Viacom Velocity: Visuals Are Defining Comms in 2018

From branded emoji driving mass engagement to celebrities asking to be “memed,” visuals are now integral to our culture, and of course, it’s social media that has driven their meteoric rise in popularity.

GIFs, memes and emoji are today being used every second on social platforms, as a more emotive, expressive alternative to the written word upon which we’ve relied for so long. But the question posed by Maya Petersen, Viacom Velocity’s Director of Creative Strategy, at an SMWNYC panel session, was whether brands can manage to speak the language of visuals with real authenticity.

According to panelist Lydia Daly, Viacom Velocity’s SVP of Social Media and Branded Content Strategy, “In order to create the best-branded content, we need to understand our audiences. It’s kind of hard to miss that the language millennials and Gen Z audiences are using right now is visual. As a brand, you just can’t sit on the fence with this stuff. You have to get involved.”

Alongside Daly, the panel featured now-legendary choreographer Jacquel Knight, alongside Austin Bone, Chief Creative Officer at entertainment chatbot company Snaps, and Barack Shragai, CEO of next-gen content creation firm IMGN.

Here’s what we learned from the discussion.

Visuals are a legitimate language

Visuals today aren’t just shorthand or symbols for words. They’re proxies for emotions and beliefs. When we meet face-to-face, words only form a small part of how we communicate; visuals have filled this void in the digital realm and need to be taken seriously. As Peterson put it, “We’re all constructing our identities through the visuals we use.” This is as true for brands as it is for individuals.

Dictionary, no. Rulebook, yes.

Our most popular visuals are not used in a uniform way, so it’s impossible to write a visual dictionary to help brands out. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a rulebook. So, to Insta or not to Insta? As Daly explains, “It goes along with normal life – these visuals are contextual and can mean different things to different people. There’s so much nuance.”

Nowhere is this rulebook better evidenced than with the wildly popular “distracted boyfriend” meme. Bone highlighted the fact that, “With ‘distracted boyfriend,’ you really have to know someone well before you can tag them. The power of these images is that they allow you to bring your personality into context in a way you can’t in words.”

Thinking in visuals

Knight provided unique insight into how the role of a creative is changing to reflect the growing power of visuals, something we’ve seen recently via the flood of so-called “Beychella” visuals circulating the web following Beyoncé’s internet-breaking Coachella festival appearance. “Was I surprised at the memes and GIfs? No. I knew people were going to eat this up. You definitely know the moments that are going to be shared socially when you’re working out the choreography. It’s something that, as a creative, you now have to build in, and of course, with someone like Beyoncé, you constantly have to up the ante.”

Fast memes and pop culture

As Beychella demonstrated, our visual language is constantly evolving. Shragai cited another example, the Crying Michael Jordan meme, as proof of just how far the language of visuals has come. “When you have Barack Obama referencing a meme, you see how good these things are for celebrities. It didn’t just make Jordan more accessible; it made him more relevant. Knight summed up this point neatly: “The goal is to infiltrate the pop culture. If you’re not a meme, you’re not popping!”

The brand authenticity gap

According to Viacom, brands today are facing an honesty gap. In a recent study, 60 percent of respondents agreed that brands should be as honest as people try to be, but just 27 percent agreed that brands were this honest, despite the fact that, as Peterson pointed out, people themselves are behaving in a far-from-authentic way.

Herein lies the challenge for brands looking to harness the power of visuals today. They need to get involved, but there’s no hiding if they get it wrong.

“Fake authenticity is absolutely what’s happening out there in social media,” said Daly. “We think everyone else should be authentic, yet we focus on crafting the best possible version of ourselves. For brands it’s even worse – so it’s a never-ending battle for them. The best advice is to admit when you make mistakes. People will be cynical towards brands, so try, be honest and hope for the best!”

Velocity is a full-service integrated marketing and creative content team within Viacom’s music and entertainment groups, built to super-serve our advertising partners.

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