Why your brand NEEDS Good Content
As digital marketers we like to think of Content Marketing as something new and exclusive to the realm of digital, however many brands have understood the concept of good content for years before we heard our dial up modems connecting to the internet.
Perhaps I should define what content is and what it isn’t. Content is anything that your brand produces for consumption by your target audience, content isn’t your product sheet or what your service is. Great content exposes your audience to your brand and creates a connection.
For me the best content marketing I’ve ever been exposed to was when I was watching cartoons on Saturday morning and you might be thinking “how are cartoons content marketing? Isn’t it just something to keep the kids entertained?”, well you might be surprised to learn that before Twitter the way to connect with people in your age group was through your shared love of TV. If you had missed an episode of Dragon Ball Z you’d be the odd one out on the playground when your friends were talking about Goku going Super Saiyan 3.
Because there was such an active and engaged audience it meant brands had access to target children with advertising. Toy makers then began to partner with production companies to create animated TV shows targeted at children with the goal of not only gaining brand awareness but creating a relationship between the viewer and the animated characters. It’s why I still hum the theme tunes for Gummy Bears, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Spiderman to this day. More importantly it’s this brand content that I was exposed to that shaped my perception and attachment to these brands and why I still buy their branded content as an adult.
Ok so it’s quite obvious that not every brand can follow this model, your product and target market might be completely different but what’s not different is the human desire for entertainment and that doesn’t change as you get older, only your taste in content does. This human truth exists for all brands whether you’re B2C or B2B. It’s the reason those John Lewis ads trend every Christmas and leave most people in tears (who could forget Buster the Boxer)
If you are a content creator then you have to know how to read the room when it comes to your brands audience. I’ve always loved the phrase “If content is king then context is queen and she holds the purse strings”. To make great content means that you understand your audience and what drives them. Nike consistently does this well selling touching and inspirational stories instead of amazing products. The takeaway for the audience is that anyone can be like Serena Williams (if you train in a pair of Nikes).
If you understand your audience well enough it means you’re also able to place your great content in the right places where your audience will be exposed to it. Dove partnered with Twitter for their #SpeakBeautiful campaign which used the 2015 Oscars to kick-start the conversation urging women to turn negative tweets into positive ones. The campaign then spread to other events like the VMA’s and then into everyday conversation. This combination of a great idea, the right channel and right timing created an award winning campaign which saw the #SpeakBeautiful hashtag used more than 168,000 times and drove 800 million social media impressions of the campaign.
‘’People haven’t run out of attention. They just need a good reason to spend it on you. People may not remember what you say, but they’ll always remember how you make them feel. – Meta’’
As we come out of the global pandemic, people are seeking more experiences than ever before and this is where brands with retail stores can expand the interactions their audience can have with their brand and showcase more of their brand’s values. In-store experiences which can be personalised will help brands win over customers. Apple pioneered this approach where people could use an iPhone themselves in-store and provided something that customers couldn’t experience through a TV ad.
If you take one thing away from this article it’s that great content comes from understanding your audience and placing your content in the right context. If you’d like your brand to start producing great content and understand your audience better then contact us today to see why we’ve won the New Gen Designer of the Year Award for the last two years.