A new Apple ad is a marketing case study taking the world by storm. As I write this — four days after the video’s debut — it has already been viewed 19 million times on YouTube.

The visually stunning, cinematic long-form ad reunites Apple with Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Jonze, who directed the brand’s lauded “Welcome Home” in 2018. Like its predecessor, the new work—called “Someday”—leans heavily on inventive choreography, catchy music, and lavish sets. And the new video features popular star Pedro Pascal.

Of course that’s going to be a winning formula. But something more subtle is happening in this video. The theory behind my new book Audacious is that by disrupting the story, where the story is told, and/or the storyteller, you’ve got a chance of catching viral magic. I thought it would be fun to dissect this incredible video and unravel the less-obvious, non-Pedro lessons of why it went viral.

Let’s start by watching the video:

OK, let’s tear this marketing case study apart and find the magic.

Never make an ad

While researching my book, I interviewed the great Michael Krivicka, the king of viral videos. He said:

“The first key to success is, never, ever make an ad. Of course, almost every customer wants to make an ad because they think they need an ad. Perhaps that’s all they know. But the moment you start with that mindset, you’re failing.

“We’ll make something so cool, unique, and entertaining that it’s worth sharing. As soon as it pops up in your social media feed, you want to see it immediately, watch it again, and share it. You start with the viral mindset, not an ad mindset. People rarely share ads.

“If people sense they’re watching an ad—the moment they think you’re selling something—they stop watching it, or they’re going to watch the content through a filter, knowing there’s an agenda. So, if you lead with ‘Nike presents …’ Boom. People stop watching it.”

As the ad begins, we know that Pedro Pascal is sad. And if he is sad, the whole world is sad. And dreary, and frigid, and hopeless. But the beloved internet daddy doesn’t stay blue for long, as the magic of music turns a frigid wasteland into a raucous dance party.

We don’t know for sure who sponsored the ad until the final moments.

Disrupt the medium

How did this marketing case study disrupt the medium (where the story is told)? It was just a YouTube video, right? Nope.

First, this breaks the mold because it’s an ad that’s nearly six minutes long. Next time somebody tells you that people have a short attention span, call B.S. on it. People don’t have a short attention span. Your marketing has a short interesting span. This epic video is worth every second.

Next, it’s literally a music video. Think about it. What ad format will AirPod fans love? A music video. Smart marketers don’t fight for attention—they earn it by respecting their audience enough to create something worth their time.

Apple is “leaning into the signal” because it understands that remarkable marketing doesn’t interrupt what people care about — it becomes what people care about.

Disrupt the story format

This is paradoxical, but sometimes, to be disruptive, your story should be the radically non-disruptive. Research shows that ads following a classic dramatic story arc create a heightened physiological response. Let’s dissect it into five parts:

• Exposition—Pedro has girl problems. He’s depressed.
• Rising action—In a lonely, frigid existence, he recalls a happier musical memory.
• Climax— Pedro is a joyful dancing machine! He goes from forlorn to fabulous.
• Falling action—The dance sequence ends and the “old Pedro” gives an encouraging glance.
• Denouement—Pedro’s problems aren’t over, but a small smile crosses his face as he trudges on.

This is an example of Freytag’s Pyramid, a classical dramatic model developed by German novelist Gustav Freytag. There is something magical about this sequence that taps deeply into the human psyche. Professor Keith Quesenberry and his research team discovered that this classic format and advertising success are so closely connected that they could predict which Super Bowl ads would go viral before they aired.

“Beyond any other technique like sex appeal, animals, humor, or celebrities, telling a full, five-part story made the difference between a great marketing narrative and an unremarkable one,” Keith told me. “And the likability of this story format can be tied to word-of-mouth buzz, purchase intent, recall, and other success factors.”

This insight doesn’t just apply to big-budget ads. Keith discovered that storytelling success holds true for YouTube videos and other social content. On average, four- and five-act videos were shared over 400% more compared to product-based or informational videos.

Beyond Vanilla Valley

There’s something unexpected that makes this video memorable: It’s sad.

Marketing has conditioned us to expect the emotional arc of a children’s birthday party—everything must end with smiles, high-fives, and neat resolutions. But real human connection doesn’t work that way, and neither does this video. This story starts sad and ends … well, a little less sad, but still sad.

