FPS Russia is a huge YouTube channel. It has over 3.5 million subscribers and has generated more than 500,000,000 video views. Gawker says it is the site’s third most popular channel.

Sadly, 32-year old Keith Ratliff, a producer on the American show, was found dead at the start of the year. He had been killed by a single bullet to the back of the head. It looks like an execution. Police have ruled out a burglary gone wrong since nothing was taken from the scene.

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The past 12 months has seen content marketing become a big hitter in the marketing discipline stakes and there are plenty of lessons marketers need to learn for the year ahead to make the most of the growing medium. 2012 has been a great year for content marketing, one that has seen it established as a key discipline as brands look to create a genuine rapport with their target audience. And there are big names leading the charge; the likes of Coca-Cola and Red Bull both embed content strategy as an integral part of their overall marketing strategy.

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If 2012 has been about shaping and developing a social-media strategy, then 2013 will be about throwing that out of the window and starting again. Why? Simple. The very term social media has become a stumbling block. It gets in the way of the real question of what it is that brands are trying to achieve. Partly this has happened because social media means different things to different people – and it means multiple things to brands.

Part of the problem is clearly illustrated by the split personality that social media can have as far as brands are concerned. Read More »

If you wanted more proof that the conversation in 2013 will be more about content and less about social then this it.  PR group Bell Pottinger Private, formerly part of Chime Communications, has launched a a specialist digital content agency called Bell Pottinger Wired.

Expect to see much more of this in the coming year as brands focus on developing their content strategies and agencies respond. Bell Pottinger Wired pulls together separate content and digital teams from within the group to focus on delivering digital content-led campaigns both for the group’s existing and new clients. Read More »

With branded content being a constant topic of conversation in 2012, certainly as far as the last six months were concerned, this is a timely infographic from the Content Marketing Association. It takes a look at how branded content has and is evolving.  In a year, it is estimated that a consumer has over 379,000 brand experiences; in fact on a typical journey to work the average person can expect to interact with 170 brands with all of them competing fiercely for one thing: consumer attention.

This, when taken in conjunction with media fragmentation, which is growing exponentially, means that consumer attention is an increasingly scarce resource. It means tradeoffs are made both at a conscious and subconscious level whether it is the decision to use Google or Bing, to fly BA or Virgin, or to read The Times or The Telegraph. Trade off decisions become a function of brand affiliation and the cycle turns full circle as brand affiliation is a function of the amount of engagement (attention) a brand can generate.

Because of that content is consequently becoming the conduit through which organisations can earn their customers’, whether B2C or B2B, attention. Content becomes the brands’ side of the value exchange – providing customers with interesting and relevant information in return for their time. Read More »

Have you ever been to a farm and smelt milk recently squirted out of a cow?

Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about online content again. Bear with me.

According to Ofcom, 12-15 year olds now spend as much time online as they do watching TV. Well, yes. Only — hold on — that’s a total of 35 hours a week, or an average of five hours a day. Hmm. The equivalent of 1900-midnight every day, at least? No consoles, no hanging out with friends? Hmm, how do they fit it all in? The reality is, they don’t.  Read More »

Branded content is driving a whole new marketing model, which calls for a more integrated approach in the region’s hyper-connected markets. We know well that Asia-Pacific leads the world in terms of digital device penetration, broadband speeds and the sheer growth of connected consumers. We call this ‘hyper-connectivity’.

We have over one billion online users, growing at a rate of 10 per cent a year. That’s 100 million new users every year ready to connect and share content with colleagues, families and friends. Read More »

The publishing world is in a constant state of flux, with more publications moving online and developing apps and mobile formats. Interestingly, just as the traditional publishing world is changing, we’ve seen an enormous growth in brands emerging as a new type of publisher – Amex and Procter & Gamble are just two great examples.

Branded content is nothing new — since the 1950s we’ve had soap operas with big brand manufacturers like Colgate-Palmolive as sponsors, enabling them to tie in their products with storylines to get closer to their audience and evolve the brand experience.

