Co.Create

The Key To Content Marketing (And Business): Be Less Self-Centered

Anonymous — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:00:04 +0000

In a world where “every brand is a publisher,” giving away audience-focused content is cheaper, more inspiring, and better for the world than interruptive marketing. And it works better, too.

When I graduated from high school, my uncle gave me Dale Carnegie’s classic self-help book, How To Win Friends And Influence People. I thought it was a joke. But being 17 and insecure, I read it anyway. In between cheesy stories about Abe Lincoln and Henry Ford, a nugget of truth stuck with me: People love talking about themselves. If you want people to like you, talk about them, not you.

Most companies suck at good conversation. They’re used to blasting out one-way messages about how great they are. Their product. Themselves. Me, me, me.

Today’s consumers don’t have to put up with that. Unfollow. Friend request denied. We want to talk about us, not you.

The companies that win friends and influence fans are the ones that give us content we want and unique experiences focused on us. For free. And those that do it well make a killing in business.

Birchbox, for example, grew its beauty sample service from zero to more than 100,000 subscribers (each paying $10 a month) in the past two years, according to MarketWatch. The New York-based startup drew attention in the noisy beauty products space in large part by producing a blog and magazine about grooming and makeup. Like Allure or Glamour or any traditional beauty mag, Birchbox talks about what its audience wants, and not about Birchbox itself.

“Content is the best way to differentiate your business and to create value,” Birchbox’s director of content, Mollie Chen, told me in an interview last fall. “We give our customers useful articles, videos, and blogs in order to gain their trust, communicate with them, and keep them coming back to our site.”

American Express (a customer of my startup, Contently), is another great example. Its small business news site OpenForum.com publishes small business trends, how-tos, and entrepreneurial war stories at scale--dozens per day. Nowhere do the articles or videos slip in “…and you should use your AmEx card!” And, paradoxically, that’s what makes Internet users like AmEx. Two point four million Facebook fans and counting.

The secret to using free content as a business driver is to be the host of the conversation your audience cares about, not the subject of it. Great content transforms advertisers from interruption to destination.

This piece is part of a Collaborative Fund-curated series on creativity and values written by thought leaders in the for-profit, for-good business space.

Consumers don’t load up Firefox after work in search of banner ads about 0% balance transfer credit cards. They don’t pop out of bed in hopes of encountering Internet propaganda about deodorant. They want interesting stories. They want to be entertained, enriched, and to discover content that makes them look good to their friends.

I believe the successful businesses of the future will continue to invest in being good publishers, purveyors of education and knowledge. Their investments will yield not only goodwill and positive branding, but win customers and advocates at a fraction of the cost per acquisition of traditional advertising.

And yes, I have an interest in saying that (my company connects brand publishers with reporters), but I also believe it’s true. At Contently, giving away our secrets has won us loads of business. We make no effort to mask who we are on our blog and in our magazine, but we eschew talking about ourselves as much as possible. Though many of our readers become our customers, our content works because we strive to teach our readers how to be successful on their own.

Just like Mr. Carnegie’s did.

Shane Snow is founder of Contently.

Google Releases “Our Mobile Planet” Data

Wed, 16 May 2012 06:12:19 +0000

Newly released data from Google and market research company Ipsos supports what you already know: The burgeoning landscape of mobile marketing is poised to explode as consumers increasingly rely on their smartphones for entertainment, to shop, and to search online.

According to Google’s Our Mobile Planet research, smartphone penetration increased 13% over last year, with 44% of the U.S. population now owning a smartphone and 66% of those accessing the Internet on a daily basis. That smartphone stat doesn’t put the U.S. in the top tier globally, though. Australia, the U.K., Sweden, Norway, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE all have smartphone uptake rates over 50%.

The recent flak service providers like Verizon and Sprint caught with capping dubiously titled "unlimited data" plans hasn’t seemed to slow consumers’ fervor for utilizing their smartphones to shop, with an overwhelming 96% claiming to have researched a product or service on their phone and 57% conducting general searches every day.

Among the other stats: 89% of smartphone users notice mobile ads and 66% visit a business online or in-store after a local search.

Marketers should keep in mind, however, that much like searching on a traditional computer, SEO still plays a crucial role, as 61% of smartphone users only look at the first page of results. That being said, fleeting attention spans can be channeled into successful campaigns by capitalizing on the fact that 86% of people use their smartphone while consuming other media: 52% watching TV, 51% listening to music on their smartphone, and 34% watching movies.

See more in the infographic here and the ThinkWithGoogle.com/OurMobilePlanet site.

Feist Keeps It Small With An Intimate Performance… And Street Dancers

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:35:09 +0000

Although she’s had a big impact on music charts in the past, Leslie Feist knows how to wield the power of small. In a world full of non-stop short attention span theater, it’s a strategy that allows her to stand out.

