By: Adnan Arnautlija
Two years ago, Doug Kessler, Creative Director, Velocity Partners, gave a captivating lecture at the POMP Forum in Slovenia, in which he called for brave approach to content marketing and more authentic and honest brand stories.
A copywriter at heart, but with an inclination for analytics, Doug makes a clear distinction between marketing and content marketing, or rather the tactics these two use to address their audiences. With content marketing, according to Doug, brands build more meaningful connections with end users and provide added value rather than just sales messages.
The key to doing all this, is overcoming barriers and challenging conventions. Find out why.
MM: At the POMP Forum 2017, you held a very interesting lecture on the power of invisible conventions, and in it you encouraged “bending” these hidden conventions to make an impact. But this demands courage. Is there enough courage in the advertising industry today to bend the conventions?
Doug Kessler: Breaking conventions may feel courageous—and I suppose it is—but NOT breaking conventions is far more risky. To create totally conventional marketing that surprises nobody is a guaranteed route to mediocrity. Trying new things may risk failure but never bending the unwritten rules is a sure thing: boring.
MM: How can content marketing answer the growing distrust of people in marketing?
Doug Kessler: Earning trust means being more honest and transparent than marketers are used to being.
It means not hiding our agenda (to sell stuff) but being proud of it – if you believe in your products then selling them to the right people is an honourable activity. (If you don’t believe in your products… go do something else!).
I’m convinced marketing can and must be practiced with integrity. But we need to re-think how marketing has always been approached (essentially tricking people into doing what we want).
MM: Are there conventions in content marketing itself that brands should seek to break, or bend? And what in general should brands prioritize when making their content marketing campaigns?
Doug Kessler: There are lots of content marketing conventions worth challenging. The topics you choose to write (take a stand!). The formats and channels you use (make a documentary!). The attitude you take (get angry at something!). Just think about what everyone does… and explore the opposite.
As for prioritizing, that will be brand-specific. But growing an audience by slavishly serving that audience can’t be a bad place to start.
MM: One of the things that AI and machine learning are (still) bound by are rules and conventions, and yet they seem to be gaining more and more importance in market communications. Do they have a role to play in content marketing?
Doug Kessler: Sure. AI and Machine Learning will play an increasing role in content marketing. But real AI isn’t just applying pre-set rules, it’s learning from experience and optimizing over time. So I do think they’ll be increasingly important as content marketers try to act on data-derived insight… at scale.
MM: How do you see the future of content marketing? What will be its main drivers in the near future and what media will be most instrumental in its growth?
Doug Kessler: I think the future will be the documentary mindset instead of the ‘scripted movie’ mindset. Content marketers will get out and listen more. Will stop assuming we know everything. Will facilitate conversations in our markets instead of trying to dominate them. Will celebrate the people who are leading the way in each market.
Experimentation and exploration are the future!