Research by Dr. Jonah Berger shows memorable marketing doesn’t just come from “happy.” Something that makes you feel anxiety, sadness, and even fear can trigger a strong emotional connection. This video breaks an emotional norm — an Apple ad that ends with unresolved pain.

The genius here is in the emotional tension. The lingering pain isn’t a mistake; it’s the point. It signals trust in the audience’s emotional maturity and creates space for a deeper, more authentic connection.

Most brands are terrified of negative emotions. The remarkable ones understand that emotional authenticity—even when uncomfortable—is what separates the signal from noise.

Grab ’em fast

More advice from the great Michael Krivicka: “You have to grab the viewer in two seconds. You can have the greatest video in the world, but if you don’t hook them in the first two seconds, it’s over. It’s a sad reality, but that’s all you’ve got. Open with something incredible that people haven’t seen before. Surprise them immediately.”

The opening seconds of this video are profound. Not a word is said, but the pain is thick, and we need to know, “What is happening here?” This is not an ad. It’s high drama.

Disrupt the storyteller

This six-minute video is being sliced and diced into television-sized ads but the true success lies in the fact that fans are sharing the long-form video like crazy. It’s a beloved story. Apple isn’t promoting the product’s functionality, price, or durability. It’s promoting a feeling. Brand marketing at its best.

Today, the successful marketer isn’t holding the microphone, shouting about their product. They’re writing a script and handing the mic to their customers. This is the essence of modern brand building: create something so meaningful, so resonant, so worth talking about that your customers eagerly do your marketing for you.

The audacity story

Everyone reading this post has one goal for their business: You want to be seen, heard, and discovered. You want to be the signal against the noise.

And the noise is worse than ever.

To stand out, competent doesn’t cut it. Competent is the new invisible. Competent is what gets replaced. The middle of the road is where roadkill happens.

In a world drowning in meh, disruption isn’t just an option—it’s survival. The AI revolution isn’t coming for the remarkable; it’s coming for the replaceable, and most marketing today is precisely that.

Yes, this Apple video has advantages—a recognizable star, a visionary director, a budget with breathing room. But those aren’t prerequisites for standing out. In fact, as I demonstrate throughout my book, constraints often fuel creativity while abundance breeds complacency.

The barrier isn’t resources. It’s courage—the courage to stand for something, the courage to make something that might not work, and the courage to create marketing that feels nothing like marketing.

The choice is simple: disrupt or be disrupted. Make waves or drown in the noise. What will you choose?

Keep an eye on the marketing stories that break through the noise. Like the Apple video, you’ll see a pattern—the narrative, medium, and storyteller are disrupted. I urge you to climb aboard the Audacity train and take advantage of the hundreds of ideas in my new book, Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post Dissecting Apple’s disruptive marketing case study appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Last week, a friend asked me to review a new research report he compiled as a lead magnet for his business. But I knew his strategy was flawed before I even saw the report. I had to provide an email address to access the research. I didn’t want to become part of his email “lead nurturing” program, so I never downloaded the report. “Gated content” killed his content marketing strategy.

I know that sounds counter-intuitive. Most marketers point to the high cost of making exceptional content … Asking for an email address seems like a small price to pay for this value. But by making it difficult for people to access your content, you’re leaving the true value of your marketing on the table. I’ll explain why.

The current state of gated content

Here are some points to provide a perspective of our marketing world today.

• People hate gated content. Even marketers who gate their content know this. Research shows more than 90 percent of the people interested in the content abandon the sign-up process because they don’t trust what happens next to the email address.
• Many marketers justify gated content as a fair value exchange but research shows this is not true. Consumers state they are “resigned” to annoying marketing practices and more than half immediately unsubscribe to a site even after they opt-in.
• Acquiring email addresses in exchange for gated content may not be compliant with privacy laws in Europe and many U.S. states.
• We are clearly in an era of Content Shock where the competition for content views is vicious. One of the visible manifestations of this trend is BuzzSumo research showing how social shares on a topic decline precipitously as a subject becomes saturated. In other words, unless you are among the first to create content on a topic, getting your content to be seen and shared is extremely difficult.

A new content marketing philosophy

In my book The Content Code, I provide an updated view of content marketing strategy.

The philosophy behind the book revolves around the practical idea that the economic value of content that is not seen and shared is zero. Therefore, we must develop competency in not just producing content but igniting it so that it is seen and shared by the most people possible. The most economic value of content marketing doesn’t come from the content, it come from the transmission of the content.

