ICMA 2017: Social media tools and influencer marketing made for a compelling annual content marketing plan for brands

More and more brands are using creative content to tell their stories and engage with consumers, making it that much more important to stand apart from the clutter that is also content. Audacity e4m Indian Content Marketing Awards 2017 aim to celebrate the talent, expertise and hard work that go behind cracking breakthrough ideas and concepts to create exceptional brand stories.

Crowdsourcing, if done properly, can play a pivotal role with content marketing. Today, we look at three interesting examples of crowdsourced (user generated) content by brands.

Nutralite

What a woman considers advice in the best interest of her loved ones always ends up falling on deaf ears. On Health Day, Nutralite offered to address the concerns of these women. Or rather sing it. They made these usually unheard voices, heard right. The health-oriented brand created the world’s first #Healthgram, a musical telegram that every woman would like to send out to her loved ones showing her concerns about their rising cholesterol levels and health risks. Across all their social platforms, they asked their target audience to comment or tweet their concerns to their loved ones using #Healthgram. Nutralite’s live band took the best entries and crafted their request for their loved ones into customized quirky songs. This activity was done in real time. The live band picked up the best entries and sent out a musical #healthgram to them. The videos got more than 13,000 views. Nutralite trended on no. 1 on the World Health Day. The campaign by Tonic Media also managed to receive over 3.5 crore impressions and more than 3,700 tweets.

 

 

Aditya Birla Health

#JumpForHealth, a month-long initiative launched by Aditya Birla Health Insurance, encouraged people to jump and share videos of them jumping on social media platforms. The initiative not only encouraged people to live a healthy lifestyle but also counted every jump of individuals with a thought ‘your feet in the air can help someone walk on their feet.’ For every 10,000 jumps received, the company decided to donate one prosthetic leg to a person in need. The initiative saw participation from across a wide spectrum of people including toddlers, school children, fitness enthusiasts, wedding guests and 2,000 women jumping on the beach. The campaign by Dentsu Webchutney witnessed a submission of two million jumps from people across the globe, making a contribution of 200 prosthetic legs.

 

 

Wrigley's Doublemint

Author Durjoy Datta started a fresh challenge for Wrigley asking people on social media to share their photos with the hashtag #StartSomethingFresh. At the end of each day, once the entries were sent, he then selected the top entries which then featured in the new book he was curating. Overall, the exercise garnered 900 entries and 940 photo uploads. On Facebook, 3.5 million impressions were fetched. Similar was the case on Twitter. A Wrigley's Doublemint advertisement, which depicts a heartwarming love story of a young boy Adi and his new neighbour Niara, takes this idea further. The advertisement is based on the fresh and beautiful cover of "Ek Ajnabee Hasina Se", originally sung by the legendary Kishore Kumar. The advertisement features Adi, a simple and shy boy, and Niara, a bubbly and full-of-life girl, who meet through a chance encounter and start the journey of their beautiful relationship. The ad film revolves around the many facets of their connections, over their "firsts" – first eye contact, first movie date, first dance – and their journey of letting go hesitations and bonding over the "moments of freshness" spent together. Doublemint Mints act as the "enabler" of connections, friendship and love. The TVC ends with a beautifully orchestrated marriage proposal, with the many kissed Doublemint Mints boxes, given by Niara to Adi through their "connections" journey. Reiterating the recently launched Doublemint Mints freshness proposition, the love story around the quintessential romantic Indian couple encourages us to "Start Something Fresh" whilst making "long lasting connections.” The ad campaign by MediaCom Communications received up to 3,96,000 views on YouTube.

Content marketing is one of the hottest buzzwords in the media space today. And to celebrate some of the best work in content, exchange4media is holding the second edition of the Audacity e4m Indian Content Marketing Awards on August 30, 2017.

Building up to the main event, we caught up with Aparna Mahesh, Chief Marketing Officer, FreshMenu, on what makes a great content strategy. Excerpts:

What are the integral features of a good content strategy?

Firstly, I think it has to be closely integrated with the product, which goes without saying. I believe that it’s very important as you just can’t have one section called blog where you put all the stuff but everything else you do is very disconnected from it. It is about how seamlessly the entire content is woven into the product offering and everything else that the brand stands for.

How do you think videos are changing the entire content marketing space and how important will they be in the future?

