Brand neutral platform & content strategy Instigation
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Whether you want to create a branded platform or a brand neutral platform or just a brand - you definitely are a brand who now is a publisher in this post-digital world. A strategic Instigation by WOlfzhowl on creating a brand neutral platform. A comprehensive approach with discussions and highlight on various conundrums faced by brands. Buckle-up its an intense read, hope you enjoy the instigations. Check Out: #wolfSIGHTS across platforms www.wolfzhowl.com #wolfSIGHTS #WolfzHowl #ContentStrategy #BrandedContent #ContentCreation
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Brand neutral platform & content strategy Instigation
- 1. Strategic Instigation for Creating A brand Neutral Platform This instigation does not include, analytics, monitoring, evaluating success etc;
- 6. Get Instigated… Flow of the Presentation
- 7. Get Instigated… Brand Publisher? A few Barriers WE Face Content Wireframe Approach Understanding Strategic Intent and crafting the platform approach Deck Navigation:
- 8. Get Instigated… Brand Publisher? A few Barriers WE Face Content Wireframe Approach Understanding Strategic Intent and crafting the platform approach
- 9. Get Instigated… Brands are becoming Publishers But why are they becoming Publishers?
- 10. Get Instigated… Red Bull feature consistently in any list of top content-marketing or brand publishers. Few brands capture an audience so well with regards to their branded publishing, and focusing on emerging niches such as adventure sports and gaming has been highly successful for the brand Mashable’s James O’Brien rightly says, “Red Bull is a publishing empire that also happens to sell a beverage.” Red Bull is a massive content marketing industry all of its own, with an archive of over 5,000 videos, 50,000 images, and a range of high-octane sports events to its name – and not an energy drink in sight It sells a lifestyle, a story – one that can be summed up in a single word: ‘adrenaline’ - Felix Baumgartner’s Stratos jump from the edge of space Red Bull have proved the effectiveness of branded publishing in building value and engagement. The volume at which they publish, and the respective average share count show healthy figures too Articles analyzed: 14,342 Total Shares: 13,712,691 Average Shares: 956
- 11. Get Instigated…
- 12. Get Instigated… Intel’s iQ is a tech culture magazine covering fashion, sports, gaming, health and lifestyle, with the intention of “[bringing us] deeper into the lives of people and the technologies they are using to change the world.” Although they may not publish as often, their content covers exciting and progressive breakthroughs in tech, such as solar powered cars, and tends to be widely consumed Articles analyzed: 212 Total Shares: 1,567,933 Average Shares: 7,396 Intel iQ allows the technology brand to post exciting content around fashion such as this incredible butterfly dress.
- 13. Get Instigated… Unlike Red Bull, Coca Cola’s publishing on journey feels more heavily branded (and perhaps this could be a barrier to some for consuming the content freely) Certain things do come across in their messaging, the brands global values are reflected in stories from all over the world Articles analyzed: 491 Total Shares: 626,832 Average Shares: 1,277 Journey does give them a place to document their consistent stream of amazing content moments
- 14. Get Instigated… P&G everyday is a great example of a branded content / lifestyle magazine from a leading FMCG brand The site has a membership scheme, and offer coupons for their products, as well as content that is current, such as their “Thank You, Mom” campaign for the Rio Olympics Articles analyzed: 468 Total Shares: 97,844 Average Shares: 209
- 15. Get Instigated… As earned media is increasing, brand publishing is also increasing
- 17. Get Instigated… Consumers are spending more time on digital and on digital a brand can engage them with more aspects of itself than on traditional media which is prohibitively expensive #1: Time spent on digital & power of story telling Vs commercial messaging
- 18. Get Instigated… For e.g. – Smirnoff Red 21 Would you choose to tell the fascinating story of Peter Smirnoff escaping Russia? Would you rather choose to tell the creation of Moscow Mule? Or Would you choose to only communicate the brand message of life is calling you On TV you might have to choose being in this category but on digital you don’t have to Note – the only thing is you have to make a good documentary or a TLC kind of way telling the Moscow Mule’s creation and not craft it like a commercial ad
- 20. Get Instigated… Search Social Social Discovery UNDERSTANDING CRISPLY THE AGE OF SOCIAL-DISCOVERY
- 23. Get Instigated… The Power of Like Share Path to Purchase Story about Peter Smirnoff Rahul (who does not drink) but loves the story as he likes adventure Riya is thinking of having a party at her house ends up buying Smirnoff after reading the article Neha reads it and likes and shares it with othersRaj reads it and likes and shares it with others In traditional media & SEARCH-ONLY era you have to identify and target a hot lead's P2P. In Social Discovery, you tell a story which people love and they spread it for it to magically conincide with the p2p of a few consumers.
