Content Marketing

Question 1

What is content?

Answer 1

Anything on any channel that people view, read or listen to.

Digital content comes in many forms, from text, audio and video files to graphics, animations and images.

Question 2

What is content marketing?

Answer 2

Form of marketing focused on creating, publishing and distributing relevant and useful content for a target audience.

It is often used by businesses in order to attract attention, increase brand awareness or credibility, generate leads or increase online sales.

It’s usually a longer-term strategy - when done well, it can reduce your reliance on paid media as consumers start to seek out and share your content

Question 3

The content ecosystem can be segmented into Push or Pull communication. What are these?

Answer 3

Push communication tends to be Paid and more product/brand focused. Not necessarily content users interact or engage with - e.g. price promotion ads, educational materials and advertorials

Pull communications, tends to be highly engaging, entertaining or of high interest to your consumers.

Question 4

What is the role of content marketing (and what should pull and push communications always be)?

Answer 4

• Entertaining - connecting the audience to the brand in a relevant way
• Educating - informing and enlightening the audience about the brand and what it is offering
• Activating - technical and functional elements of the product/service are brought into the creative to encourage or activate a response from the audience

Question 5

Content marketing can take many forms. What are four examples?

Answer 5

• Branded posts - brand creates and brands the content which is then distributed through social networks
• Product placement - a brand pays to have their product shown in the content of a relevant program e.g. Masterchef and Coles
• Bespoke short-form videos - brands create videos/content about a specific brand, product or service e.g. Dove’s Real Beauty sketches
• Brands as publishers - brands create their own communication platform, which may sit within the main website or as a seperate destination e.g. ANZ BlueNotes digital publication

Question 6

What are four types of content executions?

Answer 6

• Advertiser funded programming - a brand co-creates content with a broadcast partner e.g. Westpac’s Air Rescue is an example where they co-created a TV Show with a broadcaster in oder to communicate a message for the brand
• Branded stunts - e.g. Red Bull doing all their stuff including the freefall from above Earth
• Branded movies -e.g. Lego Movie
• User-generated Content (UGC)

Question 7

What are the four types of content?

Answer 7

• Paid
• Earned
• Shared
• Owned

Question 8

What is paid content?

Answer 8

Refers to activity purchased by the brand or company

Question 9

What is earned content?

Answer 9

Media activity related to a company or brand that is generated by external sources e.g. publicity mentions in a magazine, post in online review sites

Question 10

What is shared content?

Answer 10

Refers to user-generated content and social media

Question 11

What is owned content?

Answer 11

Refers to assets that are created and owned by a company or brand (e.g. brand website)

Question 12

What are the strengths and weaknesses of paid content?

Answer 12

+ potential to build high reach or scale - dependent on your budget, channel selection and target audience

• not as engaging
• user is more in control and they have the ability to skip ads and block ads entirely through ad bock
• paid content may also not have the same ‘organic’ feel as owned or earned channels, e.g not as shareable or credible

Question 13

What is earned content?

Answer 13

Publicity and praise gained without having to incentivise or pay people/publishers that are talking about the brand/product

Question 14

What are the advantages/disadvantages of earned content?

Answer 14

Advantages

• Impartiality and authority gained from an engaged audience
• Audience is choosing to opt-in to content about your brand/product

Disadvantages
- can’t control the message and the audience had free reign

Question 15

What are the advantages of shared media?

Answer 15

• Engagement and advocacy - the audience becomes a third-party validator of your content. Customers react to a brand’s posts on social media by giving it a like on FB
• Reach - the engagement of social amplifies the reach and impact of your message
• Cost-efficiency - for many brands, one of the biggest benefits of social media is its cost effectiveness, as large spends may not be required to reach your audience
• Authenticity - the more you interact with your followers when they are engaging, the more you can generate brand trust and advocacy for your brand. This is an essential key to building authenticity through shared media. By responding thoughtfully and honestly when provided with feedback, consumers and peers will develop trust and brand recognition

Question 16

What are the disadvantages of shared content?

Answer 16

• Controlling the message can be difficult as it’s no longer coming straight from the brand
• Negativity, the way in which customers share your content is not always positive. Brands need to have a plan of how they engage and respond in these situations

Question 17

What are the advantages of owned content?

Answer 17

• Control - the company can set the agenda (because you own the content and platform it will be populated on)
• Cost efficiency, longevity and versatility

Question 18

What are the disadvantages of owned content?

Answer 18

• Difficulties in finding/establishing the audience to share it with
• Time is required and there is a degree of mistrust from consumers about info coming directly form the company

Question 19

There are a bunch of sliding scale factors you need to consider. What are the four?

Answer 19

• Brand first vs Audience first
• Niche vs. Scale
• Cost efficiency vs. premium
• Sale vs. awareness

Question 20

What is brand first vs. audience first?

Answer 20

• Placing greater focus on the brand relates to giving the actual product and/or pricing priority, but this does not mean that we disregard the audience’s needs
• Conversely, the audiences’ first angle focuses on being credible and authentic to make a more emotional connection with the audience

Question 21

What is niche vs. scale?

Answer 21

• The level of context we choose to place in advertising can have an impact on audience reach potential
• Greater contextual relevance often correlates with a niche market, whereas if we focus on a broader contextual message there will often be opportunity for great scalability

Question 22

What is cost efficiency vs. premium?

Answer 22

• cost efficiency in terms of ad placement may not be as important to some brands as it can result in a lot of wastage in reaching out to people you don’t necessarily want to reach
• quality/premium targeted environments could be more effective in some cases as it can help leverage the brands editorial or contextual credibility

Question 23

What is sales vs. awareness?

Answer 23

• relates to whether product sales are more or less important than brand messaging and association
• if sales are more important, less context is needed
• whereas if brand awareness is more important, greater context is imperative

Question 24

When trying to understand your audience, what are they key questions you have to ask?

Answer 24

1. Who are they?
2. Where are they?
3. How are they consuming media?
4. What do they need to know?

Question 25

When trying to figure our where your audience consumes media and on what platform, what elements do you have to consider?

Answer 25

• The Channel (e.g. mobile, website)
• The Format (e.g. video, blog, display banner)
• The platform (e.g. Facebook, Youtube)
• The Screen (e.g. tablet, PC, mobile)

Question 26

What are three ways to distribute content?

Answer 26

• Amplify - utilising paid content distribution as well as using a brand’s owned assets
• Influence - is about using the power of trusted sources to get your content out there via tech and algorithms, to working with media partners or any other third party that you may want to partner with
• Boost - working with influencers or talent to get your content “organically” to other communities. In most instances, you need to pay for earned media

Question 27

What are the four elements you should consider with creative/content?

Answer 27

• Authenticity - what’s the more authentic way to communicate with your audience? Ensure that the brand delivers authentic messaging and narrative.
• Quality content - what do you audience expect from your brand, what sort of brand communications have been run in the past? etc
• Be dynamic and relevent
• More than just one creative

Question 28

What are the three main options for producing content?

Answer 28

• In house
• Outsourced
• Hybrid