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As digital video and streaming services continue to recast the viewing landscape, a handful of digital executives and Sundance Film Festival attendees pushed to have the burgeoning videosphere represented during one of filmmaking's highest-profile events—and Rick Parkhill, CEO of VMA Media, made it happen.
After securing support from sponsors Twitter, Fullscreen, Maker, Zefr, Above Average, Hulu and Naritiv, he persuaded festival organizers that this was, in fact, a viable extension, and Digital Storytelling was born. The event kicks off Thursday, Jan. 21, on the eve of the film festival, with additional sponsors including CNN's Courageous content studio, Fox Network Group's True(x) and The Huffington Post signing on....
Steven Althaus's moment of digital truth came this past spring. BMW's global director of brand management stood in front of top management, telling them the automaker was about to use a drift mob to help market their new car, the M325i.
Five professional drivers were set to go behind the wheel of the M325is and drift--or drive at high speeds, hit the brakes, and turn the steering wheel to spin the car abruptly--around a traffic circle in Cape Town, South Africa. Their aim was to simulate a flash mob; a staged but seemingly spontaneous performance.
BMW executives fired off questions to Althaus that veered toward disbelief. “I presented the idea of a drift mob and they said: 'Is this really going to work?' I had to say, ‘I don’t know. Nobody’s done it before,’” Althaus recalls....
A brand story is made up of all that you are and all that you do. From the company’s history, mission, inspiration, goals, audience, and raison d’être, it’s why you exist. Your story is the people, places, and ideas that your company thrives on. It’s the foundation that keeps a brand going and growing. It’s a blend of those vital little core pieces of information about your business — how you came to be, why your products or services are special, what you’re passionate about, your company culture, how you make people’s lives better, and why you would do business with your company.
Brand stories can be told in many different forms, with an evolving story line and cast of characters, but content creators must be vigilant about continuity and consistency, avoiding any holes. Your brand’s story has to resonate with people at a level that goes way beyond what’s tangible — the functionality, features, and benefits of your products or services — to create a deep, emotional connection with your audience. You have to create something that they want to be a part of and show that you really “get” who they are and what they need.
Here are a few basic questions to answer to help you pull your story out of its box
I'm always fascinated by organizations that embrace brand journalism, hiring reporters to create content that serves as marketing and public relations. For almost a decade, I've recommended that companies of all kinds model their sites not on their peers' boring old brochure-like approach but rather aspire to becoming like a media site such as Forbes, the BBC, or The New York Times and that they actually hire reporters and editors, not marketers and copywriters, to produce the content. One look at the Raytheon homepage shows they do exactly that. There are real-time news, images, and a top stories section. And Raytheon is a B2B (and B2G) company! "You can see our homepage is very much a news operation," says Corinne J Kovalsky, Director, Digital & Social Media at Raytheon. "We've got feature stories and trend stories about cool products."...
I was recently asked a provocative question: “What experiences or insights have shaped your views on brand and reputation management in today’s business environment?” This is a great question and the more I thought about it, the clearer the answer(s) became. 1. The first insight reflects the The Changing Role of Influence. There is a great quote by Gary Hamel, who says “Influence is like water. Always flowing somewhere.” This is very true in today's business environment as new sources of influence are forming around our companies and industries at an extremely rapid pace....
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“Storytelling.” It’s the flavor of the day, whether you’re talking about content marketing, visual communications or public relations, and for good reason. Stories are how humans communicate – with each other individually, across populations and over centuries.
In fact, many organizations are pretty good at identifying and defining their key story lines. The key to success in brand storytelling is in the next step – the strategic deployment of the story. Telling the brand story effectively requires a plan.
And to be clear, we’re not talking about hanging a touchy-feely post up on the blog and then calling it a day. No. Brand storytelling, in this context, means developing a sustained plan to create and execute a strategic approach to telling the brand story, in a way that supports company’s objectives. Personally, I don’t give a hoot about impressions. Let’s gun for something a bit more meaningful....
Yesterday, the architect behind Coca-Cola's content strategy, Jonathan Mildenhall, took the keynote stage at Content Marketing World and brought both smiles and tears to all our eyes.
Why? Because he told an epic series of stories. And he told these stories, by sharing stories, in order to teach how to tell stories. (Whoa, meta, right?)
But when all was said and done, after Mildenhall delivered his keynote, the same questions we hear time and time again came up."How do I create that kind of content without Coca-Cola's budget?"...
...Brands are answering the call to create more value for customers by publishing news and content marketing. In fact, 86% of BtoC and 91% of BtoB organizations are now using content marketing tactics. As companies adopt a publisher model of content and media creation, many are beginning to rival the reach and influence of the publications in their industry.
Amex OPEN Forum and General Mills’ Tablespoon are great examples of this. What do these changes mean for Public Relations and Communications professionals? How is PR competitively positioned compared to marketing and advertising in a content centric web? Read on for answers to these questions and more.
By providing news content that traditional sources are not, brands are creating new connections with their communities and customers. While much of content marketing falls under the realm of corporate marketing, the expertise in messaging, content creation and media relations that many Public Relations professionals bring to the table can offer a competitive advantage in 3 key areas...
Brands that successfully use content marketing say that 1% of their audience drives anywhere from 20% or 30% - but sometimes up to 70% - of all discovery and engagement with their content. That’s better than paid advertising. If you’re looking to boost your content marketing efforts and gain more leverage and brand recognition in your industry, top influences can help you get a competitive edge. Identify Brand Ambassadors Brands that successfully use content marketing say that 1% of their audience drives anywhere from 20% or 30% – but sometimes up to 70% – of all discovery and engagement with their content. That’s better than paid advertising. What’s more exciting is that sharing content through likes, tweets, pins and so on not only increases your brand’s reach within the social circle of a brand ambassador: it can also boost your search engine ranking and result in significantly increased traffic from organic searches too....
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Storytelling moves up the creative food chain at the Sundance Film Festival. Learn some interesting perspectives on brand storytelling.