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P L AY B O O K N O1 Navigating t he New Content Landscape
C H A P TE R ONE 1
Navigating the New Content Landscape P L AY B O O K N O1
Published by Totem
—
Toronto, 2 016
ISBN
—
978 - 0 - 9949353 - 1 - 1
Navigating
Licence
—
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence.
To view a copy of this licence, visit:
t he New
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ or
send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866,
Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
Content
Landscape
How Successful Brand Publishers Make
the Leap Beyond Content Marketing
2 www.totem.tc 3
4 C H A P TE R ONE 5
Introduction
12 CHAPTER ONE
Brand Publishing
vs. Content Marketing
26 CHAPTER TWO
Who Is Doing It Right
50 CHAPTER THREE
Creating Your Content Strategy
TABLE OF CONTENTS 64 CHAPTER FOUR
Using Your Voice
to Create Content
90 CHAPTER FIVE
Audience Development
& Distribution
98 CHAPTER SIX
Measure & Optimize
118 BACK OF BOOK
Endnotes
6 7
Content marketing as
a practice is hardly a
bold play.
Companies have been moving beyond
advertising to build useful storytelling
connections with their customers for about
as long as contemporary ideas of marketing
have existed.
Right now, marketers find themselves on
INTRODUCTION permanently unstable ground, forced to deal
with a vast, constantly shifting set of platforms
and customers with more demands across all of
these platforms. There are unanswered questions
in every direction. Investments are never certain.
The infinitely headed beast needs its infinite
stomachs to be fed. The CMO, according to one
Accenture report, faces turbulence as the “new
normal,” while they are also struggling with
“a disconnect between the talent they have and
the capabilities they need.”
Histories of content marketing tend to jump
back over a century to 1895,1 when John Deere
found fresh pastures to harvest with Furrow, a
magazine geared toward the interests and needs
of its loyal farm customers. John Deere was
followed from farm to table five years later by
8 9
Michelin, building loyalty to its tires (and fealty Some have even shifted their content programs
from generations of restaurateurs) through its from a cost centre to a profit centre. The brands
legendary Driver Guides. Smart companies picked we explore are unified not just by their efforts
up on the trend. Did you ever ask yourself why in producing content, but by their structural
you would never think of serving coffee to your moves toward becoming full-fledged publishers
kids but would have (almost) no problem if they and media companies.
drank a Coca-Cola? You can presume a sweet drop What follows is both a survey and a toolkit—
or two of content marketing has, just quietly, a roadmap of the landscape as plowed not
influenced your decision. by John Deere, but by the companies that we
In the maelstrom of the Internet age, the believe are best positioned to face the marketing
practice has evolved into something more turbulence of the years ahead. Our aim was to
strategic, driven by volume and speed. “Content identify the common threads of strategy and
marketing,” focusing on measurable ROI and practice. We look at staffing structures and
conversion-driven use of content platforms, audience development strategies alongside
has become a tactic, rather than a discipline. general approaches to content across platforms
It tends to result in disposable content, prioritizing both known and unknown. We saw, as our
short-term sales over long-term loyalty and own experience has taught us, that successful
connection. Standing out from this trend means companies had to overcome not just creative
facing many challenges, which, as the IAB UK hurdles but also organizational complexity and
points out in its “The Future of Content” report, resistance. The successful practitioners appeared
are more than just creative: to understand the broader ramifications of
“The differentiating factor for excellent content throughout their entire organization,
content marketers in the near future will be and, vitally, how it helped them define and
those who not only produce and promote great communicate their organizational purpose.
content, but those who can bring different
departments together in order to maximize the
value of content across the organization.”
It’s these organizational challenges that we’ve
chosen to look at in this book. As well as sharing
our own experience, we have surveyed many
large brands who have undertaken ambitious
small-scale experiments and long-term programs.
10 I NTRODUC TI ON 11
CHAPTER ONE You may be asking, “Is this just a new
way to wrap up content marketing?
Brand
Are you just throwing around a new
buzzword?” Even though brand
publishing achieves the same goals as
Publishing content marketing efforts, it specifically
refers to when brands behave as
media companies by creating and
distributing content, and measuring
vs. its success. Brand publishing also
requires a much deeper investment
Content and a focus on content. It goes beyond
starting a blog or posting regularly to
social media (although those are both
Marketing great places to start from), and it isn’t
just a function of a small branch of
the marketing department.
There are a few key signals that
determine whether a brand is doing
content marketing or whether they’ve
risen to the level of brand publisher:
12 13
Content Marketing Brand Publishing
Investment in creating content. Investment in a full editorial team.
Thinking about content through Thinking about content through
the eyes of the brand. the eyes of the audience.
Content standards competing Content standards competing with
with industry rivals. publishers with a similar editorial focus.
Brand focused Editorial/Story focused
Strategy that fits within a Strategy that runs the newsroom
broader marketing strategy. as its own entity.
Publishes content to build Publishes content to support
brand awareness. the customer journey.
Builds trust and loyalty with customers AND
Builds trust and loyalty with customers
a broader audience of future customers through
through delivering engaging content.
creating content that stands on its own.
A marketing cost centre. Can be a revenue centre.
Part of the marketing model. Part of the business model.
Thought leaders influence content. Content influences thought leaders.
14 15
interested in your content and educated about the organization’s
new products and services.
3
It Improves Brand Awareness
Consumers have become increasingly concerned about
organizations and their impact on society. Brand publishing
serves as a channel to discuss initiatives organizations can be
proud of and to effectively communicate the thinking behind
their projects.
The ROI of Brand Publishing
Why Brand Sure, you may be saying, that
Publishing Works sounds nice, but what’s in it for
There are multiple reasons why brand me? Of course your investment should
publishing is effective. Here are a few: come with a return, but how do brand
publishers measure ROI?
1
It Increases Sales
“We get 30 percent extra value for every dollar spent.” —CMO
Beth Comstock of GE, speaking with Adweek at the ANA
Masters of Marketing conference.3
“It’s hard—especially when sold through distribution channels.
The ultimate goal of any form of marketing is to increase sales.
