In 2020, I launched a new digital consultancy, NextNow Digital. All of my new ideas and insights can be found at the new site. The Digital Influence Mapping Project has been a labor of love since I started it in 2005. This blog may continue to live on in some form or another.
For now, visit NextNow Digital Insights & Ideas. You will find fresh POVs on digital marketing and transformation to help startups, small and mid-size businesses, as well as continued thoughts for enterprise marketers.
Content marketing remains a critical strategy for brands eager to earn the attention and interest of customers – ones they already have and those they seek to attract. It’s different than advertising messages but is just as high-tech and data-driven.
Since content sits at the heart of a lot of the marketing that I plan, I am heading off to Content Marketing World on September 5th – 8th in Cleveland (home of Bonin Bough's Cleveland Hustles) to learn from many of the smart people attending and speaking. I will have my own session on how we use data-driven, integrated content marketing to drive business impact. I plan to share what we have learned putting content marketing to work in a large enterprise.
If you go, connect with me via Twitter – @jbell99 . I would love to compare notes on enterprise-level content marketing. Here are some of the sessions I am looking forward to (I hope I can get to most!):
The Messaging Science behind Customer Acquisition and Customer Renewal Messaging
Sounds like I will get a good dose of sales ‘behavioral economics.’ And Tim Riesterer (@TRiesterer ) appears to be a very smart guy in this space.
Content ROI – How Marketers Demonstrate Value to the Brand and the Boss (a panel)
Connecting the business value for content marketing is not as simple as ‘how much did it sell.’ While that is important, I am looking forward to hearing what this panel including Jenifer Walsh/GE (@jlansky) and Laura Cameron/Key Bank (@lcameron80) have to say in terms of communicating value within an organization.
Driving Content Marketing Success in Your Organization: Sales, Product and Global-Regional Collaboration
This session is marked for the “Beginner” yet, even still, I am guessing that Jillian Hillard/Electrolux (@jillianhillard) will offer some good tips on how she engages others like product people in content marketing.
Machine-Assisted Narrative: How to Transform and Scale Your B2B Content with Artificial Intelligence
Okay, I know it’s early days yet for applying machine learning and AI to content but we are doing it now on the customer service side and I am keen to see how Paul Roetzer (@paulroetzer) sees the immediate future.
Time to Leave the Lead-Gated PDF Behind: How More Engaging Content Can Transform Your Lead Gen and Accelerate Growth
This may sound a little tactical but I am hoping that Aaron Dun (@ajdun) can deliver some insights that get us beyond the “whitepaper.”
Also eager to hear:
Matthew Glick/Marriott (@matthewglick123) – these guys do some interesting things
Matt Heinz (@HeinzMarketing) – I hear this company is smart in this space
Scott Monty/Brain +Trust Partners (@scottmonty) – always good to connect with Scott
Lee Odden/Top Rank Marketing (@leeodden) – a very smart consultant
Travelers publishes hundreds of articles, videos and visuals to engage consumers and business leaders at different points along their buyer journey. This fuel for integrated marketing programs attracts customers before they are even ready to shop for insurance. This session will cover building belief in data-driven content, integrating an editorial team inside marketing, and how we pulled it all together inside the Travelers Engagement Center – a new approach to digital marketing.
Reading the marketing trades online, one would get the sense that every brand has gotten wise to the value of content marketing and is busy shifting budget dollars from ineffective display or interruptive advertising to juicy content. But attend a few marketing events where brands are presenting their progress or even their commitment to this area and you quickly see things are moving more slowly.
Working inside brands is a process. There are few lightning strikes of wisdom that shift behavior overnight. Rather a steady effort of communicating the benefits – and addressing the risks – of new marketing approaches may take hold over time. That means the sales pitch for content marketing is never done. Here is a compilation of what I find the most compelling reason to shift dollars and expertise to content marketing from some other marketing practices (those we do automatically, less because they prove themselves more effective).
Customers (B2B, B2C) research their purchase decisions online before, during and after the purchase and/or interaction with the brand.
