THE FUTURE OF CONTENT

WHY HAS CONTENT BECOME SUCH A HUGE TOPIC IN THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY?

Everybody's talking about it…

THE INTERNET.

ONE CLICK AWAYEverything online is

EVERYTHING I DO ONLINE, IS MY CHOICE. I CHOOSE WHEN I WATCH IT,

WHEN I READ IT WHEN I CHECK IT

WHEN I SEARCH FOR IT I WANT WHAT I WANT, WHEN I WANT IT.

Advertising has fundamentally worked becuase…

WE MUST REACH PEOPLE ON THEIR TERMS

The internet has taught us that….

THE MOST USER CENTRIC MEDIA PLATFORM WE HAVE

The internet is…

BUT IT’S ALSO BECOME THE MOST ADVANCED PLATFORM WE HAVE.

The internet is…

THE MOST USER CENTRIC MEDIA PLATFORM WE HAVE

The internet is…

BUT IT’S ALSO BECOME THE MOST ADVANCED PLATFORM WE HAVE.

The internet is…

WE MUST REACH PEOPLE ON THEIR TERMS

The internet has taught us that….

HOW DO WE MAKE IT WORK?

The future of content

4 TRENDS4 LESSONS

1 CRITICAL POINT

THE AD-BLOCK-ALYPSE And what it tells us about advertising online…

Future Trend 1:

22% of UK internet users block ads.

IAB - Q1 2016 REPORT

(Germany = 25%, Spain 20%, Poland = 35%)Adobe says, 200 million worldwide 2015

22% of the world’s 1.9bn smart phone users are blocking ads

Page fair - may 2016

63% of millennials block ads.

Fractal and Moz - 2015

34% according to GlobalWebIndex

UGLY, ANNOYING, DISRUPTIVE, BLOATED, SLOW ADS THAT TRACK US

ALL OVER THE INTERNET

Why do they all hate us??

PEOPLE NOW GO OUT OF THEIR WAY (AND SOME EVEN PAY!)

TO REMOVE ADVERTS

PEOPLE BLOCK ADVERTS BUT SEEK CONTENT

Here’s the strange thing

NO. JUST REALISE, WHEN IT COMES TO ONLINE,

THE OLD RULES DON’T APPLY.

Should you stop advertising online?

LESSON:WE NEED TO STOP INTERRUPTING, AND START ADDING VALUE. And we must be sincere about wanting to add value to consumers. Because anything but, will get blocked.

THERE WILL ALWAYS BE AN ‘EXPLOSION IN CHANNELS’.

Future Trend 2

DON’T PANIC

If someone consumes a niche brand’s product or service, they’re very likely to be a heavy consumer of the category. This means they’re very likely to also consume the market leader’s

product or service too.

BYRON SHARP, How Brands Grow

LESSON:DON’T CHASE TRENDY PLATFORMS, CHASE CONSUMERS.Go where your content fits best, not what’s just ‘new’. Consumers aren’t platform loyal. Don’t get married to platforms, just flirt with consumers.

LOW-FI IS THE NEW PREMIUM.

Future Trend 3

LESSON:THERE IS A GENERATION OF CONSUMERS OUT THERE THAT VALUE ACCESS OVER GLOSS.Access to realness is the new ‘value’.

THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A NEW AND SHINY TOY

Future Trend 4

Was used 6.6 billion times on Twitter in 2015.

IT WORKED FOR SOME

“It was an attempt to reach a new younger audience that has completely tanked".

- The Drum Magazine

AND NOT FOR OTHERS

LESSON:SKIP THE BANDWAGON.BE AUTHENTIC, KNOW WHO YOU ARE, AND KNOW WHO YOUR CONSUMERS THINK YOU ARE.

DESPITE THE SEA OF SOCIAL CONTENT, NEW PLATFORMS, AD-BLOCKERS,

BANDWAGONING, ETC ETC… SOME BRANDS ARE WINNING AND SOME BRANDS AREN’T.

WHY?

BRANDS THAT ARE WINNING ONLINE ARE CONSUMER CENTRIC

Consumer centric brands prioritise the needs of their consumers ahead of their own.

Consumer Centric

They add value.Reach consumers where and how they want to be reached.

They give more than they take.The entertain, over advertise.

Consumer Centric Brands

Instead of asking: how can we make sure ‘consumers’ will like us, how can we make them buy us? How can we target them?

We should turn this around. We should ask ourselves: what can we do for the people that are important to us? How can we give them something they will truly appreciate? Something that they will WANT to see and

engage with, something that they do not want to block, but seek out and share with others. This will not only make sure that our messages will be

heard, but in my opinion it is the only proper way to build loyalty.

DON’T JUST TAKE MY WORD FOR IT.

HUIB VAN BOCKEL, FORMER HEAD OF MARKETING FOR RED BULL AND AUTHOR OF THE SOCIAL BRAND

PRACTICAL HELP TO MAKE CONTENT WORK FOR YOUR

BRAND IN THE FUTURE

1. MAKE IT CONSUMER CENTRICYou know who your competitors are in the shop.

But online we compete against everyone fighting for our consumers’ attention.

MAKE IT AMAZING, BY PUTTING THE CONSUMER FIRST.

SWITCH FROM SWITCH TO

I am dying to tell you our brand story.

I really want to tell you what we do here.

I really want my consumer to…

I am dying to offer you value, for time.

What does my consumer care about?

My consumers really want to…

AT IMPERO WE BOIL IT DOWN TO ONE QUESTION:

Why would someone care about this?

2. CONSISTENT CONTENT

Refine, reiterate, and escalate – don’t re-invent.

You’re not going to land your message authentically by changing the topic all the time.

Be famous for something.

Dove doesn’t re-invent the wheel, it doesn’t do ‘content pillars’

Brancott Estate, a 9 month content campaign that grew to have posts with over 1 million organic views and 40k shares.

Now the largest selling deodorant in the US, OldSpice largely only re-iterated and escalated a winning idea.

3. THE RIGHT PEOPLE, OVER AND OVER AGAIN

The internet gives us access and precision.

Use it wisely, put our messages in front of the right people, over and over again.

And do it in different places and context.

Use every customer point of contact to weave stories about who you are and what your brand stands for.

Your stories need to move people’s spirits and build their goodwill, so that when you finally do ask them to buy from you, they feel like you’ve given

them so much it would be almost rude to refuse.

Gary Vaynerchuk, Jab Jab Right Hook.

4. BE AUTHENTICNone of this matters if it doesn’t relate to your brand

values in an authentic way. And none of it matters if you’re not sincere about it.

Consumers are far too savvy Consumers just don’t care enough and are too easily

distracted for us to fake this.

Authenticity doesn’t mean you need to be produced by people that look like this.

ATL is great at telling consumers ‘what we believe’.

Digital content is how we prove it.

Put your consumer’s needs in front of your own, stay true to who you are and commit to proving your claims

(not just saying them). Entertain, don’t advertise.

FUTURE PROOF YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY

YOUR QUESTIONS

BRAND BUILDING? As content is still in its relative infancy, it still feels like we're in an

experimental stage. How do we see this developing, and do we think it will take the place of traditional ATL as the brand awareness and

brand building channel?

HOW TO BUDGET FOR CONTENT?

VIDEO?

How to make video work? For consumers? For DR? For B2B?

TONE OF VOICE, HOW TO FIND IT?

RICHER FORMATS?Should I be investing in new innovations like Facebook Canvas ads

or Snapchat Filters?

INFLUENCERS?How do I find the right ones, and how

do I use them correctly?

ANYTHING ELSE?Over to you.