You can use indirect metrics like, do you get more orders or less
When brand publishing is carried out effectively, the material
orders when you do certain things? It’s really not an easy answer
becomes a kind of window display, but instead of actually viewing
for many.”4 —Craig Coffey of Lincoln Electric about measuring
the products you wish to buy, you read a story about the brand’s
the success of their content strategy.
values in the context of its industry. While picturing that story,
you realize that the products the company sells will only enrich
“If ROI is measured by leads generated and sales conversions,
the story and create an everlasting experience.
then marketers are missing the point,” says Elena Sukacheva,
2
global managing director of content solutions with The Economist.
“Owned properties create a relationship with the brand, and
probably should be measured by longer term metrics such as
It Retains Customers brand perception, brand identity, and increased loyalty.”5
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t any ROI or that it’s
Retaining customers is far more economical than acquiring new immeasurable. Compared with some traditional forms of
customers.2 By offering informative material with entertainment marketing, such as advertising and public relations, there are
value, you will develop a more engaged audience that is both more data points to measure with brand publishing.
16 C H A P TE R ONE 17advertising, sees a 4.4% return.9 In many forms of online media,
you only pay for clicks or full views (for videos), not impressions,
Why Invest in but those clicks and views aren’t guaranteed to turn into sales.
Brand Publishing? You are looking at a very small percentage of people you will reach
and convert with traditional advertising.
The case for brand publishing So how does brand publishing measure up? The Chief Marketing
is really made when you look at the Officer (CMO) Council found that 87% of business customers felt
branded content had a moderate to major role in their decisions
customers, case studies, and advantages on which vendors to hire.10 Instead of being interruptive, content
content gives you over other forms is helping your customers make better decisions.
of marketing. Here are four reasons to REASON
invest in brand publishing:
REASON 2
1 Brand Publishing Is the Vessel
for Your Brand Message
The Audience Is Tired of “Your content should not be perceived as ‘marketing’ or ‘selling.’
Being Interrupted You’ll sell more by NOT selling!”11
—Trond Lyngbø, Search Engine Land, 2015
“We talk a lot about how we can shift marketing dollars, which
are traditionally interruptive dollars. Right now brands are creating People don’t like being sold to.12 That’s why, for many companies,
content that disrupts people from the content they want to watch. brand publishing is a great vessel for wrapping up a brand message
We talk about taking those dollars and turning them into value in useful, entertaining content that people actually want to save
creation dollars that tell a story people want to engage in, or create and share. As people read this content, they feel more like they
experiences they want to be a part of and naturally consume.” are discovering the brand rather than being sold it.
—Todd Hunter, creative executive of CAA Marketing “With the little films we’ve done like Back to the Start or The
(regarding Chipotle)6 Scarecrow,” Chris Arnold, communications director at Chipotle,
“We want to find a way to enhance the experience and services, says in an interview with Contagious I/O, “the idea is to bring
rather than looking for a way to interrupt people from getting to people into the conversation through something that is first and
where they want to go.... How can we provide a service that the foremost entertainment, and secondly says something about us.
consumer goes, ‘Wow, you really made this easier for me’?” And thirdly, that is designed to spark conversation.”13
—Stefan Olander, global director for brand connections at Nike7 Williams-Sonoma’s catalogue, which is filled with beautiful
imagery of food and cookware, is another example of this.
Advertising operates, even in its most targeted form, as an “They’re not just selling cookware; they’re selling a lifestyle,” says
interruptive medium. It appears without being requested, Journal’s president and publisher Bob Schwartzman.14
and often stands in the way of the user and the content they As people save and share this content, they are interacting
want to consume. with and promoting your brand. CBRE Group does this well with
According to Sizmek’s annual benchmarking report on rich its magazine, Blueprint. This online magazine “tells the real estate
media, the average clickthrough rate for a banner ad is 0.1%.8 story—not the CBRE story,” says Paul Suchman, chief marketing
Even direct mail, which is one of the most measurable forms of officer at CBRE Group.15 By being the authority, CBRE becomes the
18 C H A P TE R ONE 19voice of the industry. Brand publishing allows organizations to deliver the ads that appear alongside those search results. This illustrates
their brand messages in a way that doesn’t seem like a sales pitch. the long-term value of content assets—AVE is cumulative, paying
ongoing dividends of sorts, whereas the time period of the ad buy
REASON constrains the ROI for ad spending.
3 Best Practices
Brand Publishing Is Great From the Leaders
for Your SEO While assessing the brand
One of the strongest advantages for brand publishing or content
publishing platforms, the following
marketing is the positive effect they have on your search results. five lessons emerged.
According to a 2014 report by Conductor, 54% of corporate
marketers believe quality content is among the most effective LESSON
1
search engine optimization (SEO) tactics their companies use. 16
Though the jury is still out on whether SEO is as relevant as it
used to be17, most would agree that search remains an important,
dominant force on the Internet. The changing nature of SEO makes
brand publishing an even more important practice, especially
Give Your Audience What They
when the strategy includes social channels. YouTube videos and Want, How They Want It
shareable content will also help with your searchability on social.
In order to create a publication, you need to know your audience.
REASON That involves understanding both demographics and psychographics.
4 GE Reports, for example, “targets decision makers, thought
leaders, customers, and also tech enthusiasts,” says Tomas Kellner,
managing editor of GE Reports. “Our ideal readers are interested
Brand Publishing Creates in how the world works, how things tick. We also hear a lot from
GE employees.”19
Additional Assets But how do you align your content with what’s relevant to
your readers? “In American Express’s case, using data to gain
Traditional marketing expenses can be evaluated on a short-term
as much insight into the interests of its audience solves this
basis, while the ROI for brand publishing activities extends into
challenge,” says Jennifer Eldin, senior manager, marketing and
the long term. This is because brand publishing generates assets in
content innovation, at American Express. “What are your fans
the form of content and platforms. When proper brand publishing
reading most often? What’s resonating with them? Use those
practices are adopted, these assets mutually support the value of
answers to craft relevant content for your audience.”20
one another. For example, the continual publishing activity within
Whether a story is engaging, shareworthy, captivating, and
a platform (such as a blog) maintains the value of historic posts
inspiring all depends on two main factors:
as the visibility, engagement, and, in turn, credibility are built.
