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In an “always-on” society where mobile platforms are fundamental to marketing, developing creative campaigns can be challenging, says Nick Callaghan, client partner, television broadcast and news publishing at Facebook.
But according to the 15-year industry veteran and Promax Europe 2019 speaker—who has worked on strategic advertising relationships with companies such as BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Viacom and Vice—there’s never been a better time for a creative to have a good idea.
“In this connected world, the distance between a good idea and the people it serves has never been shorter,” Callaghan said. “You can have an amazing idea and put it out to millions of people across mobile and different devices in an instant.”
When Callaghan first entered the digital marketing space in 2006, advertising was focused on a few large desktop sites and homepage takeovers. But today, in an age where mobile devices have become consumers’ most accessible platforms, increasing convenience while adapting to the platform is paramount.
“Especially in the last few years at Facebook, I’ve seen a huge transformation and shift in the consumer point of view to an ‘always-on’ world,” Callaghan said. “The consumer expects great content at the touch of the button on their device.”
However, despite the industry’s adjustment to mobile, companies often assume that they can grab a standard television promo and paste it across mobile and social platforms. Callaghan believes in order to have attention-grabbing content, one must accept that mobile is its own platform with its own specific content needs.
“Think about the speed people scroll through feeds…people scroll very quickly and quicker than what most creatives expect. It’s really about making those first few seconds count when it comes to landing a message,” Callaghan said.
Rather than applying the same material to two different platforms, it’s important to take certain guidelines into consideration for mobile promotions, such as accommodating social media’s “sound off” feature, using text overlay, and keeping landscape format in mind.
In addition to adapting content for mobile devices, Callaghan strives to inspire others to develop compelling campaigns that extend outside of the box. Callaghan used a 2016 campaign he helped create for the Channel 4 show, Humans, as an example.
The season-two campaign convinced the public that robotic humans, called “Synths,” were being introduced to homes everywhere and, subsequently, being recalled due to malfunctions and odd behavior. The promotion also gave Facebook Messenger users the opportunity to chat with a technical support Synth, who conducts a realistic Q&A with the user before behaving strangely, similar to the humanoids in the video.
During his 25-minute session at Promax Europe 2019, Callaghan hopes to prove the notion that creativity goes beyond standard television promotions by providing examples from his own experience as well as by previewing what’s to come.
“We have some really interesting, exciting, and—dare I say—groundbreaking work that we have coming out that I’m excited to share to shatter the myths around the idea that it’s easy to take a standard television promo, stick it on mobile platforms, and see how that works,” Callaghan said.
“I hope to prove that there have been plenty of great, creative ideas that have really worked and have had amazing results. I want to demonstrate that to people to see what’s possible across Facebook, Instagram, and mobile in general.”
Catch Nick Callaghan’s session “People First” March 25 from 2 p.m. to 2:25 p.m. at Promax Europe in Amsterdam.