Why content from brands means acting like a newsroom

The savvier marketers are the ones recognising that content by brands means recruiting new skill-sets into the team, argues Steve Ackerman, managing director of Somethin’ Else.

Think about the friends you love the most. They’ll be the people you feel you can talk to easily, who relate to you, who give you something in terms of humour, fun, warmth, sociability or a shared passion.

Think about the animated conversations and shared experiences you’ve had with them and how those memories make you feel. At the heart of relationships are shared experiences and a feeling of both parties giving something emotionally to each other.

As the marketing world wakes up to the possibilities of content in all its forms (video, audio, games, social media, interactivity) brands are increasingly faced with a challenge. That challenge is how to change from a mindset of one that shouts incessantly to the consumer through traditional advertising to one that reaches out to target audiences through an ongoing and mutually beneficial conversation.

Just like relationships with friends, there are increasing numbers of brands – such as Lego, Chipotle, Burberry and Sainsbury’s – who have understood how creating content with editorial worth allows them to build a deeper relationship with the consumer (or audience if you’re thinking with a content mindset) which in turn drives brand loyalty and sales.

And just like real relationships, this approach to content doesn’t take the form of short campaigns that send a one-way message, but is ongoing, interactive, conversational and reactive to the real interests and passions of the target audience.

Indeed for some brands this is now going one stage further with real-time conversation and reaction to the audience. Perhaps the best known example of this has been Oreo’s “power-cut” tweets, advertising and social media assets that were created during the 2013 Super Bowl, when black-outs hit many homes.

The brand effectively harnessed the main talking point of the audience and used it to not only create strong marketing but a genuine conversation with the audience. At the heart of Oreo’s strategy was creating a live newsroom of content creators making and executing assets as fast as possible as events at the Super Bowl unfolded.

This approach to creating content in real-time is one that is at odds with the meticulously strategised, planned and executed approach that traditional advertising agencies have to work with their clients. It challenges traditional sign-off processes and the speed of action that are an anathema to many agencies. More than that, with a mindset that is geared towards one way and pre-planned creative, most traditional agencies are simply not geared up to be able to offer to their clients a real-time marketing strategy.

Last year’s Guinness “Round Up Your Mates” content was a glaring example of a media agency (Carat) attempting to apply a traditional advertising skill base in order to create broadcast content (which featured Jonathan Ross) and a real-time social media conversation. The resulting PR fiasco led to all traces of the campaign being wiped from the web (try and find the videos – you won’t!).

When done well, taking a real-time newsroom approach to creating Vines, Twitter comments, infographics and any other social media results in a genuine two way conversation with the audience. Lego’s pre announcement images of David Moyes outside Old Trafford as a lego cab pulls up (#TaxiforMoyes) were a great example of instant reaction and engagement with the audience. This year’s BRIT Awards did this to such great effect that according to Twitter it was the most tweeted TV show in UK history.

However, real-time reaction throws up genuine challenges for marketers over the skills needed to avoid the experience of Guinness. For many marketing teams the idea of having a two way conversation with the audience, or responding to them instantly, will be one that strikes sweat inducing fear.

The savvier marketers are the ones recognising that content by brands means recruiting new skill-sets into the team. Coca-Cola and Virgin are the latest UK marketing teams to advertise “head of content” roles. Brands that don’t react to the need for these new skills and roles do so at their peril.

And of course, if there are new roles and skills required in the marketing team then it follows that agencies must offer a matching capability. But the struggle for traditional agencies is that real-time, newsroom-type, quick reaction content is totally at odds to an approach of strategy-plan-create.

So for brands keen to embrace an instantaneous, reactive “newsroom” approach to content such as social media and online video, not only does their marketing team need new skills but their agency portfolio does too. In reality, the ability to create engaging content in real-time with strong editorial value is one that those with journalistic or broadcast backgrounds are much better suited to than integrated, creative or media agencies – some of whom are as dazzled as their clients by the new content headlights.

If real-time responsive content requires new roles in the marketing team, then agencies themselves need to adapt to be able to offer the service that clients require. Many agencies will fail in gaining these skills and instead, alongside them – and superseding them – a new breed of content agencies are fast emerging. These content agencies are packed with broadcast and journalistic practitioners alongside the essential strategists, account managers and planners.

For marketers, real-time content poses challenges that won’t be right for some brands and which some teams will simply not wish to embrace. But for those that do, there is a genuine opportunity to “give” something to the audience and engage in a real conversation. And by doing so, the “newsroom” approach offers brands that most elusive of opportunities – to create a genuine and meaningful relationship with the consumer that is valued by both parties.

For the brands that feel this is a passing fad, or not for them, the challenge is to decide how much the relationship with the consumer should be exactly that – a relationship. A real relationship means asking not only the consumer to invest their time and emotion, but brands doing the same.

To get all the latest MediaTel Newsline updates follow us on Twitter.