agency at our recent Global Social Awards. We chatted to their Head of Social, Roisin Linnie to discuss the win and this is what they said!
We are still pinching ourselves after last week’s Global Social Awards. Wolfgang Digital is now the proud holder of the title: Best Large Global Social Media Agency!
As well as the Best Large Agency award and Best Integrated Campaign (BodySlims), together with our clients we won Silver in Best Use of TikTok (Elverys), Best Direct Response Campaign (HomeSecure) and Best Long Term Use of Social Media (BodySlims).
These wins are a testament to the team’s hard work and dedication to delivering exceptional results for our clients. Equally, they’re a testament to our clients who work so hard with us to try out new ideas on a weekly basis.
As I reflected on how we got here, I thought, why not share the journey? So here we are! Here’s a little behind-the-scenes look into what I believe allowed us to become the best large agency in the world….
The iOS14 update in 2021 shook things up for social media marketers. 23% of the Irish population were all of a sudden untrackable. This led to a 91% increase in CPCs, reduced visibility on performance and a lot of panicked advertisers. Some clients wondered if they should rethink their investment in social or if they should find efficiencies through other channels.
We asked ourselves, “do we continue to progress old strategies and accept declining ROI & measurability, or do we try something different?” Over the last year, we’ve focused on two strategic priorities that have been instrumental in our successful evolution. These were:
Channel Diversification
Integration with Email
Channel Diversification
Meta and Google have had a vice-like grip on digital ad spend for years. After the 2021 iOS14 update, advertisers were forced to adapt and add other channels to their marketing mix. After seeing how quickly CPCs can rise and the landscape can change, we couldn’t be over-reliant on Meta. We upped our focus on TikTok as we saw tremendous value there to get brands in front of a highly engaged audience. We launched a TikTok growth programme in 2022 and increased the number of clients doing TikTok with us by 400% YoY.
We talked about TikTok A LOT. We hosted webinars with our TikTok rep and were the first agency in Ireland to have a published TikTok case study for our Client SoSu Cosmetics. TikTok also published the first agency case study about us on their TikTok for Business Website.
What really excites us about TikTok advertising is the opportunity to get in front of a highly engaged audience with a new breed of authentic content. TikTok was once unique in the fact that the user base only wanted to see User Generated Content on the platform, but this is spreading rapidly with similar styles of short form video taking over Reels and YouTube Shorts. This is the TikTokification of the internet – where everything is becoming TikTok.
We spent the last year testing and optimising our paid campaigns on TikTok for clients, getting early access to betas and creating authentic, short form video content. We were over the moon to bring home Silver at the Global Social Awards for the Best Use of TikTok for our client Elverys.
In the last year we wanted to test an alternative social strategy that moves beyond short-term clicks and direct conversions and repositions the customer at the centre. By using social media as a first-party data acquisition mechanism, we leveraged Email’s automation and segmentation capabilities to leverage this first-party data and grow our clients’ businesses. After testing this strategy we discovered it’s very cost effective, with CPL’s cheaper than website clicks! By the end of the year, we had managed to increase our integrated Email/Social client base by 200%. We were delighted to win Best Integrated Campaign for our client BodySlims where we used an integrated Email, Social, SEO & PPC campaign to rapidly grow their owned-audiences. This future-proofed integrated strategy led to Bodyslims doubling its revenue year on year.. The Wolfgang Mission is ‘Exceptional Digital Marketing, Driving Extraordinary Business Growth’. We believe that our proactivity in adapting quickly to the changing social landscape and our laser focus on our strategic priorities led to us delivering exceptional digital marketing for our clients.
And of course, we are all about business growth. When other social agencies are talking CPMs and engagement, we’re talking revenue, profit & growth. This is reflected in our published case studies where you can see the impact we have for our clients on KPIs that actually matter to them. This was solidified with the fact that we won Silver for Best Direct Response Campaign (Home Secure) and Silver for Best Long Term Use of Social Media (BodySlims).
Looking forward now to the rest of the year, I’m really excited about the world’s of search and social colliding. The TikTokification of the internet means that all channels are starting to look and act like TikTok. For the first time ever we can use the same asset (short form video) across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, this is really exciting as it will open up a world of even more integration opportunities.