One method of determining the monetary value of certain
1. The story resonates with the audience’s interests
content types (such as blog posts, articles, videos, ebooks, and
reports) is through the Advertising (or AdWords) Value Equivalency
2. The distribution strategy is in line with the
(AVE)18 rating. Published content ranks in search results, and the
audience’s consumption habits
value of that ranking can be roughly approximated by the price of
20 C H A P TE R ONE 21LESSON This was one of the most important lessons of all. Even in the
2 content that mentioned the brand—such as with GE Reports,
whose content is mostly about the innovation and technology
coming out of GE—it wasn’t about driving a call to action or trying
Your “Competition” Isn’t Your to inform people about products for sale (at least not to the
intended audience). The content across the board is consistently
Only Competition about being useful, relevant, or entertaining to the audience.
When publishing content for your audience, the segment in which
an organization functions expands to include many more players. LESSON
4
Take Marriott, for example. “Magazine publishers ask, ‘What’s
the difference between us and you?’ We take it one step further.
We are a publisher,” says David Beebe, Marriott’s vice president of
global creative and content marketing. “We say we’re going to own
the travel lifestyle space like Red Bull owns action sports. We just
It’s Better to Own
happen to sell hotel rooms.”21 than to Rent
Organizations that are traditionally viewed as your competition
will remain as such. But considering that organizations in various As with real estate, it’s better to own than to rent. Not only do you
industries are targeting similar audiences that have the same have complete control over the type of content that you are
interests and attitudes, the pool of competitors opens up, and publishing, but you are also investing in building your own
you need to be prepared. audience that you can interact with as you grow the company and
Your competition is anyone vying for the attention of your develop new products and services.
audience. “I think it’s important for marketers to not ignore their own
properties,” says Ann Lewnes, CMO of Adobe. “Whether it’s your
LESSON website, or your app, you can create satellite experiences on other
3
properties, but I feel the best experience should be on your own
properties. That’s what we try to do at Adobe—we try to build the
best applications for our website and we try to have good
experience on the other properties, but really, we would like
Protect the Content people to come to our own properties first.”24
from Marketing Using social media platforms and investing in native
advertising is a great way to get your content viewed by existing
“Your readers want content that’s relevant to them from experts audiences. However, the more content you publish in these
they can trust. Use your brand as the enabler for a platform to platforms, the stronger the audience gets for that platform, not
provide this content and as a conduit between the experts and yours. If that is your strategy, you are renting the audience and
consumers. Think of your brand as the middleman and only insert paying someone else’s mortgage. Your benefits will be short lived.
your brand voice when it’s appropriate.”22 —Jennifer Eldin, senior “Grow your reputation, grow your authority. Social media
manager, marketing and content innovation, American Express platforms are a great assist in this process, but you only own the
“Marriott.com is essentially our inbuilt media platform and will be authority built from the content you own,” says Stoney deGeyter,
our content hub. We want to use it to provide value to our founder and CEO of Pole Position Marketing. “As much effort as it
consumers without directly selling something to them; we want to takes to create, focus on publishing on your own owned network.
engage with them on their terms.”23 —David Beebe, Marriott’s vice You keep the authority you build. Period.”25
president of global creative and content marketing
22 C H A P TE R ONE 23LESSON
5
Don’t Talk About Clowns
Unless You Run the Circus
Stick to what you know. If you try to be something you are not, or
copy someone else’s editorial voice, the results will be, at best,
ignored, or at worst, ridiculed publicly.
“If you think about it, Coca-Cola can be viewed as a huge media
brand with amazing reach and frequency,” says Jonathan
Mildenhall, VP, global advertising strategy and creative excellence
at Coca-Cola. “The question we ask ourselves is, ‘Can we use our
assets as content, and can we create content out of our assets?’” 26
Brands like Coca-Cola are so prevalent they do not have the
advantage of a well-defined, homogenous community with
uniform interests to tap into and reflect. They are forced to find and
assert their own voice to avoid coming across as a bland, generic
averaging of their audience’s perspective.
These organizations tend to ground their brand focus in values
(GE: invention and imagination, Coca-Cola: refreshment and
optimism, Adobe: engaging experience). In contrast to focusing on
product offerings, this makes it possible to justify a compelling
editorial focus that is driven by a clear perspective. This does not,
however, mean that they never include the brand as a topic or
character within the content. In fact, discussing the brand is a
popular tactic among the top performers, when it is associated
with values, rather than product or selling.
The Brand Publishing Process
Through the remainder of this book, we will cover the brand
publishing process from research to production to measurement.
It is important to note that this is not a linear process. What
you learn in measurements, you will put back into your research
about your audience. Brand publishing is an agile, ongoing learning
process. Audience interests evolve, platforms and tools come and
go, and you will constantly be coming up with new, innovative
BRAND PUBLISHER
ways to present your content.
BRAND PUBLISHER
Red Bull Media House
24 C H A P TE R ONE 25Who Is
Doing It
Right
CHAPTER TWO
There are multiple celebrated brands doing
great content marketing work, but only a
handful of them have made the extra investment
into becoming publishers. We looked at more
than 30 brands and narrowed our focus to 10
who stand out as brand publishers.
