If you are reading this, you already know how content marketing has emerged as the long-term success mantra for both small and big businesses. But creating and marketing exceptional content needs a bit of inspiration now and then. So, here are some wonderful content marketing examples from leading brands like Coca-Cola, Heineken, GoPro, Honda and more.
Get ready to be motivated!
1. GoPro UGC
GoPro believes that it is better to show viewers how good their products are, instead of just talking about them. And what better way to build brand loyalty then get customers to generate content – otherwise known as user generated content. It, of course, helps that the product itself lends excellently to UGC, making it super simple for users to record videos and share.
To gather the best user generated content, GoPro has multiple programs in place, complete with incentives. Users who capture amazing photos or videos can try their luck at winning GoPro Awards. Their Million Dollar Challenge is especially a huge hit, as every user whose entry becomes a part of the brand’s highlight reel at the end of the year, gets a chance to win an equal share of the million dollars.
Only shots captured on the latest cameras are accepted and the GoPro app allows users to edit videos and photos, before uploading on Instagram, YouTube or Facebook.
Also Read: Top 5 Ways to Use Instagram Marketing to Boost Your Business
Results And Insights
As of 2017, GoPro’s revenue was $1.18 billion. With 10832296 followers on Facebook and similarly impressive numbers on other social channels, GoPro has hacked content marketing indeed. Their strategy is perfect for boosting both awareness and loyalty across geographies and among all kinds of adventure enthusiasts.
Source Url: https://youtu.be/Prt-G4cPIn4
Your Takeaways
UGC is a great way to build one of the most authentic relationship you, as a brand, can hope to build with your audience. Building a fan base brings in actual results. GoPro’s growth numbers will prove that. So, go ahead and create a structure that can inspire or encourage your audience to share their content. Think about who can you collaborate with to create content that shows the value of your product/services. Think about what incentives you can give them to create that sort of content. The effect can be long-lasting and tremendously satisfying for your brand.
2. AMEX Open Forum
Often cited as the poster child for content marketing, the Open Forum campaign is effectively what all content marketing campaigns aspire to be. Since its start in 2007, it has single-handedly proven the business value of brands by providing useful content to its customers. So much so that it continues to remain the #1 source of leads for new AMEX cardholders. So what’s the secret sauce for their success? It isn’t too complex – it is ensuring that your customer comes first, doing the right thing for them and doing it well.
AMEX started by putting itself in the shoes of its customers. What are your customers reading most often? What is resonating with them? They used the answers to these questions to map their content strategy. They then created content stories around impactful small businesses like a cafe whose husband-wife owners are active civic leaders or a hip men’s apparel brand that has a bulldog as a mascot. By weaving a beautiful story around their lives and the lives they impact, they created an engaging audience who were drawn in with top notch imagery and videos.
The stories allowed the audience to relate themselves as AMEX customers as the brand did not sell itself but actually sought out to help them.
The forum moved on to create a platform where the small business owners could share advice, post questions,and even rate each other’s helpfulness – all of which is now extended to social connectivity.
Results And Insights
This campaign is considered one of the best content marketing strategies by a brand.
While visits and even repeat visits increased manifold, each visitor spent almost double the time on the site. It eventually became one of the top sources of leads for AMEX.
Your Takeaways
Business owners are consumers too. Your job is to step in their shoes and solve a problem for them. Make yourself useful and they’ll come back to you.
3. Coca-Cola Journey
In late 2012, Coca-Cola launched a digital magazine called Coca-Cola Journey. The key differentiator in this case was that a lot of content was branded and only some third party content was used. Its latest campaign is JxJ which is JourneyxJourney. Two Coca-Cola Journey storytellers and a full production team recently hit the road to find and tell Coca-Cola stories across America.
The JxJ crew used their behemoth 2017 Ford Escape (as a part of their brand tie-up with Ford) as a ‘Mobile Brand Publishing HQ’ and fans followed their content live when they were on the road. It was a lot of hard work to drive 4000+ miles while filming, editing, actively posting on all social channels, managing schedules and ensuring the team ate breakfast. Even as the journey ended, the Coca-Cola journey continued as they asked fans to submit their own road trip memories.
The site also uses infographics services to showcase their quarterly results, some interesting nutrition facts and what its sourcing map means for the global sustainable agriculture industry.
Results And Key Insights
In the first year, the site published 1200 articles and attracted 13.1M visitors who averaged an impressive 4:40 time spent per article. The site currently features hundreds of photos from loyal fans sharing their ‘Moments of happiness’. Coca-Cola also makes stories easily shareable on social media and reports in real-time.
Your Takeaways
Even if you are publishing your own content, it is important to include your customers as a part of your journey. The aim of the content is the same – it has to be useful for its readers and not just for you.
