Tag: content

c_theilr/Flickr.com

2012. Perhaps, if the Mayans were correct, we won’t live to see the end of it. Or, we can just acknowledge that the Mayans ran out of room on their round stone, and keep working. Keep living. (Let’s admit that the Mayans weren’t such great fortune tellers and leave it at that.) So if you look back at 2012, there are a few things that stand out: there’s more content than ever before (again) and content delivery systems are all over the map. And, frankly, a lot of it doesn’t work. (This is not an implied criticism of any form of content, it’s just a fact.) And because most of it doesn’t work, the buzzwords of 2012 – data, ecosystem, “platform agnostic”, context, storytelling – will remain the buzzwords of 2013, or at least be synonyms for future buzzwords, because if there’s one thing that content marketers are good at, it’s coming up with new words for things that already exist. We are as guilty of this trope as anyone, however, so nos culpae.

Let’s be clear: content isn’t evolving. Technology is. And because technology is evolving, our expectations for the delivery of content are also evolving. Content now comes at us in print, on our laptops and tablets and smartphones, via email and snail mail, on our screens and through our earbuds. But storytelling in the service of a brand (and this is true regardless of the reasons the brand engages in content) is as old as cave drawings, and will outlast all of us. One of the themes that emerges not just from the work we’ve done at Spafax over the past year but from the vast amounts of content we read and consume – whether it be print, digital, mobile, video, audio, or in person at events and conferences – is the idea of storytelling, of the need for a coherent plot when creating content, and this demands a coherent strategy. But mostly, successful content marketing demands a good story. All brands have stories to tell but making the public care about those stories is the hard part. That’s the work. It demands a form of connection, and that’s where strategy comes in. And, of course, a good content marketing agency.

The content marketing industry, and the advertising and PR industries also, tries to connect their clients to the public in any manner possible. All well and good. But if there isn’t a good story at the heart of that effort, the connection is bound to fail. A brand only works for us if it does something for our narrative (and not the other way around.) We are all consumers in that we yearn to consume stories that are relevant to us. Stories that make our lives better or easier. That entertain, enlighten and inform. That provide a valuable service.

2013 may see many changes in how the content marketing industry reaches the public. But at the heart of every bit of content is the story. A good story.

See you in 2013.

There has been much gnashing and jawing over Facebook’s recent purchase of Instagram. On one side, you have the Instagram loyalists who feel a bit betrayed by the whole matter. On the other side, you have the strategists who see what Facebook is up to. On every side, you have that crazy price: Instagram is worth $1,000,000,000?!?!? The New York Times is worth less than that, according to its latest stock price. More than one tweet mentioned this fact. And more than one also noted that Kodak is now bankrupt. There is irony, sadness and tragedy in all of that but there is also fact. This is the age we live in. Facebook saw Instagram as a great platform (called as “simple as a poetry chapbook” here) and good at something, with fierce loyalty, and so they made their move. Facebook has so much money, the bright minds there can probably make this decision while waiting for a latte at Starbucks.

The Instagramers are upset that the owners of their beloved app “sold out.” But wouldn’t you? If after 18 months and just a few rounds of VC financing the largest social media network in the world comes up and says, “Here take a lot of our money” you would do exactly what the minds behind Instagram just did. Of course you would. Because you know it would never get better. Facebook is like that person who goes to an open house and bids way above asking price. Just to get it over with.

Few people, however, have noted what this really is: a content play. Instagram is NOTHING but content. They don’t even have a functioning website. They are an app and exist in people’s phones and on various servers around the world. That’s it. They aren’t a physical thing. They are everyone’s photos. The place isn’t even monetized. Like all good apps, an ecosystem has built up around them but otherwise, they are people sharing photos with each other. Content. Good content that is personal and that people care about. The ultimate UGC (which, I suppose, applies to all social media). Facebook might be the biggest thing on the planet but it does not invite warm fuzzy feelings. Buying Instagram won’t change that. But it does show that Facebook is finally thinking of perhaps better ways to populate their rather ugly website (and apps – why is that Facebook makes such awful apps?) and that – good news for everyone – quality matters. Instagram has 30 million users. Facebook is close to 900 million. So this wasn’t a play to get bigger. Zuckerberg et al bought Instagram to get better. Through content. All content providers should rejoice.