Buyers go to Google before they know your product or service solves a problem they are researching. That’s the opportunity to get in front of them and earn their attention. A new report from Blue Nile adds some color to these behaviors:
“The ease of access to information in the Internet economy means buyers are fully prepared to leverage all channels available to them and more than 70% (76% B2B) use three channels or more when researching a purchase. 45% of buyers (46% B2B) want data and stats to help them make a buying decision, more than any other content type”
Great search results will always favor highly relevant content
While Google alters its algorithm seemingly all of the time, causing most brands to invest in persistent efforts to understand these laws and strengthen their results, the theme of good results remains consistent. Content others authentically share and link-to rise to the top. Fresh content and even longer content seem to do well. If all you provide is content that describes what you sell, you can dominate on brand searches. If you provide highly relevant content on broader topics that garner more interest – business problems and solutions, for example – then there is a greater opportunity for you to connect with buyers. Check out Neil Patel’s summary of some of the more recent history of organic search that affects brands.
Native advertising works and requires user-valued content & content marketing discipline
Banner advertising is a disappointment. Ad blockers are a threat. For brands who want to work with media properties or even ad networks to reach specific audiences, the remedy to this deterioration is partly found in native content. Partnering with a great content property like Businessweek or CNET, for example, means access to a great audience. But it requires brands to get behind creating strong user-valued content. That is a different skill set than designing a package of banners. Just take a look at these videos – including this one on creating a dog washing station - inside the Instructables Web site for Moen. My experience has been that great native content cannot be completely outsourced to a partner. It requires the brand to think and apply value like a content marketer.
Brands can realize efficiencies creating user-valued content for both their sales and marketing efforts
Content that helps buyers make great business and even purchase decisions has a place both in the hands of a salesforce and via direct online channels. The explainer videos on tough subjects like Nonprofit Directors & Officers Liability (if you serve on a board, you should care about this) are valuable, relationship-builders than can move a customer towards a purchase. When a salesperson (independent agent) shares that content, she strengthens her trusted advisor role. When the brand shares via digital channels, it aims to help buyers make more informed choices and earn perefence. Using content for both channels can be more efficient.
Buyers are increasingly demanding video and rich-media content (not ads) to help or delight them
People are consuming a lot more video online and via mobile. That’s an irrefutable trend. Interestingly, that same Blue Nile study revealed, “B2B buyers actually preferred video at a greater rate than B2C.” As soon as you acknowledge this trend and embrace the challenge of delivering valuable video, you require a new of content marketing skills. TV spots generally don’t do it. Even the wonderfully emotional John Lewis holiday spot is pure delight and entertainment. It’s more than a TV commercial. Brands who want to achieve a marketing result via video, need to think about how to make that content useful and/or desirable in some way.
What are your compelling reasons for investing in content marketing.
Remember when the term “new media’ referred to CD-ROMs and such. I made quite of few of those and remember the term being applied to this new form of interactive media. A few chapters later – the Internet, social media and the shrinking newspaper industry – and new media can be applied to those media companies that are transforming.
I remain sensitive to the pain of news media businesses – especially those that grew up inside newspapers. Still, I am excited about new models of journalism that are coming out of all that. Following Neiman Lab helps in discovering many of these new trends and experiments. I see quite a few media and journalism companies creating new, valuable experiences that transcend the very platforms they deliver on.
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service does 3 things that really energize me and make me genuinely curious to tune in, follow and access online.
Outside Source w/Ros Atkins
I love the pace, the social-connectivity and the global reach of the morning (ET USA) Outside Source radio show that I listen to most days. First off, the hosts (Ros Atkins is my favorite) run the program like fast paced jockeys – pulling in reporters from the World Newsroom (above), interviewing people – regular people – on the ground in Gaza, Edinburgh or Iraq, and moving quickly between sources. As the program name suggests, they are trying to curate and expose us to many sources of information. The bias of the non-reporters shine through but that only makes the program richer. This caters to my ADD-like brain.
They connect very closely with social media. Ros is frequently driving people to individual reporters’ Twitter feeds, pulling off a report from Twitter and driving folks to get more information online. This inter-connectivity is not forced. It is natural. I started with radio and am now connected online with @BBCRosAtkins and @BBCOS.
A team of folks at BBC World Service comb through trending topics in social media and build stories (#BBCTrending). Their radio story about the Lady Alba videos supporting #YesScotland drove me online to learn more. Sure, sometimes it seems as they are late to the party. I had seen the Spiderdog videos a few weeks prior but BBC Trending told us more about the polish creator of this and other provocative video series (like the creepy Slender Man).