- 24. Get Instigated… A consumer may use search to compare prices online, go to the store to “showroom” a product before buying it online, like and interact with a brand on Facebook, watch a tutorial on YouTube, and consult a much broader social graph for opinions. Or he might follow a combination of some or all of these paths to purchase - Non linear path to purchase It is virtually impossible and exorbitantly expensive for brands to identify each of the several influence points in this non linear p2p journey Publishing in the age of social discovery enables your brand to encounter and stumble upon the consumer at many points across this non linear P2P
- 25. Get Instigated… Some of the Successful Brand Publishers… {total and average share counts over the past twelve months (as of May 9th 2016) from BuzzSumo are included}
- 27. Get Instigated… Marketing can now move from being Cost centres to Profit centres through Content Marketing It may take some time to get it right, but branded content marketing hubs can provide return on investment (ROI)
- 28. Get Instigated… For Example – Red Bull They not only create TV shows, magazines, movies, books, music and more, but they also distribute their creations everywhere from newsstands, to theatres, TV, YouTube, mobile apps and the Web
- 29. Get Instigated… Success of Red Bull… They have sales teams throughout key cities in the U.S. and Europe, selling advertising spots to other big brands such as Nike, Casio, Dodge and Patagonia in the U.S., alone Created six years ago as a separate arm of the company to create ‘premium’ media, produces and sells high-end art and photography coffee table books, a yearly calendar, DVDs of adventurers exploring forests and fjords, and TV shows Red Bulletin lifestyle magazine has a circulation of more than 3.1 million per month globally, via newsstands and through newspapers They license their media to Discovery Channel, Netflix, Crackle, Nintendo “and many more,” They sell advertising and sponsorship packages for their 13-episode action sports TV series, broadcast by NBC, which also sells ads for the show
- 30. Get Instigated… Reasons for their success… • As a consumer brand they are enjoyed more for their entertainment and informational value – rather than just marketing • The ROI they get is a mixture of value, engagement and money • The shows they produce is not just content, but entertainment and information — what we would call media • They create more than 600 pieces of content every year • The content reaches the coveted and elusive young demographic across the globe (reason other advertisers pay for the exposure) • Though they feature their logo, they never showcase the product in any of the content • They pay close attention to the audiences they are reaching and discover content basis their needs and constantly trying to come up with content to engage with newer segment who our not their TG (women and older men)
- 32. Get Instigated… Brand as Publishers • Brand Publishing is changing your mind-set to put content at the forefront of your business, almost before the products or services that you sell • It is about engaging prospects and consumers with informative or entertaining content they’ll want to use or consume for its own sake, rather than pushing or interrupting them with direct sales or promotional messages • The idea is that you're able to build an engaged, loyal audience of value for your brand... an audience you can then monetize later • Obviously this is a commercial activity, just that the consumers have changed, so must the way to market it to them
- 33. Get Instigated… • Marketers were always known for people who will be on the expenses side of the company and not the income side as they would crack campaigns to create awareness which leads to spending • However through brand publishing now marketers can make money for the company even though it is a long term process as now it is not about ‘Campaigns’ but about ‘Content’ Brand as Publishers
- 35. Get Instigated… The marketer needs to make sure that the content is - Shareable As well as the benefits of gaining peer approval for your content, the social shares it attracts will also boost its search rankings Searchable Search engines reward sites that deliver regularly refreshed content of a high editorial quality. Whether it’s for education or entertainment, your content needs to deliver both quality and impact Supportive As a brand understanding users information needs and anticipating users questions and telling them things they didn’t know Specialist Your content must come from within your information niche – the intersection between your domain expertise and your users’ content needs and interestsSustainable You need a publishing process in place that allows you to generate ideas, populate an editorial calendar, and create relevant, effective content on a sustainable basis
