There is no escape from a story.

We live in a deep, multi-connected world; unless you choose to become a hermit, we all live in real-time across every key event. Whether it be our friends, community, national or global.

 

As we move with a changing world and society. What are our values, behaviours and beliefs and who do we believe?

 

Forrester data, Asia pacific online benchmark survey 2015 shows that three-quarters of Australian consumers read peer reviews on products or services, most consumers use social media to help get help with a product or service and 17% agree social media is the channel for them to endorse their favourite brand.

 

As communities, the environment, technology and social behaviours change, do businesses change with them?

 

Mobium’s living Lohas research shows how the attitude and behavioural change in Australians demonstrated in our consumption decisions and how we follow social trends. Mobium’s research segments the research in to four groups, leaders, leaning, learning and laggards.
These groups depict our changes in values, beliefs in sustainability, and our willingness to pay for premium products.

 

Are businesses considering these factors when placing content on communication channels and deciding how to engage with their audience?

 

For a brand, business or product to adapt to the change in social trends, it must define and lead with it’s brand purpose.
As consumers become more informed, the power is with the consumer.

 

Big businesses are seeing more competition from brands that want to offer solutions to social or environmental issues as part of their purpose. The big brands who sell on product alone, need to take note - people care about making a difference and so should brands.

Big or small, how can you start to change consumer behaviour?  How can you as a business make a difference?

 

NRMA as a case study

 

For a business to be sustainable, the consumer must always come first, not just their needs, but what they care about in their lives and the lives of those they care about.

 

We are significantly more connected therefore more people are likely to share your story if it’s something that adds value to them and the community they care about.

 

NRMA has a purpose of keeping Australia moving, they recently worked with 3rdspace Social Media Agency to bring to life their purpose, as they ventured to Lightning Ridge to help drought stricken farmers, keep their machinery moving.

 

The content didn’t highlight a product attribute, but the reason why NRMA exists.

A purpose people were keen to support and share.

At 3rdspace, we are always talking to our partners about the importance of developing a powerful content purpose as a way that can help guide the content team and marketing team from the inside out.

But where does it all go from there?

We’ve found a lot of brands talk about their content pillars and feel they've nailed their content strategy. The truth is, while it may mean a lot to the business and brand, that strategy and those pillars will not resonate with consumers.

There are also a lot of stakeholders when it comes to content, and everyone thinks their piece of content is the most important.

So, we’ve designed some innovative tools to help businesses not only define their content mission, but also create content that brings to life that mission in a way that has value to the audience.

We have also created 5 simple criteria to help select the best content.

  1. Is it relevant not only to the brand, but to the person we want to view it and share it? For content to connect it needs to express how our audience think and feel in a way that is more dynamic than how they would express it themselves.
  2. Does it have an “emotional gift”? Is it helpful, inspirational or does it generate humour that is reflective of the brand’s personality?
  3. Does it reinforce our brand purpose in a way that is easily understood in the language of a trusted friend?
  4. Does it start a conversation? Content should always evolve a brand story arc, but more importantly, if we can inspire our audience to share their stories, the content has more value than a “share”.
  5.  Is the format and the channel we are presenting the idea in the best way to tell the story? Sometimes a still image or a thought provoking editorial piece or quiz can be more appropriate and time relevant than a produced film. Also consider taking the idea into newer channels where you may not have huge following but can have great impact.

Always focussing on what most strongly connects you and your consumers – your Core Purpose.

Rob Logan is the founder of 3rdspace - where brands with purpose create content of value.

Content Agency 3rd Space has recently started working with the lovely people at Crust Gourmet Pizza. In our first campaign, Crust needed a localised solution for South Australia to prompt brand awareness and trial.

So…. we employed two new delivery drivers for them. Meet Travis Boak and Tex Walker, the two local rival AFL captains.

Our solution embedded the brand in the parochial and passionate minds of South Aussies, who being a two team town, LOVE their footy!

The value offer: The Captains’ 2 for $30 Deal.  All customers have to do is jump online, order the deal and pick their captain for the chance to have one of the boys deliver direct to their door.

The timing has been perfect leading into footy finals, not only with the two captains being the new Crust ambassadors, and also the fact that pizza is the natural go-to food for watching the footy.

We kicked off the campaign with a short clip of the two Captains delivering Crust Gourmet Pizzas to fans across Adelaide, with plenty more deliveries and surprise content still to come: https://www.facebook.com/crustpizza

The campaign seems to have ticked a lot of (pizza) boxes for Crust – Surprise, Celebrity, Passion, Finals, Rivalry, Fun and so far, the most commented and shared social campaign on Crust Gourmet Pizza’s Facebook page - so we’ll tick the engagement box too.

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