From Persib to Intel — Many Cases of Content Driven Marketing
Story drive the audience to have a richer experience interacting with the brand. With the rise of Internet, content driven marketing is more important than ever.
Today marketing is a complex effort, 30 second commercial on broadcast television is no longer enough to advertise brand. Brand needs to understand the insight from the audience. Storytelling is a powerful way to relate to the audience without slapping them with marketing message. That’s why content marketing in which marketing message is built into the medium. Soap opera from radio translated well into the world of television. Product placement in film were proven successful to increase the awareness and cool factor for the brand. Apple didn’t spend that much for advertising, but rely heavily on film and televison product placement. And with the rise of Internet, Youtube now is the most important viral marketing channel for content driven marketing.
Learning from Disney: When Content Drive the Media
Disney, the most successful integrated media & content company in the world, their total revenue in 2012 is $42.3 Billions with $5.7 Billions net income. Their Media Networks contribute 46% of the revenue, Parks & Resort 30%, Studio Entertainment 14%, Consumer Products 8% and Interactive 2%. Even though Disney is famous for its live and animated film, the monetization only contributes 14% of their total revenue, meanwhile their media networks, parks & resorts, consumer products and interactive contribute the rest.
The Media Networks segment includes international and domestic broadcast & cable TV, including TV production & distribution. Disney owns various theme Parks & Resorts in Florida, Anaheim, Paris, Japan & Hongkong. The Studio Entertainment segment produces and acquires live & animated film, video, music & plays. Disney distributes, produced and acquired films under the Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar and Marvel banners. The Consumer Products segment engages with licensees, publishers and retailers based on their character & intellectual property through its Merchandise Licensing, Publishing and Retail businesses. The Interactive segment creates and delivers content across interactive media platforms such as mobile and Internet. It also manages Disney-branded mobile phone business in Japan which provides mobile phone service and content to consumers.
This indicates that content is the key driver for the revenue, but not the biggest contributor. The biggest revenue comes from media, property and hospitality services, followed by consumer products and digital services.
Content Driven Marketing in Action
The oldest model of content driven marketing can be seen in product placement since the beginning of radio and television. A soap opera is a serial drama that initially was sponsored by soap manufacturers like P&G, Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever.
Often cited as among the first successful product placements is the little boy Elliot used Reese’s Pieces to make friends with the alien in E.T movie. After Tom Cruise wore Ray-Bans in the movie ‘Risky Business,’ the sale of Ray-Bans increased. Similar happen when Tom Cruise wore Aviator sunglasses in ‘Top Gun.’
James Bond has been a longtime successful case for product placement. Heineken is paying $45 million for Bond to drink Heineken instead of vodka martini in the movie. It covered almost one third of the film’s budget. Since the very first installment in 1962, Bond movies have featured British Airways, PanAm, Perrier, Finlandia Vodka, Smirnoff, Ford, Omega, Mattel, Calvin Klein, Virgin Atlantic, Revlon, Samsonite, Sony Ericcson, Kodak, and many more.
Another very successful case study is Star Wars. George Lucas always wanted to make a Western set in outer space to refresh the science fiction genre. When offered additional $500,000 directing fee after American Graffiti won the Academy Award, Lucas pass up the offer in return for keeping licensing and merchandising rights. His only intention was to retain the merchandising quality. This deal turned out to be the most lucrative agreement. Lucas sold toy-merchandising rights to his movie to Kenner. By the end of 1978, Kenner had sold more than 40 million of the figures for gross sales of more than $100 million.
Pepsi and Lucasfilm team up in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace to offer special Pepsi bottles and cans with 24 different Star Wars characters. Pepsi committed $2 billion globally to promote the Star Wars trilogy through promotions and ad campaigns for its Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell, Doritos, Cheetos and Lay’s brands.
Today Star Wars is among the top five licensed toy brands, bringing in retail sales of more than $3 billion in 2011.
Not only film and television, in the world of sports, licensing plays a significant role in contributing to the company revenue. Despite a lukewarm IPO for Machester United in 2012, the club is valued at about $2.3 billion, which would make it one of the most valuable sports teams in the world. In 2013, its last quarter revealed record revenue of $158 million. Their sponsorship income comes from 12 new sponsorship deals, including deals with Aeroloft and Pepsi, as well as a $30.1 million revenue from broadcast and a $17.2 million revenue from licensing of clothing and other products.
