Big money sponsors are all producing their own original content. Has the era of “enterprise as media” arrived?
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On February 6 this year, Starbucks launched a special Valentine's Day animation called "Beagle Love": the story takes place in a Starbucks coffee shop. The writer Alexa wants to give her novel a perfect ending with a heroic romantic confession, but she can't find the inspiration for writing. At this moment, the clever beagle Chet suddenly held a piece of wood and sang a love song, confessing his love to the beautiful and kind brown bear store manager Julie: "Although I am very ordinary, you see, I can carve wood into the shape of my love for you. Today I want to give you my little heart. Please give me a chance!" This animation is the finale of Starbucks' original mini-animation series "1st & Main". This series of animated shorts marks Starbucks’ first attempt at producing its own animated short videos. However, recently Quanmeipai (qq_qmp) discovered that not only Starbucks, but also major brand owners including Coca-Cola, Nike, etc., have frequently launched self-made original content. These original contents (rather than advertisements) produced by brand owners are no longer obsessed with increasing merchandising and sales, but instead "properly" establish their own content production and dissemination centers, and try to establish new connections with millennial consumers through content. What good content have the “financial sponsors” come up with that can compete with professional media? Has the era of “enterprise as media” arrived? “Big companies” have started to create their own content First, let’s take a look at a group of original content cases from major brand owners. Their practices are all sending the signal that content production is no longer a specialized function of the media, but also a basic work that brand companies must engage in. “All industries are communication industries, and all companies are media.” Starbucks: Animation + documentary conveys values and culture Now let’s talk about Starbucks. As Starbucks’ first original animation work, the mini animation “1st & Main” has been released one episode per week since its launch in December last year, and each episode is about 1-2 minutes long. The protagonists of the story are a group of small animals with unique styles in the coffee shop: the store manager, the brown bear Julie, the barista, the civet cat Diego, the clerk, the octopus Iggy, and the beaver Chet, a regular customer of Starbucks... The cartoon revolves around Starbucks store scenes, and implicitly expresses Starbucks' store culture, customer emotions and brand tone through daily trivialities . For example, when the porcupine couple who were about to welcome their baby heard the clerk calling out the customer's name to remind them to pick up their food, they fell in love with the name of the octopus Iggy and wanted to name it for their baby; the new clerk was a little flustered at work and kept making mistakes, so the store manager and the barista would guide and comfort him, reassuring him that even experienced people can make mistakes; on Christmas Eve, the hippo customer Gordon sat alone in the empty store, and the three clerks worked together to prepare a big meal for him as a Christmas surprise... The creators behind this animation, John Frink, Joel H. Cohen and Rob LaZebnik, have served as screenwriters for "The Simpsons". Frink said that every Starbucks customer has a story, and we hope to dig out something simple, interesting and warm to resonate with the audience. During the US election last September, Starbucks also launched a documentary series called "Upstanders", which was co-produced by then-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and former Washington Post senior editor Rajiv Chandrasekaran. The documentary focuses on the civil rights and public spirit of ordinary people. It continuously tracks 10 community workers, telling the details of their ordinary work and showing how they work hard to change their community living environment bit by bit. "Upstanders" documentary poster “The Upstanders is a unique series of stories about unsung individuals who are brave, selfless, collaborative and creating positive change, and we wanted to share their stories through Starbucks’ platform so more people can hear about them,” said Chandrasekaran. Among them is Pastor Steve Stone, who protects Christian churches in areas where Islam is flourishing: Susan Burton, who helps former inmates start a new life: There is Lloyd Pendleton who provides accommodation for Utah's street homeless people: If Starbucks' mini-animation still has a hint of brand promotion, there is basically no trace of "brand placement" in the documentary series. Some media comments pointed out that "Starbucks is spending millions of dollars on something that does not help sell more coffee." Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told Business Insider: This entire political season has been filled with so much division and justice that we need to shine a light on the amazing acts of ordinary people. In addition to being disseminated through Starbucks' official website and app, social media, and coffee cups, the series of content has also been distributed through partnerships with media outlets Mic.com and Upworthy. Howard made it clear: "I think it's our responsibility, and we've always been a values-based organization." #Video: The Upstanders documentary "The Hunger Hack" Coca-Cola: Established "North American Social Center" to oversee social media marketing In October 2016, Coca-Cola officially announced the establishment of the North American Social Centre, a real-time newsroom to manage social media marketing for all Coca-Cola trademark