This was our first ever VIRTUAL Show & Tell!

After a strong 4 years running 😮, because of COVID this was the first and also our only event of the year 😞. But while things might have looked a little different this time around, we were pumped to find creative ways to bring guests even more value in this packed event. 🔥

Special Features

Here's some of what made the event special:

LIVE: Live-streamed presentations and a virtual fireside chat

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION: Back by popular demand, a speed round of pre-recorded one-minute presentations from the crowd

NETWORKING: Moderated Zoom Breakout Sessions for networking and discussing the lessons learned

SWAG DELIVERY! Last but certainly not least: A packed day-of-event package was delivered to attendees’ doors (or picked up at the Dooley Social Studio office in Hyde Park)

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Featured Speakers

We were joined by these three insightful professionals:

Andrew Salzbrun
Partner @ AGAR
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewsalzbrun/
Nicole Ayres
CEO @ Jumpsuit Marketing
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-ayres-b42bbb42/
Stephany Mendia
Communications & Content Coordinator @ The Cincinnati Experience
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephjmendia/

Read the full event program here. Keep reading below for a quick recap from each of the main events, including some key takeaways.

Nicole Ayers: 5 Ways to Shift Your Mindset

Jumpsuit Marketing’s mission is to “help big brands move at speed of startups, and help startups grow into big brands.” Nicole, a Cincinnati-native and the founder and CEO at Jumpsuit, brought that mentality to her talk and kicked off the day with some epic truth bombs.

The focus of her engaging (and, might we add, very nicely produced) talk was how to create content at scale. She shared 5 strategies for any team who wants to make content faster and more affordably. So, pretty much everyone!

Here were Nicole’s 5 big tips:

1) You Can Have “All Three”

There’s a truism out there that shows a venn diagram with three options: you may want to create something that is fast, good, and cheap, but you can’t: you can only pick two. You can’t have all three.

Nicole points out that if you can harness an agile, startup mentality, then actually, you can have all three. To put this into practice, temember, your goal should be effective content (not perfect content). This brings us to point #2…

2) Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

Creating lots of content gives you a chance to test lots of ideas before investing too much in unproven concepts. By using this MVP (minimum viable product) approach, you’ll save time and energy, and you’re likely to increase your ROI.

This method also really allows the consumer to tell you what they want. Once you have that data in hand, you can use it when you need to justify big campaigns later on.

3) Never Set it and Forget It

In this segment, Nicole talked about the virtues of the famous Gary Vee Content Model, while also throwing a little shade… She explained that this model explains how to scale content with “pillar” pieces, then by using strategic cutdowns you can create countless pieces of micro content, like case studies, Tweets, E-Books… The possibilities are endless.

While this approach definitely has value, the challenge is, Gary Vee has lots of content production resources that many do not. He also has a simple approval process, since he is the ultimate authority on the brand and can “okay” things very quickly. As we know, others may not have that luxury—which brings us to point #4…

4) Eliminate the Red Tape

Many traditional ad agencies work on models that create many layer of approval. So, as much as you’re able to, it’s helpful to structure things to avoid these time-sucks.

For example, her company does not have traditional Account roles, but uses Producers that can manage accounts while also bringing creative chops to the table. They also rely on startup principles that help them be iterative and get quick feedback throughout the process in order to avoid the “dog and pony show” of classic campaign reveals. She argues that this is too risky, since you might spend too much time on an idea that isn’t workable.

5) Creativity Has No End

For her final point, Nicole explained that little creative decisions along the way can make the end products infinitely more special, as well as creating new content opportunities that you may never have planned for. So while it’s important to plan ahead and be super organized, it’s also crucial to let creativity shine and know when to break the rules.

Last, wanted to give a quick shout-out to Nicole’s colleague Christopher White, the Director of Digital Marketing at Jumpsuit, who also joined us in the Q&A. Thanks, Chris!

Andrew Salzbrun: Unforced Fascination

As a partner at AGAR, Andrew has been a key player in creating some of Cincinnati’s most memorable experiences over the past few years: Dangerwheel in Pendleton, Ubahn Festival in the old transit hub, and BLINK throughout Downtown and Northern Kentucky, to name a few.

For his talk, Andrew shared how the principles that guide AGAR in creating these awesome experiences can help social media practitioners create more memorable content. (He even put some of these principles to work right before our eyes by shooting an impressive multi-location video specifically for the event.)

Andrew Salzbrun discussing Ubahn Festival

Here are a few of the key points Andrew Shared.

1) Make the Guest a creative director

Whether it’s the guest at a live event or the receiver of your social media content, people should be given the space they need to create their own content. This got to the heart of his talk’s focus on what he called “unforced fascination.” If you can get people to willfully engage with you, the experience (and the stories they themselves tell later on) will be more powerful than anything you could say on your own.

