Content Marketing – Corporations Can Do It Too!
I love content marketing – not just because it’s a large part of what I do at JuiceTank, but as a consumer, like to see companies challenge themselves to find creative ways to appeal to my interests.
Now that it’s become the norm for companies to market themselves by creating valuable content, it’s becoming less acceptable for companies to put out traditional advertisements that beat you over the head and demand that you “BUY BUY BUY” without offering you any value in return for your time and attention. Just look at the banner ad… even Google knows it’s dying a slow, painful death.
High Quality/High Altitude Content Marketing
Even if you’re not very tapped into the world of content marketing, I’m sure you’ve noticed some of the changes that have come about as a result of content based marketing. For example, you’ve probably seen viral content created by a major company as part of its content marketing strategy. Remember when Felix Baumgartner broke the sound barrier in a free fall from the edge of space?
Red Bull purportedly spent over $10 million on the Stratos Space Jump, but in the end, their return on investment (ROI) was huge due to the exposure and PR that the feat generated for the company. Millions of people tuned in to the live broadcast and the company’s name will now forever be linked to what was without a doubt the coolest skydive in human history.
Red Bull really capitalized on the content marketing trend over the last decade and as a result, their brand name has become synonymous with extreme sporting, but stunts and sporting events aren’t the only way for a company to create content that will ultimately generate good ROI.
Pepsi showed us story-telling is the name of the game
Back in 2012, Pepsi started a series called Pepsi MAX & Kyrie Irving Present: “Uncle Drew”, a staged documentary about 20 year old NBA rookie of the year, Kyrie Irving, dressing up as an old man and schooling “young bloods” (as he refers to them) in pickup basketball games.
The segments feature subtle product placement throughout, but it doesn’t distract from the basketball being played and the hilarious lines that “Uncle Drew” spontaneously throws out while he’s dunking over guys who look 60 years younger than him.
The Uncle Drew series has been extremely successful so far (more than 30 million views between the first two videos on YouTube) because Pepsi made sure to keep the focus on the content, not the company. The commercial doesn’t say anything about the product or demand that you “BUY BUY BUY” as a traditional advertisement would. It merely provides viewers with good, entertaining content, while boosting the public image of Pepsi and its products in the eyes of potential customers.
What’s The Takeaway?
Companies that focus on boosting sales by creating great content understand the fact that consumers have a lot of choices in terms of what products they could be spending their money on.
Unless if a product is better than the competition by leaps and bounds, a company is going to have a hard time increasing sales simply by touting its benefits through traditional advertising – there’s simply too much competition for traditional advertising to make an average product stand out.
But an average company or product can easily stand out by creating and associating itself with exceptional content. Who cares if Pepsi is just the blue logo version of Coca-Cola or that Red Bull is just glorified caffeine water? Their exceptional content marketing makes their brands more appealing than the competition and that means increased revenue for them.
Especially since you are building a brand, you’ll need all of the stories you can get. If your company doesn’t have a story, get creative. Take a cue from companies like Red Bull and Pepsi and make sure that if you do it, make you demonstrate that you can either solve a problem or tell a good story.
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