Creating great content is no longer the finish line; it is the starting line. The book outlines six possible strategies to remove barriers and give your content the best possible chance to flow and reach the most people possible.

Requiring people to provide an email address to access your content is about the worst thing you can do in this new view of “content success.” In essence, gated content places a stop sign in front of your content flow. It is an anachronistic way of thinking.

The value exchange

The decision to provide a barrier before your content must boil down to this: Are you going to receive more value from a trickle of people providing their email address, or the flood of people seeing and sharing the content freely? Let’s look at a case study to figure this out.

My friend James Carbary provided this example of how the gated content value exchange played out for his own business. He wrote:

“It took five months for us to get 295 people to sign up for the gated opt-in offer on our website. This progress seemed incredibly slow, so I tried something different.

“A couple weeks ago, I published a status update on LinkedIn explaining that I’d developed a list of 67 content topics that work well on that site. If people wanted the ideas, I asked them to leave a comment that said ‘I want it.’ Then I explained that I would turn the ideas into a free PDF if 100 people left a comment.

“In three hours I had over 150 comments. That post has now been viewed more 160,000 times, and 692 people left a comment saying they wanted the content ideas. We turned the ideas into a PDF, and replied to every comment with the link.

“In five days, my content spread to 692 people, compared to to 295 people in five months. We collected ZERO email addresses through the LinkedIn content but I’m beginning to see why un-gated content might be a smarter strategy.”

The case for amplification

James told me that the most tangible benefit of the ungated strategy was a connection with a high-potential customer and a podcast interview with this powerful new connection.

Some implied benefits in this un-gated content example would probably be easy to track down:

• Of the 692 people who asked for the content, how many were entirely new LinkedIn connections for James? He didn’t get an email address, but he did get a signal of interest and arguably these new LinkedIn connections might be more valuable in the long-term than an email address.
• How many of the 692 people responded to a call to action at the end of the report and visited a website, or organically subscribed to receive more content?
• How many shared the free content with more people inside and outside the company? How much additional flow did this receive because it was free?

Even if the percentage of people sharing content is the same whether it is gated or ungated, you will reach many more people with a base of fans numbering 692 versus 295. And that is happening in a matter of days versus months!

Finally, I shared James’s story, and linked to his website. I can’t recall ever linking to gated content that would require my readers to sign-in to something. So the benefit created by this post would have never happened if he hadn’t given his content away for free.

If you subscribe to my philosophy that the company that moves the most content will win, there is no question that un-gated content provides more potential value.

Branding and trust

I was discussing this issue with a colleague and she said “gated content annoys me. Why would a brand want to be annoying? The company is making me distrust them because I have no idea what will happen to that email address.”

A few years ago, I gave up my email address and (shudder) phone number to access a report from a company I loved and trusted. The next day, I was interrupted at a birthday party from a sales rep calling me from this company. My email was placed on lists for newsletters, webinars, and holiday sales.

Even after I “opted out,” of communications, I was still receiving phone calls and spam from this company.

By abusing me in this way, the company ruined its brand. It went from a company I loved to a brand I would never work with again.

A simple thought exercise: If you’re in a hotly-competitive field (like SEO or digital marketing) and one company has gated content and the other gives their best content away for free, which one will have a more positive brand view?

The research supports un-gated content

Roger Dooley is an expert in the field of neuroscience and marketing. In a post, he points out that from a psychological perspective, un-gated content is the undisputed content champ. Roger writes:

Requiring a user to give up his info before viewing good content is a reward strategy – give us your info, and we’ll reward you by letting you see our wonderful content. This is an appealing strategy at first glance – 100% of the people who use the content will have completed the form, and the information should be a powerful motivator for visitors to proceed.

In fact, most users confronted with a form won’t complete it. If they arrived at the site looking for some specific information, they will likely hit the back button and see if they can access it without the aggravation of form completion and without the risk of getting spammed later.

It turns out that a reciprocity strategy works better – give them the info they want, and then ask for their information. The research shows that twice as many visitors gave up their information if they were able to access the information first. It’s counterintuitive, perhaps, but even though these visitors were under no obligation to complete the form, they converted at double the rate of visitors seeing the “mandatory” form.

The neuromarketing takeaway here is that if you invoke reciprocity, you’ll be working with the way our brains are wired and will be more likely to get your visitors to do what you want them to. (And, as an added bonus, your SEO person will be happy that along with your visitors, Google will be able to see your content, too!)

