Social media and online review sites are quickly becoming consumers' preferred sources for researching oral care products and providers. SUNSTAR, a leading manufacturer of health-related products, strives to provide products and services that help people everywhere achieve better health and a better quality of life. Their global social media strategy is no different.
SUNSTAR recognizes that many consumers turn to social media to find answers to their health-related questions: "Social media enables two-way communication which helps humanize our brands and establish ourselves as a thought leader in oral care while elevating the uniqueness of the GUM brand compared to competitors," said Lidia Santos Rico, Communications Manager at SUNSTAR Europe.
Thought leadership campaigns take careful planning, especially when executed across different markets. SUNSTAR sought to streamline collaboration across its international affiliates to not only strongly position their oral care brand GUM at a local level, but also tailor the message to regional consumers. To do so, they needed a unified solution to organize operations, measure campaign performance, and continue to produce high-quality content to transform the GUM brand into an oral care "Lovemark"(1) for consumers.
Removing bottlenecks with smooth approval workflows
Every country is involved in the development of SUNSTAR's campaigns and content. This means a number of stakeholders work in content planning: agencies, affiliates, and the European headquarters alike had a hand in the end-to-end process. With many players and time zones to manage, the content approval process could create difficult delays in the content calendar. SUNSTAR wanted to tighten up the GUM brand operations across all parties.
To smoothly implement a process that works for everyone, SUNSTAR uses Emplifi Social Marketing Cloud to centralize and govern operations. For them, approval flows as part of the publishing process help teams act on feedback quickly, automate a complex approval process, and get the green light on content more quickly.
"Emplifi Social Marketing Cloud makes it easy for our different affiliates to plan, assign, and approve content, allowing for seamless collaboration with their agencies, with the European headquarter, and other stakeholders," said Lidia Santos. "With one calendar for content planning and a clear, automated approval process, we can better share ideas and content with other teams."
Developing content governance as a global best practice
There's risk involved with a global online presence. Especially for healthcare brands, who are experiencing maximum growth in followership and engagement. With thought leadership a focus of SUNSTAR and their teams behind product brands like GUM, content governance is key. Lidia Santos shared the impact of Emplifi as a central workspace: "At SUNSTAR European Headquarters, we support the social media activities of different markets in Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Emplifi has allowed us to improve team collaboration, efficiency, and sharing."
When team processes, data, and workspaces are unified, it's much smoother to organize content activation, measure its impact, and share global best practices. Lidia Santos shared her view, stating: "It's easy to onboard everyone in the Emplifi platform – not only affiliates, but also GUM distributors that manage social media channels under the GUM brand. Our teams and distribution partners around the globe can prepare and execute content, and we can review and measure it, allowing us to monitor their progress at any time."
Measuring the impact of great content in context
To maintain their status as an oral care thought leader with their audiences, SUNSTAR must stay close to their audiences, competition, and the wider healthcare industry. Here, data in context is the goal. The team monitors the performance of content across multiple markets to not only optimize the global strategy, but also to better understand local audiences. "With access to valuable insights about our audience, we can collaborate on our customer engagement plans and measure the business impact," said Lidia Santos.
By pairing performance insights with competitive benchmarking and trends tracking on both a global and local level, SUNSTAR gets the whole picture. Access to organized, timely data insights makes it easier to focus on the insights that matter. "Emplifi has helped us consolidate the GUM brand European social media management strategy. The ability to quickly dive into performance insights by topic, such as oral health and interdental cleaning as a means to a better holistic health, will help transform us into a 'Love brand' for consumers and a respected voice among industry professionals over time," said Lidia Santos.
The takeaway
Becoming a beloved brand and distinct voice on social media is not an easy feat. But SUNSTAR GUM has made big moves to ensure their teams, agencies, and affiliates are set up for success. Approval workflows, centralized workspaces, and a unified view of social media performance across markets puts everyone on the same page.
How aligned are your teams when it comes to social media management? Is content governance a growing question in your marketing organization? If you would like to learn more about how you can streamline your workflows and improve cross-functional collaboration, schedule a demo with an Emplifi expert today.