- 36. Get Instigated… We need to build a community through our platform with like minded people who can share and posts their similar interests If our contents are passionate and of people’s interest, it will generate a lot of traffic onto our platform The reason being people will only come to your platform/website if they have the Passion, Interest and Purpose Thereby getting more views, shares, likes which will result into buying ad space on our platform from brands across categories Monetization
- 37. Get Instigated… Brand Publisher? A few Barriers WE Face Content Wireframe Approach Understanding Strategic Intent and crafting the platform approach
- 38. Get Instigated… Barriers you might face:
- 39. Get Instigated… Category Restrictions Partner-Brand Content Different segment level brands on 1 platform Content Creation Vs Instigating Content Creation The barriers & issues we need to navigate… Branded Platform
- 40. Branded Platform ‘Content that is too product- or brand-focused does not travel well digitally, whereas content that stands on its own merits as entertainment, storytelling, education will be shared and passed along.’ Online – where most of us live a lot of the time now – the way we interact with brands changes Big trigger for the online user is peer opinion. As social media shows us several million times a day, we’re much more likely to be pulled towards what our friends like than we are to respond to an old-fashioned commercial push So brands need to create content that’s worth sharing in its own right. Inevitably, such content tends not to work if it’s too brand-focused Therefore being a brand platform is a barrier, rather be a purpose based people’s platform & leverage our brands in it. The Purpose of the platform can be relaevant to the category and rooted / emanating from our brands
- 41. Category Restrictions However people centric content, around the purpose of each brand shall be a fantastic way to operate this platform while adhering to category restrictions and navigating away from any possible negativity or boredom/category fatigue. Some categories could have a few restrictions. Alcohol & other taboo categories can have regulatory restrictions, a detergent brand might have interest restrictions. Etc;. Here again brand purpose helps create a better content platform, rather than brand positioning. For example: Raymond’s complete man will lead only to a few brand positioning posts and lots of fashion posts. Where as UCB’s “we exist to help eliminate racism and bias fashionably” can help produce a lot of content that is very interesting to people. That kind of content can be shareworthy and easier to plug your brand and category into.
- 42. Partner-Brand Content Unless you are an iconic brand with no conflict, other brands with stature would not want to associate with you 1. The opportunity is for brands who cannot afford to be a publisher themselves would want to be leverage this trend 2. Therefore the platform has to be popular and have high viewership 3. Also the platform has to be iconic and have a large enough people centric purpose for it to attract other brand partners. 4. The content strategy, content wire frame and hence content buckets have to be crafted keeping this in mind. For e.g. Audi R8 and Airbnb – Airbnb has over 1,500,000 listings in 34,000 cities and 191 countries. They cater to modern, sophisticated, urban crowd who are adventerous. The Air BnB is also a younger vrowd. Audi is a reputed, premium brand in the world and Audi R8 is an award winning car. Association with Air BnB makes them an experiential brand which is cooler and appeals to a younger adventerous mind set of consumers too. Therefore Airbnb is getting a stature by associating itself to such an iconic, premium brand and Audi R8 is appealing to this young, modern, urban crowd all over the world
- 43. Different segment level brands on 1 platform If you are an organization with multiple brands across economic segments, then the task gets even more complex. For Example a USL / Diageo has brands from McDowell’s No 1 to Johnnie Walker. Can all these brands be housed on one platform. Definitely not. Some a call needs to be taken about which segments can be housed. So mass market to premium brands can be housed under one platform. Also important to up-image lower segment brands, in order to not pull-down the imagery of your more premium brands. For Example McDowell’s No 1 might pull down the imagery of a Captain Morgan. This can be countered by insightfully up-imaging content around MCD No1. MCD No ! Could be a nostalgia brand for current middle aged men (as it could be a college drink) – one can dial that up. Another thing about lower economy brands is quite often there is a rustic appeal to them, that can be used to create up-imaged content around them. Example: MCD No1 Popsicles– perfect way to kick start a party. MCD will retain its ’strong’ whiskey hues and also appeal to premium consumers. However again a common purpose helps us get away with this. “Platform Purpose for an alcohol brand: Party Central . Com – how to organize and have fun and be responsible while partying”. Again a common platform purpose cuts beyond segments and imagery barriers and creates an iconic platform that different brands can participate in.