Gated content and measurement

A compelling argument for gated content is measurement. Providing a tangible demonstration of the value of content marketing is difficult. It’s intoxicating to tell a client or your boss that an eBook (or whatever) resulted in a countable number of sign-ups that might be stretched into a claim of “leads.”

Measuring content marketing can be exceedingly hard. Most can’t do an adequate job. I acknowledge that gating your content may be the politically correct thing to do even if the strategy is flawed based on today’s market realities.

However, I think “social shares” is a more powerful measurement than “number of email addresses.” An email address may translate into … nothing. But a social share represents organic advocacy — better than any ad you could pay for.

An unpopular view

I’ve had many negative reactions to the idea of un-gating content. Here is one of them:

I think if you understand Funnels and the importance email still plays in the sales process then you wouldn’t have written this article. It’s not just about sharing good content — it’s also about turning your audience into customers. How do you do that when you never ask for an email address to move the relationship forward?  It’s all about moving folks through your customer journey. 

I would politely suggest this is an anachronistic view of a world that works in “funnels.” It’s not “your customer journey.” It’s THEIRS.

Most marketing today is not your marketing — it’s the sharing of information that’s going on without you. And if you have a gate, that clogs up the information you want to be shared. Let’s do the math and generously assume that 10% of the people who see your post will call for an appointment. We know that 90% of the people who come across your gate will go away. So for every 100 potential customers, you earn just 10 content views, and one call.

If I un-gate the content, I get 100 views and 10 calls. I am 10x more productive. Also, I have 100 people potentially SHARING my article instead of 10 for you.

By the way, what will you do after getting that email address? Spam your way to glory? That’s why people don’t trust gated content in the first place. You’re part of the problem.

I realize it’s a new way to think, but I can’t imagine a business today working hard to get customers to their site and then letting 90% of them walk away. If you ask people for an email AFTER they see the content, research shows it works better.

In any scenario, the numbers work in my favor, not yours.

A simple rule of thumb

One of the themes in my recent writing is that we have lost our way in marketing. Often, those setting the “standards” we follow aren’t marketers; they are SEO experts, statisticians, and IT professionals. I am not diminishing the worth of these resources, but maybe a statistical evaluation is not always the best guidepost for a marketing decision. Perhaps we need to get our heads out of dashboards and spreadsheets and look at what is happening with our customers in the real world.

Just because something seems favorable because of an A/B test or backlink strategy, it doesn’t mean we should do it … especially if people hate it.

So I’ll end this post with a simple piece of advice. People hate gated content. Don’t do things people hate.

Instead, dig deep to discover what your customers love. Now, go do that thing better than anybody else.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney.

The post Why Gated Content Kills Your Marketing Success appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Early in my career, I learned a powerful lesson on how to battle boredom that changed my professional life forever. I hope this story will inspire you too.

How to battle boring

I began my career in corporate communications and had the amazing opportunity to have my own little company magazine. I did everything – writing, editing, design, and photography.

This dates me (painfully), but at this time in my career, a photographer still had to worry about f-stops and film speed. Digital wasn’t a thing—not even close. So, I needed to learn the craft.

I signed up for a weekend class with a master photographer who specialized in the type of corporate photography that was part of my job. He assembled a class of ten students in adjoining suites in a Dallas hotel, and this is where I learned how to battle boring forever.

The first day of class covered the basics of composition and lighting. The second day pushed us to put these lessons into action. The class was divided into two and we were challenged to create photographs that would make the other team laugh, ask questions, or feel curious.

Using Polaroid cameras to create our art on the spot, we were instructed to only use what we could find in the hotel rooms for props. With no budget or outside resources, we depended on the team’s collective imagination to create something out of nothing.

The teacher pushed us. “Never be average or predictable,” he said. “Use the team to create something I’ve never seen before.” We moved, changed, twisted, challenged, and pushed our meager resources until we had singularly unique and bold photographs.

The team trials became progressively more difficult, and near the end of the last day, the teacher issued a final assignment – create a photo that would shock the other team. Until then, creating a funny or puzzling photo had been fun and relatively easy. But shocking? Now we really had to reach … and remember we were stuck in that boring hotel room.

The Shock Doctrine

We did our best and worked to create a photo that we thought was shocking. But then he looked at both teams, shook his head, and said, “You’re not getting it. I mean, you need to create something really shocking. Go back to your rooms and create a photo that will knock our socks off. You have 20 minutes.”

