Recently, royalty has been back on the agenda in a big way – the Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge having engaged the nation – and this got me thinking about another monarchy-related expression: content is King.

If I were to say content is King, I certainly wouldn’t be the first, and most definitely not the last. So, I’m not going to say that, because: a) it’s too obvious and b) I don’t actually happen to believe it (which is probably far more important).

Ok then, what am I going to say? Content is important, most certainly, but I happen to believe where you put your content is as equally important as the content itself. In the modern world we might call this a bromance between two Kings: medium and message.

Like it or not, we live in a world of complex communication, a place where options are almost unlimited and wherever you turn someone is trying to engage you. In the marketing world this makes our lives increasingly more appealing – how do we target someone at the right place, time and price?

Targeting has always been a science, but if you overlay that science with the art form of engagement that we as marketers all crave, we suddenly create a complicated scenario where two separate worlds collide. And this is where it begins to get really interesting.

Why am I making this point?
Well, with such a complicated world, what’s the best way to reach your audience? It’s to tap into a passion point and create a content expectation that is authentic and helps you go beyond your brand to engage; sponsorship done correctly can be a hugely effective means to achieve this goal.

Of course, this is not new but what is evolving is how we can offer content of absolute relevance.  We live in an instantaneous world and we no longer savour anticipation; that feeling of excitement of picking up your holiday snaps from the chemist, or waiting for that first phone call from a new girlfriend before the days of mobiles.  Sadly, these things are in the past, we want our content right now – we wait for no one.

New channels can be invented overnight, Apple’s iPhone campaign with the line ‘There’s an app for that‘ created an (almost) brand new channel instantaneously – and as brands and content owners we need to be prepared for these additions to an already diverse and cluttered media offering. But this brings opportunity too, as we now have the ability to target like never before.

It’s a data-driven world – so now we can reach consumers by means never previously imagined.  The digital world has enabled us to target our audience with military-like precision and this fuels huge opportunity across all sectors.

But what does this mean for sponsorship?
Sponsorship is born out of understanding of a target audience, their habits and their passion points. It is about matching people’s interests to brands and products in the most engaging of ways – through an emotive connection.  In today’s market, it presents an incredibly powerful content platform to connect with your audience. It’s certainly not a simple art, but for me every partnership strategy should put content at its heart.

Who’s doing it well?
The evolution of brand content has developed so quickly in the last few years, it’s now part of nearly every (good) strategy.  There are some great examples out there and I’ve picked out some personal favourites, but I think what makes this fascinating is the fact the content can be so different. It could be an app, it could be social or it could still be one of the more traditional routes. But, these examples all have some key common factors:

Nike – Write the Future

Nike has been a master of using endorsement for a long time, indeed the brand revolutionised the industry with the innovation of Air Jordan in the 1980s and is a strategy the still holds firm today (it was also the winner of our Greatest Sports Marketing Innovation Poll).  For the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Nike created the Write the Future campaign; a fantastic example of putting the emotion of the Tournament at the centre of the brand’s content:

Ben & Jerry’s – Fair Tweets

To promote its association with World Fair Trade Day 2011, Ben & Jerry’s has created a quite brilliant campaign to “Put your unused Twitter characters to good use”. Whenever users place a post on Twitter, the application turns any unused characters into a message about Fair Trade. It’s a brilliant cause and a really clever use of the Twitter platform, providing really valuable messaging to Fair Trade – this video explains the campaign far better than I can:

ASICS New York Marathon – Support your marathoner

For the 2010 New York Marathon, ASICS USA put content at the heart of a new, innovative, experiential campaign for the event. The campaign centered around creating personalised supporter messages for runners from their friends and family to inspire them during the race. The messages of support were captured through social media and experiences in the build up to the marathon and then the messages were triggered by RFID tags (microchips on runners trainers) during the race. When the runners run over a sensor matt it triggered a giant LED screen which played personalised video messages from friends and family as the runners run past – genius.

The England and Wales Cricket Board – Follow Us

Quite unusually for a rights holder, the ECB developed a great platform to help England fans follow the team throughout the recent winning Ashes campaign in Australia.  The campaign had two key factors that contributed to its success: a) a victorious England b) Graham Swann – who has developed not only into the world’s best off-spinner, but must also be the most talented on-screen cricketer of his generation.  His natural style in front of the camera and humorous banter helped make the films outstanding. The campaign was rewarded at the recent Sports Industry Awards, taking home the award for Best use of Digital Communication in Sport.

So, why are these great examples of content?

At the heart of all of the above campaigns is relevance; to both the brand and the audience.  Good sponsorship strategy is based on connections and in all these examples it really shines through.

Looking more deeply, we can see that five key principles ring true to each example which should be applied to every sponsorship content strategy:

But what creates great content?
Like almost everything else, great content is about innovation.  It’s about finding something that connects and resonates with your audience and providing it how they want it, when they want it.  Sure, major players in the media landscape (broadcasters and publishers) are continuing to get the lion’s share of audience, but will it always be this way?

I take an analogy I read in the Economist recently; people said the horse manure crisis in London in the 1890s would lead the city’s demise within 20 years.  What they didn’t know then, was that Karl Benz would invent the motor car which made the theory obsolete, but Karl himself was also wrong.  He claimed demand for motor cars would never get above a million because we would run out of chauffeurs.
The point being that content, in the connected digital world, is only just beginning and some of the innovations of the future could really start to shape a new world of content.  Who’s to say brands can’t lead that?

So, is content really King?
All of the examples we have looked at demonstrate creativity and innovation which for me is the common theme for success. By combing a creative approach to the key content principles it can help create a unique and relevant content strategy for your audience.  Content is a major component but it must be considered alongside context by creating a collaborative approach to medium and message.

So for me content alone isn’t King, but combined with context it can be.  I’d love to get your views?

To wrap this all up, I just had to share this. We recently welcomed Google to Engine for a discussion around the use of Google platforms and products for brands and they shared one of their favourite campaigns: Converse Domination. It’s one of the best examples of a brand putting content at the heart of their campaign and is a true demonstration of the five key principles in action. From audience understanding, to having fun the campaign truly has it all. Enjoy!

By Ben Wilkinson on May 18th, 2011

Tags: Branded content, Content, Music, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Sport, Synergy, Synopsis, The Arts, Twitter

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