Tuesday 30 September 2014

THE REPORT

CREATING CONTENT THAT DEMANDS TO BE SHARED

#sharecontent

Summary

According to research carried out by the PRCA and YouGov, nearly three quarters of marketers are preparing to increasetheir investment in content marketing over the coming year.’ But with 4 million Google searches every minute, 140 milliontweets a day and 27 million pieces of content shared every 24 hours, how can you cut through and be the trusted source ofinformation for your audience?

‘Creating Content that Demands to be Shared ‘– a seminar was held at the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), London toanswer questions such as:

• How do you ensure your content stands out from the crowd?

• How can you use the crowd to drive your content and brand up the search results page?

• What is the secret to sustained content success?

• Why and how are your customers sharing?

Attendees were a cross-section of B2C and B2B communications professionals as well as digital and marketing agencyrepresentatives.

Julius Duncan, Head of Remarkable Content, opened the event with a presentation unveiling the results of our Share-abilitySurvey 2014 and was followed by comedian, actor and Twitter obsessive, David Schneider.

A panel debate followed, chaired by Julius.

#sharecontent

Speakers:

Julius Duncan, head of Remarkable Content (@juliusduncan)David Schneider, comedian, actor and Twitter obsessive (@davidschneider)

Our Panel:

Arun Sudhaman, editor-in-chief, The Holmes Report (@arunsudhaman)

Clare O’Brien, head of content and native advertising working group, IAB (@clareob)

Kevin Poulter, social media and employment lawyer (@kevinpoulter)

Philip Smith, head of content and solutions, BrandRepublic (@philipsmith)

Julius Duncan – The importance of creating valuable content

Julius emphasised the time sensitive nature of content, explaining you have two hours to react when it comes to real-time

content and that the real wins come when a brand is quick to respond.

Stating that plans must be in place to enable such a quick, reactive team and prevent responses being slowed by a lengthy

approval process, Julius used brand examples such as Samsung and KitKat and their responses to #bendgate, both of which

responded within 30 minutes.

Revealing the results of the Remarkable Content Share-ability Survey 2014, Julius reiterated that personally relevant,

different and entertaining content is what gets shared. This is increasingly important due to the continued change in how

marketers spend budgets, with greater focus being given to content and

therefore more brands are competing in the same space.

Share-ability 2014 confirmed that creating compelling content is one of

the biggest challenges for marketers, alongside the increasing spread of

marketing channels on and offline.

REAL-TIME CONTENT

3 0 MINS

David Schneider

As guest speaker, David Schneider treated the audience of both in-house and agency communicationsprofessionals to his top tweeting tips having seen his own following rise to over 180,000.

‘Be a jockey’ was his top tip – a memorandum to keep it short and human, along with being a reactivelistener (actually listen) and engaging in the conversation.

Using examples from his own Twitter account alongside those such as Argos and the BBC, David providedattendees with a masterclass on how to maximise their tweeting efforts.

• Step out of your comfort zone

– Brands need to be more human, offer information, insight and humour

• Engagement

– Don’t tweet and leave, tweet and hang out for 10 minutes, see who retweets, favourites,engages with you

– Make sure you reply and that the tone is in line with what you’re already tweeting

– Generate replies and invite conversation by asking a question and experimenting withhashtags so you can be found

• Ask yourself – how am I different? Be original

– Own something you create

– It doesn’t have to be funny, just original such as @JFK_1963

The Debate

Q – Is this focus on content-driven

communications a fad or a sustainable

part of the marketing mix?

A.

PS: If you get content right it is very sustainable. From a cost and budgeting perspective this is a very effective approach, it is

ultimately about making what you have and what you create work harder.

AS: Broader platforms specifically may be trend-led and fad-focussed but the underlying trend of creating sharable, compelling

content is here to stay and has been here for decades in various guises.

CoB: Yes, it is sustainable. The evolution of the platforms provides greater choices for brands and greater options for use, be it

customer service, sales, service diversity or customer engagement. People love the internet because they love content. Innovative,

engaging, content-led techniques are being experimented with across websites now to attract new audiences, showing how brands

can work in tandem with content. This is just the start of that, however, we haven’t seen anything yet.

Philip Smith Arun Sudhaman

Q: How is native advertising different to advertorials?

A.

CoB: Branded content in terms of native advertising offers greater opportunity for the innovative delivery of content. Seeing

brands embedded in content through sponsored and promoted links, appropriately placed, can complement the user’s

experience and this area is going to grow.

