Videos, blog articles, posts on social networks… Brand content can take many forms, but always serves the brand image. What is brand content and how to implement a strategy that works? Discover in this article all there is to know about this content strategy that serves different purposes!
Brand Content: Definition
Brand content, as the name suggests, is branded content. It is for a given brand to produce content, not explicitly advertising, but related to the values it wishes to promote. The goal of brand content? SEO for Painters influence your target through emotion, storytelling and creativity, in order to create a strong bond with them. In short, it is necessary to do story-telling aimed at enhancing the brand image, based on axes that will win the support of the target audience.
Note that successful brand content must be qualitative: the visual identity of the brand is used to convey a strong message, in connection with societal issues, for example. The objective is to succeed in creating a link with the consumer, which can go through emotion or entertainment. Ideally, a brand content campaign should go viral.
Brand Content: Examples
Over the years, many brands have tried their hand at brand content, with more or less successful attempts. We invite you to discover a series of examples of the most inspiring brand content.
From the Michelin Guide to the Guinness World Records: examples of historical brand content
Michelin tires made brand content even before the term existed, by launching the first Michelin Guide in 1900. At first consisting solely of addresses of garages and advertisements, the Guide gradually turned to the census good restaurants, before outright classifying them from 1920, until becoming the bible that we know today. An innovative idea, which met the needs of the tire manufacturer’s target group: motorists who drive and want to eat well. At the border between content marketing and brand content, this approach was then followed by the Guinness beer brand with its book of records, or even by household appliance brands which began to produce recipe books.
But because these examples respond more to a need for practical information than they are emotional, they are only the beginnings of brand content.For brand content to work fully, it must be just as entertaining as it is moving, in a word: engaging.
RedBull: Spectacular Videos
Do you remember Felix Baumgartner? In 2012, this Austrian parachutist broke three world records, including the highest free fall and the highest manned balloon flight, by jumping from the stratosphere. In accordance with its slogan “RedBull gives wings”, the energy drink brand was able to hit hard during this brand content operation. With this supersonic free fall at more than 1357 km/h, she knew how to associate her name with a taste for risk. Since then, she has done it again by producing multiple videos of extreme sports, always very impressive. If the RedBull logo is present in a corner of the video and on the equipment of the athletes, the presence of the brand stops there, and we do not even necessarily see the famous can of soda.
- Why does it work? RedBull offers its target audience (extreme sports enthusiasts) new content that is as engaging as it is viral.
“Dove Real Beauty Sketches” campaign: The Right Balance Between Emotion And Strong Message
Launched in 2013, the Dove Real Beauty Sketches campaign is still cited today as a particularly successful example of brand content. In this video, the brand of hygiene and cosmetic products wanted to show the discrepancy between the way women perceive themselves and their real beauty. To achieve this, Dove asked several women to describe themselves to an FBI cartoonist, so that he made their portrait in their own words, without ever seeing them. Then, these same women were redrawn, but this time according to the descriptions of complete strangers. The difference between the two portraits was always striking: the women had a negative image of themselves, while the versions of the strangers were much brighter and closer to reality. By appearing only 3s at the end of the 3min video, the brand name is almost erased in favor of the message: “You are more beautiful than you think”.
- Why does it work? It’s a very successful example of brand content that hits the heart of the concerns of the brand’s targets (women), with just the right amount of entertainment (the suspense of seeing what the designs will look like), and body-positive values . In the same vein, the brand launched the “Show Us” campaign in 2019, asking women around the world to share their vision of beauty.
Alway’s “Like a girl” Campaign: Involving Its Targets In A Social Experiment
In this widely shared social media video from 2014, always asked men and women to do things “like a girl.” Running like a girl, throwing like a girl, and fighting like a girl… Participants spontaneously perform awkward and ridiculous actions, implying that doing things “like a girl” is pejorative. The same question is then asked of young girls, for whom “doing like a girl” then means something completely different: they give their all and do the best they can. The personal protection brand then asks the following question: “Since when did doing something ”like a girl” become an insult? ». By showing how women’s confidence plummets after puberty, the video becomes a platform for always to display a strong message: “Let’s make ‘doing like a girl’ mean doing amazing things”.
- Why does it work? Like Dove, Always manages to put its finger where it hurts, while opening on a note of hope. The fact that “real people” are involved creates closeness and the fact of bringing in children helps to play on a sensitive chord.
Brand content: 4 Steps To Follow To Create An Effective Brand Communication Strategy
Whether it takes the form of videos or blog articles, a brand content campaign cannot be improvised! Here are the 4 steps to follow to make the project a success.
