Something I wrote last year on content planning> 'Content that POPS' is a planning approach for helping participation brands navigate the world of content. It uses the planning principles of Purpose, Originality, Participation and Storytelling to guide the development of content planning for modern Participation Brands.

1. Introducing Content that POPS:
Helping participation brands navigate the world of content
V1.0, May 2014
Introduction
Content that POPS is our planning approach for helping participation brands navigate the
world of content. It uses the principles of Purpose, Originality, Participation and Storytelling
to guide the development of Participation Brands. It covers content planning, best practice
and 21st century content craft.
What is Content that POPS?
‘That pops’ is a phrase experienced photojournalists use to describe the one image out of a
thousand that beat the edit. The one that is instinctively memorable. That has an innate
quality to it. A survival instinct. A performing character. The one image that converted in an
instant.
Content that POPS is content that pays.
Content that’s arresting. Jarring even. Has a strong and distinctive voice. That is true to
itself. Transcending both ’epic and intimate’. Content that quite simply pops.
Unfortunately, there is no ‘press here to create an epic brand content strategy’ button. It
requires vision, extraordinary creativity and hard work.
Content that POPS is our approach to helping clients along this journey. Helping them
navigate the strategy, learn the language of publishing and meet the challenges of making
content work in the 21st
century.

2. So, there are four guiding principles to Content that POPS:
1. Content with real Purpose
What is your why? What is your passionate purpose? What is the catalyst for your
business? Why will your audience care about your content?
Content with real purpose is content with intent. That can appeal to both the head and the
heart. Content with purpose has sharper, longer signals. Purposeful content has an innate
meaning that can build over time. Helping to shape a consistent brand narrative that can
grow in new and different directions.
Your ‘purpose’ checklist:
1. What is your passionate purpose?
2. Is there an associated cause you can rally behind?
3. What really matters to your audience?
4. Where does your purpose fit in culture?
5. How can you demonstrate leadership with purpose?
Examples of purpose in action:
• Chipotle – selling fast food based on ethics
• Amex SBS – using reciprocity to bring life back to the high street
• Obama - fuelling a change agenda you can believe in
• Toms – selling shoes with social purpose
2. Original content that earns attention
Is your content really good enough to earn attention? Is it unexpected? Is it born from
editorial craftsmanship?
There is no place for ordinary content anymore. For content to earn consumer attention
demands extraordinary ideas and editorial flair. That right blend of idea and production that
makes something truly remarkable and captivating. Original content is the new currency of
post digital marketing. Taking fresh approaches to tired topics and finding imaginative
ways to create relevance for customers and consumers.
Your ‘original’ checklist:
1. What content pillars have the potential for disruption?

3. 2. How can you serve your audience better?
3. What does remarkable look like in your category?
4. What quality thresholds are you trying to reach and willing to tolerate?
5. How could you collaborate with unexpected partners?
Examples of original content in action:
• Beldent – use an art experiment to promote a brands uniqueness
• Dove – celebrate real beauty with real people
• MINI – mine brand relationships to celebrate character
• Go Pro – knit stellar user generated content to foster awesomeness
• General Electric – bring imagination to boring machines
3. Content that inspires Participation
Content is fuel for powerful participation. The kind of behavior that transforms your
branded content from something you consume into an experience you want to get involved
in. The kind of participation that can move between epic and intimate – from micro
participation to movements that change the world.
Participation works in different ways and comes in many shapes – from Skimmers, Dippers
to Divers. How can you use the right participation triggers to appeal to different levels of
participation? Making sure there are no dead ends in your content. That the content is the
start, not the end of the journey. Helping to layer content both vertically and horizontally
across the customer experience.
Your ‘participation’ checklist:
1. How can your content inspire genuine involvement?
2. How can you allow for lean forward and lean back moments?
3. How can you create activist agendas for Divers?
4. How can you aggregate participation to augment your story?
5. How can you use the context of participation to inspire your content?
Examples of Participation content in action:
• AT&T Summer Break – harnessing the audience to fuel the storyline
• General Electric – finding nerdy micro communities to drive Diver activations
• L’Oreal ‘Girl with The Big Eyes’ – content according to participation levels
• Honda Project Drive – match purpose with context to trigger participation

