Introducing Agile Creativity

Join us tomorrow, August 8th, at 10am PDT/1pm EDT for a special Google+ Hangout On Air featuring advertising industry executives in conversation with Google engineers.



Over the past year we’ve had many discussions with ad agency executives about how they are reinventing their business models to excel at the pace of digital. Many of our agency partners are applying practices inspired by the tech world in order to work faster and more collaboratively.



Tomorrow, August 8th, we will be hosting a live streamed panel called “Coders and Creatives: Two Angles on Agility”, where we'll uncover the links between agile practices at play at Google and in the advertising world. Torrence Boone, Managing Director of Agency Business Development at Google will moderate the conversation between:

• Greg Andersen, CEO BBH NY


• John Boiler, CEO, 72andSunny 


• Engineers from Google+ and Google[x], the group that developed Google Glass and the self-driving car

We hope you’ll be there and be inspired to maximize the agility of your agency with some of the concepts discussed. RSVP for the event to have it appear in your calendar. If you have a question for the panel, leave your questions as a comment on our hangout announcement post.



On August 8th at 1pm EST, to view the Hangout on Air, visit the Think with Google Google+ page, look for the “Hangout on Air” post within the stream, and click “Play” to tune in. Don’t forget to be signed into Google+!



Posted by Torrence Boone, Managing Director of Agency Business Development, Americas

With over 940,000 followers, H&M captivates Google+ users with exclusive content

When H&M produces hot new collections, the Swedish fashion retailer knows just how to get the word out. With around 2,500 stores spread across 44 markets, not only does the company engage in traditional forms of marketing, but also integrates its social media with other communication activities. An early adopter of Google+, today H&M has more fans on the platform than any other retail brand – over 940,000 followers.



Unique, exclusive content wins followers

Instead of replicating the experience of shopping in the store or on the website, their page supplies a steady stream of interactive content tailored specifically to the Google+ audience. H&M publishes unique coverage, including a captivating range of exclusive collection previews, contests and behind the scenes footage, such as a Vogue editor preparing for an H&M photo shoot. Their most popular posts are the ones for their top collections with Beckham, Versace and Marni.



Using ripples to understand trendsetting

H&M has a very high rate of shared posts. Their team can “View Ripples” to see who has shared content and what has been said. In this way, the ripples feature lets H&M see how posts spread across Google+, who’s sharing and resharing the content and whose opinions matter. The feature can be used to identify influencers and see how communities form around content. The larger the circles in ripples, the larger the reach they might have.


Social extensions to integrate their social strategy into search

Another feature H&M uses are social extensions in its AdWords advertising. Social extensions help the company obtain a higher number of brand recommendations, +1’s and direct traffic to their Google+ page, effectively increasing their number of followers by doing so. On average H&M has achieved a 22% CTR uplift on all their AdWords campaigns thanks to implementing social extensions.



It’s all adding up...



All of this has contributed in great levels of engagement from fans with the following results so far: 

• Average number of +1’s per post: 72 


• Average number of reshares per post: 11 


• Average number of comments per post: 22

To learn more about H&M’s inspirational example, read the full case study here.



Posted by Natalia Cano, PMM Google+ for Businesses