- 44. Get Instigated… Content Creation Vs Instigating Content Creation Content creation can be very very expensive. The two strategic considerations to be kept in mind to avoid falling into the content cost trap and either abandoning the platform creation exercise altogether or realizing this disastrously mid-way. (1) Co-Creation is key. You need to have a content wire frame, which looks at a major chunk of your content coming from your consumers and sometimes even your partners and employees. Insightfully figuring what exactly can trigger this content creation amongst your consumers is something that needs to be planned well in advance. (2) Sustainability. Monetary sustainability is extremely important, as the initial enthusiasm fades, the central kitty dries up. Hence all the participating brands product portfolio needs to contribute monetarily. For that to happen understanding each of the sub-brands annual marketing calendar needs, behaviour changes needs is essential. This brand neutral platform needs to accomplish specific behaviour change tasks for individual brands. It should be run like a magazine, which charges its clients for effective content campaigns. NOTE: Unilever’s BeBeautiful & Kaan Khajura actually have been victims of content cost. Look to BabyCenter.Com, Red Bull etc; for better sustainability learnings.
- 48. Get Instigated… Platform Popularity Monetization Media Buying/Planning We need to Identify a list of – • No conflict brands • Understanding their marketing needs • Pitching content ideas to them • Wolfzhowl can partner client in doing the same and also for any brands which might approach us. • One should ask their strategic partners to help them pitch. Sudddenly you also need to think of yourselves as a media publication which contacts media planning and buying agencies and brand directly for space selling, AFP’s etc;
- 49. Get Instigated… Platform Popularity Monetization Media Buying/Planning • Brand Integration • Advertising Funded Content • Advertorials • Ads • Coming up with content which is paid for by the end viewers • Etc;
- 50. Get Instigated… After the bigger problems are solved by cracking a Purpose we need to make sure that it becomes a success. The above mentioned buckets will be the fuel we need to run our platform to success .
- 51. Get Instigated… These are the Barriers which are on top of our mind and are the most important ones which needs attention before we have the platform set…
- 52. Get Instigated… Brand Publisher? A few Barriers WE Face Content Wireframe Approach Understanding Strategic Intent and crafting the platform approach
- 58. Get Instigated… ‘Celebrating bonds of brotherhood’ ‘Inspiring people to live bold’ ‘Inspiring people to pursue their passion and make your mark’ ‘We are Open and Inclusive’ ‘Take life a little lightly’‘Life is in a pause and enjoy a easy evening’ ‘Inspiring personal progress’
- 59. Get Instigated… Create an overall ‘Purpose’ for the platform (people centric – passion, interest and purpose)
- 60. Get Instigated… A Common Purpose for the platform where all the brands can without conflict participate under ‘One Platform Purpose’
- 61. Get Instigated… The approach to generating the platform purpose
- 63. Get Instigated… Brand Publisher? A few Barriers WE Face Content Wireframe Approach Understanding Strategic Intent and crafting the platform approach
- 66. Get Instigated… Brand Purpose, Values & Personality Brand Core Strategic Task & the Annual Marketing Calendar People Interests 1. Brand Purpose Can help create a lot of good content better than positioning. Example: Dove, Whisper etc; 2. Brand Values: Act as guidelines of what kind of content you can do and cant do. This leads to your platform’s digital behavioral code. 3. Brand Personality: Gives the textual and visual narrative which ensures that content does not become generic and has a string sublimal tie-in back to your brand. ACT as content ideas generation engine, guidelines manual and own ability creator.
- 70. Get Instigated… Example (3) : Marico – HairSutras.Com Marketing Issue: Millennials feel the entire act of oiling itself is boring and fuddy-duddy. There is a strategic need to up-grade the image of oiling process and not just consumption. Content Solution: The Millennial is far more friendly with her parents (because the parents now are more understanding and friendly), Infact the mother-daughter bonding is higher again (unlike in the case of Gen X – where the kids were more of rebels). However in her rushed life they hardly have occasions to catch-up. Can we tell a story of how in the olden days, mother’s and daughters used to exchange life notes, grooming tips, talk about taboo topics, sing hymns over a long hair care ritual involving shikhakai, oil and lobhan. Can we create a ritual pack and tell a story of mothers and daughter catching up on several sensitive issues of the society?
- 71. Get Instigated… Brand Purpose, Values & Personality Brand Core Strategic Task & the Annual Marketing Calendar People Interests 1. Persona Creation 2. Digital Analytics 3. Social Listening 4. Trend Leveraging 5. Existing Qualitative Research on consumer segments with life insights and not just consumer insights 6. Myths and legends around the category/brand 7. Etc; Mine these to plug your brand in and create people interest stories.