Speaker Spotlight: Q&A with John Thornton, Senior Creative, SURREAL
The countdown is on to SocialDay Festival 2022: the event helping social media marketers do their jobs better. We’ve been working on an incredible line-up this year, with speakers from the major social media platforms, biggest brands and most up-and-coming agencies.
One of these speakers is John Thornton, senior creative at SURREAL who will be speaking on: ‘Please don't tell my boss about this’ which translates to
… How to be silly on social and get away with it - why breaking allllll the rules gets better results than going with the grain.
Let’s learn more about John and his session.
John, what’s your story?
Started at the bottom, still here. (I wrote copy for a shampoo retailer for 2 years, then tweets about smoothies for 4 years, and now I write stories on the back of cereal boxes.)
We are really looking forward to your SocialDay session, what are the key takeaways?
Mess around, break the rules, have fun with it - your bosses will hate it, some members of the public will hate it - but that's why it works.
What has been your best social media success story?
Arguing with thousands of people about a blue drink. It went big time viral, getting me loooads of brownie/bluey points at work - and I'm still dining out on it at conferences 3 years later.
What’s the most exciting thing you’ve seen on social media in the last 12 months?
Probably that woman who made awful graphic design logos for companies
What challenges do you feel you will be facing in the coming years in your role?
Instagram appears determined to self-destruct, and I'm still not exactly Mr TikTok which is becoming increasingly embarrassing.
What has been your favourite social media campaign in the last 12 months?
Tushy Bidet's superbowel competition - getting people to send em pictures of their poop. Someone had to go there, someone had to bring poop into corporate social media. They were the brave ones who took the poopy plunge. Heroes. And very on-brand too.
Finally, what would you like to see happen in social media in the future?
I'd actually like to see the sort of thinking that goes into great social campaigns being used more in other mediums - TV, OOH etc. It's slowly going there with special build billboards etc, but would like to see it go even further.
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