At IAB Canada‘s Engage 2015 conference on Thursday, top marketers for some of Canada’s biggest brands made it very clear they don’t think about content the same way publishers and content creators do.
Scott Cooper, chief commercial officer for Molson, warned the audience against producing content that turns into “just art.” In other words, it’s not enough to produce high-quality content that tells an engaging story, it has to actually do something for the brand.
“It’s really important that it’s grounded in what the brand stands for,” he said. “Great brands have a point of view they project, and branded content allows you to tell story around that.”
Cooper spoke on a panel hosted by Tony Chapman, along with Cara Foods CMO David Colebrook, Kraft Canada CMO Tony Matta and Microsoft Canada head of PR and communications Chitra Anand.
Cooper said he doesn’t take cold calls from content agencies or creators looking to pitch their idea and tie it to a Molson brand. Those content creators often don’t understand the brand, or the business objectives it wants to achieve — which is a requirement for anything his brand plans to produce.
Kraft’s Matta agreed. “You may not have insight into what the specific business problem is, but too often the pitches come as great ideas that are not founded in anything beyond the story that it’s telling — versus having some strategic thinking behind it,” he said.
“If I was going to give advice to anyone that was on the pure content creation side of the equation, I’d say, what is the strategic function within your shop?” Matta continued. “Do you have the capability to look at brands based on what’s being put out there, to dissect them and understand how they fit into culture?”
That doesn’t mean Kraft won’t take chances with untried content ideas. Matta said the company pursues the popular 70-20-10 marketing investment strategy — 70% of the budget is earmarked for executions with proven ROI, 20% pushes the boundaries, and 10% is spent on pure experimentation.
He pointed to a recent spur-of-the-moment stunt where the Kraft Dinner team sent a personalized box of KD to Shaqille O’Neal. “Shaq ‘N Cheese” went viral on Twitter, and KD registered a “huge” spike in ROI, he said.
That was a big learning opportunity that would have been missed if Kraft didn’t have built-in expectations and budget for blue-sky projects, he said.
Panelists agreed that despite the hype around branded content, it’s not really a new phenomenon. “We all grew up with branded content,” said Cara’s Colebrook. “If you were a kid watching Care Bears, or He-Man or Transformers, that was branded content, to sell toys.”
What has changed is the number and complexity of channels that marketers can use to reach consumers with content, and rules of engagement for each of those channels, said Matta. An important new component of the strategy is choosing the medium carefully, based on the story you want to tell and the target you want to hit — TV or digital video for broad storytelling, but targeted digital or social for more niche groups.
Chapman challenged the marketers to explain how they managed such large, highly involved agency teams on cross-channel projects. “You’re sitting with people you expect to collaborate, who are also competing for shrinking resources and have a lot of pressure to go after it,” he said. “Do they not leave your board meeting smiling, but then go back and say, ‘How do we win all of it?'”
Matta said Kraft is proactive about leveling the playing field for its agency team, by splitting up fees and writing the cheques before the process even starts. “You have to create the dynamic and environment where its safe for people to compete in a healthy way, where it’s not about money and all you’re doing is managing ego,” he said.
Cooper echoed the point, saying that even though Molson expects all of its agencies to be at the table, it also makes sure there are distinctly defined roles for each agency at the very beginning of the process. He said agencies that pursue their own goals at the expense of the brand and the rest of the team, won’t last long with Molson.
