At Marketing Magazine‘s annual Content Marketing Conference, we asked three big content success stories to share the inside story and their strategies for success. Here’s what we learned.
Stanfield’s & John St: Hold the reins, but not too tight
Men’s underwear company Stanfield’s has worked with John St. for eight years. Together they’ve pioneered successful owned-media campaigns like the The Guy At Home in his Underwear and the Gitchhiker. Last fall, they decided to do it again, but this time on TV – which turned out to be a whole new beast.
Stanfield’s and John St. worked with The Comedy Network on a project called Comedy Network Exposed. An American Idol-style national search for stand-up comedians, Exposed offered up-and-coming funny people a chance at their own pilot on The Comedy Network. The catch was they had to audition in their underwear.
John St. ECD Stephen Jurisic said the campaign’s biggest challenge was working with a media partner that wanted a say in what the final product would look like – something most creative agencies aren’t used to. “Ultimately the Comedy Network aligned with us and the client better than other potential partners. But the tricky thing is giving up control – now you’re working with the Comedy Network, they have their own producers, creators, and writers.”
But don’t give up too much control, he said. “A lot of the time people just let their partners go. I think what’s best is to build on that relationship. When you meet your partners at the beginning of the process, talk about what it will be like to work with you. Establish some parameters, even though you’re ultimately not in control.”
Volkswagen & Red Urban: Tell stories about people
Volkswagen’s Once More: The Story of VIN 903847 is a feature-length documentary that premiered on the Discovery Channel in February – making it the first piece of branded content to air on a non-paid broadcast channel in Canada. Once More tells the story of a Canadian-bought 1955 Beetle that traveled the world three times with owner Wolfgang Paul Loofs, was displayed at the 1967 World Expo, and remains in good running order today.
Red Urban was commissioned last year to create a campaign that would celebrate Volkswagen’s 60th anniversary. The creative team at the creative agency discovered the story of VIN 903847 while reviewing historical archive documents about the company, and felt the story embodied the message that “cars are a home for memories.” In the documentary, they bring together the car’s current owner with its original owner, Loofs, and film them taking a ride together in the car.
The campaign reached 1.6 million Canadians through Bell Media TV channels and web distribution. Online, the campaign drew more traffic to VW.ca’s site than it had ever seen before. Paid placements had a viewthrough rate of 28% compared to 13-22% on average for the Canadian auto category.
“The more we discovered about the VIN story, the more we realized it wasn’t a story to celebrate the age of the company. It was a story to celebrate the spirit of the company,” Red Urban director of client services Caroline Kilgour explained. “If we did our jobs properly, there was the opportunity that this powerful essence would transfer into the products themselves.”
But doing it properly meant that it “was imperative that everyone bought into a vision that focused on the human element,” she said. “The story wasn’t to be about the car, it was about the people. Volkswagen was to play a supporting role.”
Chipotle & Piro: Don’t be afraid of conflict
Earlier this year, Chipotle aired four episodes of a satire called “Farmed and Dangerous,” which skewered industrial agriculture and bolstered the company’s image as an ethical, eco-friendly organization. The show was written and filmed by New York-based content studio Piro, and debuted on Hulu with a four-star rating (out of five). It was ranked the second-most watched show on Hulu the day of its premiere. (Unfortunately it’s not accessible in Canada.)
Piro founder Daniel Rosenberg and creative director Mike Kirkland emphasized that Farmed and Dangerous wasn’t just a long ad, and it couldn’t be created like one. They took cues from Hollywood entertainment studios, putting together writers’ rooms, character bibles and script readings with the actors. One of the keys to success was understanding what audiences are looking for in entertainment, and engaging them – rather than trying to deliver an explicit brand message.
“Conflict is not a bad thing in entertainment,” said Rosenberg. “With entertainment, the higher the stakes, the more engaging the piece of entertainment. It’s a very difficult thing for brands to come to grips with that – the idea of conflict as a tool to sell. But that is when the audience’s barriers come down, and that is when they are most engaged.”
Kirkland echoed Rosenberg’s thoughts: “Aaron Sorkin said at Cannes that one of the keys to storytelling is that when you’ve got a character who’s back is up against the wall, shove him even harder. That was a strange notion for someone who works in advertising, because you’re basically abusing your hero – and in advertising your hero is always the guy that looks like you, riding on the white horse. [But] he needs to feel the conflict – that way you root for him, and when he wins in the end, the audience is with you.”
