On Thursday, Nov. 29, Stroom 's cafeteria was the stage for the last lunch session of 2018. This session was all about "branded content. That this is a hot topic was evident from the large number of registrations. In addition to a tasty lunch, attendees were treated to the necessary knowledge. Sjef Kerkhofs of Dialy dialogues talked about creating good content for social media, while Rutger Mackenbach elaborated on the actual deployment of branded content and the trends in this area.
Key learnings of the day
As a business, you want to get the attention of your target audience, and one means of doing this is to use content. However, much more content is being produced than can be consumed. In addition, organic reach is decreasing all the time. So how do you make sure your content is read/seen?
Branded content allows you to piggyback on another party's reach. In this way, you ensure that your content reaches more people. Branded content is not new, but with the rise of the Internet there are many new ways to use branded content. Many parties do something with branded content, but do not know exactly what they are doing. For example, many marketers judge content partnerships by website traffic or social likes. However, it is better to attach concrete brand kpi's to your efforts. You need to determine these goals in advance. For example, x% increase in brand preference or consideration.
A number of things are important for good branded content collaboration:
- There must be a logical fit between the brand, the influencer (can also be a program or website) and the target audience. The so-called sweet spot of branded content.
- Make sure the influencer/media is committed to your brand objective.
- Build in flexibility. A branded content collaboration does require some work, and unfortunately things don't always go exactly according to plan. A tip here is to have only one person in charge at each party. This prevents miscommunication and noise.
- The simplest, but at the same time the biggest challenge, make sure it's fun for the reader/viewer!
Social Content
The lunch session also covered the most important aspects of good content on social media. Some key points to consider when creating content for social media:
- Grab attention right away. On average, you have 1.7 seconds to grab attention before people scroll on. We scroll about 90 feet a day on smartphones. It's up to you to get them to stop at your post.
- The laws of TV need to be reversed. Start online with the bang that the video is about and then tell more about the background, otherwise they will have dropped out before they see what you want. So the brand and message must be immediately visible.
- Motion works! This can be video, but other type of moving image is also possible such as a GIF, cinemagraphic or a slideshow. This does not require huge budgets.
- With video, make sure you don't need sound to get the message across. Ruin 2/3rds of people have sound turned off.
- Determine the purpose of your post. Is it engagement, video views, reach or achieving website traffic? Fulfilling multiple objectives with one post is very difficult.
- Decide on the best format for each platform. For example, you may be better off using a square video on Instagram, and you may grab the most attention on Facebook with a vertical video.
- Last but not least. Experiment! That's the best way to find out what works for your brand.
We will be back next year with more inspiring lunch sessions! Would you like to receive an invitation? Then sign up for the newsletter now.