Content Strategy in a Changing World
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Mihika Barua Content Strategy in a Changing World
Transcript of Content Strategy in a Changing World
Mihika Barua
Content Strategy in a Changing World
Agenda:
- Branded content through the ages - Components of a content strategy - Innovative approaches to content - Q&A
Who I am
Who are we?
Our software helps brands tell their stories in a digital world.
If you’re creating content for many channels and audiences everyday, you need technology to help you manage that.
Percolate is a software that helps you manage and organize your marketing activities.
Over 800 brands are powered by Percolate
Brands have been telling stories to attract and retain customers for years
Meet America’s earliest content marketing
1895 first issue printed
2017 40 countries
12 languages 1.5M circulation
What’s changed? The ways that brands can communicate their content to audiences.
We call these channels.
Content
Channels have multiplied over time
20001980 199019701960 2010—
?
Inflection point for content marketing
Branded content boosted sales as early as the 1900s
1904 Jell-O distributes free copies
of its first recipe book
1906
Sales grow to over $1 million
P&G: The first company to advertise directly to consumers
1933
P&G’s Oxydol begins to broadcast a radio soap
opera
2010
Last P&G soap opera ends
1920s Radio becomes a marketing
channel
Without content, radio networks couldn’t attract audiences needed to sell advertising space. So the advertisers stepped in to produce content themselves.
Until the Internet, distributing your content was relatively simple
19301890 1980 1990
?2000
Until the Internet, distributing your content was relatively simple
19301890 1980 1990
“Channel explosion”
2000
“Mobile-first” means you need to reach people with more speed and frequency
The average American spends nearly half a day staring at a screen (CNN)
It’s not “one size fits all” anymore. Marketing has gone global
36,000+ restaurants 120 countries 65 million people served daily
For content marketers, this means:– Your content (and your brand) needs to be in more places at once
– You need to understand the landscape of channels available to your brand
– Figure out where your audience is most active (Instagram? TV?)
– Make sure you’re creating enough, relevant, and interesting content
– Match your content to the medium you’re creating it for
The components of a content strategy
Components of a content strategy
–Brand guidelines
–Marketing objectives
–Customer or audience persona
– “Content - market fit”
– Brand guidelines
– What is the brand’s personality, voice, tone and language? – What do we want people to think of when they associate with the
brand? – How does the brand represent itself in images and words?
– Marketing objectives – Customer or audience persona – Customer journey map – Content - market fit
Components of a content strategy
What does Nike Soccer stand for?
What does Nike Soccer stand for? What kinds of photos should Nike use in advertising?
Components of a content strategy
– Brand guidelines – Marketing objectives
– What is the business need? – Are we creating content to increase sales or build brand awareness? – Do we want to change people’s perception of us? (GE, IBM)
– Customer or audience persona – Content - market fit
Content doesn’t always look like an advertisement.
“Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.”
—Howard Luck Gossage, 1986
In fact, people don’t watch TV ads anymore
Percent of users who pay attention to TV ads, 2016
Source: Google
Pay attentionDid not pay attention
45%
45% Pay attention to TV ads
Our attention spans are shrinking, and marketing needs to keep up.
Approach #1 Create something engaging that doesn't look like an ad.
Marriott Hotels - Marketing objective: To increase
hotel room bookings
- What they did: Produced a short movie that tells the story of two Marriott hotel bellmen and their adventures trying to chase a world-famous art thief.
- Why it worked
Marriott Hotels - Marketing objective: To increase
hotel room bookings across J.W. Marriott’s properties
- What they did: Produced a short movie that tells the story of two Marriott hotel bellmen and their adventures trying to chase a world-famous art thief.
- Why it worked: Unlike a traditional TV ad, Marriott created branded content that was entertaining and wasn't trying to sell you something (well, not directly)
—David Beebe, Head of Marriott International Content Studio
“We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in, and become what they’re interested in.”
Psst.. Remember Jell-O?
1904 Jell-O distributes free copies
of its first recipe book
1906
Sales grow to over $1 million
Components of a content strategy
– Brand guidelines – Marketing objectives – Customer or audience persona
– Who is my primary audience? – What are their likes, dislikes, hopes, fears, and ambitions? – What channels do they use the most to get their news and info about brands?
– Content - market fit
Meet Joy.
Joy+
Image you’re a Levi’s marketer. What would you need to know
about her?
How old is she? Where does she live? What does she do? What does she like to do in her spare time? What are her ambitions?
Approach #2 Create an emotional connection with your audience
#LiveinLevis- Marketing objective: To show that
Levi’s jeans accompany their wearers on important moments in their lives
- Customer persona: All denim wearers
- Why it worked: Made Levi’s jeans feel like a wardrobe must-have
#RealStrength: Shattering male stereotypes
- Marketing objective: To build its men’s personal care product brand
- Customer persona: Men, and specifically fathers
- Why it worked: Reinvented perceptions of its target consumer
Components of a content strategy
– Brand guidelines – Marketing objectives – Customer or audience persona – Content - market fit
– What can our content add to the conversation? – How would that content tie back to our brand, products, and value proposition
for customers? – What content will customers care about?
Approach #3 Create connections between your brand and things your audience cares about
#adidasOriginals: “A provocative approach to today’s streetwear culture”
adidas content doesn’t say “buy our stuff”, it says “be original”
“Turns to the new generation of creators to inspire them to redefine their meaning of originality”
Celebrity promoters create immediate brand associations
Approach #4 Have others create your content for you
Loews Hotels: From Instagram post to advertisement
— Loews Hotels realized their guests were sharing their travel experiences on Instagram — Turned Instagram posts into print and digital ads — Featuring “regular” people in ads makes the brand more authentic and accessible
Shinola: Capturing user-generated content
— Detroit-based watch maker Shinola created an entire brand campaign out of Instagram posts that people posted wearing their watches, with the hashtag #myshinola.
— Through social media monitoring in Percolate, they asked for permission to use the images in their campaign
The channels that brands today use to distribute their content– TV – Billboards – Radio and podcasts – Film – Print – Digital publications – Digital ads – Social media – Word-of-mouth – Celebrities and influencers – The list goes on….
And there’s more…
Augmented Reality
Virtual Reality
Artificial Intelligence
New channels aren’t going to stop emerging.
What’s next?
Content (Demand)Brands need to create more content than ever
20001980 199019701960 2010—
?
Inflection point for content marketing
Available resources
helps brands fill this gap
Technology helps.
Our software helps brands tell their stories.
Marketing isn’t just the final piece of creative— it’s also all the steps before the ad goes out. It’s important to get those steps right.
We help brands keep their ideas, strategy, and content in one place.
Create and publish content Analyze how your content performed
So again, where do we fit in?
MastercardMastercard uses Percolate for real-time event marketing
It’s an exciting time to be a marketer.
Questions?