27Red Bull ENGAGEMENT*
44.5
BRAND PUBLISHER million+ redbull.com,
January 2016
Case Study
Red Bull Red Bull was founded in 1987; since then, it has sold more than 5.6
Facebook likes billion cans28 of its energy drink. In 2007, the company launched
LAUNCHED
2007 4.1 Red Bull Media House, a wholly separate, money-making entity
that stems from its core energy-drink business. Red Bull has
invested so heavily and more deeply than most brands into
T YPE OF BRAND NEWSROOM
million creating its own media house that it goes far beyond a marketing
play. While the energy drink is marketed through traditional
Destination Instagram followers advertising, Red Bull also uses events (such as Red Bull Crushed
2.1
Ice and Red Bull Air Race), sports team ownerships (including
T YPES OF CONTENT
New York Red Bulls, FC Red Bull Salzburg), celebrity endorsements
Feature films; documentaries; and music (through its record label, Red Bull Records) to create
TV programs; music; magazines; million brand awareness.29 It does this so well that many refer to Red Bull
live broadcasts; photos as a “media company that happens to sell energy drinks.”30
Twitter followers Red Bull Media House was created as a multi-platform media
KEY TOPICS
4.8
company that focuses on sports, culture and lifestyle.31 It produces
Adventure; extreme sports digital products, print magazines (including The Red Bulletin,
which has a distribution of more than five million32), TV programs,
DIGITAL PLATFORMS million+ feature films and music. Red Bull Media House—which also has
Twitter; Instagram; YouTube; its own TV channel and record label—has partnered with media
Facebook; LinkedIn
YouTube subscribers companies such as the NBC Sports Group (to create the Red Bull
250,000+
Signature Series) and C3 Presents (to host live streams for events
DISTRIBUTION MODELS including Lollapalooza).33
Web TV; online radio; TV In 2011, Red Bull Media House released the documentary
programs; music; online games; LinkedIn followers The Art of Flight, which features snowboarders Travis Rice, John
Jackson and others as they take to the hills in various locations.34
digital databases; more than
The film—which took two years and cost Red Bull $2 million (US)
Red Bull has more than 35 million followers27 across
900 domains in 36 languages all of its dedicated social channels, including those to produce—was so successful that a sequel, The Fourth Phase, is
under redbull.com for the Red Bulletin, Red Bull Media House Films and
set to premiere in 2016.35 In 2012, the company sponsored Felix
Red Bull Music.
Baumgartner’s famous freefall from space36; Red Bull’s video of it
*Red Bull brand account
has been viewed more than 39 million times on YouTube.37
Audience engagement with Red Bull is high—its YouTube
channel has more than 4.8 million subscribers, and it has 2.1
million followers on Twitter.
28 C H A P TE R T WO 29General Electric
BRAND PUBLISHER ENGAGEMENT* gereports.com,
January 2016
Case Study
GE Reports In the past few years, the nearly 130-year-old multinational
1.5
company has developed a multi-platform, award-winning38
LAUNCHED content strategy that is as expansive as the products the
2011 million+
company produces—from light bulbs and microwaves to
healthcare and airplanes—rooted in the goal to place the brand
face-to-face with its audience, across the web and exactly
T YPE OF BRAND NEWSROOM Facebook likes where they don’t expect it.39
Core Brander
206,000
Despite its indisputable awareness, GE’s goal is audience
familiarity with the brand and its breadth of industries, and
T YPES OF CONTENT
they’ve approached this through accessible, personal content40
Articles; videos; podcasts
Instagram followers that educates and entertains. It explores the dynamic world
of science, innovation and technology through long-form
KEY TOPICS
387,000
articles, short stories, videos, social media accounts, GIFs41,
Technology; manufacturing; and even podcasts42, to appeal to a breadth of markets and
science; innovation encourage organic reach.
DIGITAL PLATFORMS Twitter followers Along with strong presence on social media platforms—
Facebook, Vine, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Tumblr,
77,000+
Twitter; Instagram; YouTube; GE has developed several of its own free-standing technology
Facebook; LinkedIn publications.43 GE Reports generates newsworthy stories and
has built an audience of more than half a million readers since
DISTRIBUTION MODELS YouTube subscribers 2008.44 GE’s Tumblr sister account, Txchnologist, takes a broader
Digital magazine; social media look at the world of science and technology and offers a
accounts; domains in other
languages under gereports.com 1 positive look at its societal influences.45
Content produced and published through these platforms is
not only shared across GE’s social media and throughout its site
million+ (alongside Healthymagination and Ecomagination, for example,
LinkedIn followers which also produce industry reports) but are getting picked up
by outside publications such as Scientific American, Gizmodo, i09
*General Electric brand account and Business Insider.46
30 C H A P TE R T WO 31Lego
BRAND PUBLISHER ENGAGEMENT* lego.com/club/,
January 2016
Case Study
Lego After Lego’s patent on its building blocks expired in 1983, it faced
LAUNCHED
1983
10 tremendous pressure from its competitors, which were now able
to legally imitate its iconic product. Lego needed to reinvent itself,
and turned to content marketing and brand publishing. It is now
million+ considered a media powerhouse.47 In addition to the toys, these
days Lego creates digital products, print magazines, video games,
T YPE OF BRAND NEWSROOM Facebook likes TV shows and films.
Destination
902,000
Some of its content includes microsites for its various product
lines (such as Lego Star Wars), TV miniseries (such as the Lego
T YPES OF CONTENT
CHIMA series on the Cartoon Network), magazines (Lego Club
Games; contests; quizzes; Magazine and Lego Club Junior Magazine) and several animated
comic strips/stories; how-tos; Instagram followers YouTube series.48 Lego also publishes newsletters for educators
328,000
videos; product releases; through the Lego Smart Newsletter, which teachers can sign up
club events; TV shows; films; for through the Lego Education website. Lego Ideas and the
magazines; newsletters Lego Ambassador Network are offered up for Adult Fans of Lego
(known as AFOLs).
Twitter followers The brand reached a turning point with the release of The Lego
KEY TOPICS
1.1
Lego products, including Star Movie. Lego saw its audience engagement increase exponentially
after the film was released in 2014.49 The number of subscribers to
Wars, Marvel, Chima
Lego’s YouTube channel has grown to more than one million, there
DIGITAL PLATFORMS million+ are more than 300,000 followers of its Twitter account, and its
official Facebook page has accumulated more than 10 million likes.
Twitter; Instagram; YouTube; YouTube subscribers
Facebook; LinkedIn
DISTRIBUTION MODELS
Magazine; social media accounts;
210,000+
microsites; toy stores; domains
LinkedIn followers
in other languages under lego.com *Lego brand account
32 C H A P TE R T WO 33JW Marriott
BRAND PUBLISHER ENGAGEMENT* traveler.marriott.com, Case Study
January 2016
Marriott Traveler JW Marriott began a bid to take over the travel lifestyle space in
2.2
2015 with a digital magazine, web vertical, TV series and even a
LAUNCHED short film. Its biggest launch was Marriott Traveler, an online
2015 million+
magazine hosted on the Marriott website to take advantage of the
site’s 36 million monthly visitors50 and 48 million Marriott Rewards
members51. The magazine launched in early 2015 with a gradual
T YPE OF BRAND NEWSROOM Facebook likes roll-out of 300 stories focused on three of the chain’s most popular
Specialist destinations: New Orleans, Orlando and Chicago52. Largely written
T YPES OF CONTENT
Interviews; how-tos;
92,000+ by local freelancers in a friendly, knowledgeable voice, stories
about finding the best blues joints and food trucks appeal to
business and leisure travellers alike. Since none of the stories
feature stories Instagram followers mention Marriott, the company plans to eventually sell ads on
Traveler53.
