Brand publishing is where companies create their own branded content in order to gain business. Simple. But when you delve deeper into brand publishing and the companies who are doing it well, you find that there is much more to it than simply creating content and hoping for the best. Brand publishing or content marketing, whatever you want to call it, is now a trusty way for brands to deliver messages to audiences, through different media, be it videos, blogs or games. It is then promoted through social media or through their very own online publications, whichever tactic they see fit.
This strategy is now accepted as a great way to build trust and relationships before then creating an emotional connection with an audience, be it customers or prospective customers. We’re very much in the know here at Neil Walker Digital when it comes to brand publishing, and when we take a look at the marketing landscape, there is so much to get excited about.
No really there is.
Static forms of advertising are not longer sufficient in our accelerated cultural landscape, and when our attention spans are now reported to be lower than ever, combined with the fragmentation of media platforms, capturing the audience’s attention, and then engaging with them is easier said than done.
The audience
When looking at marketing, I like to dissect the audience by looking at their daily habits, be it their travelling or eating habits. Thinking about how they get to work, what media they look at, are they looking at a mobile device or do they browse on a desktop computer, what do they listen to? Do they use social media? Are they a driver? Do they listen to the radio or Spotify? What television do they watch? What do they do for dinner. Get. in. their. heads.
It might seem a little ‘Being John Malkovich’, but by understanding the audience and becoming them for a day, and by building profiles, you can understand what they’re into. Take Red Bull, they know that their customers are after a buzz, they understand that they’re a younger audience and by affiliating themselves with plenty of extreme sports. So they then go ahead and begin creating exciting, dynamic and wholesome content through brand publishing. They’re now not just a drinks company, they’re so much more.
More on Red Bull later though, as they’re one of my picks of companies who are doing brand publishing well.
The following list will take a look at a number of different brands who are ‘smashing’ brand publishing, and if you’re a small company who is looking to start creating your own branded content in order to grow your business, you could do with taking a look at my picks.
Through the innovative usage their own content, brands are now going beyond simple blogs and social media posts. They’re creating and promoting their own unique methods of storytelling around their products and services. These brands are setting the benchmark and are getting it right, so sit back and enjoy, there’s plenty of links to cool, vibrant and engaging content which you’ll be able to draw huge inspiration from.
ASOS
ASOS are getting it right, they now are not only a mail order clothes company, but they could also be described as a successful media operation. They very quickly realised that the way to ensure that they were an important part of the lifestyles of their customers was to start creating their own branded content.
Initially, The Guardian worked with ASOS to help create their own customer magazine, before then launching the ASOS Facebook page which now has 3,396,468 million likes*. It was quickly realised that creating their own media, rather than taking out static adverts in print publications was the way to go.
*As of 28th July 2014
So, the story goes like this. ASOS printed and distributed 400,00 + magazines to customers, the aim was to make sure that they were an essential part of their customers lives, infiltrating the home with their own content. This was 2006, in times before Facebook and Twitter were the major social players. And way before the internet became how it is today, and if you’d predicted the state of the net now, someone might suggest you were describing some elaborate futuristic fiction novel.
Nowadays, ASOS have added web, email, mobile, social, video and apps to their media mix which offers users an integrated experience. They have arranged themselves around the consumer and are able to build relationships over different media channels. They have connected with the lives and the passions of their target audience, and are not just ‘some brand’ which operates in a land far away with no interest in their customers – they have not just waited for the customer to come to them, they have made that move themselves.
American Express
American Express originally launched their content marketing platforms in 2007, and they have since gone from strenght to strenght. In Fact they (SPOLIER ALERT) are the only financial company which appears in this list, but how have they got it so right?
It might sound simple but just by giving their readers cool content, American Express are onto a winner. Not everyone can be as cool and as exciting as say Red Bull and their Space Jump, but even a financial institution can play the brand publishing game, and win while they’re at it.
Here’s three videos with an interview with Jennifer Eldin, Digital Innovation & Content Strategy at American Express, it certainly gives you a real insight into how they operate:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Even if you don’t read the rest of this article, watching the above links from Imedia Connection will give you an understanding into brand publishing, oh and if you’re too lazy to click the links, here’s an outline of what was said in the interview, and American Express’ core values when creating their content:
- Keeping an obsessive eye on readers interests.
- Finding the balance between selling, and hiding the sell.
- Simple but true: Giving readers really cool content.
- Not inserting too much of the American Express voice.
- Not focusing on volume.
- Avoiding over-saturation of its logo.
