If you want to find out who one of the marketing leaders of the world is, look no further than the beverage company Coca-Cola. As little as 5 years ago, small to medium businesses might have been hesitant to pay any attention at all to what giant companies like Coca-Cola were doing, since the marketing budgets were so different as to be laughable. Coca-Cola would spend more on one TV ad than a smaller company might spend on their entire year’s marketing. Now, however, things are changing. That’s because the folks at Coca-Cola recognized that storytelling (content) through new technology (social media) are how society is changing (communicating).
In a two-part video presentation, Coca-Cola outlined their content marketing strategy called Content 2020. If you’re a marketing professional, or responsible for marketing for your business, set aside 20 minutes to watch these videos. The first is just 7 minutes and the second video lasts 10 minutes.
In these videos, Coca-Cola states that they will “move from creative excellence to content excellence.” It is a blueprint for creating provocative and potentially viral content, and then responding to the activity that content creates for your brand among fans.
One compelling point is that Coca-Cola intends to use multiple solution providers, and create a company culture for creativity to help generate new content ideas.
Perhaps more importantly is the fact that the entire presentation is based on the idea that traditional marketing, like :30 TV commercials, are less and less effective, and businesses need to adapt their marketing plans and processes to reflect today’s engagement opportunities. If a global brand like Coca-Cola can recognize new advertising opportunities and challenges and change accordingly, so can you.
Take a look at these videos and let me know what you think. There’s a lot to digest – what made sense, and what didn’t?