According to Sonic Drive-In’s director of digital communications and social media, Christi Woodworth, working with multiple agencies can sometimes mean having “too many cooks in the kitchen.”
In her presentation at SocialMedia.org’s BlogWell conference in Chicago, Christi outlines how Sonic has fine-tuned the way they work with all of their different agencies. By giving her collaborators a chance at bonus projects, she managed to inspire newfound creativity in addition to their usual workflow.
Christi offers a look at Sonic’s decision to give their various teams some room to run, as well as how it paid off big when it came to selecting the best creative ideas to work with.
A few key points from Christi’s presentation:
- Fill your roster with specialists (who happen to be good at other stuff too): According to Christi, no one agency can really be the best at everything. She says instead of choosing one “catch-all” agency, Sonic’s team includes a PR group, a digital agency, and a field team, who all know the other sides of the business, too.
- Defend your yardstick: It can be tough to get executive buy-in for metrics you know are important but aren’t 100% about ROI. Christi says to think about your brand and your customer and decide what carries the most weight — are you looking for shares? Likes? Comments? Retweets? Pick a strategy and stand by it.
- Take the blinders off: In other words, don’t limit yourself or your team. Christi suggests trying multiple platforms, a variety of media types, and new approaches to see what works. “You’ve surrounded yourself with brilliant minds for a reason, so let them do their thing.”
Watch Christi’s BlogWell presentation below. The slides are available to download.
If you like this presentation, see more great social media case studies like it live at SocialMedia.org’s BlogWell conference Oct. 22 in Boston.