Whether it's viral videos, blog posts or social media shares, CG explores the brands that are paving the path of content marketing.
Red Bull is known as the king of content marketing. When it produced a monumental marketing moment with Felix Baumgartner jumping out of a capsule on the edge of space, it created history. Eight million viewers were kept on the edge of their seats throughout the entire event and couldn’t take their eyes off of the footage being fed to iPads and laptops - footage that had the Red Bull logo plastered all over it. Using video footage helped maximise the story and made viewers like they were there, watching in anticipation with Baumgartner's family. This was content marketing at its best: engaging, entertaining, clearly branded but not once showing an actual can of Red Bull.
As well as the eight million watching the live stream, 87,801 people subscribed to Red Bull's YouTube channel (against a daily average increase of 2142 before the event), there were 900,000 interactions on its Facebook and sales rose by 7% in the US in the six months immediately following the jump.
According to The Touchstorm Video Index GoPro is the fifth biggest brand on YouTube. It positions itself as the adventurists’ go to camera and its best content comes ready made from users of the product. The extreme footage shown on its YouTube channel convinces the audience to go on adventures themselves and capture their experiences on their own GoPro. This content appeals directly to its target consumer and the more extreme, the more likely they are to share it. GoPro also utilises a number of specialist YouTube channels to make sure its popular main channel content doesn't become too diluted for its core audience. It's an example of a very natural fit between brand and marketing.
As well as sharing GoPro's original content, the audience share their own GoPro videos in return. Just search for GoPro and the majority of videos returned are from customers who have captured experiences themselves.
Dove's Real Body Sketches video gained over 63 million views on YouTube, touching hearts around the world. Dove avoided using direct sale techniques and proved that simple videos that put a relatable message across can be extremely effective. Dove also clearly understands its audience and not only attempts to entertain them, but tries to relate to them. By doing this it secures a reliable following of people. The Real Beauty Campaign began over a decade ago and this consistency aids the integrity the brand must show to carry off such emotive messages.
The Real Body Sketches video linked with a social media campaign #WeAreBeautiful, which women used to share their thoughts, comments and blog posts about the video.
Hootsuite made its name from making content marketing and social media easier and more effective so it's only right that its own content should make this list. It runs a blog full of informative and educational content that is only too easy to share. The blog posts are easy to understand, avoid jargon and make potentially dry subjects entertaining.
Hootsuite clearly knows its audience and capitalises on trends in current popular culture. The company incorporated this within their video, Game of Social thrones, a follow up from a successful infographic shared the previous year. The video went viral with more than 850,000 views and Hootsuite encouraged as much interaction as possible by asking the audience to share the video with the hashtag #GameOfSocial and to comment which kingdom they would want to live in.
John Lewis has successfully turned its Christmas adverts into an event, creating a feeling of tradition that only really began in 2008. Last year, Monty the penguin went above and beyond traditional marketing tactics and took the social media world by storm with 23 million views on YouTube and a Twitter page with nearly 30,000 followers. The campaign was announced on Twitter and teasers were released through the platform, causing mass speculation and anticipation. The Twitter page eventually encouraged interaction and used various hashtags throughout the campaign. Having a wealth of content that is not directly promoting the brand allows the audience to develop relationships with the characters, generate an emotional response and encourages the sharing of the content.
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