Brands can now engage with consumers in more ways than ever before. Image-led social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, require regular fresh content meaning there is a greater production demand. However, it can be a challenge for brands to keep up with the ever-growing need for content creation without it impacting upon quality and relevance. Brand marketers are now expected to create content faster, at the same high quality of what’s always been expected and be able to put it into the different types of media channels we’re using today. 

Linear production models are outdated

Traditional creative models, which allowed brands to produce a handful of large pieces of content in a calendar year, are no longer scalable. Many internal marketing teams lack the capability to produce that content and those same limitations restrict the amount that can be outsourced. The linear production process for content takes too long and is expensive. In traditional methods, brands may not finalise a brief with an agency for three weeks, whereas modern agency models can see the final assets produced within this same period. 

Marketers have traditionally partnered with agencies to produce content for their campaigns. But in 2019, the relationship between brands and consumers is far more complex, and therefore for brands and agencies too. A one-off promotional campaign is incapable of retaining an audience’s attention over the long-term. One-off ads are not effective tactics in digital marketing.

The challenge for brands is how to produce custom content at scale without breaking the budget. Demands for content continuously outweigh internal capabilities, often requiring brands to leverage agencies to scale production. Unfortunately, as demands for more content rise, so too does the amount of time, resources, and money marketers must spend to manage the production of all that content.

The changes to traditional marketing models open doors to those agencies which can deliver high-quality, powerful creative content, in a variety of formats, all under one roof. A smartly integrated agency will help save the brand money, automatically making them a preferred choice. 

Agencies can offset and combat some of the costs and challenges of producing multiple variations and volumes of content for a brand by offering more services and incorporating more agile solutions into their creative processes, making the agency an attractive partner for brands. 

Agile working for content creation

Implementing an agile way of working can help improve the overall productivity of content creation, allowing agencies to deliver to brands faster and more consistently. Agile is iterative and encourages creativity. Without needing to spend too long on a single idea, an agile approach allows agencies to constantly ship and create and test new ideas – the benefit is it means agencies can constantly learn whilst working and understand as the process grows where to invest more money. Technology has come a long way in supporting content creation platforms to produce more content at faster, scalable, and more affordable rates.

Tap into a global network

In order for a traditional London agency to create a global brand campaign for a client, it may require teams to be sent across the globe to capture content as defined in the campaign brief. The costs induced from flights and accommodation alone can mean agencies spend a substantial proportion of their budget before the shoot even begins. The infamous downfall of Fyre Festival was significantly impacted by the cost of the creation of the promotional video. The team flew out the whole crew to the Bahamas and blew their budget on models, yachts and extravagant parties. Shutterstock created its own mock promo video at a fraction of the price, costing just $2062 and taking just a day to produce. The video highlights to agencies a far more affordable and feasible way of creating branded content, without the need of sending people to the location and without the overall impact being disturbed. 

For agencies to thrive in 2019 and into the future, they need to tap into and collaborate with a global network of creatives situated in locations around the world, in an agile manner. Partnering with international photographers, videographers and creative professionals helps manage costs and reduces the time needed to create content, as they are already in the market and quickly fulfil the brief. As a result, agencies can reallocate the budget and resources to produce even more seasonal or promotional content for a client. A more agile approach enables agencies to streamline the workflow of any project 

Agencies must adapt and evolve in order to help brands work at scale. The highly debated ‘death of the agency’ doesn’t need to become a reality if they can adjust to a more modern model of working that the ever-changing world demands.

The post Modernising the Traditional Agency Model into the 21st Century appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Learn from your audience

All brands have a unique story to tell and it’s up to today’s marketers to become interesting multimedia storytellers to differentiate themselves. In the shift from traditional marketing forms like television commercials and billboards, the way marketers are expected to reach their audiences has expanded significantly. But the fundamental concept remains unchanged: a brand’s visual identity is constructed from what it presents to its customers.

Visual content is arguably the most compelling format for storytelling, and therefore brands must invest in having a well-established visual identity to help their content resonate with target demographics and stand out from their competitors.

In today’s cluttered media environment – where over two billion photos are uploaded to social media daily – creating and maintaining a consistent visual identity isn’t as simple as it used to be.

We’ve moved on from just having to adhere to a ‘brand bible’ that dictates the guidelines for logos, fonts, mood and tone for all branded materials. Now marketers have to monitor volume, variety, and frequency when creating visual assets across a constantly growing range of customer touchpoints.

Brands must maintain multiple social feeds, often in multiple languages and regions and continually populate them with engaging, on-brand content in order to stay top-of-mind among their customers.

As brand consistency takes centre-stage, those that leverage the right technology tools and follow the four key building blocks to help scale their branded content will find the most success:

Choose the right platform

Not all social media platforms are going to be the right fit for your brand. Similarly, not all of your content is going to be appropriate to be shared on all channels. This is one of the biggest struggles marketers have; consumers are sharp and will pick up on when content doesn’t suit the platform it has been posted on. A vertical Snapchat-style video will most likely not suit a Tweet or vice versa. Ensure you make the most of your time and money by focusing your efforts on the right channel(s) for your content.  

It is up to marketers to find this audience, devote time to understand them and then target them in the most appropriate way. If marketers are successful in these three steps, the audience will connect with the content and therefore will lead to a higher engagement rate.

Understanding your target audience will also help with the first step. If brands know where its audience is mostly found on social channels, it will be able to target more specifically to achieve the best results.

By consistently analysing audience insight data, marketers will be able to learn more about their customers beyond basic demographics. By leveraging the right tools for data insights, brands can then create more relevant content that reaches their target demographics at the best times and locations.

Study your competitors

Keeping an eye on what your competitors are doing is also extremely important. Marketers must do their due diligence while objectively analysing what content they are pushing out.

This could range from visual style and copy to the volume of content and timing – to distinguish the factors they can employ to keep their brand unique. Brands don’t want to be homogenous and marketers must understand what their competitors are doing to create interesting, unique content across platforms. It is also a good opportunity to learn from mistakes made by competitors.

Credit: @audi

We’ve seen brands be successful when it comes to using imagery to position themselves differently to competitors across industries. For example, car brands Volvo and Audi use Instagram as a medium to reach their customers but through dramatically different types of content.

Audi posts numerous photos of their cars with futuristic graphics. Whereas, Volvo presents itself on Instagram through capturing the vehicles driving through natural sceneries. This allows the consumers to clearly differentiate between the brands, keeping their visual content unique.  

Credit: @volvocars

Be aligned

The final tenet for brands to develop consistent brand identities is aligning their visual content across platforms. Brand consistency is so important as it can result in consumers identifying the brand before even seeing a logo/name. A big part of engaging consumers is making them feel like they understand the brand and emotionally connect with it. Brand consistency is a part of building brand trust.

Building a brand’s visual identity is no easy task, but ultimately, it’s one of the most important assets brands can use to establish loyalty and ultimately boost their top line. As brand marketing continues to evolve in this digital era, it’s become vital that marketers take advantage of the right tools such as machine learning technology, which can help marketers maintain brand alignment and consistency across platforms.

The post Four Steps to Successfully Create Branded Content appeared first on PerformanceIN.