The Year of The Hum, Sing

If you’ve been in the sphere of marketing, content or digital in recent years you will  probably be familiar with Hub, Hero & Hygiene, the Google framework originally created for YouTube publishers for creating content. The framework has been adapted more broadly to be used in the  seo & digital agency world and is often used to help marketers ensure that they address the need for different kinds of content to build channel subscribers, website views, and improve SEO rankings.

At 3rdspace, we have  our own model- Hum, Sing Shout. While there are some similarities in approach to Google’s framework, the 3rdspace model is centred around brand building, rather than SEO or digital metrics.

So our component parts are a little different, for example Hum represents  your always on content that speaks to your brand purpose. This content needs to be helpful and/or useful, hopefully both. Often focused in digital channels, this content needs to be consistently created, ensuring a regular stream of quality communication with, rather than at, your target audience.

Sing content is for campaigns that specifically answer your audience needs and questions and build upon your brand’s point of difference, where there is clear space away from competitors. This is where thought leadership content, primary research, and similar content comes into its own, the kind  that helps move a consumer through the purchase cycle. This content is often shared across channels, and drives earned media through  PR, hard copy publications and third party publishing platforms.

Shout content, as the name suggests, is focused on larger campaigns, high profile content that inspires your audience to action. This type of content takes many forms , from experiential events to multimedia formats. Importantly, the key metric across all these types of content is engagement, the primary purpose of any content is to build long term sustainable relationships with your audience,

2020 has been the year of the hum, sing. Brands have been focused on their purpose, their expertise, their point of difference, and how they can authentically help their customers, particularly through the difficult times we’ve encountered recently.

There has been a shift away from big campaigns, noisy activity from chest beating brands. Through the pandemic, consumers have looked for authenticity, and strong brands who are clear on their purpose, continue to be the big winners.