Helping Brands Win Over Sales Agents with Humor

In today's world of business-to-business marketing, the prevailing wisdom is that professionalism and formality are key to winning over sales agents. However, when you shake up the status quo by injecting humour and playfulness into your reseller marketing messages, you end up standing out from your competitors and winning over sales agents in the process. We're seeing this approach work for our clients' partner channel marketing across a range of different B2B categories, from travel companies selling to travel agents to pest control companies selling to pest controllers.

Sometimes, a brand's guidelines can be adhered to in a very rigid way across different audience segments. Usually, the consumer channel gets all the focus, and sales agents see a repurposed version of the consumer campaign with different benefit messaging. This seems like good marketing practice – using established brand assets to tap into preexisting brand awareness that the secondary audience hopefully has, then leverage those cues to slip in a new message for the B2B audience. But, if the primary consumer creative idea has been developed for the consumer audience, then how can it really do an emotional job on the sales agent audience if it's not communicating a single-minded proposition designed to answer their biggest fear, frustration or desire?

Breaking with travel marketing convention

A travel agent who is part commission-based isn't lured by a glossy destination brochure; they need to know what new experiences you've got on offer and how easy you make it for them to sell your holidays to their customers. They also need to know how well you deliver those experiences so their customers come back happy. Their reputation is at stake as well.

We've worked with Globus Family of Brands for the past few years, helping them connect with their reseller audience of travel agents. Our objective was simple – get the agents excited about all the experiences Globus Family of Brands have developed for the year ahead. This agent-centric brief has allowed us to create some really fun campaigns. Our first one was a gameshow for travel agents to show off their knowledge. This campaign was highly effective for the client and won aCMA: Global Content Marketing Award for best face-to-face event.

Case study here

This year we created a campaign around giving agents their own superhuman support person to help them sell more Globus holidays easily. The support person is a new brand character we created for this audience only called the Geni'us – one part genie, more parts Globus – and we tied it with a win three wishes promotion for agents.

Case study here

It's not just travel

This humour and human-centric approach works just as well for our Syngenta Pest Control Product client. Their B2B customers, pest controllers, and their customers both want the same thing – eradication of the problem. However, the pest controller wants one more thing – not to be called back to a job.

We created a new brand asset, a lovable but hapless pest controller called Bob. He's doing his best without using the product, fighting a losing battle against the pests. This charming character has wooed their audience of pest controllers and charmed the other Syngenta teams around the world who love this very Aussie approach. Bob's been so successful that we brought him back for one last episode.

With both of these brands, we recognised that the sales agents we were trying to reach were people, not just businesses, and that a more human touch was needed to make a connection. We broke with category conventions in respective industries, eschewing formal language and serious messaging in favour of humour and levity. By doing so, we were able to create a more memorable and engaging message for sales agents, who are bombarded with a sea of serious sameness from competitors.

Is your category ripe for reseller campaign reinvention?

We think most are but one category that's ripe for this kind of reseller marketing approach is finance. A quick audit of the tier 1 and tier 2 banking sites and B2B channels shows the same consumer channel creative being reused with a messaging tweak for mortgage brokers. We know, probably nearly for a certainty, that brokers aren't motivated by home purchasing cues and imagery. The first brand that breaks with convention here will find it quite easy to win the hearts of the humans behind the job title of mortgage brokers or financial advisers. If that's your brand, we're game if you are.

With inflation and interest rates on the rise, how can you

economy-proof your strategy and build a deeper connection?

I’m no Economist but…

80% of chief economists believe that by raising interest rates we’ll curb inflation. With what can be best described as a rather blunt model, we hopefully won’t see an enthusiastic RBA raise rates too much more and plunge us into a recession.

So, what can brands do when the cost of cash is increasing, and their boards want to ensure they don't over-invest in marketing?

Thankfully, there’s some robust data that shows how investing wisely in building deeper relationships with customers can keep your brand in high demand.

Now is the time to be using highly targeted, RELEVANT content to engage your core customers in a way that adds value to their lives.

Here’s some data that the chief economists haven’t seen:

According to local research from May 2022 by consultancy firm Crowd DNA:

According to the Global Content Marketing Institute:

Here lies the opportunity to make sure your brand is in demand in the current environment.

At 3rdspace we talk about key content drivers and how all content needs to check off at least three of these five drivers:

5-drivers

 

As an example, we recently worked with Winning Appliances around their involvement in The Block TV show.

