Businesses need to creatively invest in social media if they’re going to survive the wave of upstart new competitors. OK COOL co-founder Jolyon Varley tells us how social channels are critical for cementing a brand’s icon status.
“When I think of iconic brands, I think of something that pretty much everyone agrees on, that has that inexorability, permanence and pervasiveness,” says Jolyon Varley, co-founder of OK COOL, which has worked with brands including Converse, Spotify and Squarespace. “There’s a duration to it, where someone’s repeatedly telling stories in a way that transcends generations.”
It’s not hard to think of a brand that’s considered iconic, whether it’s a tech giant, a legacy fast food business, a long-established fashion label or a footwear company that makes shoes you’ve been wearing since you were a teen. Time, as Varley points out, is a major factor in creating that perception, but so is cultural status. In the way that advertising is often deemed successful when it enters into everyday language via a memorable slogan, brands are deemed iconic when they enter culture – for example Converse tying itself to music, or Vans to skateboarding.
THE CHALLENGERS ARE COMING
But social media means holding onto that iconic status has become more precarious than ever. Fans can be fickle, and new technology, more globalisation, supply chain efficiency, on-demand manufacturing, rapid prototyping, and the levelling of the marketing playing field means it’s easier than ever to launch a brand. Snapping at the heels of long-established companies is a wolf pack of challenger brands, run by people moulded in the fiery crucible of social media.
“Global brand marketing teams are now competing with a kid with an iPhone, three trap accounts and an Adderall prescription.”
Jolyon Varley, co-founder of OK COOL
“Social media has levelled the playing field, in a way that allows very smart, ambitious, opportunistic young people who understand and have grown up with the creator economy and instagram marketing to basically deploy those skills into doing fast twitch marketing that can be more effective than the slower machinations of the big global brands,” says Varley.
“Global brand marketing teams are now competing with a kid with an iPhone, three trap accounts and an Adderall prescription. They were raised by OGs, but she was raised by IG. And a challenger brand can inevitably take more risks, because they’ve got much less to lose and everything to play for.
“They might get one campaign that becomes iconic because someone did something really interesting, avant garde and ambitious, and suddenly they can eat away at that 1 to 2% market share that separates them from the market leader. Creative innovation, outstanding storytelling and commitment to community building have never been more important.”
Varley talks about cult streetwear brand Corteiz as an example of this. The business launched in 2017 via a private Instagram page and quickly grew its following – despite the founder Clint419 saying he didn’t use any advertising, and relied largely on people finding the page via people they knew. As of 2023, the brand has over 700k followers, and just released a collab with Nike.
SOCIAL MEDIA MEANS STATUS
“Social media is the fastest and most effective vector for awareness, popularity and growth for brand and community.”
Jolyon Varley, co-founder of OK COOL
What a phenomenon like Corteiz makes clear is just how important social media is in creating and cementing that icon status – particularly for younger demographics.
“Social media is the fastest and most effective vector for awareness, popularity and growth for brand and community,” says Varley. “It’s the interconnection of a zillion subcultures – skateboarders, cholos, indie sleazers, rubber fetishists… If you can identify who you want to talk to, then reach each cohort ‘authentically’ on their own terms, it’s fucking dynamite.
“That’s the reason OK COOL doesn’t care about marketing degrees. We’re hiring young people who understand their lives in the context of social media, and have always had the internet,” he continues. “These things are not an adjunct to the lived experience, they are central to the lived experience. Senior marketing people who have done things a certain way for 40 years need that expert advice to understand the choreography of these platforms. Brands ask OK COOL the same two questions: how do I not fuck it up? And, how do I grow? That’s why you need a domain expert, to guide you and be your sherpa through the creative thickets of the platform.
“We work with a lot of these really established, often high-prestige global brands whose job it is to maintain their positions at the vanguard of the industry, and the front of the collective consciousness of the most discerning consumers,” says Varley. “They remain in that position, and they defend that position, by telling the most interesting stories about that brand again and again and again, in order to galvanise their leadership.
HAND IT OVER TO THE CREATORS
The social media landscape moves rapidly, with platforms rising and falling in popularity in a way that means brands have to be quick to adapt. Importantly, it’s no longer just about showing up on social media in your best form, it’s about being prepared to hand the reins to someone else. It’s a dicey proposition – particularly as social media platforms have opened up opportunities for younger demographics to be openly and vocally critical of brands – that requires a careful balance of brand-created and creator-made content.
“New people, collectives, movements with fresh external perspectives that reflect the palpitations of culture are the lifeblood of legacy brands.”
Jolyon Varley, co-founder of OK COOL
But according to Varley, legacy businesses can’t survive without it. “New people, collectives, movements with fresh external perspectives that reflect the palpitations of culture are the lifeblood of legacy brands. Even the titans need to stay humble and give brave new creatives a sandbox to play and experiment in.
“Social media is ephemeral in the sense that ‘campaign’ cycles are faster and more fragmented than traditional media, but the gestalt of the brand experience hits the same, if not harder. If your argument is that nothing is as sticky as Budweiser’s Whassup campaign, you’re probably just old.”
