At the CMA’s International Content Marketing Summit Bruce Bay, Chairman & CEO, EnVeritas Group and Geoffray Maugin, VP Global Marketing, Sofitel Luxury Hotels, Arjun Basu, Content Director, Spafax and Jan Rezab, CEO & Co- founder, Socialbakers, outlined the three fundamentals to creating the ideal content strategy and how to monetise it.
1. Content must answer questions
Consumers have lots of specific questions and if you do not provide relevant and interesting content that directly answers these questions, you will not keep a customer for long. The strategy therefore has to be based on defining what the questions might be, which is the strategy that has been applied by Sofitel Luxury Hotels in its upcoming repositioning, from its website through to its advertising, promotions, social media, trade shows and media coverage.
2. Content has to be tied to business objectives It must be a function of context.
3. Irrespective of platform it has to take lessons from social media in terms of being likeable, shareable and actionable
4. Content strategy must be robust enough to hold a storyline over a period of time, but nimble enough to react to the changing environment
The successful content strategy is one that eradicates the space junk. One that means content is not being generated for content’s sake, a criticism that, in today’s over communicating world, faces brands and marketers that fail to engage their audiences.
Nicola Murphy, CEO, The River Group and Melanie Stubbing, President, Weight Watchers Europe, Toby Guiducci, Digital Sales Manager, The Met Office and Catherine Toole, CEO & Founder of Sticky Content, picked up the mantle in session three to outline how content can be monetised, a significant challenge when the majority of content available is being given away be media owners and brands for free. A clear learning was that simply put, some brands can’t monetise content. The prerequisites are: a strong, visible brand, a dedicated and loyal audience, a brand community and a strong customer service ethic. The nice to haves are: audience niches, a significant amount of customers, newsstand appeal and an international footprint, meaning that monetisation becomes more about access and less about ownership.
The Met Office provided the perfect case study for monetisation, as the organisation dips its toe into commercialising the weather in order to cost the tax payer less, whilst still providing a free public service. The revenues streams identified are data provision, forecast services, professional consultancy, advertising and sponsorship. Pollen provided the first big opportunity for sponsorship and advertising. The Met Office worked closely with Benadryl to create content around the pollen count which could be co-owned by the hay fever brand and The Met Office, creating value for both.
Sticky Content completed the practicalities with hints and tips on how to make content work harder. For example ensuring the right phraseology to increase results, such as the move from ‘ Become a Fan’ to ‘Like’ by Facebook. Delegates were also given an impromptu algebra lesson with the perfect formula for content revealed as: C= 4m +3v + 2(i -f) – 2a. So there you have it.
For more information visit www.ilovecontent.co.uk/summit
About the CMA
The Content Marketing Association (CMA), previously the Association of Publishing Agencies (APA) is a not for profit organisation representing the content marketing industry.
The overarching aim of CMA is to promote the use of editorialised content as an effective marketing tool to client-side marketers and showcase the range of channels that can be used to editorially engage customers from digital – such as smart phone apps, tablet-enabled microsites and branded TV – to the more traditional customer magazines.
Formed in 1993 the CMA’s members now comprise of 90 per cent of the UK market, producing publications and digital content for over 1,000 leading brands and organisations in the UK and internationally. Content marketing is the second fastest growing media channel and CMA exists to champion and encourage this growth on behalf of its members. It is widely recognised for being one of the most innovative and supportive industry associations and has launched a number of initiatives all designed to further push the editorialisation of content marketing as an effective marketing solution.