The singer/songwriter has been known to perform at secret shows in the past, and in the video above she’s at it again. Backed by simpatico female harmonists Mountain Man, Feist strums an acoustic guitar along with her mighty wisp of a voice on a street corner in San Francisco.

The impromptu performance of "Cicadas and Gulls" from her latest album is only improved by the addition of street dancers Looney and No Noize from the dance crew Turf Feinz, who seem to float on their toes. Although they can’t quite conform to the languid tune of the song, their slow-motion movements register as a visual reaction to it.

Rather than aim for maximum visibility and overblown video efforts, Feist appears to understand the draw of intimate musical experiences more than most artists. Such performances may not reach as many people, but they reach people in a deeper way.

Food Bank Teaches About Hunger By Inflicting Hunger

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:23:34 +0000

Would you like some social awareness with your pizza?

In a recent campaign (that could never be recreated in the U.S.), Paraguay’s Food Bank Foundation partnered with agency Oniria/TBWA to spread awareness of world hunger through a pizza delivery stunt. The plan involved "the two most important pizzerias in Asuncion" assuring customers over the phone that their pizza would arrive in 40-45 minutes, but then waiting until much later to deliver the goods.

In the video above, you can hear the customers calling in to complain, their voices a notch higher than usual perhaps, from hitting that special sweet spot between hunger and annoyance. When the pizza finally does arrive, however, it comes with a message written on the receipt: "When you’re hungry, you understand hunger." The pizza is free and the customers are urged instead to donate what they can to the cause.

The concept caught on with the media, and the campaign ultimately helped raise over 50 tons of food for Food Bank to donate. No word, though, on whether consumer trust has yet been restored to the two most important pizza chains in Asuncion.

Hat tip to Adverblog

Hellmann’s Sends Shoppers Home With Receipt Recipes

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:00:00 +0000

It used to be that the biggest surprise you might find after leaving the supermarket was that you’d been overcharged or forgotten something. Shoppers in Brazil recently found a much more useful surprise along with their groceries, however, and it was printed right on the receipt.

Created by Ogilvy Brazil, the latest campaign from Hellmann’s finds a clever way to show consumers how to get more out of their mayonnaise. Ogilvy installed software in cash registers at 100 locations of a supermarket chain in Brazil that recognizes when Hellmann’s is scanned. This program quickly sifts through a database of potential recipes to find one based on the other purchased ingredients. The custom-designed recipe is then printed on the receipt along with directions on how to prepare it. For instance, chicken, parsley, curry, and Hellmann’s would be combined to make Chicken Fingers with Curry.

Hopefully, no shoppers at any participating supermarkets were just buying mayonnaise and cigarettes. Because that’s just a recipe for sadness.

Adoption Campaign Taps Iconic Animals As Pitchpets

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:04:34 +0000

Iconic characters of popular culture have a long history of advertising tie-ins. Notable pairings have included the controversial (The Flintstones and Winston cigarettes), the catchphrase-spawning (The Simpsons and Butterfinger), and the downright bizarre (Alf and Telecom USA)--and you can now file The Hong Kong Animal Adoption Center and Snoopy into those annals under "adorably appropriate."

Created by agency Leo Burnett Hong Kong, the series of print ads feature Snowy (or Milou for you Francophiles) from The Adventures of Tintin, Garfield the cat, and Snoopy from Peanuts, all with the tagline "Adopt a pet. The Stories will follow." What’s interesting about how these celebrated pets are depicted is that they aren’t the animated versions of themselves, per se, but subtly Photoshopped or hyperrealistic renderings that fuzz out distinctions of reality, engendering that sense of wonderment and adventure that could be yours in the real world. See the rest of the ads above.

Annoy Your Friends And Make Art With The Video-Photo Fake-Out

Wed, 16 May 2012 13:00:19 +0000

There you are giving nothing but face in a Kodak moment: head cocked ever so slightly to your good side with a smirk or full-on Colgate smile at the ready as you wait for the flash that never comes. That’s right--you’ve fallen victim to the brilliantly simple "I’m-taking-a-picture-PSYCH-it’s-actually-video" prank. But now, thanks to Dean Fleischer-Camp, you don’t have to feel so alone. Fleischer-Camp, director, editor, and half of the duo behind the achingly adorable Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, strings together a series of awkwardly faltering grins and poses in his latest project, Smile.

Innocent subjects, including his Marcel collaborator and SNL alum Jenny Slate, enter into an unintended staring match with Fleischer-Camp as he captures not the cutesy photo-op that was hoped for, but the uncomfortableness of realizing that what might’ve been sexy or hilarious as a passing snapshot becomes less-than-so as video.