Logitech garnered attention with its “Defy Logic” campaign featuring pop star Lizzo and creator Bretman Rock. This campaign tagline first appeared in the tech company’s first Super Bowl ad in 2021 featuring Lil Nas X. Logitech's event and celebrity-driven marketing led to 89% positive sentiment and significant engagement including 1.3 million social engagements, 43 billion impression and more than 400 article syndications, according to the company.

Adu Adu is Logitech’s global head of social media. He leads a team across the brand’s various handles to keep a consistent brand across social media platforms. He has seen a shift in the importance of social managers and how internal goals are reflected on social platforms.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

What is the biggest way social media has changed in the last few years?

I don't think social media managers have to fight for a seat at the table anymore. I think we are the head of the table now. Social media is so fast and impactful, and yes part of that was sadly driven by the pandemic, but that forced brands to understand their voice. What's shifted is that now, instead of social media managers having to find a chair, they are already there and leading strategy rather than being looped in later on.

Here at Logitech, that helps us create marketing campaigns from a social-first lens, rather than a campaign that exists where the marketing or brand team asks, “How do we make this social?” That shift also makes the social agency of record more important. Our new creative agency 1000heads has been part of that transformation with us. 

How do you decide where to engage and what trends to lean into?

It comes down to our values and also what we are doing internally. With a lot of cultural moments, like Pride or Black History Month, there are internal efforts within Logitech that are also taking place. So when we dive into cultural moments with big content strategies, we are also doing that work internally. 

On TikTok specifically, it's about what comes naturally to us and understanding our brand voice. We are talking about a brand that was started in 1980 so TikTok has helped us reestablish our voice with newer generations. It's all grounded with insights and understanding how people are using our products and the different ways we can highlight our product launches. For example, we did a recent campaign with Lizzo, the Defy Logic campaign. If you are familiar with her, you know her favorite color is purple, so that showed up throughout the campaign. That was one of the product colors, and we leaned into that for a month on social. Our photo was purple, our emojis were purple.

What is the biggest risk you've taken on social media?

I would have to say BeReal. We had to understand the limitations of the platform—BeReal is only up for a limited time, and takes a photo from the front and back-facing cameras, and of course the random notification. There were so many challenges, in a good way, but we had to find an innovative way to show up as a brand. So for our holiday campaign, we used BeReal as a gift guide by using Elf on the Shelf as the main character with a Logitech product and promo code. In general, being in social media and thinking about the algorithms, you have to take a risk to get a reward. 

What is your favorite marketing channel and why?

I think that LinkedIn is making aggressive steps to change the way we have conversations from a B2B perspective. B2B in general can be looked at as a snooze-fest, but it's an exciting time with all the bespoke features. Now there are easier ways to directly speak to CMOs or heads of IT departments.

What would make your job easier?

I think for every social team, it really comes down to having the right agency partner. Through that, you are able to have a team that understands strategy and analytics and then execute them. There is a separation of an agency with social capability versus a social media agency, and we are looking forward to having that support, not just work-wise, but also to be more innovative.