By this point we were working well as a team and we were determined to produce something audacious. We emptied our pockets and backpacks. The women on our team emptied their purses on the floor. Was there anything we could work with?

One of the women had black mascara and started rubbing it on the back of her hand like shoe polish. Then the other woman took it and started rubbing it on her face until it was black as night.

Somebody else had a tiny flashlight. Another person had a mirror that we held up to her nose. We pulled up her blonde hair. At the end of 15 minutes, this was our photo:

Yes. We blew their socks off.

Decades later, I still see this photo as a great inspiration. If we could create this ghoulish, one-eyed monster in a dark Hilton hotel bathroom, it made me believe that I could make anything more remarkable. I could battle boring and win. I would never create dull content again.

I didn’t need money to push the limits, and I didn’t need a team of experts. I just had to be desperately dissatisfied with mediocrity.

Money is the bane of creativity

Later in my career, I worked at a plant location that was swimming in money. It was the most profitable plant in the system, and everyone just threw money at every problem. There was so much waste. And so much dull!

I realized that the most creative teams I worked with had the fewest resources. Money was the bane of creativity. It’s possible to battle boring, even with a small budget.

I’ve never met a fellow marketer who told me, “We have too much money in our budget.” No matter where you are in your career, you’ll face resource constraints. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be audacious. In fact, as long as you have access to a tube of mascara, you’ll probably be OK.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post How to battle boring … even without a budget appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

One of the most cherished sayings in the content marketing world is “don’t build on rented land.”

I don’t know where this started but it has been repeated ad nauseam on Copyblogger, Content Marketing Institute, endless podcasts … well, everywhere.

But I have said for many years, that yes, you absolutely need to build on rented land because that’s where your customers are. And now, there’s data to prove I’m right. So let’s dive into the mythology of this cherished saying and why we need to shatter this outdated thinking once and for all.

In defense of the home base

First, I want to emphasize that of course, you need an archive for your content outside of the social media world. If you don’t have an “owned” home for your content, your entire web presence is at risk. I feel bad for those who bet their careers on Google Plus or, more recently, Facebook Notes, and then had the rug pulled out from under them.

But many of the anti-rented-landers argue that everything should be on your home base and that you need to own your audience and community on your own site. Their philosophy is that when you publish outside your own website you don’t have any hope of “owning” your audience.

As I’ll show today, the dynamics of the web today necessitate that we update our thinking about our content and audience.

An efficient strategy

The first reason we should establish strong content hubs on the leading social channels is efficiency.

If you publish on LinkedIn, YouTube, etc, your content becomes part of the organic user experience. It flows in the timeline. But if the content is hidden away in some private archive or community, instead of spending time creating content, you’ll be forced to focus your precious time DRAGGING people to your website every day. Unlikely.

It’s more efficient to reach people where they are hanging out instead of spending your resources convincing them that they need to visit your website.

The positive economics of rented land

The second reason to build hubs on rented land is economics.

The economic value of content that is not seen and shared is zero. So, your job as a marketer is to unleash that content. Get it in front of as many people as possible. Put it anywhere it can possibly be seen and enjoyed.

That also means removing gates that keep people from getting to your content, but that’s a story for another day.

Content does not drive the ROI of content marketing. TRANSMISSION of content drives your return. So build a competency in moving content everywhere, every day.

The new reality of rented land

Rand Fishkin, the mastermind behind Spark Toro recently wrote an interesting piece called The Incentives to Publish No Longer Reward the Web’s Creators.

It is worth the full read, but here is a snapshot of the current content publishing landscape, according to Rand:

• Google dramatically reduced the visibility of organic links in favor of paid advertisements and Alphabet-owned properties/instant answers. They now have about 95 percent monopoly control of the search landscape.
• The major social players have all either:
  • prohibited external links (TikTok)
  • reduced the reach of anything that includes an external link (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – indirectly by reducing reach* of posts that include “link in bio” or similar)
  • encouraged user cultures skeptical of external links (Reddit, Discord, YouTube, Pinterest, Quora)
  • and killed or never allowed referral tracking so creators can see where their traffic comes from (Instagram, Discord, WhatsApp, Google Discover, and others)
• Meanwhile, no major new platform has risen to benefit creators who publish on their own sites. Google Discover is the possible exception, but since it hides referral traffic, supposedly reporting on it only in Search Console, it’s intentionally hard to determine or trust)

Ten years ago, creating amazing content that people would want to consume and share was a powerful way to build a brand on the web. But today, that same content is unlikely to get 10 percent of the reach or clicks it received just a few years ago.