2) Make the Environment an extension of the brand

Ubahn was the example for this point: If you see any photos from that festival, the location will instantly key you in. The unique setting was built-in branding that helped it stand out compared to all the other summer music festivals out there.

From a content perspective, consider the setting (like the medium or the platform) where users will see the content. Ask yourself: Does this “setting” match the brand or the story I’m trying to tell?

3) Add a layer of depth and storytelling so people remember what you told them

Discussing the story behind the John Mercer Langston mural at Findlay Marker

By telling a story that connects with an audience, you can deliver a remarkable experience that will live on in their memories long after the actual storytelling occurred.

The perfect example was the story Andrew shared about a mural near Findlay Market. He explained the story behind the subject matter (John Mercer Langston, an abolitionist who helped slaves reach freedom) as well as the unique way the mural was created (by chipping away at the wall to eventually reveal the stunning portrait). This compelling story became something audience members will be able to tell their friends as they walk by. Thus, the experience of Andrew’s talk will live on long past its end.

Nice!

Stephany Mendia: Fireside Chat

Stephany is the one-woman show behind The Cincinnati Experience, where she has built a huge following on Instagram (and is now building up on Twitter and LinkedIn as well).

For this final main event of the day, Matthew played the role of moderator, speaking to Stephany about some of the hot topics of the day as well as exploring some of her unique strategies for running such a successful (and lean) content operation.

Here are some of the topics that stood out!

Shifting during COVID

As an organization that exists to showcase Cincinnati’s potential as a destination, the quarantine this year has presented some challenges. But Stephany has found creative ways to continue growing and engaging audiences throughout this time.

One particularly successful example was a post that suggested taking a mural drive. It even suggested grabbing takeout from a local restaurant along the way. She says this was one of her top posts of the year. It came about by asking: What can you do in your household? What can you do to support small business?

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Jumping into Twitter Convos

Stephany said she loves to find Tweets of people saying there’s “nothing to do” in Cincinnati. She takes the opportunity slide right into the conversation and show that, YES, there are plenty of great things to do here!

Set a Realistic Pace

Keeping a consistent and yet realistic content calendar has been key to Cincy Experience’s success. She urges people to not “bite off more than you can chew.” For example, she likes to dedicate certain days to certain platforms, and is a big believer in pushing tasks out that don’t need to be done right away. This is a great way to avoid burnout.

What to look for in 2021?

Stephany is excited for the rise of TikTok and Instagram Reels. This is fitting for many of the themes from the day: She explained that TikTok, for example, is a perfect place to try out “good enough” video content.

She also advocated for Instagram Guides, which is a new feature rolling out now that lets you create listicles directly in the app (think: “Best Ice Cream in Cincinnati”). This is an exciting opportunity to create engaging stories without the need for intense copywriting.

Shameless Plug: Check out our recent blog post for more 2021 social media trends to look out for!

SPEED SHARERS

We know that the great knowledge in the room doesn’t just exist on stage. So, we were also able to hear from a few attendee SPEED SHARERS who sent in pre-recorded one-minute tips. This time, we heard from:

AMANDA PACK – Event Coordinator @ Cincinnati International Wine Festival
Tip: When working with outside creators, figure out what you need a few months in advance and give them a bulk of asks all at once to save time later on.

ANDREW SHIPP – Global Social Media Lead @ NetApp
Tip: Know your content library in depth so you can quickly activate it when you need it. This helped his previous team at Boosted Boards quickly turn out an awesome video when a sponsored athlete won a gold medal.

BEN SWOFFORD – Copywriter @ Dooley Social Studio; UX Specialist @ FourFront
Tip: Consider using carousel style posts for great, swipe-able storytelling. Check out Chris Do for successful examples of this style at work.

GREY BORNEMAN – Director of Digital Product Marketing @ CBTS
Tip: Use Spaceback.com to transform social post content into ads across social platforms. It allows you to be creative and on brand while scaling ad campaigns.

KATIE ENZWEILER & EAVAN WARFEL – Marketing Manager & Digital Media Coordinator @ VonLehman
Tip: Utilize a secondary platform for coordinating social media content across your team. They tested several platforms and ultimately decided to use Hubspot.

RYAN ETAN – Marketing Director @ Jolly Plumbing
Tip: Don’t be afraid to say what you want to say; embrace the hate and don’t be scared to elicit an emotional response. (Matthew wanted to apologize to the cat people for this one…)

WHAT ELSE DID WE MISS?

Share your top takeaway with us by Tweeting @dooleysocial with #ShowAndTell.