4. Heineken Go Places
Sometimes, content marketing is not just about attracting prospective clients. It is about impressing potential employees too! First launched in 2016, Go Places was Heineken’s brilliant campaign to intrigue and attract deserving candidates at a global level. A manifesto video, accompanied by 12 quirky questions was used to give candidates an idea about how Heineken is as an employer. It was made easily shareable on social media platforms and aimed at encouraging prospective employees to decide whether they were a good fit for the brand.
Naturally, in 2019, the brand deemed it fit to launch the second version of the campaign by bringing employee stories to the forefront, in a bid to increase engagement and awareness. 33 employees have been featured in these and the campaign revolves around transparency and authenticity. Heineken’s HR, marketing and the agency CloudFactory brainstormed together to come up with the second version. One of the top objectives of this version is to turn employees into brand advocates, the effect of which can trickle down to consumers too.
Also Read: Best Ways Marketers Can Use Psychology to Improve Content
Results And Key Insights
During the first month, right after the first version’s launch, Heineken witnessed 300% more job applications than the year before and 54% increase in followers on LinkedIn. Visits to Heineken’s global career page shot up by 350% and the average time spent on the Go Places website was found to be 5.24 minutes, which is impressive.
Your Takeaways
Don’t just consider your potential customers while developing content marketing strategies. Your employees are your biggest asset and can lend more credibility and prestige to your brand, thereby encouraging consumers to try your products or become more loyal.
5. Honda Engine Room
A giant in the car industry, Honda decided to go all unique with its content marketing strategy in 2019. The Honda Engine Room is essentially a platform where existing and prospective customers can share and enjoy stories, tips, guides, experiences and more.
The platform is all about useful, informative and engaging content (both visual and textual) that educates you about driving and car care basics to detailed information on top models and unbiased reviews. However, the brand’s “reader clinic” content marketing strategy is the best till date. In order to promote the Honda CR-V Hybrid, the brand partnered with What Car magazine and Honda enthusiasts were invited to test-drive the car. This initiative provided a lot of content for social media platforms too.
Results And Key Insights
63% of those who took the test drive said that they believed Honda to be a top name in hybrid technology. 53% of them even went ahead with bookings.
Your Takeaways
By offering images, videos and informative text, you can boost the time visitors spend on your site and even encourage trials. It can establish your role as an industry leader and improve search engine rankings.
6. Cadbury And Age UK
Last year, the world-famous chocolate brand devised a content marketing strategy that went beyond awareness, sales and profits. According to the data shared by Age UK, it was found that 1.4 million senior citizens fight loneliness, which tugged at the brand’s heartstrings. So much so that Sue Perkins, the noted television presenter, committed to 30 hours of absolute isolation.
Source Url: https://youtu.be/6C0h4HjkJgA
As a result, emotionally touching ads were designed with the help of VCCP to spread awareness about loneliness. The packaging of Dairy Milk was made blank and 30 pennies from every pack sold were donated to Age UK. These donations were used to establish telephone friendship service and national advice line for the aging population.
Results And Key Insights
According to YouGov, at a national level, Cadbury’s buzz scores shot up by 2.3 points to become 11 in the first 2 weeks after the campaign became live. Among those aged 65 years and above, Cadbury’s awareness improved by 11%.
Your Takeaways
Combining CSR with content marketing strategies can create a special niche for your brand, apart from increasing awareness, word-of-mouth and trials. Doing good for the society can translate into better engagement, trust, and loyalty.
7. Rolex’s New Website
Well, such a smart and long-term content marketing strategy doesn’t come as a surprise, when a luxury brand like Rolex is concerned. Towards the end of 2018, the brand launched a new website, rolex.org, which focuses on Hans Wilsdorf, the founder, in an emotionally intriguing manner. While no actual product is showcased for sale on the site, a variety of textual and visual content dominates it, to inspire and educate the visitors.
The brand’s idea was to use this website to complement its commercial site, to send a philanthropic message, and indulge in unique storytelling. The company’s vision to serve “mankind” for years to come is reflected in the generous use of the word “perpetual” throughout this site.
Results And Key Insights
In just a few months after the launch of the rolex.org website, more than 200,000 backlinks were generated! This clearly goes to show how the brand has taken a giant leap ahead to reinforce itself as a leader in the watch making industry.
Your Takeaways
Creative and emotional storytelling can establish you as an authority in your field, improve your transparency and credibility, and help potential customers to relate with your brand image and vision.
So, What Is The Crux Of The Matter?
Avoid hard-selling and try to understand what consumers really want and relate with. Explore the power of storytelling by combining text and visuals. Harness the power of influencer marketing, social media platforms, and establish yourself as an authority. Spare a thought for the society at large and see if you can do some real good. Anyone who visits your website should feel the urge to linger on.
The above brands that created their success stories collaborated with content marketing experts to build their content strategy and align it to achieve never-before results.
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3 Things You Can Do Now –
- Take a fresh look at your content marketing campaigns by sharing this with your team.
- Go social with this blog, on LinkedIn and Facebook. Sharing good content can establish you as an expert in your industry and encourage connections to pay attention to what you post.
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