While this practice of mining social media for stories may seem mundane in today’s world, I rarely see it as a built-in practice for news programs originating in other media. BBC Trending just does a great job. They have their ‘trend journos/hunters’ actually tell the stories during the radio program. Sure, their web site is dated but they probably suffer from the same IT-stranglehold that many big organizations suffer from.
A pair of reporters are driving across the US as we speak to capture and tell the stories of the mass of people who actually live in the ‘fly-over states’ that make up the heart of our country. I don’t care if it’s a bit “stunty.” I love road trips. I love grassroots storytelling. I love the town hall they held in Boulder, Colorado to ask people form the community what stories they ought to tell.
BBC video journalists Matt Danzico and Benjamin Zand are also telling their stories on Tumblr. And that blog looks like it will be gorgeous as they accumulate stories. This effort stems from the BBC Video Innovation Lab. Here’s a bit of why they chose to go on the road to Boulder:
“In the 21st Century, creating video for television from cities like Washington, New York and/or Los Angeles is definitely an effective way of reaching traditional media consumers in those markets. But if you’re also trying to reach younger generations in Colorado, for instance, why not create gripping video from the state that’s of interest to a global audience?
And now you’ve not only provided interesting programming to your traditional audience but you have also sparked the interest of an entirely new community as well.
Do that for one month at a time. Post your videos to local social media. Move cities. Repeat.
Yes, BBC News has 44 foreign bureaus in a heap of cities around the world. But the world has nearly 3,000 cities with a population over 150k. So why not create a mobile bureau that can embed itself in a community and then relocate easily?”
Like I said, I love a good road trip. And I love interesting storytelling from people who seem so genuinely curious about the world.
People question the ethics of advertisers creating content and putting it alongside editorially-driven content (see AdAge article). Journalists turn their noses up at native articles produced by writers in their own media company (see this thoughtful article from David Weinberger). Talk show hosts lampoon the concept (see John Oliver's bit here). Advertisers question the efficacy of ads that aren’t hard-sell conversion machines (good Copyblogger POV).
With so much head-shaking and head-scratching, how could I possibly consider native advertising a force for good?
First off, not all native ad formats/style are good. Any tool can be mis-used. And not all native advertising is the same. There are three types of native advertising in my book:
Publisher-hosted content, e.g. native articles
Forbes, USA Today, Businessweek, Atlantic are all offering some type of content creation and/or publishing service that puts brand content near editorial content (see the IBM example from Forbes).
As with so many things, the devil is in the details. The quality of these solutions has everything to do with the value the content provides to readers, how well aligned the content is to the audience of the publication and the final, most contested issue, how the content is labeled to distinguish it from editorial content.
The NYTimes recently got criticized for "toning down" some of the labeling rules they had developed. Much ado about nothing, IMHO. Advertiser-controlled content needs to be labeled simply and clearly. “Sponsored content” seems like a perfectly good label as is the notion of "BrandVoice" that Forbes uses. Then it needs to be delivered adjacent to editorial headlines. Not in some special box off to the side that just screams “ignore me.” Readers are smart. They see sponsored search links in Google, sponsored tweets in Twitter, sponsored posts in the newsfeed of Facebook and LinkedIn.
Context-driven ad networks
Networks like Taboola and Nativo run advertiser-controlled articles or headlines across multiple editorial sites. These are delivered adjacent to relevant content.
Content-driven advertising
Technically this is not native advertising by most people’s definition. When an advertiser puts excerpts of the white paper in a banner or rich media ad unit presumably driving click-throughs to a deeper dive on the content, they are delivering content via the ad channel. With contextual and audience targeting, the net result is similar to the promise of native advertising – useful, relevant content delivered to people who value it (and know it comes from company x).
Why is this Good?
Done well, native advertising delivers useful, relevant and valuable content to the right people. For advertisers to succeed, they must work hard to develop the strongest content that quite literally competes for the attention of readers eager to consume great content. Self-serving ‘articles as ads’ won’t measure up.
Advertisers must invest in knowing the needs and interests of their customers and prospects – outside of the actual buying moment. This drives content that helps solve a business or personal problem but may not be geared to trigger a sale.