1. Know Who And How To Talk To
It’s a golden rule of marketing: know your target well in order to talk to them well. Thus, like an inbound marketing strategy, you must get inside your customers’ heads to understand the values and societal commitments that are important to them. The best way to achieve this is to define your buyer personas, in order to answer the following questions:
- Age, sex, income of the targets?
- Profession?
- Specifics of the purchasing process?
- The strengths and weaknesses of their emotional state?
For example, a bank that wants to target young people and show that it acts for the environment could go out to meet young entrepreneurs who seek to change the world, in a series of reports.
2. Decide On Which Values To Communicate
In connection with the themes dear to your targets, you must decide on the values you want to convey. Would you like your targets to associate your brand with the fight against climate change? In defense of minorities or equality between men and women? To innovation? Depending on your field of activity, some values will be more obvious than others. If you have trouble knowing what values to communicate, it may be time to give yourself a reason for being , as encouraged by the PACTE law of 2019. This approach is a good starting point.
The chosen theme may be more or less distant from your core business, but it is essential that it be in line with company practices. If you are not careful, you could be accused of greenwashing or worse of hypocrisy, and the brand content operation would fall completely into the water.
If possible, think global! Anniversary date, launch of a new range… Align your objectives with a flagship event for the company.
3. Forget The Product In Favor Of The Brand
For a communicator, the temptation to highlight his product is great. But for the brand content strategy to be successful, you have to manage to forget your offer to focus on the brand. Beyond the values of the company, you can communicate on:
- Company culture: show through concrete and inspiring examples what it means to work for you, by highlighting quality of life at work (QVT) measures or your recruitment philosophy. This type of content is very suitable for recruiting new talent, a bit like in an inbound recruiting process.
- The history of the company: use and abuse storytelling to come back to the creation of the company or to a new axis of strategic development. In any case, it is necessary to put the human at the center to personify and embody your brand.
Keep in mind that brand content must convey strong emotions: joy, surprise, melancholy, pride… It is only by touching the feelings of your audience that your content can become memorable.
4. Define A Brand Content Editorial Charter
For the brand image to be consistent from one content to another, it is advisable to define an editorial charter. Preferred tone, possible formats, best practices and areas to avoid… This document must list all the rules to follow to produce coherent brand content. Finally, for these actions to be part of a certain continuity, it is advisable to develop an editorial schedule.
All of this can then be summarized in a content distribution plan, in which the distribution channels will be specified in particular (website, social networks, paid advertising, etc.).
B2B Brand Content: What Opportunities?
The best examples of brand content often relate to B2C. However, it should not be thought that this is an off-limits playground for B2B. On the contrary, it is possible to draw inspiration from what has worked in B2C to readapt it to the B2B sauce. Because before being seasoned professionals SEO for B2B, we are above all human beings endowed with emotions. Thus, in its advertising campaigns, indeed focuses on the human side of the candidates, by highlighting strong life stories, such as that of a sterile woman who converted to training therapists intended to support women. They are also sterile.
- Because it is the ideal media to arouse emotion, by combining image and sound, video is often used in brand content campaigns. However, it is also possible to use other formats, relying on a modular content strategy.
B2B Brand Content Via White Papers And Posts On Linkedin
Imagine that a B2B company has recently embarked on an ambitious CSR strategy and wishes to communicate on its commitments. It could start by making a white paper summarizing its entire approach, then decline everything in shorter formats, like snack content. For example, she could make a video focus on some of the most emblematic actions, interview the CEO on his approach and share everything on LinkedIn. Or even create small infographics that can be easily shared on the networks.
- Read also: Can slow content and inbound marketing go hand in hand?
Brand content: Why Do It? What Advantages?
At first glance, making brand content may seem incidental or secondary. Yet it is an interesting performance lever, in many respects. Here are the main good reasons to do brand content.
- Take care of your brand image. You can offer very interesting products or services, if your brand does not print, there is little chance that people will spontaneously think of you for a recommendation. By proposing unique and original messages, in addition to a quality offer, you put all the chances on your side to make an impression.
- Grow your traffic. Through engaging content (funny or moving), easily re-shareable, brand content can boost the visibility of your site.
- Spice up his lead nurturing. In an inbound marketing strategy, being able to regularly feed your prospects with content is essential. In this phase of lead nurturing, it can be interesting to vary the pleasures, by offering refreshing content that will arouse the interest of your targets.
- Improve your conversion rate. If a prospect hesitates between your company and another, finding a well-crafted branded content can make all the difference.
- Build customer loyalty. Just because you already have a large number of companies in your customer base doesn’t mean you should let them go. Continue to tell them (beautiful) stories thanks to brand content!