“The Beauty Inside”, presented by Intel + Toshiba, is the story Alex who wakes up every day as a different person. He is always the same person on the inside. When he meets Leah and falls in love, she will never see him since he is always different outside. Intel and Toshiba invited the audience to play the lead role of Alex by auditioning online. A total of 26 Alexes were cast in the film from fans all over the world including Japan, France, German, Italy, Philippines, Canada and Spain. The result has been amazing with 70 million views worldwide, 26 million social interactions, 66% lift in brand perception for Intel among Facebook users duing the campaign and 40% for Toshiba and 300% sales increase during the event, compared with the previous weeks.
In today connected world of Internet, content driven marketing is even more important than ever before.
Content Driven Marketing in Indonesia
Persib, the soccer club from West Java, with 5.3 million fans is the biggest soccer club in Indonesia. After years of challenging soccer landscape in Indonesia, how can Persib make themself sustainable as the biggest club and create a precedent among the clubs? Under their new leadership of Glenn Sugita, Persib modernise how soccer club is managed.
How can Persib create a more meaningful connection with the fans beyond the match? And how can this activity grow the club to a new height?
The answer is by providing a sustainable business model supporting the club and benefit the fans! Persib biggest asset is the fans itself. They decided to create more touchpoint beyond the plays, through their daily activities and through various channels. In that sense, they are looking for the right partner and riding on the successful business model. They came up with the idea building a digital media that enabled fans to get the firsthand information from the club. They are also looking into various content that will engage the fans through mobile channel. And by creating the official merchandise from Persib, this will support the team as well as make the fans proud with their support to the club.
Led by my partner, Edward Chamdani and closely working with Muhammad Farhan as the Vice Director for PT. PBB, the team behind this initiative execute the new business model for Persib for the past 3 years. They are partnering with Kapanlagi to have their own news portal Persib.co.id. With more than 5 million pageview per month and 10 minutes per each visit, the Persib fans is really loyal compare to other media. In 2012, Persib collaborated with Indosat to release IM3 phone prepaid card. More than 500 thousands prepaid card distributed to Bobotoh (Persib fans) to engage with Persib content. Then Persib launched Kartu Bintang, their own collectible cards distributed at Alfamart. Each card contains the profile of Persib player. If the fans collect the complete series, the fans have the opportunity to meet with their idol player. And there are also a direct raffle prizes for the fans.
I saw firsthand how this content driven marketing come into fruition.
Not only idea, but persistence and execution matters!
I have been lucky enough to be part of Visibly Smart campaign by Intel. The brief from them was how is the best way to convey the story from Indonesian creators in their creative process using technology. Intel has created a series of narrative to share the inspiration from all over the world. As the Planning Director, my task together with Bubu team were looking for the right person to represent the Indonesian creative artists and looking for the inspiring story. Kreshna Aditya is my partner in many sleepless night to fine tune the idea and create the storyboard. Together with the client, we select Nancy Magried with her Batik Fractal creation and Jogja Hiphop Foundation to represent the Indonesian stories. Here’s the stories uploaded on Youtube and played out on out of home media.
In this Visibly Smart film, contemporary Indonesia is revealed through the eyes of batik fabric and clothing designer, Nancy Margried. Batik is a fabric dyeing and printing method dating back as far as the 6th century and remains a treasured cultural symbol of Indonesia. UNESCO designated Indonesian batik as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2009. Nancy’s Bandung-based design atelier, Batik Fractal, is reinventing batik design with 3D modeling software her team created while maintaining much of the traditional production process.
In this Visibly Smart film a group of young Indonesian artists known collectively as the ‘Jogja Hip Hop Foundation’ presents Indonesia in a new way. Through the eyes of a young, urban, optimistic, and culturally proud music generation we see a fascinating and fresh fusion of old and new Indonesia. The JHF are inspired by and often use traditional Javanese poetry for themes and lyrics as well as traditional gamelan sound. They then mix it with modern hip hop beats, rhythms and sensibilities. The film shows how the computer helps them produce and distribute their music, videos, and related band information to their fans in Indonesia and beyond.
With the right execution, this stories has inspired many people that we should proud of what we have. Indonesia is a great story to tell.
Have you built a story around your brand that relates to your consumer? Building story should be part of marketer arsenal to communicate to your audience effectively! Start small by telling and showing what matters to them. Find the right insight from your audience, then find the right medium to convey the story. You don’t have to do it right the first time. See what works and what doesn’t. You can always improve over time. Let’s start telling stories!
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