What’s on the agenda for ‘Empty 13’?

It’s all too easy to piggyback an exciting cultural event to create new online content or an advertising campaign, and there’s been no shortage of those in the last 18 months with the Royal Wedding, extra bank holidays and of course, the Olympics.

For example, here are some stats about social media activity in 2012*

• On 5th June, the Diamond Jubilee had 1,190,000 mentions on social media and the Monarchy Facebook page had over 1.9m unique views
• On 9th August, 80,000 Tweets were sent each minute as Usain Bolt won the gold in the men’s 200m sprint
• Between 27th July and 12th August, 150 million Tweets were sent relating to the Olympics

With all this in mind, some marketeers have dubbed 2013 ‘Empty 13‘ and predict that brands and businesses could struggle with no special occasions to associate their marketing activity with.

With that in mind, how will you keep your audience engaged with no media hype to join in with?

2013 could be a golden opportunity to showcase the best elements of your business without relying on, or hiding behind, a huge public spectacle. Here are our suggestions for an engaging and compelling 2013.

Revisit your brand

We recently blogged about the importance of a relevant, up to date brand identity for your business, and Empty 13 could prove just the right time to take on the project.

Your brand identity is more than just a logo or a colour palette, you can evoke a real emotional connection between your company and its customers using colours, feelings, words, images, positioning statements, straplines and key messages that are consistently communicated across all elements of your marketing activity.

Use your imagination

Think of creative ways to generate your own stories, get involved with a local charity initiative, host an event or stage a stunt so that you have something exciting and interesting to blog and write about.

Integrate your social media strategy

Customers no longer look for your social media presence or mobile website, they simply expect them to be there and working efficiently alongside your website and physical shop front if you have one.

Take time in 2013 to figure out what you want to achieve from your social media presence and make some plans to reach those goals. 2012 might have been the year of piggybacking cultural and sporting events, but Empty 13 is a blank slate just waiting for you to genuinely create engaging, shareable content without simply pushing out information to your networks.

Look after your customers

If you don’t know already, figure out what your customers want from you outside your products and services, do they value your expertise in your industry? Or do they come to you for breaking news and insider tips on the subject you know best?

Make sure you give them what they want in the most engaging and relevant manner, and get creative using photography, video, blogs, infographics or any other medium you think might hit the spot.

So even though 2013 might be looking a little sparse on the cultural and extra bank holiday front, it could be the perfect time to make your business stand out from the rest with a new brand, engaging online content or a new customer focus.

*From Space and Time Media’s Social Media Review 2012