Content marketing is a forever-changing landscape. Product placement and other forms of traditional advertising work, of course, are becoming less effective as consumers start to look for these formats and rebel against the subtle hints that they aim to provide.
Content marketing is all about building influence, and branded content is the future of advertising influence campaigns. Businesses of all types are looking to reach their target audience faster, more efficiently, and with a greater impression factor than their competitors. With the power of branded content, building this type of consumer influence and affinity is not only possible, it becomes the standard to which your other marketing practices strive to keep up. As an advertiser, it’s important to remain abreast of the latest trends within the marketing game, and branded content is making waves in the current climate.
Boost customer affinity and recall with branded marketing techniques.
They say that content is king, yet in order to really make the mark that you’re looking for, it’s essential to build a pathway toward virality and recall. It’s simply not enough to create stunning content, instead, you have to build an obelisk of related marketing campaigns that revolve around your values as a company. Branded content practices aim to create this through offshoot advertising formats.
Rather than crafting content marketing content that speaks directly to the product that you sell, this approach looks to create alternatives that present the company and products as a secondary piece of the puzzle.
By expanding your reach into alternative media sources and content posts that approach the target audience in a new way – that is, from a different angle than your brand’s primary services or products—you can boost recognition among consumers and build a stronger measure of visibility within the market segment that you actually compete within. A great example of this is the original foray into this type of non-traditional advertising: The 1904 Jell-O cookbook.
By crossing the divide, a specialized food brand was able to build more organic and broadly “kitchen-related” consumer affinity. Rather than relying on product placement and other overt measures, this type of content campaign places the emphasis on the added value that your brand can bring to the table while only offering a quiet nod to your primary service.
Building visibility is the key here, and traditional advertising and product placement simply don’t stack up against the suave and organic methods deployed to build brand awareness through this unique and powerful content strategy.
The value of emotion is evident in the new way forward.
This type of content relies heavily on the emotional aspects of consumer trends. Telling a story about your brand rather than relying on data or competitive analysis is the new way to reach out to your target audience with the type of content that they want to engage with. Social media and other influence strategies have remade the world of advertising and sponsorship. These days, best practices in the content strategy space focus on providing consumers with something of value, even if that thing isn’t your primary focus.
Branching out with this type of content is a great way to tell your story directly to those who would benefit the most from your brand’s main services. This is especially powerful for new companies who are trying to break into the market.
By telling your story in a way that’s engaging and offers something interesting, entertaining, or teaches a valuable lesson, you can grab your audience’s attention in a meaningful way to get them to engage directly with your brand for greater market capitalization over the long run.