KEY TOPICS
City guides; food & drink;
family; fashion; culture
212,000 More out-of-the-way destinations (China, Brazil, Colombia) are
covered on Gone, Marriott’s new travel vertical on Medium.com.
Other content mixes travel and entertainment: music lovers can
Twitter followers follow indie bands on tour to Marriott-brand hotels in the AXS TV
DIGITAL PLATFORMS series The Navigator Live; and a short film, Two Bellmen (featuring
Twitter; Instagram; YouTube;
Facebook; LinkedIn; Tumblr;
Snapchat
7,500+ Hollywood stuntmen playing bell hops), was so well received that a
sequel is planned for 201654.
YouTube subscribers
DISTRIBUTION MODELS
Magazine; social media accounts
60,000+
LinkedIn followers
*Marriott brand account
34 C H A P TE R T WO 35Chipotle Mexican Grill
BRAND PUBLISHER ENGAGEMENT* farmedand-
dangerous.com,
Case Study
Chipotle Mexican Grill January 2016 Every year, Chipotle uses its relatively small marketing budget
2.7
wisely. In 2011, the Mexican grill chain made a splash with the
LAUNCHED short film Back to the Start, which started a conversation about
2011 55
million+
how food is farmed in North America. Instead of following other
fast food chains in focusing on advertising to get its message out,
Chipotle decided to create content that spoke to its brand values.
T YPE OF BRAND NEWSROOM Facebook likes In 2013, Chipotle created The Scarecrow, a short film and mobile
Core Brander video game. Chipotle followed this up with a digital series,
T YPES OF CONTENT
Films; video games; digital series
272,000 launched on Hulu, called Farmed and Dangerous. The series,
described as a “jabbing satire of the agricultural industry,” was
met with broad critical acclaim and generated a great deal of
Instagram followers media attention.56 Though the brand was only mentioned once in
KEY TOPICS
the series, Chipotle’s chief marketing officer, Mark Crumpacker,
Food; sustainability
DIGITAL PLATFORMS
723,000 wasn’t concerned: “The idea here is that if people put really even
a little bit more thought into where their food comes from, it’s
going to benefit Chipotle. It’s a longer-term play for customers.”57
Twitter; Instagram; YouTube; Twitter followers
Facebook; LinkedIn
DISTRIBUTION MODELS
Hulu; social media accounts
35,000+
YouTube subscribers
43,000+
LinkedIn followers
*Chipotle brand account
36 C H A P TE R T WO 37Nike
BRAND PUBLISHER ENGAGEMENT* nike.com/nikefuel, Case Study
January 2016
Since 2007, Nike has built an impressive amount of content to
23.5
Nike
connect with its sports-minded customers across a range of
LAUNCHED products and sports. It still offers the Nike+ training app, but it
1970s million+
has also added Nike+ Running, Nike Skateboarding (SB), and
Nike Golf 360. The Nike+ Fuel Band allows Nike to get real-time
T YPE OF BRAND NEWSROOM Facebook likes information from its customers and take in data about the kinds
of activities people are most interested in. Much of Nike’s social
Core Brander
T YPES OF CONTENT
32.9 media efforts centre around images and video. It produces several
YouTube web series, including Nike Football, Nike Basketball, Nike
Golf, Nike Skateboarding and Nike Snowboarding. Each of these
Videos; photos million properties is also represented on Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter,
KEY TOPICS
Instagram followers Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest. Nike also participates in multiple
content partnerships, such as its First & Long series with
Sports; fitness; products
DIGITAL PLATFORMS
5.6 SBNATION/Vox Media.
Twitter; Instagram; YouTube; million+
Facebook; LinkedIn Twitter followers
DISTRIBUTION MODELS
Social media accounts;
content partnerships
333,000+
YouTube subscribers
929,000+
LinkedIn followers
*Nike brand account
38 C H A P TE R T WO 39American Express
BRAND PUBLISHER ENGAGEMENT* americanexpress. Case Study
com/openforum,
OPEN Forum January 2016 American Express has been producing content as a form of
6
marketing since the early 1900s.58 It all started with creating guides
LAUNCHED for its travel division and blossomed into a travel magazine called
2007 million+
U.S. Camera and Travel in 1937 (which became Travel + Leisure in
1971).59 Travel + Leisure is now owned by Time Inc.; it was purchased
as part of American Express Co.’s publishing branch alongside Food
T YPE OF BRAND NEWSROOM Facebook likes & Wine in 2013.60 But that sale didn’t stop American Express from
Specialist focusing on content.
T YPES OF CONTENT
Articles; videos
108,000 In 2007, American Express launched OPEN Forum, a website
dedicated to “Insights, Inspiration, and Connections to Grow Your
Business.”61 The site is filled with articles written by handpicked
Instagram followers experts who keep the content fresh and relevant to AmEx’s
KEY TOPICS
business readers.
Small business; marketing;
customer service 863,000 In addition to OPEN Forum, AmEx also posts content on Tapped
In, a site focused on families and lifestyle content; ESCAPE Magazine62,
an online journal for travellers; and Centurion Magazine63, a print
DIGITAL PLATFORMS Twitter followers and digital offering for AmEx’s Centurion card holders that is
Twitter; Instagram; YouTube; focused on luxury. The AmEx brand is almost completely absent
Facebook; LinkedIn
DISTRIBUTION MODELS
81,000+ from Centurion Magazine.
Social media accounts; app YouTube subscribers
413,000+
LinkedIn followers
*American Express brand account
40 C H A P TE R T WO 41youtube.com/user/GoProCamera,
January 2016
#GoPro when posting them online66.
