With two recent viral videos making headlines, Jack Colchester of Block Report explains how trawling platforms such as Reddit has opened up new creative avenues for a brand that 60% of people in the UK had never heard of.<\/p>\n
Social media has long been a breeding ground for the weird and the wonderful, the unexpected internet folk heroes who burrow into culture and never quite leave. Think \u2018Succulent Chinese Meal\u2019 or being \u2018Rick-Rolled.\u2019 These aren\u2019t just fleeting viral moments; they continue to live on in the internet hall of fame.<\/p>\n
Jack Colchester, founder and head of insight at data-led, social PR agency Block Report, has a name for these people: \u2018internet heroes.\u2019 They don\u2019t rely on trending sounds, CapCut edits or influencer polish. They\u2019re authentic, awkward and entirely unforgettable, which is precisely why brands usually steer clear.<\/p>\n
But not Itsu.<\/p>\n
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The East Asian-inspired fast food chain has recently flipped that social media script, embracing two of the internet\u2019s most wonderfully bizarre characters, Ronnie Pickering and the Wealdstone Raider, and turning them into TikTok gold. Behind it is Colchester\u2019s team at Block Report, the new agency on the block that\u2019s shaking up brand strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe pray at the altar of brand saliency over brand image,\u201d Colchester tells The Drum, nodding to a classic Mark Ritson perspective. Marketers spend too much time obsessing over what people think of their brands and not nearly enough time accepting that most people aren\u2019t thinking about them at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to find ways of generating more brand saliency,\u201d he adds. \u201cAnd worry less about the reams of strategy decks and brand image.\u201d<\/p>\n
Block Report\u2019s work on Itsu is turning heads. In June, it reintroduced TikTok to Ronnie Pickering, 10 years after his road rage moment first made headlines. Last week, the Wealdstone Raider was out front, slinging dim sum.<\/p>\n
But before any of that can happen, Colchester says, every client must sign a \u2018treaty of talkability,\u2019 a nine-commandment pact that sets the tone for how they operate. The commandments include \u2018Thou shall accept that without brand saliency, brand image is academic,\u2019 \u2018Thou shall be generous with your time; this is scrappy and moves quickly,\u2019 and \u2018Thou shall operate at the edge of acceptability; there is no such thing as risk-free fame.\u2019<\/p>\n
And this approach is quite risky, in unexpected ways. For the Pickering video, Block Report hired a private investigator to try track down the legend, though without success. The detective spent two days searching for Pickering, known for his \u201cDo you know who I am?\u201d video. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have social media and is completely elusive,\u201d explains Colchester. \u201cWe had to get an actor in the end for Ronnie Pickering, because basically all the pubs had barred him where he\u2019s from in Hull.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thankfully, tracking down Gordon \u2018The Wealdstone Raider\u2019 Hill was much easier. A builder by trade and a lifelong Wealdstone FC supporter, Hill shot to internet fame after a 2013 video captured him passionately heckling rival Whitehawk FC fans with unforgettable taunts such as \u201cIf you want some, I\u2019ll give it ya\u201d and \u201cYou\u2019ve got no fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
In five days, Itsu\u2019s remake of the viral video has racked up millions of views across multiple platforms. \u201cWhat an amazing job he (Hill) has done,\u201d Colchester adds.<\/p>\n
The work with Itsu came about due to a monthly report that Colchester calls a \u2018block report,\u2019 where his team essentially scours the internet (mostly Reddit) to see what people are chatting about brands, categories and culture. \u201c60% of Brits had never heard of Itsu,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe have this thing called the \u2018engines of culture,\u2019 which is a tool that looks at certain sub-Reddits and looks at what the conversations are evergreen. In the UK, it was seagulls and Ronnie Pickering. So then we were like, OK, so let\u2019s do Ronnie Pickering.\u201d Pretty ironic, as Pickering\u2019s whole video is rooted in the fact that he was unknown.<\/p>\n
Each month, Colchester\u2019s team presents 10 insights and 10 ideas to clients using this method. Colchester believes that this way of using data and insight is what\u2019s setting them apart from more traditional models and agencies. He wants to get data into the heart of creative talks, right at the start of brand conversations.<\/p>\n
\u201cMake news, don\u2019t follow it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt just feels like everyone\u2019s got the same tone of voice. Everyone\u2019s jumping on the same trends.\u201d For Colchester, the magic of \u2018Internet Heroes\u2019 lies in their staying power. \u201cThese are people who just keep on coming back,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s like Rick Astley. If you put Rick Astley in an ad, it\u2019s going to do well.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s heard the pushback before, that figures like Pickering or 2021\u2019s Zoom star Jackie Weaver aren\u2019t relevant any more. But to him, that misses the point. \u201cThese are names that continue to resurface in culture. That\u2019s the whole point.\u201d<\/p>\n
@itsuofficial<\/a> We’ll do literally anything to boost our awareness metrics #ronniepickering<\/a> \u266c original sound – itsu<\/a><\/p>\n Pickering, the Wealdstone Raider, Jackie Weaver… they\u2019re all part of what Colchester describes as a kind of evergreen internet mythology. \u201cThere\u2019s an obsession with them.\u201d<\/p>\n These aren\u2019t just nostalgic moments, he argues. They live in the collective memory of the internet and that\u2019s precisely what makes them so powerful. \u201cWhen we worked on the Ronnie Pickering campaign, we were consciously mining that cultural memory. We knew it was something the internet still cared about.\u201d Once Block Report hits on something that resonates, Colchester says, the approach is simple: \u201cWe keep going until people stop liking and engaging with it.\u201d<\/p>\n For any brand that Block Report works with, it\u2019s all about \u201cmarrying the insight with a list of tactics,\u201d continues Colchester. \u201cAnd the tactics could work with any brand doing anything. It\u2019s just like an unexpected way of showing up.\u201d He\u2019s excited about applying this to a whole host of brands that it is working with.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fourth most Wikipedia-d thing this time last year was Saltburn. It\u2019s our fourth most Wikipedia-d thing on the planet,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt\u2019s literally someone eating cum out of a bath. Like, it\u2019s so gross, but I always use it as an example. That\u2019s what it takes to get people to sit up and go to Wikipedia and search for stuff. The days of, \u2018Oh, we put a bear in an ad, lol,\u2019 it\u2019s like, \u2018No, no one cares.\u2019 I\u2019m not saying you have to be as fucking gross as Saltburn, but it\u2019s that level of creative whiplash that it needs to have to get people to sit up and take notice of it.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Colchester, the tone of voice isn\u2019t the difficult part. The real challenge comes when a brand already has an established platform and strategy in place. \u201cThat\u2019s where it can get tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n Block Report often talks about the idea of two-speed marketing, a framework that allows space for fast, reactive creative work alongside more traditional brand-building efforts. \u201cWe\u2019re not saying all your advertising and marketing should be done like this. This is a very specific type of activity.\u201d<\/p>\n