Content Marketing World: 8 Observations & Random Thoughts
Posted by Gordon Plutsky on Tue, Sep 13, 2011
Last week we attended the first ever Content Marketing World (CMW), and it was a rousing success with 631 attendees and many sponsors. Don’t fear if you missed it, King Fish Media is partnering with CMW to provide an on-demand video version complete with synced presentation slides of the conference to be avaliable in October – more about that when it launches.
Here is a round up of observations and random thoughts from my three days in C-Town (a.k.a. Cleveland for those in the know).
1. Starting the conference with the back-to-back keynotes from Sally Hogshead and David Meerman Scott was masterful. Her concept of “Fascination” and the F Score is a brilliant marketing paradigm to understand what motivates customers. Creating an aura of fascination around your brand with content can turn the ordinary into something special. I’ll follow up with a more detailed look at the F Score next week.
2. Sally got the attention of everyone in the room by telling marketers they have 9 seconds to get the attention of a consumer. This is a similar concept to what I wrote about last month about the quickening pace of content consumption, and that our brains have rewired to expect fast and shorter bits of information. Therefore, you better be fascinating or at least interesting if you want a customer to read and engage with your brand.
3. I was excited to hear David Meerman Scott (DMS to insiders) as I have read his books and follow his blog. He made great points about content authenticity and he shares my pet peeve for using stock photos of multicultural models (complete with funny examples) on your web site to represent customers and employees. He focused on the importance of real time communication in today’s always-connected media environment. Harder said than done for some companies – especially big public companies with lots of layers – but the concept is one all marketers must embrace.
4. One of my favorite sounds bites came from Jay Baer, a member of the panel I moderated on justifying content marketing budget (click here to read highlights). Among many smart things he said, was “helping is selling”. That small phrase is at the heart of content marketing – giving customers value and worth to build affinity and trust. It signifies relationship building vs. the hard sell. It is about permission vs. interruption.
5. As a sports nut, I enjoyed hearing from marketers representing Cleveland’s three pro sports teams and how they are using social media campaigns to interact directly with fans. It is the perfect application for a business where the customers have a long term emotional investment and customer retention success (ticket renewals) is paramount.
6. It was great to hear how big tech companies like Dell, SAS, Intel, HP, IBM and Nuance are creating vast amounts of original content to educate and engage customers and prospects. It makes me very happy that I no longer get paid to sell advertising to tech companies as they don’t need it anymore.
7. Many noted that mobile is a huge opportunity and we are just beginning to scratch the surface of the possibilities. Sherwin-Williams was a featured case study, and they are doing a terrific job creating a content channel for customers. Check out their iPhone app, which helps customers select paint colors – very slick.
8. Additionally, there was lots of great information shared on creating content, storytelling and best practices for managing the process. Also, there was lots of talk about social media and search and not to be outdone – social search. The entire social/search space still suffers somewhat from overhype, but that is to be expected while it is still developing as a marketing channel. That being said I am a huge believer in social media as part of an integrated multi-platform solution, but I am also a believer in print for the right application. And face to face. And mobile. And video, etc. In the 9 second, real time world we need to be everywhere with measurable content based solutions to drive sales. There is no point for companies to create content unless it has an actionable and measureable revenue connection. I often think about the famous quote from Sergio Zyman – “The sole purpose of marketing is to sell more to more people, more often and at higher prices. There is no other reason to do it.”
The conference was full of enthusiasm and passion for our business even though we are stalled in challenging economic times. There was much live tweeting as everyone got caught up in spirit of sharing information and networking. Click here to read what others said about the conference. The future looks very good, and I am sure Joe Pulizzi and the Junta42/Content Marketing Institute team are already hard at work on 2012. Congrats Joe and team, a job well done.
Here is the video that opened the conference.