What are you most excited about in the digital marketing space at the moment?
Google is doing PPI now and I have recently taken a strong interest in this since this will be highly effective for mobile downloads. “Mobile first” is a goal that many companies in the Silicon Valley are striving for. In addition, Yahoo recently acquired Flurry Mobile Analytics Firm. This is exciting because it’s expected to drive the app economy into a $100billion+ industry.
What’s your favourite example of innovative digital marketing?
I am a major advocate of collaboration. It’s great to see brands pairing with popular content creators that consumers are already engaged with. Some great examples to watch on an enterprise level are Social Chorus and Niche with their strategic brand influencer programs. On a personal level, I admire Imagine Dragons (fellow BYU alumni) in their recent album “Smoke + Mirrors” and hit single “Shots” that features Tim Cantor’s artwork on the album cover and throughout the music video. Great example of collaboration.
What defines good content?
Good content comes from tastemakers (those who decide what is cool and spread it) and communities like Reddit – and is often unexpected. Consumers know and appreciate authenticity and are looking for experiences that inspire them, make their lives easier, and help them connect with family and friends. Good content is creates a feeling of community and acceptance. Acceptance is a feeling that every human being can relate to and seeks.
Where do you go for great content?
YouTube, anything Apple, and Dribbble are my favorite resources for great content. I also try to stay as close as I can to individual tastemakers and creators like Devin Graham and Casey Neistat. I like to spend time thinking about how I would create or present an idea—and then I go to Google to see if it has already been done—it usually has. Watching competitors’ Facebook pages and Kickstarters are smart tactics as well.
What’s next for digital content?
I’m not sure, but the beauty about this industry is that no one really knows. Right now it’s all eyes on Snapchat as a new and potential threat to Facebook, Google and Broadcast TV. When you think about it, YouTube mobile is struggling – people are watching YouTube videos but not from the YouTube app or YouTube.com. Instead, they are discovering mobile videos via Facebook and other social media.
Advertisers are going to start looking for new places to place the $174bn they spend on TV advertising each year. Snapchat “Our Stories” and “Discovery” sections are continuously providing limited and new content and this exciting for us as the consumers, but bad news for the other players.
What is the biggest myth about content marketing?
That it has to be viral in order to work.
What great content have you discovered recently, and why does it work so well?
Sandwich Videos are funny, clever and authentic and “humanise” tech products. They have become so successful that today, they have become a right of passage for startups who want legitimacy and exposure. The story of this agency is pretty neat and it’s nice to see them monetising from the ground up.
Candide Thovex has blown away viewers with his impressive skills in his most recent “One of Those Days 2” video. This video is awesome because he creates fantastic baseline content and starts small and ends huge. In addition, he crafts an amazing first-person story at the beginning with his edits, which gives the viewer a first person feel— as if they are the skier. First person content created, edited and shared in real time is going to be the next step for Microsoft Research and GoPro in areas like sports and DIY. Heads up ESPN!
This advertisement feature is brought to you by Outbrain, sponsors of the Guardian Media Network’s digital content hub
