As a content marketing agency based in The Midlands, we’re big advocates of using creative content marketing as a powerful tool for building an audience for your brand.
Great content can drive customer engagement, brand visibility, and search engine results, making it a key driver when it comes to building a bigger relationship with consumers. We’re taking a look at a few examples of content marketing to see where it can take brands – and how it can bring real results.
Here are some of our favourite examples of content marketing, starting with the well-thought-out, right through to the weird and the wonderful…
The well-thought-out: IKEA’s Place app
IKEA have long been leading the way with innovative marketing, setting new trends not only in relation to furniture design but with creative content as well.
Their try before you buy app ‘Place’, uses virtual reality to allow customers to see how over 2,000 furniture items would look in their homes. As a flatpack furniture company, IKEA’s app recognises the common pitfalls and queries that has led to loss of sales in the past. For example it prevents customers having to ask: “Will this actually fit?”, “Is the colour the right shade?” or “Does this work with my space available?”
It’s a form of content marketing that uses the latest technology in a way that makes sense for the brand and the consumer.
The app has been designed with the end user in mind and will improve customers’ experience with IKEA. This will only help improve sales, as more customers see how their dream table can fit perfectly in their home using the app.
It’s a well-formed, on-trend digital strategy, and one that our content marketing agency in The Midlands love.
The weird: Nivea’s pooping sun cream seagull
And now for a weird one. Sun cream is a bit of a necessity, especially during summer, but how can you keep creating new content marketing ideas for promoting the product?
Named as the ‘stupidest’ ad at Cannes Lions advertising festival, Nivea decided to feature a seagull-shaped drone that splatters streaks of sunscreen onto unsuspecting children on the beach.
Luckily, since the children are actors, they reacted with delight rather than utter dismay at being splattered by the seagull.
It’s an unconventional approach to content marketing, but it’s certainly a tactic to get people talking about the brand and the product.
A good effort by Nivea – but still, it’s just a bit weird.
The wonderful: Dove’s #ShowUs campaign
The personal care brand Dove, hit the mark recently with their #ShowUs content marketing campaign.
Over the years, Dove has managed to maintain a strong, clear brand voice across digital and print platforms. It’s a voice that resists beauty stereotypes and promotes a natural approach to self love and care.
As part of the #ShowUs campaign, Dove asked women who are proud to be different to share their stories with the brand. After receiving thousands of pictures and videos from women, Dove used these unique stories to create multiple forms of content including YouTube videos to create easily shareable content.
The campaign has been a great success and has since continued to evolve to also now involve partnerships with Getty Images, campaigning to include more realistic representations of women.
Including user-generated content in their marketing strategy enables Dove to remain authentic and relevant to customers, whilst helping to position the brand as relatable. It’s a wonderful example of content marketing with purpose.
And our own:
Park Resorts’ Memory Map
Working with Park Resorts, we put together our very own content marketing campaign – the Memory Map tool. This helped to boost their brand’s presence across social media channels all while creating interesting and valuable content worthy of sharing.
The Memory Map tool lets holidaymakers share a short video or photo of their ‘amazing memory’ of a Park Resorts break. This also goes one step further by plotting it on a map to show where exactly their memory was created. Not only does this mean more shares for Park Resorts on social media, but it also creates great content which people are interested in.
It’s there for inspiration, showing real people having real fun at all sorts of Park Resorts locations across the UK. As online word of mouth and reviews continue to grow in importance, this sort of conversation on social media is a valuable asset for any brand. Seeing this across social media is one important way to drive more customers to book their Park Resorts holiday – or even make a return visit.
We’ve helped Park Resorts create a lovely tool that not only gives customers a great way to remember their holiday, but also share their content with friends and family, getting the Park Resorts name out there.
Coombe Abbey’s Inspire Me Tool
As part of our redesign of Coombe Abbey’s website, we created a bespoke Inspire Me tool to allow users to tailor their perfect visit to their own interests. Using the website’s tool, they can now create and find content that relates to their needs – whether they’re looking for inspiration for a romantic weekend away or a blog on upcoming family activities.
Within the first month after the new website launched, more than 3,000 visitors had used the Inspire Me tool to create their dream Coombe Abbey experience.
Using content marketing to boost engagement
So there you have it. Brands of all shapes and sizes can put imaginative content marketing to good use, and with the potential impact of social media the opportunity is there to amplify your brand online through a well-thought campaign.
You can use content marketing to boost customer engagement and search engine results organically through valuable content, making it a great way to build trust in your brand and product while connecting you closely to consumers.
What’s going to be the next big thing in content marketing? We’re definitely keeping an eye out.
If you’re looking for a content agency in The Midlands to help your brand connect with more customers, get in touch for creative ideas or explore our previous content marketing work.