4. 4. Extraordinary storytelling
Without storytelling craft branded content is wallpaper. Brands need to work hard to be
storytellers. It doesn’t come naturally. There needs to be a cohesive narrative that can
unfold across many disparate places and in many forms. 21st
century storytelling is about
working in networks. Creating content that can jump tracks into new networks of influence.
Using extraordinary storytelling techniques to knit content together. Understanding how to
build anticipation, earn an audience and find new characters for old chapters.
Your ‘storytelling’ checklist:
1. What are the extraordinary dimensions in which you can deliver your story?
2. Can your audience influence the storyline?
3. How can you collaborate with partners to tell new stories?
4. How immersive can you make your story world?
5. What is the context in which the story is being told?
Examples of extraordinary storytelling in action:
• Vice – reinventing the news category
• Intel & Toshiba – immersive brand storytelling
• Fort McMoney – make a documentary playable
• IBM ‘A boy and his atom’ – use extraordinary footage to tell a story
• Patagonia – an example of when the world yings, you yang
Building a world that POPS

5. When navigating content it’s easy to get lost in formats, mechanics and tactics.
We have baselined four simple archetypes of content for marketers to consider when
planning. Each content archetype can blend and overlap with each other, but each has a
distinctive character and role that can set it apart in the planning process.
Content you EXPERIENCE
Content you experience is content designed to achieve a visceral brand connection. It’s
about making emotional invitations that people can identify with. Sustaining stories that
can bring consumers into your brand world, from a soaring piece of entertainment to a
simple tweet that provokes curiosity. Content you experience is about establishing
immediacy and a deep connection with the consumer.
What form does it take?
Content you experience tends to be high impact, visual and provocative. Content formats
typically used for this archetype:
• Brand viral film
• Brand film
• Experiential/stunt
• Social activation
• Physical & digital mash ups
Examples of EXPERIENCE content in action:
• Dodge Ram ‘I am a farmer’ – epic brand storytelling
• Carrie - pull a scary prank to promote a movie refresh
• TNT Push the Red Button – combine experiential and drama
• Doritos – fast social content that riffs on cultural themes
• Guinness ‘Sapeurs’ – adopt a cultural icon to weave brand stories
Content for the JOURNEY
Content that nudges customers or prospects through a buying lifecycle. Using known
triggers, states and occasions to serve up fresh content to sustain profitable relationships.
This is the lion share of content marketing and can take many forms: from lead generation
to relationship management. This is about using data to help map content ideas to specific
moments where content can make a difference in the journey.

6. What form does it take?
Content for the journey tends to be anchored in customer relationship programs – using
data to help make content hyper relevant to drive action. This is content that is governed
around both pull and push formats, targeting and the economics of digital marketing.
Content formats typically used for this archetype:
• Email newsletters
• Personalised video
• Ebooks
• Webinars
• Long/short form articles
• Short form social video
Examples of JOURNEY content in action:
• Innocent – brand engagement at every point of the journey
• Kraft – using search to target content to anticipate every occasion
• Lowe Vine Tips – making utility entertaining whilst meeting customer needs
• Hubspot – using content marketing to sell content marketing services
• Farmers Insurance – using entertainment to deliver boring information
Content that is Product
Content that can enhance and augment your product through content. Or, like Red Bull,
become the product itself. How can you solve a user problem or treat a customer with an
experience? This is about thinking how content can add value, be useful and become more
relevant in the lives of consumers.
What form does it take?
Content that is product tends to be at two very different spectrums – utility or
entertainment. Using deep content propositions that can move the brand to new spaces to
deliver enhanced value for the user. Anything from high investment branded entertainment
formats to niche utility apps that can solve customer problems. Content formats that
typically fit this archetype:
• Mobile apps
• Online games
• TV web shows
• Brand funded entertainment
• Services/forums
Examples of PRODUCT content in action:

7. • Nike SB App – a branded utility app that helps you skate better
• iGaranti App - a FS branded utility that is actually smart
• Epic Mix – gamifying snow experiences through content
• Red Bull – a media business that happens to sell soft drinks
Content for the COMMUNITY
Content for the community is content that is crafted to inspire a community of activists.
The social web is fuelled by Skimmer, Dippers and Divers, but it is the 1% of fans who will
engage on your behalf. Those Divers that will camp on the pavement all night. Your content
needs to inspire extreme brand activism. Getting Divers to participate in behind the scenes
and get privileged access to new spaces.
What form does it take?
Content for the community can range between simple flow content to carefully constructed
stock content created just for advocates. Content formats that fit this archetype:
• Posts, Tweets, Pins, Vines, Grams, Check ins
• Influencer collaborations
• Blog posts
• Long form content
• VIP Events
Examples:
• ASOS Insiders club – creating privileged access for top customers
• HBO Games of Thrones – appealing to super fans to co-create content
• Hootsuite – creating HootUps for power users
• IBM – using employees to build thought leadership programs
21st
century content craft
At iris we have our own toolbox of 21st
century content planning tools:

8. 1. Deploy your passionate
purpose
Finding and deploying a brands
passionate purpose is fundamental to
the success of any content strategy.
The essence of what you stand for
and the reason why your audience
might care will inform everything
from tone, storylines to production
values.
2. Decide on your objectives
What do you want to achieve with
your content? How does it fit with
your wider marketing strategy?
Gearing content to work for different
goals demands different tactics and
approaches. So establishing this early
on will help disappointment in the
future.
3. Audit your inventory
For most brands realizing your gaps
and opportunities will help inform a
robust content strategy. Mapping
existing content to simple content
archetypes and scoring against the
principles of POPS will find gaps,
opportunities and new spaces.
4. Find your editorial
sweetspot
By overlapping brand priorities,
audience interests and conversation
trends we can help identify spaces
and topics to take the brand into.
Finding content opportunities to
create new relevance and fresh
interest. Look for stretch topics and
home runs.

9. 5. Plan for participation
We know participation is unequal on
the web. Think about how different
participation triggers can be designed
for Skimmers, Dippers and Divers.
How you can inspire activist agendas
and make it easy for Skimmers to
come into your world.
6. Find your tactical blend
Creating original content is not the
only strategic option available. Be
sure to consider curation, co-creation,
sponsored and UGC options. Some of
the best content marketing relies on
smart, high quality curation and co-
creation strategies.
7. Plan your content rhythms
Planning for different content
rhythms helps when thinking about
‘always on’ platforms vs. set piece
marketing campaign activity and
where they crossover. Thinking about
how you can plan ‘flow’ content for
feeds and streams at a Hum level and
higher value ‘stock’ content for Sing
or Shout activations. Make sure you
have a content calendar that maps all
your content pillars, to platform and
goals.
8. Organise your content cycle
Successful content programs depend
on operations that can source,
produce, distribute and promote
content at speed. Making sure
enough focus is spent on distribution
and promotion is absolutely essential.
Your content cycle will help drive
efficiencies in ‘atomising’ content –
finding lots of ways to extract
additional value from your assets.

10. 9. Plan for real time
We know how content, social and real
time is both an opportunity and a
headache. Using a workflow to take
advantage of real time opportunities
is critical. Making sure that analytics,
creative, community management
and paid work together to realise
Urgent Genius moments.
10. Choose your ecosystem
partners
Content marketing is an increasingly
automated strategy. Software
vendors can help with a range of
tasks: targeting, creation, distribution,
workflow, promotion and analytics.
Choosing the right partners early on
can help set the tone for your
strategy.
11. Evolve your content
strategy
Content strategy doesn’t stand still.
Depending on your starting point
there are fundamental steps to take
to ensure your content strategy is up
to date e.g. refreshing personas,
auditing platforms, mapping editorial
agendas, sourcing content partners.
Making sure that sufficient resources
are allocated upstream and
downstream to help transition to full
brand publisher mode.

11. 12. Content ideation checks
Think about how sharing triggers,
emotional states and user needs can
overlap when designing your content.
Not all content archetypes should be
shareworthy. Sources like Unruly are
good references to plot psychological
responses and social motivations to
content ideas.
13. Monitor and iterate
Understanding which elements of
your content marketing strategy
works is fundamental to ongoing
success. What test programs can you
build in? Which pillars or formats
drive the best traffic? Which insights
deliver the best engagement?
Thinking how agile you can be with
your content investment model is
critical e.g. using 70/20/10 as
guiding model.