GoPro The GoPro YouTube channels started
with the company’s own content, but
today, nearly 40% of the videos on the
channels are user-generated.67 (If the video
BRAND PUBLISHER ENGAGEMENT* Case Study has already been shot, GoPro usually
GoPro When GoPro was founded in 2004, it edits before posting to its channels; if a
LAUNCHED
2004
9.3 wasn’t even a digital company—the first
product was a film camera users could
strap to their wrist.64 When the company
user sends in an idea, GoPro’s team will
guide them through the shoot, sending
equipment and suggestions.) To encourage
million+ went public in 2014, though, it billed users to share their own videos, GoPro
itself not just as a hardware brand, but a has launched a smartphone app, simple
T YPE OF BRAND NEWSROOM Facebook likes digital media brand.65 video editing software, and the GoPro
7.6
Destination The transition is a surprisingly natural Awards, which offer cash prizes for
one. After all, GoPro was launched to give users’ photos and videos.
T YPES OF CONTENT
amateur photographers access to high- But its smartest move was saying,
Videos; how-tos; blogs
million quality, affordable, durable equipment. “Here’s what you can do with the
And thanks to years of refinement, its camera,” instead of “Here’s what the
KEY TOPICS Instagram followers tiny but sturdy digital cameras now camera can do.” Most user-generated
Adventure; extreme sports
1.4
record HD video while undergoing trials videos don’t even show the equipment—
that would shatter smartphone screens. the incredible footage speaks for itself.
DIGITAL PLATFORMS
To show off their capabilities, GoPro This means GoPro could eventually sell
Twitter; Instagram; YouTube;
Facebook; LinkedIn
million+ sponsors several professional athletes ads for other brands on the videos
and has an internal team that turns out (though it currently doesn’t have plans
Twitter followers both short films and longer documentary- to). GoPros have even turned up in other
DISTRIBUTION MODELS
3.6
style pieces. It also has more traditional branded content; Felix Baumgartner
Sponsorships; social media partnerships to provide its technology to wore one during his Red Bull-sponsored
accounts; video games; ESPN’s X Games and the NHL (which still record-breaking freefall from space68.
content-licensing agreements feel new and exciting because audiences The response has been strong. GoPro
million+ see the action from the athletes’ has posted more than 4,000 videos to
YouTube subscribers perspective for the first time), and a its five YouTube channels and received
blog with how-tos and product news. more than one billion views, and it’s
79,000+ One of the biggest sources of
marketing content, however, is GoPro
users, who are eager to film themselves
expanding to other platforms69. In 2014,
the company partnered with Xbox Live
and Virgin America to make its videos
LinkedIn followers doing everything from mountain biking available on game consoles and in-flight
down heart-stopping hills to strapping entertainment systems, and is actively
*GoPro brand account
the camera to the family dog—and to seeking other partners for both content
tag more than 6,000 videos a day with creation and distribution70.
42 C H A P TE R T WO 43Adobe
BRAND PUBLISHER ENGAGEMENT* cmo.com, Case Study
January 2016
Adobe has produced software aimed at creative and marketing
312,000+
CMO.com
professionals for more than 30 years. It is most well known for
LAUNCHED tools such as Photoshop, Flash, Portable Document Format (PDF),
2010 Facebook likes
and more recently, its foray into providing creative tools online
through the Adobe Creative Cloud. Nearly since it began, Adobe
124,000
T YPE OF BRAND NEWSROOM has also provided content and tutorials aimed at helping users
work with its software. In 2006, it began to provide a larger
Specialist
content platform for its growing community of creative and
T YPES OF CONTENT Instagram followers marketing types.
Today, Adobe has several publications aimed at specific
Slide shows; interviews;
438,000
audiences. CMO.com, launched in 2010, went from a skunkworks
blogs; event listings project to being a large part of Adobe’s marketing efforts. Today,
CMO.com reportedly sees about 330,000 page views per month.71
KEY TOPICS
Marketing; media; branding
Twitter followers 99u.com is the digital publication, conference, magazine, and
books supporting the creatives in Adobe’s Behance community.72
45,000+
Create Magazine73 is a free online magazine with content aimed
DIGITAL PLATFORMS
at creative professionals. Adobe also offers a Creative Residency
Twitter; Instagram; YouTube; Program, email newsletter and tablet app.
Facebook; LinkedIn YouTube subscribers In addition to these main publications, Adobe continues to
produce instructional videos on AdobeTV74, blogs for multiple
513,000+
DISTRIBUTION MODELS properties, a website, the Adobe MAX conference75 and multiple
Newsletters; content social accounts for each of its products.76
sponsorships; app
LinkedIn followers
*Adobe brand account
44 C H A P TE R T WO 45Coca-Cola
BRAND PUBLISHER ENGAGEMENT* coca-colacompany.com,
January 2016
Case Study
Journey Magazine Coca-Cola’s Journey Magazine started off as an internal
96
publication in 1987 and lasted until 1997.77 In 2010, CEO Muhtar
LAUNCHED Kent tasked the marketing team with bringing it back, but in
2012 million+
a way that reflects the current media environment. That led to
the entire corporate website being replaced with the digital
version of Journey in 2012.78 Journey features a combination of
T YPE OF BRAND NEWSROOM Facebook likes user-generated stories, branded Coca-Cola stories (such as “The
Core Brander Story of the Iconic Coca-Cola Bottle”), and unbranded lifestyle
T YPES OF CONTENT
Articles; videos
1 content. Journey has also been launched in multiple countries
including Japan, Morocco, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain,
Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Nigeria, and Kenya.
million Along with the ambitious Journey storytelling platform,
KEY TOPICS
Innovation; history; music;
Instagram followers Coca-Cola runs several YouTube channels and Twitter, Instagram
and Facebook accounts. There’s also The World of Coca-Cola
3.1
sustainability (an event venue and touring space), Coca-Cola Unbottled
(a corporate news blog), and several content partnerships.