Today digital and social media provide brands with new opportunities to become publishers. Many brands are capitalising on this, creating high-quality editorial content and using channels like Facebook, YouTube, branded websites, newsletters and magazines to engage their target audience. Read More »

While scanning through the various presentations from the 2010 Cannes Lions I was struck by how much digital media abounded, in particular online video and social. Digital media taking centre stage at Cannes has been on the cards for a while I know, but the trickle has most definitely turned into a flood.

With Google, Yahoo, Adobe and a range of other tech businesses attending, it must have been one of the geekiest summits to date. Some tech brands apparently realised that they are not exactly the sexiest in this space, with Yahoo! feeling the need to bring Ben Stiller along to liven up their party. Read More »

I have had many conversations in the past months with various senior persons
within the different media agencies here in Finland, with the core discussion
centered on where the digital space is moving & how are we improving our
agencies to ensure our clients are offered the best ideas and solutions.

In summary, these have been my findings:
 
- We need to move away from “Traditional Account Directors” driving the
client across the board. If they continue to be solely responsible then those
that do not, need to accept that they are there to perform a role – they are
not the complete creative, strategic resource for their client – that’s why we
have various specialist divisions. Not all but in many cases at least here in Finland, the
client is asking for pitches to be digitally lead and they are not being
digitally lead. They have a digital base to them but there is no completely
integrated concept. While they say digitally lead, this does not mean come up
with some separate digital ideas & show us you can get good discounts… and
maybe add some SMS idea that will be advertised in the TVC. We should be trying
to lead with ideas that have perhaps stemmed from digital but find ways how
this content can move across every platform. Is it that most media planners who
become media account directors simply have no real project management training
or they simply are not creative! I am sorry if you are one and you rock but
like many people in this industry, we really have few strategically led figures
who, can do what the client needs in my opinion.

In saying this, I am all willing to educate our traditional media guys as
this is really important but we do need much more involvement from the word go.
This is obvious but why is it not implemented in so many cases? The point is,
to truely achieve for example a campaign centered around branded content &
perhaps advocism, we need one central idea & then we need to link all the
medias together – not just a URL, but everything – what does the TVC do? Does
it drive traffic, awareness… What are the objectives of each medium – sales,
lead generation, ROI, awareness – if so how much, when, what, who…? We have
to ask all these questions and many more… It’s called strategic thinking!

 
- Another thought also leads into how we can lead a client forward, or should I
say, who is it that takes the core responsibility for leading the client
forward! In most cases it has been the ATL / Brand agency. I don’t believe that
it should be the sole job of the “traditional creative agency” which
in many cases it is, to come up with the overall concept & how it will
work! How many of them really know how to maximize the digital space
strategically? How many of them think strategically and not just creatively! A
beautiful website could be avoided at times – its not beautiful to a client if
it doesn’t generate X amount of leads of meet their objectives is it? So the
question is, how can we all work together? We all have different skills – some
strategic, some deep understanding of human behaviour, some creative, some
technical, some others thrown in the mix… But when are we going to realize
that we need to offer the client all of these skills…

I hate to sound like a skeptic to the traditional agencies & people, but
we all know that most of them do not carry the insight or experience to offer
their clients what is required in digital.

I have seen many clients move to other agencies all over Finland – Why???
In many cases I believe it is simply the old school approaches to a client that
are losing. Smaller niche agencies are teaming up with others, and creating
incredible creative & strategic pitches with a difference… In other cases,
the traditional agency just needs to stop being so head strong, allocate the
appropriate resources to the pitches from all specialist avenues and think
about one solid concept… and then how this will be brought together using all
the medias!

So the point of my story??? We need to wake up, understand our clients
better, find the right resources for our clients and use them… Think outside
the box, think strategically and about the clients needs and real objectives!
Use what is available to you & to do so use the specialist people around you!
We are all trying to achieve the same thing right?