We in the content industry tend to go to a lot of conferences. And there are a lot of conferences about content. With the vast changes in technology, everyone in the field wants to know the ins and outs of content and content strategy to better service their client needs. That’s perfectly understandable. But it also leads to something we’re starting to call The Conference Bubble: if you stay inside of it for too long, you tend to stop experiencing the outside world. The real world. And that disconnect is not good for content providers and it’s especially not good for their clients. It’s disastrous. In the end, the conference was really about a big idea and that was: quality over quantity. It’s something we preach at Spafax and it’s nice to know that after a few years of everyone trying to parcel out content in the shiniest baubles

At the recent International Content Summit, held in London, we were lucky enough to hear some compelling stories from the trenches (there’s more on the “big idea” from the conference here, at Sparksheet).

People Still Like Print

This is perhaps self-evident but you wouldn’t know it from The Conference Bubble. At least conferences that are about “content” or “content marketing.” The irony, of course, is that many of the speakers at these conferences are published authors pushing their books. Irony, another inconvenient truth.

Richard Cope, Global Head of Insight at Mintel, called print a status symbol. He said research has shown that “we still need to carry badges and emblems of taste” and that print fulfils that function. (This thinking went into the relaunch of Air Canada’s enRoute – we wanted to make it “printier” and also speaks to the sumptuous feel of our print media for Bombardier Business Aircraft, among others). An iPad may say something about us but a magazine says something specific. And then he put numbers to something we all understand intuitively: 42% of people consume print for “long journeys” (this is a UK study so take that to mean train trips) and 71% would rather read print than online. This stat was one of the most retweeted from the conference. For obvious reasons. Reading is a luxury, or should be qualified as such, because time is the new luxury, and it is relatively accessible, just like reading. Print might be on the way to niche status but it is an aspirational niche, and anything aspirational is also marketable.

These insights jibe closely to what we at Spafax have been saying for a while now: print is still important and a key component of a multi-channel communication strategy. Speaking of multi-channels….

What Hath the Touchscreen Wrought?

Nothing. It’s great. The Telegraph’s Mark Challinor even showed off the “nightmode” button on their app – a smart idea, brought on by user analytics (that is, a good number of their subscribers read the newspaper on their iPad in bed).  In good news for people who like to make money, the Telegraph’s studies have also found that readers like ads because it gives the newspaper app “a premium feel.” This goes back to the great thing about ads in print: readers have long found that ads are “content” as opposed to something they can skip over, a fact that has long explained the mammoth sizes (and success) of the fall fashion books. And Richard Cope asked a question that lingered long after he had asked it: Is the touch screen dulling our sense of touch or reawakening it? I’ll be thinking about that one for a long time.

One Brand, One Voice

Ruth Spencer, Head of Loyalty, for Boots (the largest drugstore chain in the UK and the home of one of the world’s great integrated content programs) affirmed that her company is “absolutely a content company.” And with a wide-ranging content strategy that embraces almost every form of media she insisted that her content must: be consistent, get integration right and play to each channels’ strengths. Meaning, quite often, one photo shoot for print, digital, in-store, you name it. What this says, really, is no silos, something I’ve touched on earlier. By employing a brand strategy without silos, Boots wins. And they do. Their program is something to behold.

Customer Loyalty

Myf Ryan, GM Marketing for Westfield UK, a large shopping mall developer, spoke of launching an enormous new mall in a relatively depressed section of East End London during the current economic climate. Westfield did this through the power of storytelling. That is, they gave a shopping mall that didn’t exist a backstory and then sold that story (as opposed to selling a mall) with stunning success. But more importantly, Ryan realized that any audience is “not channel loyal, they are content loyal” – so her story was consistent over multiple channels. More importantly, she said “Don’t tell a story about the brand, tell compelling stories that embody your brand” – something any good content marketer tries to get their clients to understand every day. The best brand stories are the ones the audience wants to be a part of, after all. No one really cares about a brand. Just what it can do for them. Brands that understand that are successful.

All great examples of good content done well. But more than that, all great examples of smart strategy in the service of great content working toward the same goal. It is really what all content marketing should strive for.