Social media is all about telling great stories – #OnSocial26

Social media is often painted as a battleground, where brands fight over audiences with an ever-waning attention span.

But, says creative leader Yash Murthy, that attention span is often misunderstood.

Speaking via video link at the Marketing Association’s #OnSocial conference, Murthy says that while audiences are more fragmented now than they were before, they still willingly give their attention to content that captures their interest.

The trend of binge watching an entire TV show or watching long-form video podcasts are a perfect example.

“We do not have an attention problem – brands have a relevance problem,” says Murthy. He was pulling no punches.

Let me entertain you

In the past, friends and families powered people’s social media feed. Now, their passion points fuel the algorithms.

When people open their social media apps, they also expect to be entertained. So, knowing how to show up in this space is the key to connecting to your audience, he adds.

“You need to be seen, you need to be remembered, you need to be understood.”

Microdramas and microserials are becoming popular on social media channels for these reasons, says Muthy. They tell a brand’s story while always keeping people entertained.

In the rest of his keynote, Murthy shared six principles that brands can use to show up on social media.

1. Think like a programmer and build an audience. Get rid of your content calendar and instead create work that adds to the conversation.
2. Develop and deepen your brand codes. Entertainment starts in the details.
3. Lean into your lore. “Mine your brand before you chase the next trend,” says Murthy.
4. Treat consumers as collaborators.
5. Go beyond storytelling. “What are the extra touchpoints?” asks Murthy.
6. Interesting people make interesting things.

Don’t make ads, make content

This is the second #OnSocial, a one-day conference that delves into what’s driving results on social media today.

Following Murthy’s keynote, DiDi’s Tim Farmer took to the stage for a session titled The Power of Weird. It shared how the rideshare company grew its brand awareness in a market dominated by Uber.

DiDi created a brand platform that included flute-playing mascot Nudgie, and then built campaigns and activations around it.

This included a first dates social media series that played into Australia’s love of reality show Married At First Sight and pop-up raves at local mechanics and laundromats.

“Don’t make ads, make content,” says Farmer. He adds that they started small, working mostly with organic content to figure out what resonated before putting paid amplification behind it.

Turning a spark into a campaign

The middle of the conference was split between various breakout sessions where attendees could get a more intimate look at different elements, including podcasts, ROI, the creator economy as well as various case studies.

Thompson Spencer CEO Melanie Spencer, along with Auckland Transport’s senior marketing manager Debbie Chin, shared how they turned the “spark of an idea” into the Joy Rides campaign that ran over Christmas 2025.

The challenge was to make Aucklanders choose the bus during the silly season. It’s a time when every other brand is clamouring for attention, says Spencer.

Using buses as their media asset, they created a social-first campaign featuring a real AT bus driver Jona that brought joy and delight across the city. It was even included in the Auckland Santa Parade and Christmas in the Park.

Again, it was all about entertainment and realness. “We flipped the script,” says Spencer. “We didn’t go from top to bottom, we went from the spark of the idea and built it from bottom to top.”

Tell great stories

Marketing Association CEO John Miles says #OnSocial is all about helping companies and agencies develop their brands on what is probably the most-watched screen out of any screen.

“Social media is driving a lot of brand equity. And I think it’s interesting when you look at the research from System1 that Andrew Tindall’s doing about entertainment that builds brands. That’s what Yash Murthy was just talking about as well. 

“For me, you go all the way back to the greatest storyteller of all time, Howard Gossage, who said, ‘People read what interests them, and sometimes it’s an ad.’ 

“It’s the same for brands. People will notice you if you’re entertaining. And social media is about building that entertainment if you want your brand to cut through. And I think today’s all about getting that instilled in people: how to continually use the medium to get better at what they do.”