Content Marketing: Thinking Big

How Instructure Canvas Partnered with AMC TV on “The Walking Dead”

Key Takeaways

1. Most content marketers don’t thinking big enough2. “Thought Leadership” is often confused with “Thought Followership”3. Partnering with a big brand is not always about money4. Big brands have permission – not staff – to give to a project. 5. Measurements of success with a big brand are situational specific.

#1 – Think Bigger

Process can lead to this…

#2 – Thought Followership or Leadership?

*could* vs. *should*

#3 – Big brands are not always about money

#4 – Big brands grant permission, not staff

The Walking Dead Class

1,000+ press stories

• BBC: “University launches online course with TV show”• Forbes: “Now You Can Take a College Course on 'The Walking Dead'”• AllThingsD:  “'The Walking Dead' Inspires a MOOC”• Fast Company:  “You Can Now Take a Real 'Walking Dead' College Course”• CNET:  “Majoring in Zombie with a Minor in MOOC”• Yahoo TV:  “'Walking Dead' 101: How You Can Take a Free College Course on the Hit AMC Drama”• USA Today: “'Walking Dead' online course is a first for AMC”• Wired: “Apocalypse 101: Take the Free 'Walking Dead' Online Course From UC Irvine”• MTV: ‘Will You Survive 'The Walking Dead' Online Course?”• Entertainment Weekly: “And now there is a college course about 'The Walking Dead'”• CNN: “'The Walking Dead' online class: Are zombies the MOOC future?”• The Atlantic: “'The Walking Dead' is Getting Scholarly”• GigaOM: “Online education… and zombies: AMC turns 'The Walking Dead' into a free online course”• Time: “UC Irvine To Offer Online Class Based On 'The Walking Dead'”• Reuters: “'The Walking Dead' course on hypothetical zombie apocalypse offered by AMC & UC Irvine”• About.com: “Love 'The Walking Dead'? Take a Course on It!”• The Verge: “'Walking Dead' tie-in course will teach nutrition, sociology, and the physics of head shots”• E! Online: “'The Walking Dead' Season 4 First Look Photo: Prepare for a Prison Break”• CBS News:  “'The Walking Dead' gets its own college course”• Associated Press: “College introducing online 'Dead' course”• Huffington Post: “'Walking Dead' MOOC, Zombie-Based Online Class, Offered By UC Irvine”• Variety: “'The Walking Dead' College Class: UC Irvine Partners with AMC”

#4 – Success measures are situation specific

Key Takeaways

1. Most content marketers don’t thinking big enough2. “Thought Leadership” is often confused with “Thought Followership”3. Partnering with a big brand is not always about money4. Big brands have permission – not staff – to give to a project. 5. Measurements of success with a big brand are situational specific.

But what about you?

What is your next big story?

Who will you partner to tell it with?

How can you break out of the constraints and do something distinctive?