The partnership with The Block played two roles:

Firstly, to position our brand idea of “Creating Your Forever Home” with Winning in front of new audiences.

Secondly and more importantly, to use a myriad of formats to inspire, educate, and involve the audience in a timely and relevant way with exclusive content.

We enlisted interior designer Kate Walker and Winning interior expert Kate McGlone to take customers behind the scenes of The Block with a sense of inspiration:

 

We created 5x3-minute films that tapped into what customers were thinking about when designing their home:

  1. Kitchen designs to express your personality
  2. Design with sustainability in mind
  3. Game changes in innovation
  4. Space saving design
  5. New design & colour trends

This allowed us to highlight  Winnings partner brands and products that were used by contestants in The Block in a relevant, inspiring, and educational format.

We also engaged with one of The Block's host Darren Palmer to appear in an updated TVC that ran across the Nine Network, highlighting how you could create a winning home in every sense:

With this wealth of content, we created teasers and cut downs, and seeded the films to our various personas via socials and an in-depth automated marketing program. This drove people not only to a landing page but to deeper product information from each episode, and exclusive product offers.

This holistic approach to content enables brands to invest wisely. With data and a range of analytical tools, brands can truly understand the value of their existing customers, and how the lifecycle with those customers can be built upon by delivering content that’s relevant to their persona and needs.

Ultimately this enables the brand to evolve that conversation through to further sales.

If you’d like to find out more about this approach to delivering Content ROI, please reach out rob@3rdspace.com.au

Rob Logan Founder and content economist!

You’re probably thinking…‘purpose - another marketing buzz-word’. And you’d be right - purpose-driven marketing has risen to the top of the marketing agenda, but, for us at 3rdspace, purpose-led marketing isn’t a trend, it’s in our DNA. And it’s no longer something that brands can ignore - they have to define it, and most importantly, demonstrate their beliefs and actions to gain consumer trust and cement relationships.

Purposeful purpose

First let’s dust off our marketing 101 books and remind ourselves of what a purpose is - it is the reason a company or brand exists (or, as Simon Sinek now labels it, it’s your Just Cause). It is not CSR, it’s not sustainability. Yes, those may be policies or initiatives that back-up your purpose, but alone, they are not it.

Most brand’s have a purpose, many spend thousands crafting it to put on their ‘about’ section of their website or beautifully printed brand handbooks, often never to be looked at again. But the world-changing events of 2020 propelled brands to ‘stand for something’ and perhaps this is partly the reason that, over the past 18-months, purpose-driven marketing has become distorted.

It’s been well publicised that consumers are increasingly seeking purpose-driven brands. In Deloitte’s Global Millennial Survey, it was reported that 60% of millennials and Gen Z plan to buy more from brands that supported their workforce and positively affected society during the pandemic. And, according to Kantar - purpose-driven brands have grown at twice the rate of others. So you can understand why brands want a piece of the purpose pie, but to be truly purposeful, it shouldn’t take mass-publicised events to make you speak out as a brand. Brand’s should have a voice if it’s relevant - a voice honed in purpose to be authentic, otherwise it will only damage consumer trust, not improve it.

A great example of purpose-driven storytelling is by world-leading technology corporation, NEC. We’ve worked with NEC for the last two years and everything we do is embedded in their purpose, captured in their Vision: Inspiring and Transforming Experiences and Mission: we’re here to help solve tomorrow’s technology challenges today. This is done by defining and demonstrating how NEC products and services help organisations to create value for business, customers, communities and the world.

Bleed purpose          

To be truly successful at purpose-driven marketing, it can’t be just marketing, it has to be ingrained throughout your whole business, from the inside out, and that starts in the boardroom.

Our 3rdspace model combines four key areas, to ensure your purpose-driven content creates action:

1)

What is your purpose? When did you last re-look at it? Now is the time that brands need to dust-off that brand book and re-assess. The cultural landscape has changed at an expediential rate. Does your purpose truly bleed through your organisation? If not, then why not?

2)

Your purpose is the beginning of company culture. It has to be aligned to your business priorities. It's a myth that profit and purpose can’t coexist - just look at Nike.

3)

People aren’t just consumers or customers, they’re your employees (we like to call it human-to-human). If the recent Brewdog frenzy has taught us anything, it’s to start from the inside-out. If your people believe in your purpose then your consumers are more likely to.

