Hey team,
Hope you’re good.
Check out this guy with pink hair:
He’s the mastermind behind Ryanair’s social strategy that achieved 2 Billion in organic reach in 1 year.
Grew the TikTok account to 0 to 2 Million Followers
Landed them the opening slot on Jimmy Fallon
Cultivated a cult following for the brand
How did he do it?
And what can we learn from it?
Let me break down the 5 best bits:
1/ It all starts with setting a strategy
Most people skip this part because it requires DEEP thinking.
Here’s what he landed on:
Ryanair is a low cost airline
It democratised travel for the masses
It cut the thrills to make travel easy & affordable
Let’s embrace who we are
Let’s not pretend that spending 2 hours in a ‘sweaty tin can’ is a glamorous experience
2/ Content should reflect the brand
“Like it or not, Ryanair disrupted aviation”
Ryanair isn’t like other airlines.
They’re cheap.
They’re no fuss.
This has to be reflected across the social media content.
3/ “You need to piss off the 80%, to win the 20%”
It’s no secret that lots of people don’t like Ryanair.
People often flock to social media to complain.
What’s the problem here?
It’s usually the wrong expectation from the customer.
Customers expecting luxury on a 10 euro flight to Malaga.
Michael’s team saw this an opportunity to fight back.
To call out the ‘wrong expectations’.
They also chose to embrace a personality:
As social media users began to pick up Ryanair’s sense of humour, the brand started gaining fans.
“They began fighting our corner,” says Michael.
People wanted to be in on the joke, which led to viral content like this…
4/ Thinking beyond social.
“We wanted to create something that was so entertaining people would share it on and off social media,” says Michael.
What will be:
Shared in their Whatsapp group
Get clicks for the Daily Mail
Be so funny you show it the person sat next to you
5/ The banger bank
There’s this weird rule on social that you can’t post the same piece of content twice.
Imagine you were creating a TV ad.
Would you just run it once?
Something you’d put loads of effort into.
Something that was going to build brand awareness and drive conversions.
You’d be crazy to run it once.
But that’s what we do on social media.
Instead Ryanair created a system:
Overtime this system allowed them to fill their schedule with more and more proven content.
There are less slots to be filled with new ideas.
So there’s more time to work on those new ideas.
6/ Focus on 1 Platform
Remember, you don’t have to do everything across every social platform.
Put effort in where it counts.
Nike haven’t posted organically on Facebook since 2018.
Instead, they’re putting millions into paid response ads.
Again, Lush stopped posting on their social channels.
They only work with influencers.
Ryanair focused on TikTok & Twitter where they could have outsized impact.
Find which channels work for you and focus 100% of efforts there.
7/ Put 5 Minutes on the Clock
Michael developed a team focused on reactive content.
Hunting down breaking stories and finding ways to link them back to Ryanair.
You get big hits of reach with quick focused effort.
His team had checkpoints through the day:
9am - what’s the story we can jump on?
2pm - what’s the story we can jump on?
Put 5 minutes on the clock
If we can’t execute a great idea in 5 minutes then we don’t post.
Reactive can be risky… so check your company lawyers can handle any blowback!
And that’s a wrap!
Hope you found this useful.
Let me know if you did? I read all the replies.
Want some more?
Watch my whole conversation with Michael on YouTube:
Have a great week.
Callum