November 28, 2019
Marketing teams are busy. Task lists swell daily. I’m not sure any marketer manages to achieve everything they set out to annually. Evolving sales collateral, event planning, commissioning reports, briefing the spring, summer and Christmas Ads, launching NPD, or improving demand generation. There is much to achieve as a team.
When we’re faced with those tasks, all too often we prioritise the seasonal or timely requirements – “they’re probably going to get the most attention and take the longest to sort. We’ll start there!” But should you be starting there? And should you be acting on a ’probably’?
I’m sure most marketers are questioning ‘why’ we’re doing these campaigns. Many will probe for end-goal aspirations. Some will challenge further, seeking to know what the business has to achieve: ”what does good look like?”.
Bolstered by some key information we can now look at what activities we’re doing and where those potential eyeballs WILL come from. To answer these questions accurately and provide key insight to the business you require people in the room who comprehend each discipline and can help you plan content creation.
Social Media is a beast. It grows incrementally year-on-year and drives tangible revenue back to the businesses. Despite this many still don’t understand its role and critical function for your business. Those people sadly can be within positions of influence and because they don’t understand Social Media they’re not challenging you to explore it.
Three weeks ago we delivered our latest live broadcast for Fujitsu – Fujitsu Forum TV. A concept ideated three years ago, proven in a ’test and prove’ model last year, and evolved and elevated this year. Designed to give key subject matter experts a platform to connect with their prime audience, showcasing their individual, and Fujitsu’s collective intellectual property quality. This isn’t a platform for beating our own chests or credentials. Through interview, we explore the critical challenges boardrooms and society are facing right now and discuss how technology can not only help to resolve said issues, but unlock value from them too. It’s a two-day long live broadcast to Facebook Live, Twitter Periscope and YouTube Live that brought audiences 41 live interviews and 4 Key Notes live. For two days we were live top of the hour, and half past the hour, with each challenging and probing interview lasting an average of 10-minutes. This is high-quality long-form content built specifically for Social Media – the same vertical many claim as not being fit for long form content. Don’t listen to these people. Their claim is without experience or evidence. Great content, irrespective of length, will fly on social. If your content isn’t delivering results, it’s not the social platform at fault, it’s the quality of your content that’s failing.
This year, in two-days of live broadcasting we had over 800-hours of view-time. Not views of just 3-seconds as a user thumbs past an auto playing video. This was 800-hours of watched interviews. Made even more impressive by the fact we only targeted the content to C-Suite profiles.
But what is 800-hours of view-time equivalent to? Well, the earth is 26,000 miles in circumference. The average commercial jet flies at 550mph. 800-hours of view-time (from C-Suite) is equivalent to CEOs watching our broadcast non-stop as they fly around the world 15.5 times.
Three years ago when we first had the idea of Fujitsu Forum TV, we had access to company brochures, White Papers, research material and of course access to some very smart people. Critically, none of the content existed as social-first. Some of the insight was fabulous but other parts of the dialogue was too ’salesy’.
Having been challenged, Fujitsu allowed us to start producing social-first content. Moreover, they stopped producing content for brochures that could then ’be stuck up on the website or on social media’. Instead, and following the tangible data, we started producing content audiences wanted to consume and learn from.
Today, we’re creating social-first content that informs brochures et el. The process has been completely inverted and Fujitsu are reaping rewards as a result.
It all starts with asking the right question and exploring the unknown. This coming year, when you convene your marketing teams to chart 2020 activities, I challenge you to do the same. Where required, do seek outside council to ensure you have the right information to discuss and act on. It might just transform your marketing and lead to a industry-leading social campaign, that fuels your demand generation engine.