• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, June 30, 2023

You would think that in this post-mass media age of fragmentation, the old-fashioned brand jingle would not only be out of fashion, but out of reach. And yet, Nationwide's "On Your Side" seven-note
ditty may be one of the last survivors of media and audience diffusion. In fact, it turns out that this old-fashioned branding device is tailor made for the short form video experiences of contemporary social feeds.

This week Brand Insider caught up with Nationwide’s Kristi Daraban, AVP of Marketing for Social. Kristi is a true social media veteran, from managing early Facebook pages for NBCU properties and lengthy hitches at Nestle and Disney/ABC. In addition to discussing Nationwide’s clever use of a jingle in social media, We explored how the platforms have begun to overlap functionality and how political cycles impact the overall temperature even of customer interactions. You can listed to the entire podcast at this link.

MediaPost: Tell us a little bit about the 7-Note Stories and “Will it Jingle” series. Both lean into TikTok and user content. 

Daraban: Our jingle has been with us for quite some time. But it's also simple. It's seven notes to your point. We've done a lot of brand building using that jingle. And the two campaigns you talked about, the first being 7-Note Stories. We have a history of working with music artists, and we really wanted to bring it to life. As we were launching TikTok, our affiliation with music was important to us. So, our spokesperson is a wonderful artist, and we had her record the jingle. She played it on her piano, and she started off the campaign by selecting images for each note in the jingle that told a story. And her story was about how her parents always supported her.

We then gave that concept to a number of influencers, and they did their own version of the 7-Note Story. And we got a variety of different topics that they covered. It was building a family, building a business, buying a home, things like that. So, it was very emotional. And it's amazing what seven notes can really get you. 

So, then we wanted to go into more of a humorous side and decided to do a campaign called “Will It Jingle.” It started with one of my own associates. He had a child's keyboard at home, and he played the jingle. That was our first iteration of “Will It Jingle.” And the concept was we would test different objects to see if it can make the jingle sounds. We've now evolved into blowing glass bottles, zippers, rubber bands, and our other spokespeople. Brad Paisley and Peyton Manning have also joined in on the fun and done dog toys, and tissues which are on our TikTok channel now. It's been a lot of fun to explore what types of things around you will make that iconic jingle. And so now we're getting some requests on things that we can try. And we're going to hopefully be able to activate on some of those and continue that trend.

MP: So, in these cases like in the 7-Note Stories and “Will It Jingle,” tell us a little bit about the media plan that goes beneath that. The way in which you blend organic and paid, and how you layer the paid in some of this. 

Daraban: We have a couple of ways in which we approach social. We start off with an organic approach including influencers, and then what we'll do is put spark behind our post. And then we'll also potentially, if it's a big enough campaign like a 7-Note Story, use it as a dark ad and target audiences that we feel like are relevant to that content.

We will also whitelist the influencer accounts. So, we'll provide them with some boost money, so it seems authentic, and it really is coming from their channels and getting that extra audience lift within their distribution network.

MP: What are the KPIs and the metrics that you use to evaluate campaigns like this?

Daraban: We really are looking at this point at impressions and video views. While we're really excited about engagements, TikTok is the place that we're seeing the most relevant engagements. Lots of back and forth, lots of comments, sometimes almost as many as video views. But with a newer channel, we're looking at how much reach we can get, so we can continue to build that and put a baseline benchmark together. And thinking about is this video resonating with audiences so it’s that combination of impressions, views, and engagement.

MP: That’s interesting, because in many ways you’re using one of the most old-fashioned of branding mechanisms, the jingle. And in some sense, you’re using very new channels, but employing some very old metrics.

Daraban: Yes, we really try to use social for variety of functions across the marketing funnel. But we're realistic on when those are truly a brand play, and how that can play into a broader marketing mix. So, if we're thinking about brand level content, including the jingle, how is that contributing to brand and not necessarily bringing people further down.

MP: So, I'm just curious about from your perspective, where you think we are in the evolution of social media. What have been the key changes so far that you've been noticing lately, especially where TikTok fits in here?

Daraban: TikTok was something on our radar for a while, and we were a little bit late coming to the game. We launched this year at the Super Bowl. We are one of those brands that likes to make sure that we're prepared for any platform we're going to be launching on. So, we took a good year and a half to put together a plan, have a strategy, have a measurement plan, understand what our phased approach would be, and understand what kind of content we'd be creating. So, we were very thoughtful when we were coming to market on TikTok, and we leveraged our partnerships, our talent, influencers, and even my own team and their creative abilities to be able to bring it to life.

The difference of TikTok from other platforms that we have seen has been the heavy lift in content creation, which I think we expected. We knew it would be a lot of work to be able to put out a frequency of video.

MP: How do you see these platforms evolving lately? 

Daraban: I would say, I do feel like the platforms are starting to cannibalize functions a little bit. Before it was very specific. Facebook did this, Twitter did this, and now they're all kind of bleeding into each other's space. And, in fact, a lot of them tell me that they don't even consider themselves a social platform, which I think is kind of funny. But I have noticed that we're trying similar tactics on different platforms to see where it's going to perform the best. And that's been an interesting approach for us. Obviously, the environment has changed a lot as well. 

And I think my biggest opportunity that I would recommend to brands is going back to what was a conversation probably 5-6 years ago, about authenticity. Because as these platforms are broadening their functions and their features, I feel like brands and influencers are doing the same where they're broadening to get more engagement, more reach. To hone back in on what that real authentic brand experience is to prevent some of the negative backlash, but also double down in what your brand really stands for is something we can all think about.

MP: What do you think are the biggest challenges that you're going to face in the coming year?

Daraban: With an election year coming up, it always causes a little spike, in my opinion, on people feeling the freedom to express opinions which can carry over into the brands world. It can carry over into campaigns. It can carry over to influencers. Because hot topics keep coming up, people are watching the news even more than ever. So that's always something we look for and think about. We have a crisis communication plan, we have a great team to triage our incoming comments, but it also does flood the market with messages. So, you're thinking about how you are playing in the space where there's increased volume of people consuming. So how do you fit in there as part of the environment, and make sure that your message is still shining through and relevant, and not getting muddied in the waters. 

MP: The first insight really interests me because I don't know if I've heard that part before. The idea that a political cycle not only raises prices and clutter but also raises the temperature of all conversations.

Daraban: That's certainly the experience I've had. I feel like it's kind of the same during the holidays in a very different way. Holiday is a time where people have their mind focused on certain things, so if you’re noise coming in, they just filter that out, or they negatively associate that. So, with politics, I feel like they're consuming all these messages about politics, and then they're taking that perspective into other parts of their world.