nterruptive marketing—where businesses bombard potential
customers with ads and promotions—is out, and content marketing—where
businesses publish relevant content and media—is in. As such, businesses and
brands have gone to great lengths to improve their content marketing game in
the last year, and many companies have completely revamped their content
marketing strategy.
In fact successful companies’ online marketing practices are
now entirely customer-centric, focused on presenting content that is
interesting and informative and appropriately timed rather than sales-oriented
material foisted on customers. Here’s a look at six companies with the best
content strategies of 2014 and what you can learn from them.
Chipotle
Chipotle, the Mexican grill company that offers burritos,
tacos, and bowls, capitalized on the benefits of using videos for content
marketing in the release of their 3 minute, 22 second short film in 2014.
However, Chipotle didn’t just stop there. Instead, the video was part of a
broader content marketing campaign they named the “Scarecrow,” and is a mobile
game and website in addition to a short film.
Chipotle created both the film and game to bring light to
the negative aspects of processed food, simultaneously naming Chipotle as a
better, and more sustainable, option. The video has received more than 11
million views, and the game has received upwards of 400,000 downloads. Using
multimedia, Chipotle advertised their product, connected with their customer
base, provided something interesting and engaging, and created something that
went viral.
AirBNB
AirBNB, the travel company that helps travelers connect with
home and apartment owners for accommodations, improved their content marketing
in two ways in 2014. First, like Chipotle, they created an awesome video, the
difference being that AirBNB used the help of their customers, inviting them to
create short clips showing a traveling piece of paper and to send the videos in
to the AirBNB team. Once AirBNB had the clips, they created a short film,
approximately four minutes long of paper airplanes, paper boats, origami, and
other paper creations exploring the world. They not only created a film that
inspires people to travel, they did so by engaging their customer base in a
unique and interesting way.
The second reason AirBNB has one of the most epic content
marketing campaigns of the year is its unique neighborhood guides. The guides
are editorial-driven, beautifully laid out, and contain information that’s very
relevant to the audience.
Qdoba
Qdoba, a Mexican grill that offers everything from burritos
to nachos in a fast-food style, makes our list of content marketing epic
examples from 2014 for their use of social media. While it’s often overlooked,
social media is a crucial component of content marketing, and Qdoba did it
right when they held a vote on their Facebook page. The contest allowed
customers to vote for their new favorite Qdoba queso.
While a lot of companies hold votes or contests on their
Facebook pages, Qdoba’s was particularly engaging as it showed the results in
real time. This tiny feature of Qdoba’s vote energized Qdoba fans and
customers, generated buzz, and showed how many people were engaged.
Charmin
You know them for their commercials featuring adorable
bears, but in 2014 Charmin got clever and created a mobile app appropriately
(or inappropriately titled) “Sit or Squat,” which allows customers to find
public toilets on the go. In addition to the app, there’s also a site customers
can access.
Sure, the app is creative and clever, but its real
brilliance resides in the fact that once a customer finds a public toilet, they
can then rate it based on its sit-ability (if it’s a nice restroom), or if a
person should opt to squat (if it’s not so nice) instead. Did we mention it’s
brilliant?
Williams–Sonoma
No videos, no contests, just the exemplary taste blog,
created by Williams–Sonoma. Filled with storytelling imagery and content
evoking a lifestyle that includes Williams-Sonoma products,(bakeware, cookware,
cutlery, kitchen organization products, etc.), taste provides customers with
information about how to do everything from make brownies with raspberries to
can your own tomatoes to smoke baby back ribs. With tantalizing, relevant
headings that grab the readers’ attention like “recipes,” “entertain,” and “live,”
the blog is perfectly organized, easy to navigate, and elevates photos of fresh
fruits, veggies, baked goods, and gardens to the level of near-art.
British Airways
British Airways makes our list of most epic content marketing examples of 2014
with their newest campaign #lookup, featuring children on posters who point
every time a British Airways plane flies overhead. The poster not only features
the child pointing at the plane, but shows the plane’s real flight number as
well as the destination that the plane is arriving from. The #lookup hashtag
encourages people to share the campaign via social media, and the project in
itself has got a lot of people talking. The billboards provide neat information
to consumers, while showing off their services and acting as a central asset in
a broader campaign — a great example of cohesion between offline advertising
and online content marketing.
Content Marketing Epic Examples from 2014 – What’s to Be
Learned?
When it comes to content marketing, the companies that have
done it right consistently deliver authentic stories, try to connect personally
with consumers, use arresting visual content, and think creatively. Plenty of
companies can check one or two of the aforementioned qualities off their list.
For elite content marketers, they’ve trained themselves and their organizations
to live them everyday. So can you.