4)

Don’t market your purpose, market the impact you want to/have and decide how you’re going to measure it - something any CMO focused on ROI will welcome. It’s about re-thinking the impact you want to have as a business, so in the long run your business has the best chance of appealing to the greatest number of customers. It’s about questioning, clarifying and proving why you do what you do, because businesses that exist with the sole reason of creating shareholder returns have no role in tomorrow’s world.

How do B2B brands like NEC do this? Firstly, NEC doesn't talk to clients about its purpose. They start by aligning their people around the idea and how they can create value, then they extend these conversations through storytelling on owned, earned and paid platforms like their website, LinkedIn and other platforms communicating to clients about the impact and legacy they want to have.

Whether that’s hosting virtual events, like NEC’s Immersion for Australia's most senior business leaders, inviting them to take ‘a long hard look’ at what the world could look like post Covid-19; The Creating Value Series hosted by Dylan Alcott (Paralympian, NEC ambassador and advocate for people with disabilities) which heroes those who achieve the extraordinary, through a positive mindset; Or most recently, National Gallery of Victoria partnership with Quantum Memories by Refik Anadol, which used world-leading technology to create the most revolutionary data art humanity has ever seen. Demonstrating that in a time of so much uncertainty, NEC believes there is so much possibility when we look forward with a positive mindset for change - in pursuit of orchestrating a brighter world.

David Borean, Vice President Brand and Customer Experience NEC says “As a future-focused technology organisation, the very reason we exist is to help solve tomorrow's technology challenges today. By putting this purpose as the central thread through everything we do, we are able to remain true to who we are, and in turn, consumers see the positive impact that combining humanity and technology can have to create new value for communities and the world.”jasaseo.link

It’s not for everyone

A purpose-led approach isn’t for all, but as expectations and socially-conscious mindsets grow, brands must evolve their purpose at the speed of culture, to create an emotional connection with their people, cementing them as a brand for the long-run.

3rdspace is a content marketing company whose purpose is to help purpose driven brands connect with the values of purpose driven consumers. If you’d like to chat about developing a tone of voice guide for your brand to better connect with your consumers  our team of marketing & content strategist, behavioural psychologists and creatives are here to help. rob@3rdspace.com.au

Looking for more inspiration? Check out more blogs here

Find out more about our clients and work here

Download our Free Content With Purpose Handbook

In past blogs we’ve explored how COVID has handed CMOs and brand marketers a rare opportunity to reset purpose statements. Re-stating purpose for a new world, and having your content live your purpose, will go a long way to forging connection with an audience, with purpose and social good becoming even more central to customer perception.

That said, if your tone of voice still sounds like 2019, your purpose might not have the support it needs.

Tone of voice needs a re-jig too

The words you choose, their formality or not, how short or long your sentence constructions are, the way your string them together grammatically - these all communicate something about what your brand stands for. They need to align with your purpose and “speak” to your customers and prospects, if you want to connect emotionally.

Here are 4 tonal things to check as you tread a confident path through 2021:

1.Do you still know your audience/s?

Attitudes and behaviours have changed since 2020 and vary across geographies. People are working differently, they think differently about spending and how they pay for things; some are more cautious, some are more optimistic.

Employees have new expectations of their employers especially around safety; citizens have new-found trust in institutions they’ve seen acting in their interests.

Some values may have become more important as a result of the pandemic, evident in the trend towards self improvement.

So do you know who your customers are and what matters to them in 2021? If not, now’s the time to find out, whether through your sales team’s conversations with customers, through audience research and surveys, or monitoring your social media and customer service interactions.

If you need inspiration for tone, check what content is popular for your audience, whether that’s on LinkedIn or Tiktok.

2.Does your tone of voice document reflect those customers?

Look at your tone of voice styleguide and check if it still rings true for the audience you’ve identified.

Should there perhaps be a more comforting tone in areas where there is still doubt and anxiety for your customers? Should you emphasis hope, in a time of economic recovery? Should you dial down the more strident persuasive sales talk? What does your audience need right now? What are they going to need in six months?

(And if you don’t have a tone of voice guide, it might be time to write one. Get in touch, we can help.)

3.Have you differentiated yourself?

No matter whether you’re a consumer brand aimed at teenage skaters or a global consultancy seeking C-suite eyeballs, you won’t be memorable in the mind of your audience if you sound like all your competitors.