In summary … Content Shock has arrived.

The data show that building a content hub on your own site alone is not going to reach an optimal audience today. Publishing “on rented land” isn’t just an efficient and economic choice, it’s an essential one.

Adjusting the world view

In essence, every social media policy, practice, and procedure enacted over the past 10 years has made it nearly impossible to drive people to your “owned” media presence. So why are we still obsessed with this idea?

If you weren’t convinced before that the efficiency and economics of publishing on rented land made sense, the fact that the world is literally built to support this strategy should push you over the top.

Set your content free. Publish everywhere and anywhere your audience could possibly see it whether that is owned land, rented land, or the dark side of the moon.

Make sense?

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration courtesy Unsplash.com

The post Why you need to build a content strategy on rented land. In fact, you have no choice. appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I was doing a personal coaching call and my digital marketing friend was obsessed with creating content that was extremely short because of “today’s short attention spans.”

Here’s what I had to say to him about that (and this is a direct quote): “Bullshit.”

People today do not have short attention spans. Your content has a short interesting span.

It’s not unusual to observe people spending 12 straight hours playing a video game.

… Or binging content on Netflix for days.

… Or watching TikTok for hours and hours.

Why? Because it’s worth it. It’s fun. It’s captivating.

The whole “goldfish” attention span thing is more than a myth. It’s an excuse used by lazy marketers. The problem is NOT attention spans. The problem is, you’re not good enough to compete with games, movies, and TikTok.

So the solution isn’t shorter content. Short crap is as bad as long crap.

The solution is: Create something that competes.

One of my favorite podcasters recently had a four-hour episode. Four hours. It took me two days to get through it but I hung on every word because he earned my attention.

Earning attention is very, very hard to do. That’s the whole Content Shock thing, right?

Marketing is difficult. I’d argue that marketing is more difficult today than at any other time in my career … And I’ve had a long career. Too bad. Marketing is your job, so double down and triple down on creating something that is worthy of your customer’s time.

Stop blaming attention span and get on with it.

By the way, I’m creating some new short videos about subjects like this one on YouTube. If you want to hear occasional rants, raves, and revelations like the one on the blog today, I absolutely love for you to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration courtesy Unsplash.com

The post Stop blaming short attention spans! appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I made a short and sweet video for you about some inspiration I received from my friend Ann Handley. If you prefer to read rather than view a video, an edited transcript about this idea of artisanal marketing appears below the video. Here we go!

Today I’m offering some ideas and observations on artisanal marketing inspired by a thank you note I received from Ann Handley.

There’s a cool lesson here that applies to content marketing, digital marketing, and even general business.

So let’s take a look at this thank you note, and the lesson that it taught me.

I have known Ann for at least 10 or 12 years. And the thing I know about her is that everything she does has a sort of artisanal craftsmanship to it (and I actually looked up craftsmanship. It is generally accepted as a gender-neutral word!)

Everything you receive from Ann has this certain personality … something that’s a little extra. That is the signature of her work, whether it’s her wonderful newsletter, a book, or even a thank you note.

The first thing I noticed about this thank you note is that it has this bunny sticker on it (see the photo at the top of the post). It says “Bun!” Why? Because Ann has this amazing speech and a story about a bunny in her garden and she knows I love that story. And where do you even get a sticker of a bunny like that? It’s pretty cool.

Now let’s look at the back. She has a bee sticker, and she’s drawn the path flight path of the bee and some flowers and some leaves. Why? Because I have bees on the grounds of my home! She added this special touch again — a sticker of a bee.

And then she has this whimsical little card inside. It has a fun literary theme to it, and a handwritten note. She’s colored it to add her personality.

And you can see here, she has a pretty good representation of me!

Now, why is this so important? Why is this a lesson for all of us trying to stand out in the world today?

There’s such an emphasis today on content volume and trying to figure out a way to somehow temporarily trick the algorithms of Instagram, or YouTube, or Facebook, or Google, or wherever you’re trying to show up in this … let’s call this the age of HubSpot … where we’re just trying to pump out content in such volume and at such scale as a way to earn the fleeting attention of these algorithms.