Sure, plenty are doing it badly – weak points of view, thinly veiled sales messages, poor writing. But brands are getting better at providing valuable content that support customer’s needs along the entire journey, not simply the purchase-decision moment.
Well-done native advertising is one more positive influence on advertisers to create more customer value to earn attention and action. It can be a force for good.
Yup, they’re back (The Constellations, above, are a great band in the service). Many in the trades will get snarky about
the rising from the ashes of the flameout social network that lost its way. In
the apparent triumph of Facebook as the primary social plumbing of our lives,
they might be right. Many more will criticize the celebrity backing of Justin
Timberlake as a hail-mary pass of brand beyond hope.
I don’t think MySpace should be mistaken for Twinkies. That
product brand is part of our history but hopelessly out of step with our healthful
present. The New MySpace (I shall call it the “New MySpace” for about a year
and then we can go back to just saying “MySpace”) is trying to be something new
while at the same time getting back to its knitting – music.
Beta Beta
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot that’s messed up here.
While wonderfully visual (I love the big type in the search function), the
interface is a messy work-in-progress. Still, I give them credit for trying to
mesh the big picture-swipes of the tablet world with an almost simple dashboard
design.
Building a playlist that is a mix of songs, videos and full
albums is do-able. The significance of what are “Connections” is not clear.
That is the primary activity like Facebook’s “Like” or Twitter’s “Follow.” I
can Connect with another user by also with any type of media. I got tired
connecting to all the Nick Cave songs displayed. Unfortunately, no matter what
or who I connected to, nothing ever appeared in my stream. Then I realized the
interesting user experience twist – it’s all based upon a horizontal scroll.
Clearly a way to distinguish from Facebook but also connect to the horizontal
scroll/swipe of iTunes and many tablet functions including our own Web site at
Social@Ogilvy.
Music Fans First
Upon registering, you will be asked to self-identify to a
stack of creative titles (or the ubiquitous “fan” category). Even though they
hint at serving visual artists, too, the actual content and experience appears
to be all music focus now. Again, that’s the territory that “old” MySpace
staked out at one time.
As a music fan, I hate being force fed a ‘top-of-the-charts’
experience. That’s what we have today in the service. I respect Beyonce, Adele,
and even Justin Timberlake. That’s just not my turf. I suspect this is simply
how the service launches. It took me only a few minutes to find J Roddy Walston
tracks and a simply awesome Social Distortion video.
Forget Facebook. That’s not the territory for the New
MySpace. They seem to have staked out some interesting white space wedged
between Pandora and YouTube. I love being able to build a playlist that is a
mix of songs, albums and videos. It plays in the background. Once in a while, I
will watch the video. Of course, Pandora’s magic sauce is the recommendations
from their wonderful human-powered DNA analysis. Hard to beat that for music
discovery. Currently, there is no real way to discover new music short of
browsing endless pages of album art and photo thumbnails or selecting a handful
of “related” links. I like recommendations pushed to me.
I have a confession. I love music videos. As corny as they
can be, I grew up when MTV was born (“old” MTV) and worked on some of the first
music videos seen on the channel. There just isn’t a great experience to find
and watch music videos. I know YouTube has everything, but I like a bit of
quality curation. I imagine that is what I get in the New MySpace.
Clearly, New MySpace starts with music and music fans. The
ambition seems to be a space for all types of creators/creatives. In that
regard they may be aiming for some of the territory currently blowing up in
Tumblr where we are all asked to “Follow the World’s Creators.” Interestingly,
it may just be the user experience that keeps those services apart. Tumblr is the
epitome of simple (I love my Tumblr – Smoldering Embers). My Space requires
more investment. Tumblr is also great as
it holds wonderful content – often visual – that the world can access and link
to. I tried for 10 minutes to send a link to my wife to the Social Distortion
video and gave up.
We’ll See
I don’t know if the New MySpace will flourish and survive. I
don’t think anyone knows. It feels fresh to me. I hope that it evolves to allow
more connections outside the service (e.g. Facebook Connect, Tweets).
I suppose part of their success depends on their ability to
lure artists back into MySpace to interact (The Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
page is empty). I don’t think Top40 or even Top500 radio artists can carry the
service. Lastly, many services have tried to navigate the licensing and legal
quagmire of music rights and ownership and died trying. I hope they know what
they are doing.