Red Bull
Red Bull organised that thing when the man jumped out of a balloon which was nearly in space, they broadcast it across the world and their logo was plastered all over the place. This is taking brand publishing to the extreme, they are a publishing empire that also happens to sell a drink, oh, you forgot about that?
The 24-mile free fall of Felix Baumgartner is just one of many pieces of content marketing that Red Bull have curated. If you check out their Twitter feed (link here), you’ll lots of large, beautiful photos which have been created in-house and by fans. They all have one thing in common though, which is that they’re all extreme.
They have managed to distance themselves from being a drinks company, to the go-to company for anyone who wants to think extreme, do extreme and live extreme. Their association with sports such as Formula One, Air Racing and Cliff Diving allows them to be the authority on everything that is exciting about being alive and pushing things to the edge while you’re at it.
Ben and Jerrys
Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, a brand which apart from the product, is solely built on aggressive content marketing and brand publishing. Youtube is full of short ad spots which areplayful, surreal and carefree animations which promote the various different flavours of their ice cream. While they are your regular static ad spots, they certainly have played a huge role in the development of the brand since it began trading out of Vermont in 1978.
These days, the company has moved with the times. They now have an Instagram account where they are running its global “Capture Euphoria” campaign. It asks followers to share photos which capture the exhilarated feeling that comes with eating their ice cream. Using the hashtag #captureeuphoria, the campaign which has been crafted by long term creative agency Silver + Partners, targets 120,000 active Instagram followers, offering a prize.
It could be called ‘Conversation marketing’, getting users of social media to get the message out rather than do it themselves. This here link runs through that, so I don’t have to.
Ben & Jerry’s have succeeded in building interactions across all social channels. In the case of the #captureeuphoria campaign, they created an effective campaign which also offers the prize of some winning images being chosen to be featured in custom-made ads. The final outcome even including a shout out to the original Instagrammer, this link goes into more detail about it all.
The company knows that everyone loves ice cream, so rather than create a contrived marketing campaign, they crowd-sourced one and got their followers to get involved.
A marketing executive at Ben & Jerry’s told AdWeek: “The bottom line is, we are trying to increase our sales. But this is also about developing a deeper relationships with our fans.”, a quote which rather sums up brand publishing.
Heineken
Heineken’s USA CMO has also spoken about content marketing, she says:
It’s a huge race to become the king of content, under the assumption that, this is the way to increase engagement, and ultimately sales. I believe we’re going to develop a more refined view of this approach in 2013. Brand marketers are going to start looking at ‘engagement potential’, which will be a combination of category, brand and campaign engagement potential
The reason i’ve dropped this quote is in, as you could of guessed, is because Heineken are quite proficient at their own brand publishing. Take fathers day, the drinks company launched a social media campaign to get followers to tweet dad jokes to them, before then collating them and publishing them on a #dadjokes Tumblr page.
The way I see it, is there’s three stages to this particular campaign. Firstly the engagement with social followers, then the curation of the campaign, using the dad jokes, then pushing out the campaign over social networks. All the while, building rapport with readers, see below:
- Follower engagement
- content curation
- create emotion (in this case it’s laughter)
Sharpie
Sharpie have really laid down a marker (LMAO) when it comes to content marketing and the company haven’t just relied on their strong brand image. Sharpie are now using branded content to focus on two things: connecting with their ‘critical’ teen demographic and also showing the world that Sharpies are about creativity, not just utility.
They have even produced their own music video which premiered during the MTV Video Music Awards (because they know their audience will be watching), saving the full length version for online users. The artwork featured in the video was acquired via Facebook and the young audience that the company has (86 per cent of its followers are between 13 and 24 years of age).
Adding to this, Sharpie shares lots of in-house artwork which has been created using their own products, on Instagram. So they truly are brand publishers, in the truest sense of the word!
Brands who are doing brand publishing well
When talking about marketing and advertising, it used to be the case that us marketers would talk about a target market. Not anymore, we’re now more inclined to say the target audience, because marketing now is so much more than targeting. Its about engaging with an audience, and through successful brand publishing, the brands above really are winning, or are ahead of the curve.
So, static ads like banner ads are out, and responsive, engaging and connective marketing is now in. Brands are actively looking to captivate their audiences imagination through brand publishing strategies, connecting on social, be it on Instagram, Youtube or Twitter*.
*Please click this link, for you’ll never regret it and you’ll then truly understand what great crowd sourced content marketing / brand publishing is.
What do you think about our choices? If you honestly believe there are companies out there who are doing brand publishing better, than we’d like to know! Let us know on Twitter, you can join in the conversation, we’re always on hand to speak to anyone who wants to know. We’ve got lots of marketing knowledge to share, so get involved!