Yo!
Seen any good content lately? No? Interesting how labelling something as content makes you shift your frame of reference away from thinking about a good movie, book or music video and makes you consider boring stuff instead. But good marketing stuff is actually great story-telling. P&G’s company-owned serials – the original ‘soap operas’ Guiding Light and ‘As the World Turns’ ran for 72 years and 54 years respectively in the US closing only in 2009 and 2010, and were meant to showcase brand messaging. The Barbie movies are another example of a product becoming content. Somewhere along the way we marketers lost the plot – or perhaps did not have the budget – and started selling rather than telling the brand story.
Digital media has brought back the opportunity for brands to create interesting content for a larger audience on a smaller budget. The big difference is that while the soaps of old were targeting the average consumer, today’s marketers can and do target individuals. On the one hand this gives us the opportunity to create stories that are relevant to an audience of one, while on the other hand the individual may be unable to distinguish what is ‘paid’ content versus ‘editorial’ vetted by a neutral party. In countries like India where we have no formal policies on how to call out such paid-for brand content, the matter is even more complicated. And as marketing to individuals becomes the norm, so does the desire for ‘advocacy‘ – your customers and employees sharing your stories on a personal level with their networks.
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