Meet Leanne Yates, paid social expert at Kinase

Leanne has been at the centre of Paid Social at Kinase for over three years. During that time the channel has transformed - within the agency, and as a formidable means of connecting advertisers and potential customers globally. As 2021 shows every sign of further acceleration for the reach and effectiveness of social commerce, we caught up with Leanne to get her take on what’s happening across the channel right now.

Future of Social Commerce

Leanne is someone who brings a sparkle to every conversation that she’s a part of. Does that optimism also drive her enthusiasm for social commerce and its future as a channel?

Of course - the idea of Paid Social has truly come of age as not just a branding exercise, but as a full funnel, performance driving contender. What’s so exciting is that this sense of scope is now expanding. Multiple platforms and targeting options enable us to launch new brands and products and plan out global campaigns, while aligning to the chosen KPIs of each client.

As this scope expands, new challenges also arise. There are huge and developing new issues which didn’t exist a few years ago for Paid Social as the cadence of change speeds up. The big hot potato currently is the arrival of opt-in only tracking for Facebook’s app on the iPhone operating system iOS.

Yes, a key part of my job now is to map out the massive challenges we are confronted with, so I can advise our clients on the best route forward for them. Digital marketing is having to change as pixels and cookies are phased out. Facebook is turning into a walled garden - but one which is large enough to drive results with in-platform tactics. It’s managing the best move into a mix of channels and tracking consent levels which is the real challenge.

Every week there’s a think piece on the essential new app which is taking people by storm. How do you spot which new platforms have potential - and which are a passing fad?

It’s all about identifying trends, and identifying which platform presents a real opportunity for our clients. Not every platform needs to be part of the mix if the audience isn’t there or the ad offering isn’t right.

What new platforms have Kinase recently launched on?

TikTok campaigns are now at a point where they make sense for our clients, so we have developed new activity on TikTok with our partners there. But the biggest emerging trend for 2021 is audio ads - the rise of Clubhouse is an indicator of a big swing. I think that we will see existing platforms launching their own audio ad spaces, too.

Thinking about the year of lockdowns in the UK, we wondered how Leanne has kept her spark and enthusiasm in tough times.

I spent a lot of time cooking new things - while also finishing everything on Netflix/ More recently, I’ve been reading books around sustainability and preservation; most notably Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimerer.

The present moment in the UK definitely seems on the threshold of a more minimal Covid impact - for the economy and of course for marketing. How will these movement forwards affect social commerce?

There are big opportunities for startups and SMBs to disrupt markets and bigger players - with customers more used to online, more locally focused, and swinging towards more sustainable production models. Facebook are already reacting to these trends with stores in Instagram, for example, while influencer marketing is proving to be a maturing area for paid social for multiple industries. Expansion through a well planned influencer strategy can catapult a new or small brand to a big reach quickly.

This is also a time for renewed brand spend to freshen up the customer funnel and locate it where a brand’s audiences are right now. Established brands need to remind people of their core values - and demonstrate that those values remain relevant to a changed world.