Q: How can the PR industry adapt?

A.

AS: There are a number of things that PR agencies can do in order to evolve. The main thing is to think differently.Audiences, stakeholder groups and conversation is at the heart of PR and should likewise be at the heart of any contentstrategy.

There is a need to move away from media relations as a proxy for stakeholder outreach. PROs have got to move with thetimes. There are pockets of innovation evident, but change is difficult. The focus needs to switch from the little black bookof media contacts and shift to where the audiences are spending their time. For many global PR agencies steeped intradition, this is difficult. Many inspirational thought leaders are therefore leaving and setting up new agencies which is amuch easier route than changing an entire, embedded culture.

PS: Ad agencies also have the same or similar challenges. The difficult bit is building a model for costings. Traditionalmethods are being tested with so many challenges to cut through to the end user. We should, however, be positive abouthow the communications market is changing right now.

CoB: It’s not just agencies at risk with this new way of the world, there are increasingly blurred lines between publishers,agencies and media houses for example Metro and The Guardian and their in-house diversification

Q: Should brands work on organic content or should we focus on paid-for opportunities?

A.

PS: There is a need for a mix of both. Reactivity is vital in this arena and you can’t do purely organic content if you’rewaiting two days for approvals.

CoB: Success is different today. 1 million views of a film on YouTube a year ago was impressive. Now it needs to be 10million, and it is more about engagement. Your focus should be on creating great content first then spending big at thebeginning before letting it grow into the social stratosphere. Don’t forget that earned media costs, it’s never been free toget the best results. Good PR campaigns, for example, have always cost money.

KP: Word of mouth is worth more than any paid for opportunities. Remember your tone of voice is important though and itmust be consistent however content is distributed.

AS: Metrics of success vary for brands, but quality applies to everything not just about the quality of the audience targetingbut the content creation

CoB: Google are monitoring authenticity of content on owned media. Don’t think you can hide behind tags and keywordsnow, this is why it is one of the most exciting times to be a marketer.

Q: What is the biggest challenge for brands?

A.

CoB: Senior people within organisations still don’t understand the value of content. You need content or communications totake a place around the board room table and become ingrained in business plans. You can’t be reactive if you don’t havethe support to do so.

PS: Once you turn it on you can’t turn it off, particularly if you get traction., allow spontaneity but be prepared, have a plan,an idea ready for when ‘it’ happens and empower people to react. For example, Samsung would have had a plan to respondto a competitor issue and turned that idea around in quick time once #bendgate presented the opportunity to do so.

KP: Use what you have; your employees are your biggest tool and deliver your brand a personality. Bland content getsignored and social media is crying out for personality.

AS: There are two reasons that content strategy falls down; not being human and being worried about how you areperceived.

Q: If we need to be responsive and on the ball 24/7, when do we sleep?!

A.

CoB: There is an argument that we stop expecting to be quite so reactive, sometimes we need time to think before

responding and brands should give budget to experimentation and learning, but as a customer service tool immediacy is a

neccessity.

PS: You have to focus, you can’t get good content out to all the channels, all of the time.

TAKE AWAYS

• You have two hours maximum to create real-time

content

• More brands are competing in the same space,

increasing the importance of creating valuable

content

• Relevant, entertaining, original/different content is

what will be shared

• Brands need to step out of their comfort zone and be

human on social media platforms

• Invite conversation, engage and listen to your

audience

• Content is here to stay as a communications tool

• Agree on the level of authenticity you are prepared to

give and the appropriate tone of voice from the

outset

• It is an exciting and positive time for marketing

communications

• Support organic content with paid-for opportunities

• Secure the buy in from the senior team and board

members

• Be prepared and have a plan , once you’re in the

space you need to have content to fill it

• Allocate budget to experimenting and learning across

new channels and with different types of content

Remarkablecontent.co.uk

Remarkable Content is a new breed of communications agency that creatively connects brands with their

audiences.

Our unique fusion of skills across branding, creative, PR, social media, video, content marketing, SEO and

digital, and a wealth of industry experience allows us to be bold, agile and imaginative.

With over 70 expert communications professionals across our London, Winchester, Manchester and Bristol

offices, we use strategic planning, analysis and insight to create remarkable content that reaches your

audiences in the right place, at the right time, to drive your business objectives.

Listed in the PRWeek Top 150, we are an award winning team that, as part of the Remarkable Group, can

also offer engagement, stakeholder and public affairs consultancy.