brands (including Diet Coke, Fanta, and Sprite), including developing content strategies and conducting media purchases. The newsroom includes 55 staff members, who are marketers selected by Coca-Cola from North America, as well as executives from agencies such as Possible, Havas and Moxie. A Coca-Cola spokesperson said, "We are constantly looking for new innovations to help consumers build emotional connections with our brands, and integrating a global social media marketing system will help us better plan and implement social media marketing strategies." In fact, Coca-Cola has long attached importance to content. As early as 2012, Coca-Cola elevated content marketing to a strategic level. Wendy Clark, then senior vice president of integrated marketing communications at Coca-Cola, said: “The content of brand stories is like liquid, flowing freely to every corner. But no matter how far they flow, they are connected to brand strategy and goals.” During the 2016 Christmas and Thanksgiving seasons, the editorial office launched a series of social marketing activities and content. Before Thanksgiving, Minute Maid set up a special store in Chicago called "Nothing to Sell". When you enter the store, you will find that no products are sold here. Instead, a video story of "Writing a Letter to Your Dear Ones" is played - several children wrote a letter to their parents in the store, recording the words that the children had not said to their relatives in person, to express their gratitude to their parents. Nike: Self-produced web drama "House Girl VS Fitness Fanatic" Nike's deployment was more forward-looking. As early as 2013, it established an integrated social media marketing team and took over all online community businesses that had previously been outsourced to agents. Last February, Nike's official website launched an original web series "Margot vs Lily" specially tailored for female audiences. The web series consists of eight episodes and was produced by famous film producer Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, famous director Tricia Brock and best-selling author Jesse Andrews. “This is my sister Lily. Fitness and YouTube are the whole meaning of her life . This is my sister, Margot. She is lazy…” The story revolves around Lily, a younger sister who runs a personal fitness video channel on YouTube, and Margot, a lazy older sister who works as an operator in a financial company. The two sisters made a bet that Lily, who is not good at socializing, wants to make new friends, while Margot wants to open a fitness channel on YouTube. #Video: Nike's self-made web series "House Girl VS Fitness Fanatic" Episode 1 In addition to being available on Nike.com/nikewomen, the original series of "House Girls vs. Fitness Fanatics" has been broadcast 8.5 million times on YouTube. The “branded content” strategy was launched Maybe you are asking, why do people who sell coffee, soda, and shoes have to create their own content? Perhaps, branded content can better summarize their practice. Advertising or strong marketing models are no longer appealing to millennials, and "impressing consumers with content" has become a new way of thinking in corporate communications. Products, services, emotions, culture, social interactions and scenarios are no longer isolated, and high-quality content is becoming the link that connects these elements. Appeal to brand values The most significant feature of branded content is that it appeals to emotions, values and lifestyles, subtly conveying brand culture, thereby turning customers into fans and the brand into a belief. What is different from the past is that these contents have broken away from the original brainwashing and aggressive advertising model and are trying to connect with more consumers in a completely new way through brand values. As content production and dissemination become increasingly fragmented and socialized, traditional face-scanning advertising with a sense of domestication can no longer brainwash consumers. Consumers hope to find the fit between the brand temperament and themselves, and achieve self-satisfaction in their consumption behavior with a strong sense of value identification. Take the "Little Hours of Noodle Shop" series of micro-films by Uni-President, which won the Cannes Golden Lion Award, as an example. The story focuses on warmth and nostalgia. 8 creative noodle-based dishes are integrated into the slow-paced story to convey a "slow down" lifestyle to consumers. From online to offline: scene experience of digital content Content does not die after it is viewed. The connection with offline scenarios can make high-quality content burst with stronger vitality, allowing users to further deepen their understanding of brand value through the physical participatory scene experience. In conjunction with its self-produced web drama "House Girl vs. Fitness Fanatic", Nike launched activities such as "Learn how to dress like the protagonist, and exercise together with the audience watching the drama". Viewers who subscribe to Nike emails will receive explanations of the characters' sports movements and product information on the same clothing after each episode is broadcast. As an online viewing platform, Nike's official women's channel also began accepting user registration for the new year's NikeWomen Victory Tour, a women's running and fitness event to be held in designated cities around the world. NikeWomen VictoryTour offline half marathon and fitness activities These online and offline multi-platform interactive activities fully continue Nike’s campaign theme of “Better For It”. It can be seen that it is precisely with high-quality content as the bond that the brand gradually builds a highly loyal fan community, transforming isolated individual customers into a group of fans