Adweek Podcast: How Brands Turned to Social Media in 2020

In a year where all contact was digital, some marketers finally found their voice

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If you felt more dialed into (and emotionally invested in) social media this year, that’s almost certainly because you didn’t have a whole lot of options in terms of where to find human interaction.

For brands, social networks became more prominent marketing real estate than ever amid real-world lockdowns that kept billions of consumers at home while generating massive business obstacles that threatened to crater entire industries.

Some responded and adapted well to the year’s many twists and turns, while others stumbled, either from understandable limitations or unforced errors.

On this week’s episode of the Adweek podcast Yeah, That’s Probably an Ad, we wrap up the year with a conversation about what we saw in social marketing in 2020. We discuss how Cheerios turned a TikTok’s user’s passionate idea into a full rebooted holiday ad, and we revisit the way brands—especially Ocean Spray—responded to the “Dreams” phenomenon kicked off by Nathan Apodaca on TikTok.

(If you notice TikTok being a recurring trend, well, we talk about that too.)

You can stream the entire new episode below, listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or find it on Spotify.

Thanks to Adweek’s Julian Gamboa (@JulianGumbo on Twitter) and my podcast co-host, Ko Im, for joining me for this final podcast discussion of the year.