Wickedly intelligent: How Innocent Smoothies are the masters of reactive marketing

There’s nothing quite like a viral marketing campaign, and innocent drinks are consistently taking reactive social media to the next level 🔥

Never one to be afraid of standing out from the crowd, the smoothie brand consistently hits the mark when it comes to jumping on bandwagon – often with such persistent panache that they could be accused of driving it! But how do they do it?

Whether they’re cooking up creative alternatives to pancakes, serving us endless Great British Bake Off tweets or teasingly trolling other big names – the brand is always at the forefront of reactive marketing.

Their most recent masterpiece was showcased in a Twitter thread, in which they poke fun at themselves failing to land tickets to the recent premiere of Wicked. Clearly, not one to defy their audience (or gravity, for that matter) they took a delightfully unstaged photo of their Energise and Invigorate smoothies with the stage door in the background. The Glinda and Elphaba comparison in the visuals combined with the less-than-stellar photo quality perfectly embodies the impish, mischievous tone that pervades the brands entire online persona – and it’s one that businesses could learn from.

The creatives behind the iconic innocent accounts are fantastic at what they do; delivering brilliantly clever, witty, sometimes political – and always funny – reactive content. 

What is reactive marketing?

Simply put, it’s marketing, such as social media posts, that actively reacts to current trends. So, how can other brands follow suit?

The most vital part of any reactive social media marketing campaign is time. Reacting to news within minutes, jumping on threads as soon as they appear and responding to comments while they’re still relevant is essential. As Richard Cook says, social moves quickly – trends can come and go in just a few hours, and being a day late is often worse than not getting involved at all. Get your content out there fast.

Social monitoring is a huge part of the reactive marketing process – your marketing or social team should be following the latest news relevant to your industry and taking inspiration from big names and using them in their own content plan. In order to be reactive, you need to seek the opportunities. And in order to seek the opportunities, you need to be monitoring social accounts and relevant news – and following the right people and brands on these platforms.

Finding your angle is equally as essential – there’s no point responding to a trend which has absolutely no relevance to your brand. Some things just won’t apply to you whatsoever, and other times there may be a way in – even if it might not seem obvious at first. Share your ideas with your team before you get sign off to ensure you’re not going to fall flat with a bad idea – or worse – a great idea poorly executed. 

There’s no denying that reactive social campaigns give brands an evolving opportunity to be part of ongoing conversations taking place in real time, allowing you to showcase your knowledge and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and enhancing your brand reputation. That’s if you can be quick, concise, and canny with how you engage with them.

We’ve seen a massive rise in the number of brands showing their ‘personality’ over the last few years across social platforms and it’s definitely something we can expect to see more of in the future as more and more businesses discover that there’s more to being a brand than just a snazzy logo…

If you’re after some social inspiration to develop your business, get in touch. We’re not innocent, but we promise we’ve got the bottle to build your brand!