top 4 content conversations at sxsw 2014

CONTENT

CONVERSATIONS

March 2014

Alyssa Vitrano / Director of Content Marketing / Mindshare

@avitrano

at

As brands get even deeper into content marketing,

further improvements and challenges emerge.

Here are some of the more interesting themes around

content that took place at this year's SXSW.

TIMING We now have a thinning attention span. It's not

smaller, it's just stretched out.

As Ben Huh, CEO of meme-king Cheezburger, said,

think deep dish pizza versus thin crust pizza.

There are so many more moments when we're

consuming media. Brands need to leverage these

moments with content created in the right format.

The Apple 1984 ad was designed to create a

collective moment - so it aired during the Super Bowl.

More recently, Ellen's Oscar selfie was a call to action

in front of a massive live audience in conjunction with

her 26 million Twitter followers.

Put content in the right

context, then leverage

the right moments that

will make people

engage with it.

DESIGN Great content makes us feel something, and the

place where it lives should be designed to reflect it.

Jon Setzen used to design rock posters and now

redesigns websites at Media Temple. He spoke

about album covers.

You remember the moment you

went to the record store and

bought the albums you loved. The cover image

is probably burned into your

memory.

You probably don't remember clicking to buy a title

on iTunes.

It's the same content, but presented differently.

Content should tell the right

story in the right way. It's

not just about why you're

creating content but how

you present it, so create a

content experience that

reflects the value of your

content.

COMMERCE Turning content into commerce is a "digital cronut."

Storytelling can certainly create loyalty. Sites that

provide lifestyle content like Birchbox's The Magazine

shape the role brands can play via tips and advice

about products.

But how do you use content to get revenue? Thrillist's

founder and CEO Ben Lerer said their content, trusted

by their audience, is now driving readers to buy the

products that the content is about.

Thrillist bought JackThreads,

a flash sale site, and places

content around products

to give them quality

context and to connect

the dots to sales. This way,

they’re making the reader

into a buyer and a buyer into a reader.

Imagine if other media companies owned their

shoppable advertisers.

It's not just about layering

commerce on top of content;

it's also about using commerce

to make content even better.

You want to maintain the trust

of your readers and consumers,

and you can do that with high

quality content and by using

data to track what your

audience is or isn't responding

positively to.

PRIVACY Data permanence was the theme of multiple panels.

Google ideas director Jared Cohen said parents will

now probably be having the "online sharing" talk with

kids before the “birds and the bees” talk.

This social media generation will, at some point, tire of

sharing content that might potentially haunt them

down the line. People are already creating fake

online personas and teenagers are making Dark

Rooms so no one can capture photos or video of

them partying that could be posted online.

But the fact remains that most

of us are giving off much more

data about ourselves through

digital interactions than ever

before, and a lot of people

are tracking it all.

Brands are grappling with the line between

collecting data and being creepy. As time goes on, what will people want to

share with a brand knowing that their content

will live on forever somewhere?

Think about what kind of

content you're asking

people to share online.

Ultimately, you want it to

be something that they

and you would be proud of

in the future, as well as

something that aligns with

your brand.

Alyssa Vitrano, Director of Content Marketing, Mindshare

@avitrano

additional contributions from

Kelsey Whitaker @khwhitaker

Laura Taubman @ltaubman

thank you