In today’s world, content is king. But with so much content around, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the rest, especially within the marketing sphere. Below are three examples of content marketing done right. If you are looking to make the biggest splash possible and give your content marketing a much-needed shot in the arm, these are the examples to follow.
Coca-Cola: Share A Coke
There are few brands in the world that have the same name recognition and adoration from their fanbase as Coca-Cola. Coke is as ubiquitous as water, tea, or coffee. In fact, there is a growing list of places in the world where access to Coca-Cola is better than access to water. Coke is a product that basically sells itself at this point. If Coke were to withdraw all their advertising and marketing tonight, there would still be an enormous demand for what is one of the most popular beverages in the world.
Marketing a product like Coca-Cola, a product with which audiences are already very familiar, requires a different approach to marketing something new and unknown. The Share a Coke campaign is a fine example of content marketing done right and is regarded as one of the greatest marketing campaigns in the history of advertising by many.
The idea behind the campaign was a simple one, but it proved to be devastatingly effective. All Coca-Cola had to do was add names to their products. Naturally, consumers who saw their own name on a bottle of coke would be more likely to buy it. But the real genius of the campaign was the accompanying tagline: “Share a Coke”. This encouraged shoppers to not only purchase a bottle for themselves but for their friends and family as well.
Not only is this an excellent example of content marketing done right, but it is also a striking demonstration of the power of personalization. Personalized marketing speaks directly to individual customers, not to groups of consumers as a whole. Because of this, personalized marketing creates a much stronger emotional connection with its audience.
The Share a Coke campaign is proof positive of just how effective even a simple form of personalization can be. It also shows that marketers can take advantage of personalization without knowing the first thing about their customers. Coca-Cola simply used common names from around the world and localized their offerings so that Americans would see common American names, Egyptians common Egyptian names, etc.
Acorn: Grow From Acorns
Acorn is one of the most popular investing apps on the market today. In fact, Acorn was the progenitor for a whole category of similarly-styled apps that are designed to enable people to save their money effortlessly. Users simply link their Acorn app with their bank account, the app then rounds up every purchase to the nearest whole dollar and deposits the difference into a savings account. When you have $5 in your account, the money is withdrawn and invested.
While Acorn is a finance/money app, its target audience is people who don’t know or don’t want to invest their money using conventional channels. This includes people who want to break into the world of investing but lack the startup capital required to begin trading stocks and shares or buy bonds and are looking for more accessible investment options. The Grow From Acorns campaign is a great example of the importance of knowing your audience.
The Grow blog was set up by Acorns as a platform they could use to publish articles that provide value to their users. These articles cover subjects relating to managing personal finances and setting and achieving financial goals, subjects that Acorn’s target audience is likely to find very helpful. The blog is clearly targeted at the same audience that is likely to use the Acorn app and is designed to help them begin saving and investing.
The Grow blog is littered with calls to action, which are particularly effective when attached to articles that offer the reader genuine value. Not only is this an impressive demonstration of a long-term content marketing strategy, but any blog owner looking to expand their reach and grow their audience could learn a lot from Acorn’s Grow blog.
Nintendo: Switch Marketing Blitz
Nintendo’s Switch console has been an unmitigated success. The Wii was a smash hit as well, but the follow-up console, the Wii U, performed disappointingly. A big part of the problem with the Wii U was a lack of clarity surrounding what the product actually was. Nintendo appeals to casual gamers and families, more so than Sony or Microsoft, meaning that not all of their audience are dedicated gamers. For those who had dipped their toes in the water with the original Wii but had little knowledge of the videogames industry beyond this, Nintendo’s poor communication surrounding the console just made things confusing – lots of people thought the Wii U was an add-on to the Wii instead of a new console.
The Wii U debacle was so bad and its effect on Nintendo’s finances so pronounced that the company went into a full-blown panic, culminating with their ill-advised foray into the mobile gaming market as a means of stemming the blood loss. Eager not to make the same mistake twice, Nintendo’s global marketing blitz prior to the launch of the Switch was much clearer.
The content marketing for the Switch was delivered via multiple channels with Nintendo seeking to generate as much buzz as possible. Simplicity was the name of the game for much of this marketing; the Wii U’s marketing failed largely due to a lack of clarity. When it came to the Switch, Nintendo made it clear what the product was and what it did from the get-go.
You don’t have to be a major brand preparing for a global product launch to learn from Nintendo’s example. They succeeded not just because they prioritized clear and concise communications, but because they went for full saturation. Simple and inexpensive marketing content was sent out across the globe via a multitude of channels. All of the Switch marketing was consistent, which made its messaging that much more effective.
Good content marketing is difficult to get right. But it is folly for smaller businesses to assume that they need the resources of a much larger competitor if they want to ape their ideas. As the examples above demonstrate, the best content marketing is built on a winning concept, not on a pile of money.