Content marketing best practice: three examples
We’ve worked with a number of companies on their content marketing activities and can see the real value they bring to the business. Audiences have become harder to reach and less receptive to traditional advertising.
This is where content marketing plays such a pivotal role in providing benefit-driven, informative, educational or practical content to connect with consumers. Whether your content strategy includes owned or earned content, or content created by media partners, one of the golden rules is to ensure that enhanced activation tactics are used to maximise your reach and efforts. After all, great content is only valuable if people can easily access it.
So who are the content marketing winners and losers? I’ve put together a selection of some examples and my thoughts on whether they work for the respective brands involved.
Colgate
Colgate provides an online Oral and Dental Health Resource centre with videos, interactive guides, and over 400 articles.
Why it works
The Colgate site is an informative guide to dental care along with helpful tips on keeping your teeth healthy. As a result, the site is educational whilst also offering a portal linking back to the purchase of its own products.
Where can it go next?
Expanding the reach of the content, perhaps on mobile through QR codes printed onto packaging, would provide consumers with access to information at the point of making a purchasing decision.
Any issues
Some of the content has originated from Colgate, but the site is not afraid to lean on relevant sources of information from other sites.
As long as Colgate continues to promote dental health through the use of tips in this informative manner, its content platform will cement Colgate’s reputation as a market leader and the go-to site for advice on oral health.
Secret deodorant
Secret is a Procter and Gamble (P&G) deodorant brand, which launched a highly successful campaign focused around anti-bullying under the tagline ‘mean stinks’
Why it works
Secret is aimed at teenage girls and the campaign was based on research that one of the issues often facing this demographic is bullying. Mobile adverts for Secret incorporated related content from social media sites to support the brand’s anti-bullying message.
A dedicated mean stinks site was developed that curated positive messages from Twitter and Instagram supporting teen girls who are dealing with bullying.
The campaign also made innovative use of Facebook and created a ‘Good Graffiti’ app that allowed fans to pass along positive messages to friends. The page also included a referral page for counselling centres, a shop selling anti-bullying slogan t-shirts and links to Facebook commerce sales for Secret and other P&G products.
Where can it go next?
The campaign has already expanded to include publicity tie-ins in the form of Glee star Amber Riley.
Any issues
Brands can often fall foul when associating themselves with campaigns as consumers can be quite cynical. However, the anti-bullying message and the support that Secret is giving to this subject would be hard to criticise.
Extending the campaign to a celebrity ambassador can go wrong, particularly if that celebrity acts in a way that would conflict with their ambassadorial role, so Secret would be well advised to ensure that the content remains king.
Volkswagen Beetle
As part of a campaign to promote the VW Beetle, Volkswagen invested in a music series on Channel 4 called Abbey Road Studios: In Session with Volkswagen Beetle.
Why it works
With the Beatles being one of the most famous bands to have recorded at Abbey Road Studios and the fact that the original Beetle graced the cover of the bands ‘Abbey Road’ album, the association is understandable.
Social media activity was also included as part of the integrated campaign. This included activity on Spotify where users were asked to add tracks to a VW Beetle iconic tracks playlist for the chance to win a ticket to a session with Paul Weller. It was supported through advertising on both Facebook and Spotify. Short-form video content was also hosted online.
Any issues
Rather than just sponsoring a music show, VW became the creators of the content and ensured they amplified their association through all the channels available to them. The only issue I can see would be the choice of artists they have on the show.
People have varied tastes and a certain act might not fit the demographic of a typical VW Beetle purchaser. Having insights into which music acts are trending for the given target audience could have helped in the selection process.
Where can it go next?
If Volkswagen wanted to extend the campaign online, they could create a music site featuring interviews and videos of artists from the suggestions participants to the Spotify competition made. Adverts featuring the VW Beetle could also have a peel-back mechanism similar to that employed by Secret, which could lead to the music site.
It’s also worth pointing out that I omitted the inclusion of the Red Bull Stratos jump because it has already been extensively covered in the media as it is considered to be one of the best examples of content marketing.
From looking at the examples above, there are clearly lessons to be learnt such as finding a common theme that appeals to your target audience in terms of their interests. And the golden rule? Make sure that when you have created great content, it is easily shareable.
Have you seen any great examples of content marketing? Feel free to share them in the comments.