That’s not really marketing, at least for the long-term.

Artisanal marketing means emotion

What’s great branding? It’s about creating an emotional connection between what you do and your audience. It’s really not about getting somebody to click on a link. sure, you can probably trick somebody into clicking on your link. But you can’t trick somebody into reading your content. You can’t trick someone into loving it. You can’t trick someone into sharing it, and telling others about it, like I’m doing now.

This note from Ann is a piece of content laden with emotion. I’m not only talking about it and sharing it with you today and spreading some love for Ann Handley. I’ll probably keep it until the day I die. Isn’t that remarkable? Isn’t that something exceptional?

And it’s not that hard to scale “artisanal.” It just takes a little bit of caring. It means adding your personality. Maybe it even takes a little courage to put some of yourself into everything that you do.

But in the end, this is the only choice you have to stand out. You have to be original. To be original, you have to put a little piece of yourself into everything you do.

I hope you enjoyed this lesson and that it inspired you a little bit like inspired me. And if you haven’t been following Ann Handley. You need to do that and be inspired yourself.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of several best-selling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

The post A lesson in the power of artisanal marketing appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Content creation success is slow and steady

I was having a conversation with a fellow author the other day about the slow progress of building a personal brand through content creation. My friend said, “Everybody only sees the tip of the iceberg! Nobody sees the years of work that went into the success.”

I think this is an accurate analogy and I think that is a great issue to explore today.

The “iceberg of content creation” chart at the top of the post is a true example — it shows my progress growing an audience over time. If you’re just starting out, perhaps you’re exasperated because it feels like nobody is seeing your content. Does anybody care?

Guess what? Everybody goes through those anxious feelings! When I started on a content creation journey it was a frustrating and lonely experience. I felt like I was throwing a message in a bottle out into the ocean. “Helloooooo … is anybody out there?”

I don’t know anybody in this business of content creation who was truly an overnight success.

Familiarity breeds familiarity

Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland

I’m working on a new book project (“Cumulative Advantage” out soon!) and had a chance to interview Kristian Bush, a founding member of the band Sugarland and a multi-platinum recording artist. Kristian had spent more than a decade building a career in music before he had his first hit. He told me a similar story of slow growth:

“Everyone thinks our momentum started with a big hit, but it wasn’t that way at all,” he said. “Music business success comes from cumulative progress. There are two kinds of bands. One kind is the one-hit wonder. You don’t want that. If that happens, you realize it would have been far more profitable to be an accountant instead. What I realized — especially in the country music industry — building a career is progressive.

“The momentum really starts with the first song on the radio. It may take years work to get there, but you have to put in that work for the doors to open. A second hit song proves that the first song wasn’t a fluke. But at that point, people still love the song … not you. They’re not attached to you because they don’t know who you are yet.

“As the momentum builds you become associated with a song and a sound and a story. Sugarland songs have a certain emotional temperature, a moral center, a compass, and of course the pleasure of hearing Jennifer Nettles as a singer. Momentum builds from just being consistent and focused. Familiarity breeds familiarity.”

Content creation success takes time

So what does this mean to you and me?

As I consider the people who are making a name for themselves in the world today, there is not one person who was an immediate success. Social media pioneer Chris Brogan once famously said that it took him three years to get his first 100 blog readers. But a few years later, he was the leading keynote speaker in his field.

Building a personal brand requires a patient mindset. When I work with people on individual coaching, I tell them to plan on committing to at least 18 months of effort before they start to see any progress.

When I wrote KNOWN: The handbook for building and unleashing your personal brand in the digital age, I interviewed 97 people who had become “known” — the go-to person in their field. The last question I asked them: “What advice would you give to somebody building a brand?” Almost all of them used some form of the word tenacity or resilience. You can’t quit too soon.

The world is crowded with content today, so in some ways breaking through is more difficult. But compared to 10 years ago, there are also more platforms and more easily accessible content creation options. A decade ago, creating and posting a video or a podcast was a chore, and probably an expensive one. You needed equipment!

Today. it’s so much easier to create content but one thing is constant: There is no shortcut.

There is a historically important opportunity ahead of you. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve been through in your life. You can have a voice, you can make a dent in the world, if you’re willing to put in the patient time and effort.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of several best-selling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

The post The iceberg chart of content creation appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Last week I had a call with a remarkable woman from Paris. She wanted to bounce some ideas off of me about her next steps with her personal brand.

