From now on, marketers should use visual content for their social media and marketing campaigns. Not convinced yet? Take a quick look at our previous article here. But then, what’s next?
Time and time again we are reminded that “customers don’t like to be sold to”. But, creating unique, engaging marketing campaigns that are accepted by customers and tell convincing brand stories is proving increasingly hard to achieve.
Marketers spend a great deal of time developing the ‘perfect’ branded content strategies, effective in delivering the company’s brand story from the customer’s viewpoint and establishing strong engagement.
Here are examples of successful brands using branded visual content to tell their unique, authentic brand stories convincingly without ‘selling’:
The inspiration for this video was when Dove did customer research and found that only 4% of respondents would describe themselves as beautiful. This shocking fact leads Dove to feature an FBI sketch artist who drew the respondents based on how they described themselves and based on a stranger’s description of them. There is a shocking difference between those two drawings. The video has become the most watched branded content in 2013 with 50 million views during the first 12 days of release (The Mission, 2018).
2. “Worlds Apart” by Heineken
This video features a social experiment by putting two people with significant differences together. The video is amazing not only because it would leave you at the edge of your seat, but also due to the fusion between the brand and the story which is handled masterfully with creativity and delicacy.
3. Starbucks College Achievement Plan (SCAP)
In this branded video, Starbucks shared how SCAP has helped their baristas to pursue higher education. Sharing their story on such a personal level became core to their branded content strategy and enabled them to tell their story from the consumer’s point of view rather than the brand’s.
4. “This Photographer Proves A Quick Family Getaway Can Become An Uncharted Adventure”
Airbnb is a new kid in the business world, however, they have become one of the most well known global startups. Their mission which is provide housing or places to stay temporarily itself is the core mission of a branded-content which is to see the problem from the customer perspective and create the best solution for them. There is a sponsored article by Airbnb which tell stories about how important a family holiday is. The article also incorporates professional yet natural photographs of a family holiday.
Canon’s story is like no other. Their most important customers are photographers, thus they wanted to make an experiment to prove how they are different with non-photographers. The result is astonishing because it shows that the brand has such a strong relationship with the customer (photographers).
What is the rule of thumb in creating successful branded content? Content that attracts engages us emotionally and that we would feel compelled to re-share with others. We skip so many advertisements on a daily basis, whether on YouTube, websites, social media, or mobile applications. Customers don’t like to be told to buy things, they like to make their own decisions. They like to be entertained, told an inspiring story or made to reflect.
The diagram below shows that affinity and recall of branded content are much higher than a regular advertisement. Branded content is widely accepted and the strategy will still be accepted in the future. If your company has not joined the branded-content club yet, 2018 is a great year to start!
Image: the Nielsen Company
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