DIGITAL PLATFORMS
Twitter; Instagram; million+ Other Brands Assessed
YouTube; Facebook; LinkedIn Though we focused on the above examples for the purpose of
Twitter followers highlighting the best practices, we looked at many other brands
DISTRIBUTION MODELS that excel in content marketing, and you will see their quotes
Online magazine;
social media accounts 676,000+ and examples peppered throughout the book. Brands we studied
include Airbnb, CBRE, Patagonia, General Mills, Under Armour,
Kraft Foods, IBM, Lowe’s, Capital One, 3M, Ford, Microsoft,
YouTube subscribers Xerox, Intel, John Deere, Lincoln Electric, Williams-Sonoma,
MR PORTER, Harry’s, Autodesk, and REI. These brands represent
931,000+ a wide array of industries, size, customer base, and budget, so
looking at them was essential to get a more rounded picture of
the state of brand publishing.
LinkedIn followers
*Coca-Cola brand account
46 C H A P TE R T WO 4748 C H A P TE R ONE 49
Creating
Your Content
Strategy
CHAPTER THREE
The first step in creating any strategy—especially a
content strategy—is to understand your goals, audience
and competition. Successful brand publishers take this
very seriously. Having a killer content strategy, team
mix and well-defined publishing process are all critical
to delivery. However, a well-planned distribution
strategy is key to engaging your target audience and,
more importantly, growing your audience.
51The two models are often blended, which results in content that
both asserts the brand’s perspective and demonstrates an awareness
of the conversational context. This communicates a sense of
reassurance, reliability and trust, as the organization demonstrates
the practice of the values they preach. The right model for you will
depend on your industry, audience and capabilities.
1. The Core Brander
Publishers create a platform for telling the “core brand”
stories—those that refer directly to the organization and its
values—with the sole intent of increasing brand awareness.
It is often the primary brand site, and is fuelled by content that
includes references to the products, services, and operations as
a means of discussing how the organization relates to its core
values and contributions to society. Examples of this include
GEICO (a Totem client) with its GEICO More site, IBM Smarter
Planet, General Mills Tablespoon, Inside Patagonia, Lowe’s
Setting Brand Creative Ideas, Kraft Recipes, GE Reports, and Coca-Cola Journey.
Metrics here focus on measuring how well the content
Newsroom Goals creates brand awareness and sentiment; for example, how
many people are talking about and engaging with the brand,
Your goals should dictate the type as well as what they think of it.
of brand newsroom you choose and the
2. The Specialist
metrics you set. Your content should strike a Publishers create a brand-owned platform that offers content
balance between audience engagement and around a central theme related to their products or service
offerings. The content tends to be curated, crowd-sourced or
achieving your goals. If the two are matched commissioned. This platform is aimed at positioning the
properly, you will succeed on both counts. company as the industry expert. Examples of this include Intel
IQ, CMO.com by Adobe, and American Express.
Here we look at how to choose your model Here, your metrics will include measuring community
and map your goals for measurement. engagement and how many people in the industry are looking
to you as their source of news. You can measure this through
the number of industry publications that repost or share your
Choose Your Model articles, the influencers who refer to your articles, and those in
Brand publishers can be divided into the industry who read your articles.
four main categories: the core brander; 3. The Destination
the specialist; the destination; and the Publishers create a sponsored platform for stories in a
category/vertical that is not part of their immediate industry.
lead generator. Sponsored destinations can be produced in partnership
between a brand and either a publishing partner or an affiliate
The core brander approach is the most common among top- brand. Hardly any content about the brand’s products or
performing brand publishers, followed by the specialist approach. services is offered on the platform. Instead, the content is
52 C H A P TE R TH RE E 53predominantly used to support the brand’s corporate values
and persona. With this model, the brand takes ownership of a
Here we will look at how you can identify
category and establishes itself as a thought leader. Red Bull and understand your audience.
Media House is an example of this; it appeals to extreme sports
enthusiasts who could also use Red Bull products. Find Your Audience
Here, your measurements will be similar to the specialist If you don’t know who your audience is, or if you would like to
model, but in a different category. Are you the go-to source build a new one, there are a few ways to identify your members:
for information in the space you want to own?
▸ ▸ Customer surveys
4. Lead Generator Could be costly and time-consuming, but can bring you
This platform is more predominant in B2B organizations. rich insights if done right.
Hubspot is a great example of this; its articles target potential
customers, creating trust and establishing credibility that turn ▸ ▸ Focus groups
into business leads. These are limiting because of the time and expense—not
The metric here is simple—how many leads do your articles to mention that the sample size can be misleading—but if
generate? How strong are those leads? What percentage of your you want rich, nuanced feedback, focus groups can provide
articles convert readers into customers? How many dollars do you with a unique dimension of insights.
you spend for each dollar realized through those leads?
▸ ▸ Observations
By tracking comments, feedback and the conversation
Understanding around a subject area or your brand over time, you will
Your Audience get a rich sociological study.
When identifying their ▸ ▸ Website data
audience, many companies don’t go By planting cookies on your website or using tools such
as Facebook Connect, you can start to understand what
beyond looking at demographics. While other sites and brands your visitors are paying attention to.
that analysis identifies the age, gender, It’s important to be transparent about this collection,
though, so your visitors do not feel violated. There is also
location, income and other observable some data available through Google Analytics.
characteristics of your community,
▸ ▸ Third- party data
psychographics dive deeper, offering a There are data companies that will sell you
window into audience behaviours, attitudes, psychographic information, but this may not
be as accurate as collecting it yourself.
desires and interests. While psychographics
are a blend of qualifiable and quantifiable ▸ ▸ Social media data
Companies such as StatSocial, Klear, and Nexalogy allow
data, demographics are purely quantifiable. you to mine your social media followers for psychographic
Psychographics cut across demographic data. You can also manually look through the Facebook social
graph for common interests. Though this data isn’t perfect—
lines and help uncover the communities it favours a younger audience that is more engaged in social
where your content will play a role. networks—it is revealing. If your desire is to build a new audience,
54 C H A P TE R TH RE E 55you can pull much of this data from proxy companies. For leading-edge technology and innovation.
instance, if you are looking to find adventure travellers, you can
look at National Geographic or Lonely Planet’s audience.
Because its perspective is so unique and
fresh, GE Reports stories are often picked up
Audience Profiles by the publications they compete with.
After you have gathered the data, a snapshot of your primary,
or typical, audience member will emerge. This will be used to
create your primary audience profile. This will tell the story of
Do Your Homework
who the audience is, as well as their level of understanding, needs There are three key areas in understanding
and interests—all of which can help inform your content. After
compiling the data, you may also see a secondary audience profile
your competition:
1
emerge. If both audiences are important to you, you may want
to consider creating two custom publications. There are multiple
examples of how the leaders have done this with great success.
