Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Nenad Senić, Business media
Lukas Kircher was born in Gratz. He is an amiable, communicative and inspiring interviewee. He is an icon of graphic design in Germany, and one of the most famous newspaper designers in Europe. For his redesign of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung he received the award for the best designed newspaper in the world. In this exclusive interview, among other things, he foresees that in the next five years, content will be primarily based on video.
As a designer, how would you explain content marketing?
The shorter version: An organization’s communication must be so interesting that the target group uses it voluntarily. Sounds simple, but it’s a radical shift from the product promotion itself; from the artificial messages of a brand and a focus solely on the reach.
The longer version: Content marketing primarily came out of the errors of classical marketing that increasingly uses digitization. The transfer of classic advertising strategies – that is, the interruption of the content that consumers are consuming with undesirable content – to digital media was not successful. Nobody likes banners, everyone is annoyed with the ads before the video that they want to see. A person seeks information and entertainment only for themselves, and marketing must respond to that. Instead of having marketing interrupt what people are really interested in, in the future it must actually become what people are interested in.
What characteristics does a project need to have for us to call it a good example of content marketing?
It should no longer give the impression of an ad. It needs to be interesting. Relevant. It needs to help and entertain. It needs to attract me to stay and dream. To solve my problems or help me. It needs to be usable so that I could usefully spend my time on it. Content!
How creative should marketing agencies be? How much freedom should the clients give them?
Creativity has sense only if we steer it strategically. Strategies have sense only if they have a creative soul. I envy the English for the expression “creative strategy” which best embodies this symbiosis.
To what extent should it all include designers? Where and in which role do you see them in content marketing?
There are two types of designers: those who take care of the look and feel of communication and serious designers who do not distinguish between content and form. Or, as Steve Jobs used to say: “Design is how something works or does not work.”
Infographic. It seems that we’ve rediscovered it recently. How should we use it for it to have an effect and why? How can someone approach it as an editor?
The infographic alone can never be enough. At C3 we have the largest department for infographics in Germany, and perhaps in all of Europe. Our customers love the concrete and understandable processing of content and they want it more and more. Social media also demand more infographics and illustrations. To find out whether the infographic is worth it or not we need only watch journalists in their presentation of a story idea: if they move their hands about, it’s obvious that the infographic will pay off. (Laughs.)
Let’s not forget the increasing popularity of the video. Does it seem to you integrated enough?
Video is by far the greatest challenge for content marketing. On the one hand it is a format with the highest factor of inclusion, and on the other hand, many companies still see videos on the internet as an extension of TV ads. In the next five years, content will primarily be based on video, but much more has to be done in this area. How to create standardized formats for a thousand euros, instead for a hundred thousand? How to say something through different devices? How to steer users through the offer of video content marketing?
Why is it so hard to convince companies to invest in visuals, rather than text alone? Of course, by this we don’t mean visuals taken from stock databases such as Shutterstock, iStock and similar.
They are afraid of the prices, the higher costs, and the complexity of it if someone wants to change something at the last minute. That’s easier with articles, where the editor can do it on their own in a pinch.
Could you tell us about a content marketing project that you are particularly proud of?
Bosch wanted us to develop an internal magazine for Japan. The Japanese employed at Bosch would thus learn more about the strategies, stories and history of the company. People in Japan only read very well-designed magazines. This is why we made a book in the form of a Japanese comic book about the life and work of Robert Bosch and the philosophy of Bosch.
C3 stands for Creative Code Content. What does this code refer to?
Technology. We have a digital desk with frontend and backend developers, IT strategists and experts in user experience. We can also talk about the hidden meaning: a code of conduct. We are an agency with zero tolerance for fools. (Laughs.)
C3 deals a lot with internal content marketing. Do you approach it differently in the visual sense?
No. People are people.
What are your prognoses for content marketing in the next couple of years?
They will stop calling it content marketing. It will simply become the contemporary form of marketing.
