CAN BRANDS BE STORY TELLERS?

MOBILE AND SOCIAL MEDIA: WHAT’S WORKING, WHAT’S NOT, AND WHY…

2013 FALL MEETING OF THE ISBM BRAND CONSORTIUM & ABM MARKETER/MEDIA/PUBLISHER COUNCIL

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2014

AGENDA 1.  Emerging media’s impact on brands,

agencies and publishers

2.  Growing priority of content marketing in B2B

3.  Why it’s so difficult to do well

4.  Who in B2B is doing it well and how? •  SAP •  Sales Benchmark Index •  Xerox •  Sungard •  Cisco •  Salesforce.com •  Google

5. Using video to drive brands

INTRO

YOUTUBE “WEBSTAR” •  One of YouTube’s

most-watched video creators

•  More than 1,000 videos watched 277 million times. 225K subscribers.

CAREER MARKETER Directed large consumer brands and emerging media at Johnson & Johnson and Merck.

Worked with dozens of leading brands on YouTube promotions.

ONCE UPON A TIME, 5 STRANGE THINGS

1.  Daily 4-7:00 am video shift

2.  Video collaborations with complete strangers

3.  Recognized in public. We had to unlist our phone number

4.  I started making more money from YouTube then the day job

5.  Became poster child for quitting boring corporate job

FIRST SPONSORED VIDEO

THE BALANCING ACT OF SPONSORED VIDEOS

Source: Playlist of Nalts sponsored videos.

These confuse traditional roles of brand, agency and media properties.

MAKING B2B MARKETING THRIVE IN “AGE OF CUSTOMER”

1.  Data-backed insight that familiarizes employees with customers before each encounter.

2.  Digital customer experiences and service that enhance the human touch.

3.  Sales channels enabled to deliver account-specific experiences and return rich intelligence.

4.  Relevant inspired content delivered through interactive, information-rich experiences.

93% of B2B marketers use content marketing today

IT’S NOT NEW Content marketing is when brands attempt to create and distribute valuable content… …to attract audience … with purpose of driving customer action

IT JUST SEEMS A LOT EASIER NOW

B2B content marketers use thirteen content marketing tactics on average…

•  Social media

•  Website articles

•  eNewsletters

•  Blogs

•  In-person events

•  Case studies

•  Videos

Source: “B2B Content Marketing 2014: Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends.” Content Marketing Institute, Marketing Profs and Brightcove

SO WE END UP WITH THIS…

“AWKWARD FAMILY PHOTOS” MEME

“RECREATE FAMILY PHOTO” MEME

Some Favorites •  Infographics •  Curating for narrow

audiences •  Native advertising •  White papers •  Niche communities •  Competitions •  Sponsored content •  Trend reports

Source: Smart Insights

SHOULD BRANDS BE NETWORKS?

Ent

erta

inin

g

Persuasive

Where we usually land

BEING PERSUASIVE AND CHARMING IN REAL LIFE (IRL) ISN’T EASY EITHER

The attack of the killer multi-level marketing friend

OUR CHALLENGE? LIMITED CAPACITY FOR CONSCIOUS AWARENESS

93% cite lead generation as a goal.

(but only 54% of us said content management improved lead gen).

SAP Mission: “To earn our audience’s attention through content that shows business people how technology and innovation can help them grow their business, out-perform their competition and advance their careers.” Source: @BrennerMichael,

http://www.blogs.sap.com/innovation

IS IT FAIR TO MEASURE ON LEADS ALONE?

SAP scorecard shows

.0008% of visits

“converting.”

“The audience actually wants to work for its meal… we’re born problem solvers. We’re compelled to deduce and deduct. It’s the well organized absence of information that draws us in. Give them 2+2 not 4.”

Andrew Stanton (Toy Story, WALL-E), TED Talk 2012 “Clues to a Great Story.”

SOCIAL STORYTELLING…

•  Includes customer stories as part of the brand story

•  Conveys brand attributes in a more memorable context

•  Entertains customers and keeps them interested

•  Teaches and educates in a fun, non-preachy way

•  Inspires customers to spread the word about you

•  Builds fans and advocates •  Maybe even goes vir…

“Storytelling: The next wave of social media marketing” (South by Southwest, 2013) by @MarkWilliams & @CarriBugbee

Carrii Bugbee, award-winning creator of Peggy Olson (Mad Men fan twitter) and social TV explorer, social media marketing strategist & speaker; advertising/PR pro. CarriBugbee.com

A CORPORATE STORYTELLER

Tim Washer, Cisco’s senior marketing manager, has a background in comedy (as a writer for Conan, Letterman, and The Onion who has his own acting reel) and describes himself as a “corporate storyteller.”

GOOD STORIES ARE FOCUSED

C

Case: Sales Benchmark

•  Problem: Average new sales leader fails in 19 months.

•  Solution: Sales Benchmark Institute created eBook for VP of sales

•  Purpose: to help them go beyond 6 quarters

C

Case: Sungard Zombie

SunGard’d Zombie Themed campaign to build awareness among IT professionals of SunGard Cloud offerings. Exceeded brands download rates by 300%, a 5.7% email open rate and 20+ leads.

SELLING AN IDEA NOT A BRAND

C

Case: Xerox Optimist

•  Value propositions of all the companies in Xerox’s space looked exactly alike.

•  In the solutions world, most focused on problems. Xerox’s went another way.

•  Sharing content changed conversation of first call.

•  Forbes is content partner.

LIKEABILITY: LET’S TALK ABOUT YOU

Source: http://www.likeable.com/blog/2013/05/5-b2b-companies-that-excel-at-being-likeable/

Rhymes increase process fluency

C

Case: Salesforce.com

•  90% of Salesforce’s content is about customers, and only 10% is about the product.

•  Traffic from social sites increased 300%, and Salesforce met 70% of its annual target for newsletter sign-ups in the first month of the year.

ABOUT VIDEO

WHY DID OLD SPICE WORK?

(It wasn’t copying Old Spice)

PLEASE DON’T HARLEM SHAKE

THE NARROWING TOPICALITY LIFECYCLE

Gangnam Style: Months following July 15, 2012

Hot

Cliche

Harlem Shake: Weeks following February 2, 2013

Hot

Cliche

Cliche

7 SECRET INGREDIENTS OF VIRAL VIDEOS 1.  Irresistible title & thumbnail

2.  Timing is everything: 1090 rule

3.  Music and dancing sells

4.  Topical

5.  Not over produced

6.  Funny, sexy, cute, quirky, shocking

7.  Surprise ending increases sharing

THREE WAYS TO GET VIEWS

PAID PLACED EARNED

Promotional (Viral, Ads) Educational

Direct-Response Social

FOUR TYPES OF ONLINE VIDEO

PRODUCTION VALUES DON’T REALLY MATTER

Inverse relationship between quality and views. Example: “I Are Cute Kitten” seen 45 million times and took me 88 minutes to shoot, edit and post.

TALKING FRUIT

WHAT DEPENDS ON WHERE

•  A place for paid and earned

•  Can serve awareness, engagement, direct-response

•  Vary video content by goal and place

UPLOADING VIDEO IS THE FIRST NOT LAST STEP •  Real work starts after posting

•  Get it everywhere

•  Support with paid media

•  Target audience via owned social tools

•  Bloggers: “Your audience may like this...”

SEEDING

WEBSTARS Already have audiences

Fraction of cost of TV production

Power of parasocial

YESTERDAY Charles Trippy sold $20,000 of merchandise to fund brain cancer…

(in the first hour).

WHEN IT’S DONE WELL (GOOGLE INDIA)