Brands will spend between 17-18% of their total marcom spend on social media within 4 years. They will spend more on social business solutions. They are seeing value and expecting more every year.
The key reason? 90% of us look to friends and family for the most trusted recommendations on products, service and issues. 70% of us count on consumer opinions online above traditional media. And it’s only going to grow. Millennials are three times more likely than Boomers to look for a social opinion on choices they make.
The future is brand advocacy. And it cannot be faked, gamed, or outright ‘bought.’
There are only three ways to connect with and build a strong relationship with customers and stakeholders these days.
Deliver highly relevant content or service. This could be advertising, media relations or what we call ‘owned’ content (including valuable services). Now it’s all highly targeted and tailored. No more 360 degree ‘onslaughts’ of interruptive advertising. Now our messages must be deemed highly relevant to our targets to earn their attention. Lets use the ‘10 degrees’ that matter. Useful content to run a sustainable business from DuPont. Better ways to use member ‘points’ from American Express.
Be discoverable in search. When people search Google, Baidu or Yandex, brands need to be there for all the topics that intersect between a person’s intent and where the brand can add some value. Ford on fuel efficiency. Hellmann’s on Real Food recipes.
Earn our way into their ‘social graph.’ To succeed in social media, we must become genuinely valuable to the people we serve and earn their attention, their advocacy and their business. Inviting people as VIPs into the launch of the new Ford Explorer in Facebook. Sparking a social conversation about the dreams of the next generation of Chinese from Johnnie Walker. Helping Hong Kong parents celebrate their baby pictures in a much bigger way from Huggies.
How we form opinions about products, services and issues is constantly changing. It’s imperative that we make social a new way we do everything.
What is Social@Ogilvy?
Social@Ogilvy is the global, cross-discipline team of social experts from across all of Ogilvy’s businesses delivering social solutions to all parts of our clients’ business. This is new. This is bigger than before. We have been designing and executing social media marketing and communications programs for 7+ years as 360 Digital Influence – a specialty practice born out of Ogilvy Public Relations. We quickly grew to deliver social solutions for all sorts of marketing and communications clients.
Now we have grown into Social@Ogilvy. We are a true global network with a common approach.
Integrated Social Media Matters More
The whole PR vs. marketing battle is moot. Social media will inform every discipline and deliver business value for the foreseeable future. Social media as a standalone specialty doesn’t make sense. All the power and potential in social based solutions comes to life when you integrate it into marcom and other functions.
We design integrated social solutions that combine deep disciplines like crm, public relations and shopper marketing and rooted in what drives behavior. We plan around owned, earned and paid media working together for a compound effect and at its heart our work is ‘social by design’ – phrase used now by Facebook but that captures what we do quite well.
A Global Shift
We do believe there’s a new customer and stakeholder journey defined by the increasing impact our networks have on purchase decision and our behaviors. How we buy, vote, and form opinions has changed. We tap into our 130 friends (the Facebook average) to discover, consider, compare, decide and rave about products, services and issues.
This shift is happening in one way or another all over the world. Growth markets like China, Indonesia, Brazil and Turkey will define the next episode of social media use. They are all growing their social network use and outpacing western markets including the US. That’s why we have grown the world’s largest global team delivering solutions relevant in each local market.
And it’s more than just marketing, we design social business solutions that use the collaboration and advocacy strengths of social media to drive value internally and in customer relationships while at the same time managing risk.
Join Us
We will be participating or hosting 23 events in and outside of Social Media Week this week in NYC, London and Hong Kong not to mention a dozen other markets. Join us as we launch this new ambitious business. It's been a wild ride to get to this point and we would love to see you. You can find out more at our new Social@Ogilvy site.
I read an entire article on the plane Sunday morning. It was a long article (and a long plane ride). I want to get that out there to counter the crux of the article from Michiko Kakutani at the New York Times.
I read it in the Herald Tribune which likely doesn't have much to do with anything other than my confusion seeing the article in both places (Yup, I know they are both owned by the NYTimes). My blog title is a quote from her article and sums up its focus.
What starts out as a review of “Reality Hunger” by David Shields, evolves into a long warning shot across the bow of the Internet and its affect on our ability to focus, appreciate books and facts. Serendipitously, that same article was sent around internally at work as a thought-provoker which is exactly what it was.
