Content without compromise
By Pippa Glucklich
We now live in a world of abundant entertainment. We have an infinite choice of content (if you define infinite as more than we could consume in a lifetime, which seems fair!). As soon as you digitise a piece of content, whether it be a music track, a video, a newspaper or a movie, you transform its power. It can now be cut and pasted, layered and scheduled to seamlessly fit within and around our ‘non-media’ lives. The effect of this is to fundamentally change content consumption from a one-way experience to an interactive one, from local to global and from expensive to cheap, or indeed free.
And so, you could think that our task as media practitioners is actually made easier. It’s clearly more straightforward than ever to ‘reach’ people. There are more channels, more opportunities, more commercial media space than ever before. However, in practice, we know that it’s harder than ever to engage. With such a rich bounty of entertainment on offer, why suffer through tedious commercial messages?
And yet, hasn’t this always been our challenge? Effective media strategy has always been about more than the efficient distribution of commercial assets. Great media is about understanding the context of media. It’s about understanding people. How and why they use content and share it, is the fuel that helps power a media idea.
We mustn’t forget that it’s us folk who make the distinction between content and commercial media. To the civilian, they don’t really care. If something is distinctive and imaginative, people notice it. If it’s entertaining and of value - they will stay with it, even share it (which is, when you think about it, the ultimate endorsement).
That understanding is at the heart of some of the work that EG has done over the years, going right back to the campaign that led to the birth of the agency, Yeo Valley’s rapping farmers. An understanding that the shift from push to pull is in everyone’s benefit.
However, the world has moved on. If the last 20 years was about the disruption of content distribution, the next will be about the disruption of content creation.
Technology has truly democratised content creation. The barriers to entry have been dismantled. We used to call non-professional content UGC, but you don’t hear it used so much anymore. That’s because UGC became a byword for an opportunistic bit of fun, but nothing that really had any long-term value.
But quality content is no longer the preserve of the studio. Anyone with a decent phone can create remarkable content (and we haven’t even mentioned AI yet). Furthermore, communities have built up around content creators that focus on a particular interest or passion. Next time you are in a big newsagent go and take a look at the racks of magazines. For every subject area, and many beyond, there are now communities of content creators putting out incredible, engaging and relevant content across multiple channels every day.
And it’s these communities that offer new ways for us to build ideas and brands. We, as media practitioners, now have the unique opportunity to step into the role of commissioning editor to help tell these stories. And this is where our skills come into play. Because this is not about paying an influencer to talk about a brand. That may have its place, but the value is primarily in their following, not their authenticity. The bigger the following, the more you pay.
No, our skill comes in understanding the bigger picture. The idea at the heart of the brand. The role that content and content creators can play in the wider marketing funnel. And, crucially, the need to use media planning and buying skills to distribute their content effectively and efficiently. Content creators should be evaluated on the quality of their content and their authenticity, not the size of their footprint.
Over the course of the next couple of months we are going to share some of our experience in working with content creators, from the strategic to the nuts and bolts process, from measurement to some real life case studies.
Our Chairman Sir John Hegarty always said, practices change, principles remain. We have always needed to find ways to engage audiences in a world of great content. There is just a lot more of it nowadays. The best marketing has always succeeded because it is engaging in itself. Put simply, it entertains. We now have some powerful new tools to do this more effectively.