Look at that tone of voice styleguide. Could it just as easily apply to most of your competitors? How could you tweak it so it’s unique, yet still true to your purpose? How do you bring more humanity and personality into your voice, so you’re remembered for all the right reasons?

4.Have you re-examined all your touchpoints?

COVID taught us all how to conduct vast chunks of our lives online, with apps, Zoom and bots now a fact of life. In 2020, we jumped ahead five years in consumer and business digital adoption in about 8 weeks and consumers have far greater expectations for brands’ digital capabilities. This acceleration of digitalisation brings so much potential for user journeys to be seamless.

But fast design and implementation sometimes means cutting corners. Check all those digital innovations you introduced so quickly during 2020 and check how they sound. Is there consistency across channels in language, tone, terminology?

Only if you express the same tone in every instance, can you build that familiarity, that persona that people recognise and come to trust.

While it doesn’t make sense to change your tone of voice for every crisis or economic hiccup, it doesn’t hurt to dig back into your purpose and decide how that is best served by the personality and syntax you’re using, at this moment in time.

rob@3rdspace.com.au

3rdspace is a content marketing company whose purpose is to help purpose driven brands connect with the values of purpose driven consumers. If you’d like to chat about developing a tone of voice guide for your brand to better connect with your consumers  our team of marketing & content strategist, behavioural psychologists and creatives are here to help. 

Looking for more inspiration? Check out more blogs here

Download our Free Content With Purpose Handbook

3rdspace Senior Writer Susan Burchill and Kathrine Holland give you their picks for the best cause related marketing campaigns of recent years and how to genuinely convey your cause with your audience.

Supporting causes can be an extremely effective way to connect authentically with like-minded consumers, support your employees’ personal values and create good will in your community. But causes need to be intrinsically tied to the core purpose of your brand to hit their full potential.

Hero-ing your causes

Cause-related marketing is a way for brands to tie themselves to causes, charities or social issues through thoughtful, sensitive campaigns that support, not boast. 

With the rise of Millennials and Gen Zs, where a company puts its community dollars can be a real differentiator. March 2021 research from Nielsen Consumer & Media View found that  70% of Australian women aged 18-39 think highly of companies that support charity and are 12% more loyal to brands that support a worthy cause. Similarly, a US study of millennials found that 70% are prepared to make personal sacrifices to make an impact on issues they care about - even if that means paying more for a product.

Done well, a cause-related campaign can create a sense of connection between a brand and its audience, leading to deeper customer loyalty. But it must align with brand values and purpose first and foremost. Purpose must be the guiding light for where you invest your cause-related efforts to ensure they’re not “just cause”. For established brands, this may involve re-examining your purpose; or where your purpose is not yet fully defined, it may require you to put time and thought into that exercise. 

Here are our three favourite campaigns that get it right.

Uber - Thank You For Not Riding

With people across the globe in quarantine during the height of the pandemic and struggling to understand their new normal, we saw an influx of content on social media showing how people were entertaining themselves. 

In a move that could be considered counteractive to their business model, UBER created a powerful piece of content that brought together user-generated content with beautifully shot images of solitude, sadness and togetherness to encourage their customers to “stay-at-home for the people who can’t”. The cause here was the greater good of humanity.

For a lot of us, 2021 brings with it fresh hope; but one viewing of this piece will have you awash with memories of the confusion we all felt during lockdown.

Patagonia - Don’t Buy This Jacket 

At the heart of Patagonia’s brand is their belief that all life on earth is under threat of extinction. According to their mission statement:

“We aim to use the resources we have—our business, our investments, our voice and our imaginations—to do something about it.”

Patagonia’s recent “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign, much like Uber’s COVID efforts, encouraged consumers to stop and think before purchasing their product, speaking to the socially responsible heart of their consumer. The simple and clever creative encouraged their customers to reuse, recycle or regift before making new purchases - ironically resulting in an uplift in Patagonia’s sales. 

The campaign was ostensibly saying “Don't Buy This Jacket”, but what it actually communicated was, “if you only buy one jacket, make it this one”

Patagonia Don't Buy This Jacket

Dove - Real Beauty

One of the pioneers of self-love and acceptance in the beauty industry is Dove. 

While beauty brands have traditionally preyed on women’s insecurities and their desire to be seen as beautiful, Dove has broken the mould for over 15 years by creating socially-driven campaigns under the banner of Real Beauty. 