with empathy. Diversified distribution of high-quality content When a company becomes a content producer, it also has greater autonomy over its media placement. In addition to traditional media, companies prefer mainstream social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and online video website giants such as YouTube and Vimeo. Starbucks’ mini animation “1st & Main” is distributed to major mainstream platforms such as Starbucks official website, App, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc., with an average of 300,000 views per episode on YouTube. Starbucks' strong store base has also accumulated a large number of offline broadcasting channels for it. "1st & Main" is broadcast in a loop in major stores. The 1-2 minute animation provides just the right amount of entertainment for customers waiting in line to pick up their food, and it conveys the brand culture through short and interesting stories. If the content is good, making money will be a natural thing High-quality content products can not only win the favor of consumers, but can also be directly monetized through the sale of copyrights, content dividends, box office revenue, etc. As active content producers, enterprises must also begin to participate in the commercial operations of content products. Taking Red Bull Media Studio as an example, it not only provides Red Bull with all kinds of content needed for publicity such as print and video, but also supplies the media content such as sports events and extreme sports it produces to major media around the world, earning considerable copyright, broadcasting and on-demand revenue. They seized the "high premium" of outdoor sports and extreme sports, and went all out to make them bigger and stronger. For example, in the seasonal sports event series "Sign for Red Bull" co-produced by Red Bull and NBC, Red Bull is responsible for providing program content including a series of competitive challenges such as surfing, skiing, and skydiving, while NBC provides the media platform. Red Bull and NBC share the advertising and sponsorship revenue of the program. Paid content is also a way to monetize. Red Bull Media Studio invested $2 million to shoot the snowboarding documentary "The Art of Flight", which combines thrilling and gorgeous snowboarding moves and heart-wrenching adventures. Red Bull then placed it at the top of iTunes' sports and documentary channels and all paid movie websites for a week, and provided paid downloads on iTunes at a price of US$10 per download. In the end, the film topped the iTunes download list of similar films in 2011. It can be seen that the monetization of original content is no longer the exclusive right of the media. The good content produced by enterprises with care can also be directly converted into considerable profits. Breaking the boundaries between content and advertising As large companies have begun to set up media departments to focus on content production, the trend of "company as media" has become increasingly clear. So, what impact will this phenomenon have on the existing content production landscape? First of all, in the content ecology, the boundary between content and advertising will gradually blur, and all content will become valuable information in a broad sense. Native advertising is one form of branded content. Native advertising combines the dual characteristics of content and advertising, attempting to start from the audience's psychology and provide advertisements that both showcase the brand and integrate with the context, while resonating with people. At the same time, companies will have greater initiative in content distribution. After targeting consumers, advertisers can create content for target users themselves and independently select media distribution channels for precise delivery based on the form and tone of the content, so as to enhance the matching between content and platform and achieve better communication effects. Secondly, media talents will be favored by companies undergoing media transformation. As large companies absorb more and more outstanding talents into their creative teams, it will inevitably further aggravate the talent drain crisis of traditional media. In addition, upstream and downstream players in other content industries, such as advertising creative companies, also urgently need to transform. In recent years, the living space of advertising companies has been continuously squeezed. The era of strong advertising is gone forever, and the professional system that the 4A giants have always been proud of is becoming increasingly unable to cope with the situation. Jiang Hong from the China Advertising Association believes that this is both a crisis and an opportunity. Advertising talents and the business of advertising companies must be integrated in both directions with upstream and downstream enterprises and media. On the one hand, advertising companies can provide strategic consulting, business planning and integrated marketing communications to enterprises and become their strategic partners. On the other hand, advertising companies can also cooperate with the media to provide services such as media agency, media buying, product placement and brand-tailored programs. In the blink of an eye, advertisers have begun to produce content. With the help of social media channels, companies will increasingly independently assume the functions of content production and dissemination, injecting a fresh impetus into the creative content industry. And it’s time for you to seize the opportunity and smell new opportunities. Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising The author of this article @全传媒派 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting! Site Map |
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