CONTENT MARKETING CONVERSATIONS: PRIORITIES, PROBLEMS AND PREDICTIONS FOR 2015

10 marketing leaders from across APAC share where they are focusing their marketing budget and energy in 2015.

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SPEAKERS

Amanda Gome, ANZ head of social and digital media

Lois Avery, JLL senior manager of communications and content

Andrew Knott, McDonald’s Corporation vice president of digital and media

Pam Kemp, King and Wood Mallesons marketing and communications manager

Brian Crisp, Flight Centre editor-in-chief

Raeleen Hooper, SNAP general manager of franchise services

Fiona Allen, Simplot chief marketing and digital officer

Shahrooz Chowdhury, Domain general manager - sales and marketing

Georgia Hinton, GE Healthcare chief marketing officer

Vaasu Gavarasana, AXA head of digital marketing

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CRAIG HODGESCEO, KING CONTENT

I had the pleasure of attending King Content’s recent Content Marketing Conversations in Sydney, Melbourne and Singapore and found it interesting to see that, although there is a difference in the maturity of the content marketing sectors between Asia and Australia, there are plenty of similarities in the challenges marketers are facing in 2015 and the predictions they’re making.

The common theme in the talks given by the nine marketing executives who spoke at these events was that as their content marketing efforts matured they not only started to act like publishers but think like publishers.

They have started to tell stories with the audience in mind, not their product. They have realised that telling great stories shouldn’t just be marketing’s responsibility. It’s equally as valuable

for human resources, communications and, to be honest, the whole of C-suite to be involved.

They have realised quicker than traditional publishers, that technology is a great addition to storytelling. Technology isn’t seen as the enemy – as it has often been viewed by traditional publishers over the years – but as an asset.

They have also realised that understanding what their audience

wants to read is critical and also forms part of their content strategy. On that point they are also realising the value and power of having a documented content strategy. They know their audience will change and evolve and they realise their content marketing efforts will also change.

I think a lot of them have also realised the power of using their content on other people’s sites to draw audiences back to their owned assets.

They understand that native advertising is not just paid, but an extension of the content they are developing – it just sits on another publisher’s site. It’s the same thinking; same quality; same strategy.“

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SYDNEYGETTING INVOLVED IN THE ‘MOMENT OF INSPIRATION’

FOCUSING ON DATA SCIENCE TO DRIVE RESULTS

Flight Centre is in the midst of a marketing revolution – moving from a consultant-first approach to a customer-first approach. By doing so, it is hoping to move into the ‘moment of inspiration’ in the customer’s travel buying journey. Flight Centre is investing in NewsCred to fill its content gaps and partnering with Bazaarvoice to broaden its ratings and reviews offering.

Domain is focusing on its ability to remain responsive, real-time and agile. In 2015, it is focusing on its data science capabilities, data warehousing and generally enriching the data around its content. There is also a significant focus on marketing technology investment with a long term view to bring capability in-house. Domain has also now physically integrated the marketing team to sit alongside the editorial team.

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SYDNEYEQUIPPING INTERNAL CHAMPIONS WITH THE RIGHT TOOLS

USING NEW MEDIA TO SUPPORT TRIED AND TRUE

Snap is continuing to build on diversifying its offering to provide marketing services and consultancy for small businesses. To help its franchisees engage their audience it is looking to grow its content assets, increasing its use of visual content. According to Raeleen Hooper, Snap’s general manager of franchise services, the roadblocks are largely around educating non-digital franchisees and it is looking to do so by boosting its case studies offering.

King & Wood Mallesons is focusing on building its content marketing presence and is in the first phase – the internal education stage. Pamela Kemp, who is marketing and communications manager at the law firm, says video is a big focus in 2015, but in the context of supporting the firm’s print offering. As you would expect, in a multi-national organisation such as King & Wood Mallesons, speed will be a roadblock and she will be making the case for marketing technology investment so the marketing function can truly show the results internally.

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SOME CATEGORIES ARE STILL TOO PRODUCT-FOCUSED

In Australia, limited competition has meant there has been less need for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies to engage with their customers. This has meant that FMCGs have traditionally had a product-centric approach to marketing, with each brand or product within a parent company functioning independently.

However, the continued success of Aldi and the arrival of Lidl will likely challenge the traditional Coles/Woolworths supermarket duopoly and as Fiona Allen – chief marketing and digital officer at Simplot Australia – said, this might be what is needed to persuade the food and beverage brands to engage in a two-way conversation with their customers. She noted that FMCGs will need to stop acting as silos and start functioning as an enterprise; each brand or product in the portfolio should add to the customer’s overall experience of the company. Her benchmark is Apple, where every purchase of an iPhone, iPad or MacBook serves to enhance the customer’s connection to the Apple universe.

MELBOURNE

LOCALISED MARKETING MATTERSDo different regions require different content? In response to a question from the audience, ANZ’s head of digital and social media Amanda Gome, explained that this is already part and parcel of ANZ’s strategy. As well as creating bespoke content for the Asia-Pacific region and delivering localised news across Australia and New Zealand, ANZ employs local ambassadors throughout its territories and trains content producers in the customs and interests of each region.

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MELBOURNECREATING INTERNAL BRAND ADVOCATES

Amanda Gome spoke about ANZ’s transformation from a ‘silent company’ to a social brand. For any company, this is not a path without challenges. Her tips included implementing internal training for current employees, recruiting staff with new skill sets, and challenging the status quo to embrace a culture of listening to, and engaging with, customers.