Their 2016 viral success, the Dove Evolution video, is a great example. It took the viewer behind the scenes of a typical photo editing process for a beauty brand, showing what’s really involved in creating those “beautiful” cosmetics images. Their cause is loud and clear: women need to love themselves just the way they are.

And the proof is in the numbers. Sales for Dove jumped from $2.5 to $4 billion in the campaign’s first ten years.

3rdspace is a content marketing company whose purpose is to help purpose driven brands connect with the values of purpose driven consumers. If you’d like to chat about how your content marketing can better connect with your consumers by finding the place of shared purpose our team of marketing & content strategist, behavioural psychologists and creatives are here to help. Contact rob@3rdspace.com.au

Looking for more inspiration? Check out more blogs here

Download our Free Content With Purpose Handbook

Susan Burchill, 3rdspace senior writer and Rachael Sullivan, consumer behavioural specialist uncover key insights for understanding and engaging with Generation Z. 

As the EY Megatrends Report 2020 notes, referring to Generation Z, “The next decade will be shaped by the maturation of the largest generational cohort in history.” This cohort of people aged 10 to 24 years old comprises 1.8 billion people, which makes up 24% of the global population.

The most diverse generation yet

As populations of the world’s leading economies become more elderly, developing-market societies have growing numbers of youths, leading to the fragmentation of population distribution across different nations. According to the Megatrends report, “India stands out with a population that includes 375 million people — 27% of which are Gen Z.” By contrast, Gen Z in Japan makes up just 14% of the population. 

The Gen Z mindset on social issues can differ across geographies as well, with those in developing markets more socially conservative, as an example. “Companies will have to identify the important distinctions among Gen Zers to serve this global cohort effectively,” the report says.

Gen Z globally are united by one common purpose

Diverse as they are between countries, one of the core commonalities that unites Gen Z across the globe is their commitment to tackling sustainability. Gen Z’s fear of climate change is well-founded, with the EY Megatrends Report pointing out that nearly 60% of the Gen Z population lives in countries with a high vulnerability to climate change but low readiness for responding to it. This serves to intensify climate’s impact on this generation. 

And in the top 20 Gen Z countries with coastlines, 121 million people currently live in areas that will be below high tide by 2050, while 252 million will be subject to coastal flooding by the same date.

This is likely the greatest contributor to Gen Z’s preference for buying products from manufacturers who protect the environment and have a sustainable supply chain. While Millennials made changes in their everyday lives to be more sustainable, Gen Z is taking global action. According to Parrys Raines, Senior Consultant, Climate Change and Sustainability Services, EY Australia, “Gen Z are the ones creating a movement to address the climate emergency by engaging with businesses and governments at the highest echelons.”

An insight into the mindset of Gen Z consumers

The Gen Z mindset is both a product of, and different to, every generation that has preceded it. As Parrys Raines says, “Young people in Generation Z are purpose driven, solutions focused, digitally connected, collaborative, and have a sense of urgency about issues that matter for the future.”

Appealing to Gen Z starts with ensuring a brand’s purpose is at the heart of the entire business and that leaders take ownership and responsibility for the impact this has on society and the planet. The next challenge is to pivot rather than disrupt to create cut-through. 

As the world’s population makeup changes, marketers need to re-invent their approach by leading from the middle. This requires brands to adopt an impact statement and develop purpose-driven brand campaigns that purpose-driven consumers can identify with, and act on, in alignment with their own beliefs. 

Unlike previous generations, Gen Z do not see consumption as a means to an end. They see it as a reflection of who they are and the impact they want to see. For brands to become trusted in the eyes of the next generation, they must connect with the values of Gen Z using content that promotes positive action.


 

3rdspace is a content marketing company whose purpose is to help purpose driven brands connect with the values of purpose driven consumers. If you’d like to chat about how your content marketing can better connect with your consumers by finding the place of shared purpose our team of marketing & content strategist, behavioural psychologists and creatives are here to help

 

3rd Space's Rachael Sullivan consumer behavioural specialist, explains why now is the time to revisit and reconsider your brand's purpose

Sir David Attenborough is one of the few public figures who has true inter-generational appeal, from baby boomers to Gen Z. While older fans have admired him since his earliest TV appearances, Attenborough’s unwavering commitment to preserving the natural world has also cemented him as an unlikely hero in the hearts and minds of young people. His latest documentary film, A Life On Our Planet, is described as his “Witness Statement” and a “Vision for the Future”. If you haven’t watched A Life On Our Planet, stop reading, grab your remote and watch it on Netflix now. Yes, it is distressing viewing. At times I felt ashamed to call myself a member of the human race. Yet it also conveys the right amount of hope. He reassures us that it is still possible to undo some of the damage we have inflicted on this planet - if we act now.

