Yesterday saw the launch of Arena’s Advertising without Adverts week – a week-long festival to explore the roles of content, how we create and distribute it and celebrate those that are already doing it well.
The theme for day one was about inspiration – how we start to think about how good content can answer and deliver on our clients’ objectives. After a brief introduction into the roles that content can play, the agency was given a live client brief to respond to by the end of the week using inspiration from the agenda. Well worth doing to win tickets to the ATP tennis at the O2! This will be judged and the winners announced on Friday.
Get Inspired by YouTube Stars
The second session of the day was hosted by social talent agencies Gleam and Base79 who brought some of their YouTube stars along to talk about how they create content. Guests included Patricia Bright (BritPopprincess) who has 265,000 subscribers to her fashion and beauty channel and Callum (Callux) who has 147,000 subscribers on his comedy channel.
This was a rare opportunity to get one-on-one time with social talents whose profiles are growing bigger and beyond those of celebrities. Callux, for example, started his career by uploading videos of him playing Call of Duty and then eventually moved onto his real passion for comedy by curating ‘You’ve Been Framed’ type videos.
When asked about the challenge of keeping subscribers engaged and interested, Patricia explained that she doesn’t try too hard to be creative and is merely inspired by what’s around her – her users are there for everyday fashion and beauty tips and that’s exactly what she gives them!
Our key takeouts:
• Product placement within YouTube videos is really easy to create and is much more genuine than flaunting products e.g. Mattesons’ Fridge Raiders video.
• Vloggers drive footfall – Patricia organised a meet-up with some of her subscribers in a London coffee-shop but was asked to leave when 200 people turned up!
• Brands will start to use YouTube stars like celebrities. Some like L’Oreal have already made this step to making these more credible voices the main advocates for their campaigns.
Twitter: How to plan content for the moment
The keynote speaker of the day was Twitter’s Head of Planning Oli Snoddy who talked through how to plan content for the moment. He explained the benefits of Twitter being live, public, mobile and conversational, making it the ideal platform for brands to instigate and participate in relevant conversations.
He also explored the idea of richer story-telling: how Twitter is often the first port of call for breaking news as well as enhancing brand stories such as the Dove beauty sketches. Brands should not only use Twitter for marketing pushes but also for rewarding customers and managing the occasional crisis e.g. the appearance of Lynx in Channel 4’s Dogging Tales.
Our key takeouts:
• When planning content, firstly think about the brand purpose – what you want people to think, feel and do?
• Don’t only plan for big moments as there will be lots of competition for this space – always consider key brand, cultural and personal moments
• Decide how these stories will be connected and amplified through other media e.g. TV, press and outdoor
• Don’t be too quick to react to negative responses (it’s much better to have a well-thought out response than just shut them down)
Monday was a great opening for the week with lots more to come….
Next up – Production day!