BlogEmilia Liukko 14.04.2026

Social First needs a kick in the ass!

From a hero flick produced with a lot of money, cuts are still cut into the cuts and forms required for advertising – even if a true social-first expert is not satisfied with fitting. She sees social media as a world of its own, for which you need to design your own content and variations. A social first thinker doesn’t just talk about courage, but he shows what kind of power it has.

Mindset, mandate and fear of a fight

Over the past year, we in Finland have also shifted to thinking about social media as a whole and as a marketing strategic choice, not just as one part of the media menu and distribution channel. Social first content is built using the laws of social media from the very beginning. The result: more hits, genuine engagement, and organic spread.

This requires strong knowledge and interest in social media. I don’t think you can know the channels if you don’t use them yourself. You don’t have to be active everywhere or even like all platforms, but social first is not made from an excel row of technical specifications, or that “I looked at it once three years ago”.

Courage is constantly talked about, but where does it live or where does it stop? Marketers still seem to be terribly upset. What if someone thought something about our messages or liked the hump? A colleague aptly said that if you don’t cry or giggle a little during the making phase, you’re already going into the woods.

I’m rumoring for a change in the mindset of marketing decision-makers and advertising designers. According to a survey commissioned by DMEXCO, marketers see themselves as brave when they are not. In addition, there should be a mandate to do brave, independent decisions.

Speed, be on the pulse and rally on

One of the best recent examples is the outcast Punch monkey at a Japanese zoo, who moved the whole world when he sought solace in a monkey plush toy given to him by his caretaker. How it happened that the toy was part of a furniture giant’s product range. It took an hour for IKEA’s social media manager to pick up the toy from the store, take pictures, edit the versions and send them to countries, from where they quickly began to trickle down to the accounts of different markets. Of course, there was also a stroke of luck when they hit the golden vein of well-deserved media, but the act succeeded in building a global brand moment. Not by force, but by seizing the moment, participating in conversations and showing empathy.

Another great bet came from Live Nation of the arrival of the artist Pitbull in Finland. One organic IG story on Veikkaus Arena’s Instagram – and already the gang started buzzing and doing marketing on behalf of the company. Not when you go bald in December 2026!

Spotify Wrapped is a timeless concept of how the brand gave users something so personal in a beautiful wrapper that they wanted to share it themselves: hyper-personalized and made to be shared on social media.

And let’s not forget: “when Duo died, Internet cried”. Duolingo killed its own mascot, announcing it on its social media. The dramatic, funny narrative created FOMO (fear of missing out) and caused a 25,560% spike in app usage on launch day.

Act like any other user

Fazer Bar Gang is a prime example of how the entire presence has been made just for TikTok. When it was decided to abandon traditional campaigning and build a continuous, communal social media presence where the brand behaves like any other user. “You get the attention of young people when you stop chasing it.”

Verkkokauppa.com‘s inventive TikTok Currency – Viral Payback achieved impressive results by utilizing products insightfully through multi-channel social media advertising and users. This campaign was also rewarded with a Grand Prix and two category wins at this year’s Grand One, although some of them thought it was horrible mud. The campaign was also victorious in the TikTok games themselves, I recommend checking out the winners of the TikTok Nordic Awards 2025 here.

Heinz´s ”Seemingly Ranch” is the 2025 Effie winner in the American food category. A big-world example of how things can be taken very far from being awake on social media, and the product is in stores in less than two weeks. A great case, see the video in the link.

A delightful smaller, but no less, example is Argimarket, which opened in Helsinki’s Kasarmitori Square, the birth and life of which has only been photographed for social media. The dudes put themselves on the line; The videos show real people and products in the right environment, utilize content creators and thus distribution to e.g. YouTube Shorts in addition to their own Insta and Tok.

The use of content producer and personal brand-driven content is growing exponentially. The only limit to utilization is your imagination on both the B2C and B2B sides, if you want to use these compartments.

Content vs. AI slop

Creative content is the most important factor that a marketer can influence the effectiveness of advertising. Do we need to do it more, smarter or both? On social media, quantitatively, perhaps, depending on the channel strategy, but with a phone’s camera, editing apps, ingenuity, keeping track of the time and channel knowledge, you can go a long way.

Automation and artificial intelligence tools can then go a little further. They can help to scale, version, raise advertising with different triggers, sparring, lightly test where the eye is focused, whether the content is cognitively heavy or there are too many messages, whether there is a clear CTA, etc. At Dagmar, we use e.g. Neurons, Smartly and Lovable.

Gen Z (born c. 1997-2012) is a strong trendsetter with an interest in experiences, emotions and aesthetics that “feel more real”. They’re tired of overly polished and often obvious AI-driven content. This has been experienced by many brands, from Coca-Cola to Gucci. On the other hand, it is also a fact that AI tools are constantly evolving and within a few years, they may produce a frighteningly brilliant (social media) blockbuster. However, even artificial intelligence does not beat personality, opinions, roughness, vulnerability and relatability.

A successful marketer is aware of the best practices and the laws of social media

Finally, even though we flag speed, content trends, humor and engagement on social media, it doesn’t mean that all marketing has to be.

A successful marketer will be aware of the best practices and the laws of social media in 2026. At Dagmar, we are happy to help you with this, whether it is content conceptualization, social media strategy, social search, production of short videos, paid advertising, auditing your own or your competitors’ activities, or regularly delivered trend summaries.

Feel free to contact us!

aUTHOR

Emilia Liukko

Head of Social

emilia.liukko@dagmar.fi

+358443241611

Emilia works as a digital and social media strategist, and she has gained experience as an expert both in offices and in-house. Emilia always strives to find the best, solve problems and come up with new solutions – both for customers and in internal processes.
Emilia is curious, follows the industry closely and is development-oriented. In her free time, Emilia lights up from travelling, the sun, festivals, karaoke, loose candy and friends.