Who They Are
Learning About From your earlier analysis, you were able to identify where
Your Competition your audience gets their content. You can also use this data to
find out who the thought leaders are in each particular area.
When you sell something, you
compete against your main rivals for
attention, but when you create a
newsroom, you can fan out beyond your
2
How They Are Perceived
product category. This is a great opportunity
Analyze how your rivals present themselves, the core focus of
because you can attract a fresh, new their publications and what others think of them. Are they
audience. But it can also be a challenge. generalists? Specialists? Do they cover in-depth profiles, or do
they focus on breaking news? Is there a specific angle the
You will be vying for the audience’s attention publication takes in reporting in this area?
with a whole new set of competitors, which
is why it’s important you offer something
unique in the category. Understanding your 3
competition is key to this. Where They Fall Short
GE Reports is a good example of this. Brainstorm all of the angles and types of content that can
There are several science and innovation be produced under this subject area and indicate where
your competitors focus their energy. Your sweet spot is
publications online, but GE Reports has a where your competitors rarely or never venture.
unique offering: its insider knowledge of
56 C H A P TE R TH RE E 571. Celebrities and Influencers
Owning Your Space Going back to your audience analysis, find out who the most
Owning a space—the right popular figures in the network are. This will help you
understand who to follow for insights, as well as who you
space—is about taking your could potentially partner with in the future for extra credibility.
content strategy to the next level. It means For example, GE Reports has worked with many influencers in
the “cool science” space, including Bill Nye the Science Guy
you’ve found a unique angle or made a and Neil DeGrasse Tyson, helping the brand to further earn
significant investment into becoming a the audience’s trust.
true leader in your chosen area while still 2. Language
aligning to your goals and audience. Understanding language doesn’t just refer to fluency in
linguistics. It also entails understanding your audience’s
The fact is, everyone is competing for insider language. This could include slang, acronyms,
attention, so you need to consistently offer nicknames and codes. Being able to decipher the insider
language (and speak it authentically) is an important part
something unique and compelling to keep of fitting in to the culture.
you top of mind. There are three steps
3. Memes
to finding success in this area: discover Defined as an idea, behaviour, style, or usage that spreads
the power of the niche; understand the by imitation from person to person within a culture,79 memes
could be anything from a ritual to a joke, and can often
culture; and find your uniqueness. only be deciphered through deep knowledge of a particular
culture. Knowing which memes are meaningful to your
Discover the Power of the Niche audience can help you decode everything from humour to
Trying to be something to everyone will make you relevant to no rituals within the group.
one. Picking a niche isn’t about limiting your audience. It’s about
growing it. Your niche allows you to serve one audience incredibly 4. Rules and Mores
well, learn from it and then expand naturally. Appealing to a niche Every culture has its own set of unwritten rules and mores.
audience is one of the smartest things you can do for your Understanding what they are will keep you from stumbling
publishing strategy for the following reasons: you get a unique into a potentially messy situation.
lens for approaching content; it’s easier to find and build your
audience; and you can be the big fish in a small pond. 5. Historic and Current News
Understanding both the culture’s history and current events
Understand the Culture will help you see what shapes and influences members’ attitudes.
Understanding the culture is especially important if you are Referencing history and staying on top of the news will also
aiming to cater to an audience that has advanced or expert help you to gain credibility within the group. Sports culture is a
knowledge on a subject. To speak to these audiences, you need great example of this; one cannot speak knowledgeably about
to know their culture. Knowing about their celebrities and a football player without knowing his history, such as his stats.
influencers, language, memes, rules and mores, and historic and
current news will help you win the audience’s respect and Find Your "Onlyness"
attention. Here are the five steps you can take to do this: Your “onlyness”—a term coined by author Nilofer Merchant80—
refers to that thing only you can bring to the world. It’s your
58 C H A P TE R TH RE E 59experience, knowledge, history, vision, passion, and everything else Perhaps you will find that it is too general. Maybe you need to
that makes you unique. For example, the onlyness of GE Reports lies find a fresh, new angle. This is when you will start to see your
in its years of leading innovation and technology, whereas Marriott strategy taking shape. You’ll know you’ve nailed it when you
Traveler’s onlyness is in its refined and cultured travel know-how. have no problem imagining topic ideas far into the future.
Identifying Your Strengths Undergo a Content Audit
If you already have a lot of content ready to be published in
Now that you know your exciting new ways, great! The content audit is about making sure
it is findable, indexable, and accessible to everyone involved.
audience, the competition, and Advanced users will use a searchable database to create this asset.
the culture, what do you have At the very least, a smart filing system on a server or using a cloud
service such as Dropbox will help you keep track of what you
to offer them? Before you commit to a have at your fingertips.
strategy, you need to know that you are set
up for success. If you don’t have the ability Create a Strategic Statement
Now that you understand the landscape—and know that you
to compete and deliver in a category, you have what it takes to be successful within it—it’s time to wrap it
all up neatly into a strategic statement. This statement will be your
should re-evaluate. This is where you line elevator pitch. To create it, you need to understand three things:
up your assets, potential and constraints
to solidify your editorial direction.
This part of the journey is really the 1
moment of truth for your strategy moving Your Intended
forward. With that in mind, we look at Audience
evaluating your internal assets, undergoing
a content audit, and creating a strategic
statement.
2
Your Content
Evaluate Your Internal Assets
What assets do you have access to internally? Do you have
access to interesting stories and news like Tomas Kellner of GE
3
Reports? Do you have deep data on your audience’s patterns like Your Uniqueness
Marriott? Do you have brand engagement like Lego? Do you have
communities of people who use your products or services every
If you are still struggling with putting it all together, your strategy
day who have interesting stories to tell?
can be found in that sweet spot where your goals and capabilities
Start by making a list of all the assets that would make for
cross over with your audience’s interests.
great content ideas. Then imagine how that content would play
out over weeks, months and years. Where could it go? You may find
that you are constrained at this point by too narrow a focus.
60 C H A P TE R TH RE E 61You can also read