Michiko goes off in quite a few directions - one reason its a great read. And while I know she is onto something, I am less fearful that culture is in a death spiral of attention deficit disorder. Here's some of where she goes (please read her articleas I am woefully unqualified to recap it in several bullets and even my attempt to do so proves out some of the points made about the inadequacies of casual commentary):
we live in a world that likely favors the mash-up over the original works
we are all getting a wee bit reactive in our lives and our ability to pro-actively form a thought is weaker by the megabyte
traditional media and news caters to this appetite for snippets
in the process of twittering our every moment, we pass judgment to form an opinion over the slightest thing ("so far, Act One in the new play is shaping up well....") with no thought to experiencing the "whole" of anything
If there were one quote that captures the spirit of the article it is this,
"...Nor is it simply a question of experts and professionals being challenged by an increasingly democratized marketplace. It’s also a question, as Mr. Lanier, 49,(Jason Lanier) astutely points out in his new book, “You Are Not a Gadget,” of how online collectivism, social networking and popular software designs are changing the way people think and process information, a question of what becomes of originality and imagination in a world that prizes “metaness” and regards the mash-up as “more important than the sources who were mashed.” "
Evolution Not Devolution Set aside my POV on the decline of traditional journalism, let me speak from my own experience. I drink from the firehose of the Internet everyday. It saps my attention and my ability to proactively do anything as I am lured into the sweet embrace of only having to react to things (Email is the real culprit here, not blogs or tweets). Until I stop, put down the firehose, and make something. And I make a lot of things, most of which are not comprised consciously of other works. Okay, yes, I just wrote a blog post that referred to a great book review, but c'mon...
Much of what Michiko cites - derivative works, reality and sensational media, even mashups (was Juan Gris a mash-up artist?) - have all been going on well before the Internet. I don't think we are going to hell in a handbasket - unless we let ourselves.
The rapid fire world of social media has delivered the following benefits to me:
1. I am much more frequently collaborating with a growing network of people from around the world - sharing ideas, riffing off each other's starts and creating new works that are not the patchwork quilt of crowd opinions but something stronger
2. I have met more people by communicating online, following the million bread crumb-trails from this person to that and often meeting them in person on my travels. These are wide variety of folks and not me finding my niche all over the globe
3. All the personalized services and subscriptions have not wrung out the serendipity from my life - quite the opposite. Now I stumble upon (intended reference) more new ideas I have never considered than ever before
I do think the Internet and all that it has wrought is changing us. It will destroy some institutions. It will build new ones. And mostly it will do what everyone has been crowing about for years - empower the motivated individual to be heard and maybe even have an impact. As for unintended consequences? That supposes we even know what the intended ones are.
Apparently, Brazilians are adept at hacking technology to make something out of very little. I am not talking about software hacks per se. I am talking about not settling for what's in front of them and assembling solutions from the bits and pieces of available elements. Think Frankenstein meets the iPod.
It's such a common thing they have a name for it: Gambiarra or as Renata Saraiva from Ogilvy points out, "Fazer uma gambiarra."
Here's how media maven Marcelo Tas describes it during my interview with him:
He's a TV celebrity, internet pioneer, father of 3, overall good-guy and has more than 75K followers on Twitter. Marcelo Tas has been engaged with the Internet and television for well over a decade (I love meeting guys who have been around as long as I have). I had a great dinner with him in Sao Paulo last week.
He shared a bit about himself, his social media life and his insights in Brazilian social media - all while standing outside our restaurant on the street.
He has a hugely popular live TV show in Brazil. He will go live from April through December which makes me tired just thinking about it. Online he has his blog and his very popular Twitter feed. He is a brand and a very appealing one from where I sit. Essentially I see Marcelo as a creative entrepeneur. That means he has a natural curiosity that drives him to constantly try things and invent things, mostly media. He told me of his online shows via UOL where he challenged experts to unpack complex topics like university economist who had to explain the global economic meltdown to a taxi driver. So smart.
He regularly speaks to large brands about his experience and insights into digital culture. Here's an excerpt from my interview with him outside our restaurant in Sao Paulo. One thing is clear, Marcelo comes alive in a new way when you turn on the camera. I love his energy.