SPEED, AGILITY AND ENGAGEMENT THROUGH LICENSED CONTENT

You know your audience and you want to build engagement through the use of content, but you haven’t got the capacity to produce it. Enter licensed content. Chris Emberson, business development director at NewsCred explained how the platform provides brands with a gateway into the publishing space, and allows them to align themselves with publishers who are trusted by their customers.

There are many amazing brands that have joined the content space over the past few years, but there has been a tendency to throw content out there and hope for the best – “spray and pray”, if you will.

However, Chris Emberson revealed that brands are now equipping themselves with tools to analyse their content marketing offering, allowing them to develop and change strategies according to audience demand. Dr Georgia Rekaris Hinton confirmed this point with her prediction that data will rule in 2015.

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A company’s operational readiness to accept content is essential when trying to get a content marketing campaign off the ground. Gaining budget approval from management, who often don’t have a good understanding of what content marketing is, can be a challenge for marketers, especially in industries that are slow to adopt change and trends.

“The key to starting a successful content marketing program is getting buy-in from C-level managers within the company,” says Vaasu Gavarasana, head of digital marketing at AXA. Industries such as financial services are still early in the learning curve when it comes to content marketing. “We’re still in that phase where we’re trying to educate the role.”

A LinkedIn study, entitled 3 Keys to Nurturing the IT Committee, surveyed more than 200 people who influence IT purchasing decisions and found that on average, influencers consume seven pieces of content before they are ready to speak with a sales representative.

But this understanding of customer behaviour is not well understood by many companies, because they can’t see a direct connection between content and the traditional notion of a sales funnel. That’s where the education process is so important.

SINGAPOREINTERNAL EDUCATION AND ‘MANAGING UP’

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DECIDE WHERE CONTENT SITS IN YOUR BUSINESS

GETTING THE RIGHT RESOURCES IN PLACE

Because people are putting a lot more money into content marketing and investing more in social media as a business tool, Lois Avery, who is senior manager of communications and content at JLL, says “content and PR are becoming more blurred”. Companies are starting to meld the two to work in harmony, rather than in opposition. “We’ve seen examples where content has really enhanced PR and supported it,” she says.

Andrew Knott, vice president of digital and media at McDonald’s Corporation, summarises what many marketers are starting to acknowledge: “Content doesn’t necessarily reside in marketing or communications anymore. It’s starting to play a role in every part of the business.”

Producing content and managing social media communities is time-consuming and hard work. A primary concern of marketing teams heading into 2015 is the adequate resourcing of content marketing programs.

“You need to invest in resources because creating content, managing the pipeline and coming up with ideas is really important,” says Lois Avery. And resourcing extends beyond the pure content production process into how you’re going to share those stories with audiences. She says that along with amplification, businesses are increasingly looking at automation to make life easier.

SINGAPORECONTENT AND PR ARE BECOMING MORE BLURRED.

Lois Avery, JLL senior manager of communications and content

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SHIFTING FROM A PRODUCT-LED MINDSET TO AN AUDIENCE-LED VIEWPOINT

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE AND MEASURE YOUR CONTENT

Vaasu Gavarasana echoes these sentiments. “We should move away from USP [unique selling proposition] to UE [utility and entertainment],” he says. He believes utility and entertainment offers a more beneficial way of thinking about content as it gets marketers thinking from a customer perspective rather than a product viewpoint.

“Think about what serves a purpose and what serves a daily need.”

Content marketers are increasingly working to produce better results, and that begins with clearly defining their audience and how results will be measured.

“One of our big challenges being a B2B company is defining the audience, determining what content they want to read, then creating enough content,” says Lois Avery. Hand in hand with that is defining the level of success and what that success means. “Next year, that will be a huge focus – looking at click-throughs and analytics.”

Vaasu Gavarasana agrees. “Measuring content is fundamentally important, but it’s surprising how many companies are not doing this.”

SINGAPORETHINK ABOUT WHAT SERVES A PURPOSE AND WHAT SERVES A DAILY NEED.

Vaasu Gavarasana, AXA head of digital marketing ”

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Andrew Knott says one of the biggest challenges he will tackle in 2015 is relevance. With the wealth of content entering the digital space each day, he says it’s essential, “to make sure we’re consistently relevant and that we’re evolving with our customers.”

In a recent campaign by McDonald’s, entitled Our Food, Your Questions, customers were given the opportunity to ask the brand any question at all about the restaurant’s food and receive an honest answer.

Andrew Knott says the response was exceptional, with close to 20,000 questions asked in Australia alone. The campaign was not driven by any traditional advertising and demonstrates how highly relevant content can drive engagement.

EVOLVE WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS

INVEST IN PROMOTING YOUR BEST CONTENT There’s no point in creating content when no one is going to see it and Andrew Knott says, “One of the key learnings we’ve had over the last couple of years is that you need to put paid media behind social and content to give yourself a greater chance of success.”

But this should not be done in isolation he cautions: “It’s one thing to pay [for advertising], but it’s another thing to make sure it’s sufficiently interesting to get viewers.”

SINGAPOREONE OF THE KEY LEARNINGS WE’VE HAD OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS IS THAT YOU NEED TO PUT PAID MEDIA BEHIND SOCIAL AND CONTENT TO GIVE YOURSELF A GREATER CHANCE OF SUCCESS.

Andrew Knott, McDonald’s Corporation vice president of digital and media

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KEY THEMES THROUGHOUT

INTERNAL EDUCATION AND GETTING BUY-IN

SHIFTING FROM PRODUCT-LED TO AUDIENCE-LED CONTENT

KNOWING YOUR AUDIENCE AND EVOLVING WITH THEM

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT - MEASURING YOUR CONTENT

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