People have really short attention spans and video does a very good job of presenting everything to you with minimal amount of effort from your side. So definitely, if you look at the way the trends are today, no brand can afford to ignore the role that video will play in its content strategy. It’s about judiciously making sure that you have enough video content going as well as long-form content.

Most content-marketing plans revolve around Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. So do you think there are other avenues that people can start exploring rather than being restricted to these social media platforms alone?

Social media platforms are like your media. It’s like if I create a TV ad, at the end I need channels to put it out. The content plan could be around creating various types of content that the consumer is likely to engage with and that fits into your brand. Now when it comes to distribution of video content, there are limited avenues. Then I have to start thinking about what would work for a YouTube or a Facebook. At the end of the day, great content also needs to be distributed right and so we have to think about the distribution vehicle and sort of create some amount of content for that.

Brands these days tend to create content which comes in a burst and then goes away. In that time, it goes viral and hits all the right notes but there is a need for sustained content-marketing as well. How do you suggest brands go about doing this?

It is all about the role that the content is expected to play in your overall business plan. If you are focused on acquisition you may try content because it creates a buzz but eventually you will realize that is not a great short-term tactic in bringing in new customers and you may give it up. On the other hand, if you are very clear that content right now is going to be an engagement sort of a medium and it is more aimed at keeping people interested in your brand then I think you automatically realise the necessity of content to be a long-term strategy. It is all about where the content fits in within your business strategy or your marketing goals.

Short-form content seems to be a rage right now. So can brands leverage it within this short time frame that they have?

I think it is about making sure that the content is engaging because it is the first impression that counts. Also does it make an immediate impression so that one doesn’t end up skipping it? So everyone needs to start thinking differently and make sure that the first few seconds count and create the needed impression.

Content marketing is the holy union of a message that rings true for people and recall for brands. The year has seen many brands riding the wave of feminism gripping the country. Many have tried to champion women working in different professions and coming from different walks of life. Encouraging female power seems to be the order of the day and marketing strategies by these brands have left an indelible mark on the country’s psyche.





 





 Audacity e4m Indian Content Marketing Awards 2017 aims to celebrate the talent, expertise and hard work that go behind cracking breakthrough ideas and concepts that create exceptional brand stories. As we inch closer to D-Day, here is a look at some of the captivating entries that e4m has received:





 















 









Nike





 





With music that sets a dramatic pace, representation of female stars in sports and a Bollywood heart throb, the music video for Nike triggered numerous conversations. Da Da Ding, part of Nike’s Just Do It campaign, had Hockey player Rani Rampal, surfer Ishita Malaviya and Indian film actress Deepika Padukone (a former national badminton player,) alongside other leading Indian athletes like  footballer Jyoti Ann Burrett, cricketers Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandana and Shubhlakshmi Sharma. They urged India’s next generation to break conventions and define their own success by bringing sport into their lives. Created in collaboration with Wieden+Kennedy Delhi, directed by French director François Rousselet and set to a thumping anthem by Gener8ion, featuring American rapper Gizzle, Da Da Ding charted the rise of women in sport across a diverse range. 





 

Star Plus





 





Star Plus and Aamir Khan came together to bring alive the philosophy of ‘Nayi Soch’ and it definitely took the Internet by storm. The communication put the spotlight one of India’s biggest social issues which is the need to extend equal rights to our daughters. The brand film showcases Aamir as a small-town, middle-class but new-age father who is progressive and confident that his daughters will take the legacy of his business ahead. The symbolic act of naming the store ''And Daughters'' is a global first in thought and establishes a positive role model that could potentially have a ripple effect on society. This progressive thinking embodies the spirit of ‘Nayi Soch’ and is a reflection of the channel’s mission of Creative Social Responsibility. The campaign helped the brand cross over 40 million views. 





 

 









Sonata





 





Sonata, the watch brand from Titan, launched their safety watch called ACT (App-Enabled Coordinates Tracker,) designed exclusively for women. The ad featured two women athletes who are out late at night and are travelling to be in the national team. When out of curiosity, a couple waiting with them for the transport asked them if they felt unsafe, they shared how they had their family members with them through Sonata ACT. One of the ladies then goes on to talk about the special features of the watch. The campaign struck a chord and helped the brand garner immense traction as it trended on digital platforms.