Alexis Jourrou, Global Head of Social Media at Condé Nast delivers a masterclass in social media and strategy
Global Head of Social Media at Condé Nast, Alexis Jourrou spoke to the CNC students in the virtual lecture theatre about what his CNX team actually do, how to create effective strategy and the best way to forge a successful career in social media.
About Alexis Jourrou
Alexis Jourrou is Global Head of Social Media at Condé Nast. He is responsible for delivering successful social partnerships and solutions with a broad range of brands that advertise with Condé Nast, from Gucci, Dior, and Fendi, to Nike, Marriott, Cartier, and Porsche.
Alexis leads the commercial social media strategy across all titles including Vogue, GQ, Wired, Tatler, Glamour, and Condé Nast Traveller to activate campaigns across social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, WeChat, TikTik, across 32 markets.
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Alexis started his professional career at the beginning of social media advertising. He interned in PR and as copywriter for the Saatchi Gallery, and in advertising for leading agencies like Leo Burnett. He worked at media agencies for brands such as Warner Bros, Sainsbury’s, and BMW to run campaigns and deliver results.
He came to Condé Nast in October 2017 as Global Social Media Strategist and was promoted to his current role as Global Head of Social Sales Enterprise (Global Commercial Partnership) in March 2020. He has spent over £12million across all platforms.
What is Condé Nast Global?
Condé Nast Global provides a centralised point of contact for global brands to access the full-service creative agency CNX. The Condé Nast Global division is based at the Adelphi HQ in London and is a brand, country and platform “agnostic” and provides access to all titles.
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Alexis talked through the Condé Nast commercial ecosystem in detail. He explored why luxury brands choose to come to Condé Nast to utilise the storytelling power of the teams and diverse talent both locally and globally, in 20 languages across 32 markets.
What is paid social media?
The social media landscape has become a dominant force commercially, with social media platforms democratising advertising. There are a wider range of opportunities to engage untapped audiences in a way that is culturally impactful as a successful method of marketing to organically grow a brand’s profile. The secondary benefit of this is the ability to accurately measure the engagement. Which demonstrates the growing reliance on metrics to measure the success of the brands.
Alexis explored the power of targeted marketing and the increasing importance of video. Shown with the recent decision of Instagram to become a video first platform to sit in line with their main competitors YouTube and TikTok.
Why work in social media?
“Working in social is fun, but very hard work,” explains Alexis, who encouraged the students to explore the vast opportunities available when working in social.
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Social strategy
The students learned the key ways to use social media to grow a brand, and where to focus attention for maximum impact. Alexis shared his experience and explored each of the top social platforms, from Instagram to TikTok, and demystified ‘the lingo’ around social media acronyms.
Success stories
The students were treated to a variety of impressive and impactful case studies created by the Condé Nast creative studios. These included an incredibly successful campaign for jewellery brand Pandora, featuring Hailey Beiber, and a more simple, but no less effective one for Italian luxury house Bottega Venetta. These campaigns are “brand-agnostic” running across many of the Condé Nast platforms for maximum engagement.
Key takeaways
- To work in social media you must be prepared to work hard, and be passionate and explore a diverse range of cultures, attitudes and be open to innovation
- To use social media marketing for maximum benefit you must be culturally aware
- Be open and be creative
- Research and know the lingo!