Are you more likely to click on a banner ad or be struck by lightning? This was the first question posed by session chair, Alex Blyth, at the latest Content Conversation from Outbrain.
Many in the audience of around 50 people were surprised to learn that, according to National Geographic magazine, the average person has a one in 3000 chance of being hit by lightning, while there is a one in 3333 chance that they will click on banner ad, according to Advertising Age.
This goes a long way towards explaining the enthusiasm among marketers of all size and type of company for content marketing. It is why it has become a US$135 billion global industry, with 27 million pieces of content shared online every day.
How can you make your content stand out? How to strike the right balance between owned, curated and earned? These were the questions put to a panel of four industry experts.
Different types of content
First up was Sam Pattison, sales director at Newscred. The type of content marketing approach that is right for your brand, he said, depends on your target audience. Licensed content, for example, involves taking creative third-party content and publishing on your own site. It allows you to reflect that brand in your own operation – and it’s obviously cheaper than customising your own content.
“It’s important to pick the right kind of sources that reflect your brand,” Pattison said. “If a publisher has a great article but it’s not in the right voice or tone for your brand then it should not be used. You really need to research your audience and understand what they care about.”
If you decide to customise your own content then rule number one is not to bang on about your product because it will alienate people. Some companies such as Pepsico have now grasped this with the result that a recent Pepsi Max video was watched by more than 10m viewers.
Another option is social content. There are, after all, few better advocates for your brand than people already using it. But the content has to be buzzworthy so people will comment and share it.
An editorial angle
Next up was Branwell Johnson, director of content at Cockpit Content (formerly deputy editor at Marketing Week), who talked about the transferable skills journalists bring to content marketing.
The big difference between advertising and content marketing, he said, is that advertising typically focuses on big promotional bursts across multiple platforms a couple of times a year while content marketing needs a steady stream of content put together to tight deadlines. “It needs someone who can spot an angle and write crisp accessible stories for clients,” Johnson said. “Journalists can have an important role in creating engaging content.”
The value of video
In today’s complex and splintered marketplace, consumers put increasing trust in brand recognition, said Francesca Burton, Head of PR & Marketing at Rockabox, but herein lies a conundrum because consumers are more indifferent to advertising than ever before. They know how to avoid content.
In 2000, click though rates were 9%. Today they are 0.1%.
She argued that in this fragmented landscape, video is the best medium to emotionally connect with people. It is hugely shareable. Peer-to-peer recommendation is a potent brand advocate.
People are far more likely to speak about your brand if it touches them emotionally, she said. The content has to be high quality and relevant. Therefore, you need to know who you’re creating your content for. People don’t necessarily want to talk about your brand; you need to create a story around it.
She cited the First Kiss viral video commissioned by US fashion label WREN, which has become one of the most shared videos of 2014. It shows total strangers meeting for the first time and kissing. It has had 90 million views and the company enjoyed a 13,600% increase in sales. It worked because it is subtle, emotional, and extremely engaging.
“It feels like you are invading a very intimate moment,” Burton said. “It was hugely successful because there was no pretence or staging about it. There was a humanity to it. It was authentic and compelling and that gave the brand identity.”
Feel the fear and do it anyway
“A bit of fear is a good thing,” said final panellist Tony Giordani, Head of Planning at Create, The Telegraph’s creative solutions team. “Fear makes us think about things a bit more and question what we’re doing.”
He cited a tweet he had received from Microsoft the previous week. The tweet has read: ‘We are Microsoft Lumia. Follow us to see what happens next.’ “It was super lazy,” commented Giordani. “I had no desire to click follow because they were not engaging me in any way. There was no real thought. If you try and create content thinking it will be easy then you’ll probably end up failing. Therefore, a bit of fear is a good thing,” he said.
He went on to point out that The Telegraph, as a national newspaper, has access to lots of data that can provide insights into how it should connect with a particular audience.
In a recent brief, coffee company Kenco wanted to promote its corporate social responsibility initiative in Honduras which sought to help young men quit gangs and, instead, work in the coffee industry. The problem was that no-one wants to read dull corporate advertorials. “We suggested we could do a reportage piece where we sent our US correspondent out to Honduras to put together a hard-hitting report on drugs and crime and death,” Giordani said. “It got a lot of pick-up on Google.”
More for 2015
After a lively Q&A session, which ranged from whether or not Google penalises curated content (it doesn’t) to how to engage FDs and CEOs with content marketing (show them success stories), Blyth concluded the session reminding everyone to look out for more Content Conversations from Outbrain in 2015.
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