 

Marketing, advertising and owning my responsibility in the climate emergency. 

As the climate emergency becomes more pressing, I have started to feel less and less okay about some of the work I have done. In a marketing and advertising career spanning over 15 years I’ve worked on brand and marketing campaigns for airlines, news corporations, telcos and retailers on hundreds of briefs with objectives that went something along the lines of, “launch new product X or sell more product Y”. 

It’s not that I haven’t worked on incredible brands – I have. It’s not that I haven’t worked on really worthwhile foundation- or charity-based briefs – I’ve done that too. It’s more a feeling that, the older I get and now, as a parent myself, I realise that what I do for a living is part of a wider ecology.  

I’m opening up to, instead of shutting out, the realisation that the industry we operate in looks at briefs and projects in silo. Partly because creative people move around so much, also because the division of labour has meant the work we do is fragmented - removed from manufacturing and distribution processes. As bottom lines are squeezed, we are already consumed and consuming what’s next instead of assessing the true impact of the work we have done and the impact it has had beyond sales figures.

 

It’s time to re-visit your brand’s purpose 

As leaders across the world grapple with navigating uncertainty post COVID-19, CMOs and brand marketers are also handed a rare opportunity to reset. As companies look down the barrel of declining sales, the benefit-risk trade-off swings in the favour of purpose-driven marketing, providing a pause to think about what might be possible if we put planet before profit.

If your brand’s purpose statement was written more than a year ago, the chances are it needs a re-visit to ensure it resonates with today’s purpose-driven consumers.

Generation Z are demanding it

The latest EY Megatrends data tells us, “the next decade will be shaped by the maturation of the largest generational cohort in history — Generation Z. This cohort of people between 10- and 24-year olds comprises 1.8 billion people, making up 24% of the global population.” 

Gen Z (and the subsequent Generation Alpha) are the first generations to be born into a world where the impacts of climate change were happening around them. Many Gen Zs believe that business must play a key role in addressing the most pressing global issues, particularly climate change. Gen Zs want to buy products from manufacturers who protect the environment and have a sustainable supply chain.

 

As a collective of advertising, branding and marketing professionals we must take responsibility and show accountability.

The Gen Z mindset is both a product of, and different to every generation before. They are driven by sense of purpose, focused on solutions, digitally connected, collaborative, and are certainly not afraid of acting with a sense of urgency on issues impacting our future. 

Appealing to Gen Zs starts with ensuring a brand’s purpose is at the heart of the entire business and that leaders take ownership and responsibility for the impact this has on society and the planet. The next challenge is to cut through the deafening marketing noise to communicate with and connect with the values of Gen Zs, using content that promotes action. 

 

Brands must transform on purpose 

This change must come hand in hand with purpose – a brand’s witness statement to the world. Sir David Attenborough demonstrates that the rate of change to our biodiversity and planet over our lifetimes is unprecedented. Today it’s not enough for brands to adapt, they must reinvent frequently, to change our trajectory as a species and in doing so, ensure the course of a brand’s survival.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

3rdspace is a content marketing company whose purpose is to help purpose driven brands connect with the values of purpose driven consumers. If you’d like to chat about how your content marketing can better connect with your consumers by finding the place of shared purpose our team of marketing & content strategist, behavioural psychologists and creatives are here to help

3rdspace is a content marketing company whose purpose is to help purpose driven brands connect with the values of purpose driven consumers. Our Brands with Purpose e-book will help you understand what makes a great content strategy, how to audit your current content strategy and how to set clear business goals to ensure your content lives and breathes your purpose. Our Brands with Purpose e-book is your first step to understanding the Why, How and What of your content strategy.


 

If you’d like to chat about how your content marketing can better connect with your consumers by finding the place of shared purpose our team of marketing & content strategist, behavioural psychologists and creatives are here to help.

CONTACT US

 

Simon Sinek inspired audiences across the world with 2017 with his sell-out Start With Why Leadership Forum. In 2020, he returned to Australia with a new book and seminar tour: Simon Sinek: LIVE. Lucky enough to be in the audience, 3rdspace’s Rachel Sullivan has broken down her Top Takeouts from Simon Sinek: Live  to help inspire you to think about your company’s purpose and how to create content that provokes action.

