11 Things We Learned at Social Media Week Europe

10. Ultimately, marketers need to trust the process

“It’s really important to think about not only how you see your brand but how your brand is understood in culture, and creators are really good at that, they’re very good at understanding that,” explained Mobbie Nazir, chief strategy officer of We Are Social.

“You’re working with them so they can engage your audience, so give them the freedom to express [how they see] your brand and trust they will position the brand in the right way, within the right context. Often that’s where tension comes in, because some brands don’t want to give that level of freedom, and they want brand safe content—which is obviously important—but, as marketers, we need to really think about stepping away from things so they don’t feel staged or forced, but genuine and authentic instead.” 

11. Magic can happen when you surrender creative control

“In March we launched our biggest ever campaign with over 1,000 creators,” explained Luke Evans, vp and general manager at Estee Lauder.  

“Typically, we would control, measure, review, validate down to every piece of content. Those days are kind of over. We were very precise, but at same time very open-minded, in how we got to this. The content had to land in the most authentic way. For the first time ever, the product was secondary—it was about the story. We’re still seeing results, and we launched a second similar campaign in August. This is the new norm for us in terms of how we’re working.” 

Keep an eye on Adweek this week for more insights and exclusives from Social Media Week Europe.