 

Communicating your company’s purpose is as important as advancing a just cause 

If it’s got you thinking about advancing your company’s just cause, we’d urge you not to forget the importance of communicating and demonstrating your organisations purpose – the reason you exist beyond making money. This must be done frequently and authentically to employees and your customers so they continue to engage and promote your brand for days, weeks and years to come. We loved Simon’s notion that you wouldn’t tell your spouse you love them on your wedding day and not say it again, yet many companies take the same approach when it comes to communicating their purpose. 

 

Is it time to re-visit your brands purpose?

Attending events like Simon Sinek’s - The Infinite Game are brilliant for taking us out of our current perspective. In explaining that leaders today need to be existentially flexible - willing to make 180° turn in order to advance the organisations just cause. We got thinking about what this means for CMO and brand markets to stay relevant to consumers in an increasingly complex world where consumers are demanding more transparency. 

As we navigate uncertainly in a post COVID-19 world, CMO’s and brand marketers are handed a rare opportunity to reset as the benefit-risk trade off swings in the favour of purpose driven marketing. The key take out is to pause to think about what might be possible if we truly put Simon Sinek’s concept of advancing a just cause before profit.

 

Connecting with a new generation of purpose driven consumers 

Appealing to Gen Z’s starts with ensuring a brands purpose is at the heart of the entire business and that leaders take ownership and responsibility for the impact this has on society and the planet. This group are active in pressuring business to do and be better pushing companies to talk in terms of triple bottom lines. 

 

How brands with purpose can create content that promotes action

Today it’s not enough for brands to adapt, they must re-invent frequently, to adopt an infinite mindset to ensure our survival as a humanity, thus creating an environment in which brands can thrive. It’s not about telling customers what your purpose is. It’s about finding the stories within your business that demonstrates it.

By building a content strategy underpinned by communication pillars that demonstrate and reinforce this purpose every day. We call this your content mission.  A content mission then informs the creation of engaging content designed to provoke action - from your employees, customers and potential customers. 

If your origination has a just cause or purpose statement but doesn’t have a content mission that align to it, chances are you are missing an huge opportunity to better connect with the values of your customers.  

 


 

3rdspace is a content marketing company whose purpose is to help purpose driven brands connect with the values of purpose driven consumers. If you’d like to chat about how your content marketing can better connect with your consumers by finding the place of shared purpose our team of marketing & content strategist, behavioural psychologists and creatives are here to help

In these challenging times it’s essential that our number one priority remains the safety of our society and also connectivity with citizens and our customers. 

As the stats grow by the day, we are likely to see something similar to the seven stages of grieving – but as an entire population. Shock and denial will be followed by fear and anger, then into depression and loneliness, before moving into the upwards turn.

We know that the way forward is through, and that brands play a vital part by living their purpose and finding new ways to engage, inform and help people through the period of isolation. By leveraging content that involves and gives the audience a release from the continuous bad news feed, brands have a real opportunity to cut through to their audiences. 

We’ve invested in a range of software and licenses to create captivating content remotely. We’ve upgraded our podcast studio to be all remote, and brought on more resources creatively and editorially that can scale to 24/7 operation, with creatives and writers in the UK and NYC working with our Sydney team and our new remote film and live stream studio.

Our Virtual Studio allows us to use all methods of content capture, from desktop and phone cameras, through to high end 4k and 8k cameras and quality audio from remote locations, all whilst having the potential to feed in multiple angles and real-time vision switching.  

We’ve taken what is a B2B conferencing back end, and given it a turbo charged capacity adding in the ability to generate: 

This capability taps into the new normal allowing brands to create content for their owned platforms and to go live on any social platform.

The content needs to have the consumer at the heart, reflect that we understand the situation and involve them in real time interactive content.

We’re on a mission to utilise this new “3rdspace” where brands and consumers can come together on screen as we feed the audience into the content mix from their homes with the talent.

While it is a very scary time, it’s also an opportunity to innovate with content that can range from learning and dialogue shaping interactive debate to live music, comedy, cooking and game shows.

If you’d like to know more call Rob in his remote office on 0419 722 151 or drop us a note;
rob@3rdspace.com.au
Madeleine.l@3rdspace.com.au

Stay safe,
Rob and the 3rdspace Team

3rdspace acknowledges Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and to Elders past and present.
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