She’s entering a crowded market. There are many, many marketing professionals out there who have been making a name for themselves for years. Does she have any hope of standing out?

I know she will.

In fact, I can practically guarantee it.

Why can I make this bold claim?

Because in a world of overwhelming noise, she’s delivering the signal — her original and helpful insights. The critical role of creating insights with your content instead of simply relaying information is an important lesson for anybody interested in social media and marketing today, so let’s dive in.

The nature of insight

Isaacson

I once had the opportunity to meet and interview the great writer and historian Walter Isaacson. He has written books on his favorite geniuses — Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci — and I asked him about his definition of genius.

He said that genius requires two things: An endless curiosity and an ability to see patterns.

In other words, creating insights come from being curious and connecting the dots in a new way. You call on your experience, education, and heritage to look at something from a different angle.

It seems to me that anybody has the ability to do this if they apply themselves. When you’re creating insights, content magic happens.

You can be intentional about orienting your content toward insight instead of information. Here are a few ways anybody can become more insight-driven:

1. Connect the dots

One of my favorite ways of creating insights is to apply an experience from the past to a situation in the present.

Here is a universal truth. If you’re reading this post, you have a past and you have a present … so you should be able to do this!

An example of how to do this comes from my Marketing Rebellion book. I wanted to make a point in the book that cultural change in a company has to come from the top of the organization — there’s no such thing as a grassroots cultural change.

I thought back to points in my career and remembered a very dramatic cultural change that occurred through the visionary CEO of our company. I explained how he made a change in the safety culture through his entire company presence and by leading through example in dramatic ways.

Instead of merely stating “culture change comes from the top,” I illustrated this point through a personal example, connecting the dots to my past. This story was one of the most popular in the book.

Statements are boring. Stories deliver insights.

2. Connect the people

I firmly believe you can’t “think out of the box.” By the time we’re 15 years old, we’re wired with a mental framework that essentially persists throughout our life.

Creating insights comes through combining boxes — mashing together mental frameworks. Simply put, go talk to people and build on ideas together.

A person who can create insight consistently this way is Andy Crestodina. If you don’t follow Andy, you should. He is a thought leader because he’s constantly looking at things in a new way.

Every time I see Andy, he’ll start a conversation like this: “Mark, have you ever thought about how content marketing is like a pyramid …” and then we’ll riff on whatever crazy idea he has that day until we have plenty of new ideas (that eventually show up in his blog posts!).

My go-to person for insight-building is Keith Reynold Jennings, who of course is a regular contributor to this blog. Last week, he called me up and said, “I have a wild idea for you …” An hour later my head was stuffed with possibilities and new dots that had been connected.

Creativity and insight comes through connection, not thinking by yourself in an office.

3. Connect the experience

This is the weirdest idea I have in this post and maybe the most powerful. I consistently gain insight by SEEING something instead of reading about it or hearing about it.

I spend a lot of time mentoring inner-city kids. One time, I was struggling to get them to do their homework on time. It was a never-ending battle. But when I visited them in their home, I had an insight. I realized they had no WIFI in the house! Of course it was hard to do their homework. I never would have had that realization unless I had been standing in the middle of the situation. They had been too shy to tell me about the problem.

In the same way, I get incredible insights through first-hand observations of my customers and their facilities.

My friend Liz Fessenden reminded me of the Japanese kaizen principle of “going to gemba.”

Gemba (also less commonly as genba) is a Japanese term meaning “the real place.” In business, gemba refers to the place where value is created. The most common use of the term is in manufacturing, where the gemba is the factory floor, but gemba can really be anywhere you can achieve customer insight.

Do you experience this way of learning, too?

4. Connect the content

Do you listen to my Marketing Companion podcast? If you do, you’ll see this idea in action with each episode.

Before every show, my co-host Brooke Sellas and I pay attention to news items that inspire us and then we debate the issues, creating new insights.

In a recent example, The Wall Street Journal published an article explaining why Facebook knew it was creating divisiveness and hate but ignored it because hate speech drives ad revenues. Adding our own thoughts to this news story resulted in a ton of interesting insights and a great show.

Again, this is pretty simple for anyone to do.

Unfortunately, and perhaps inexplicably, it’s not happening too often …

The biggest problem in social media content today

Let’s get back to my friend in Paris and my guarantee that she will make it. How can I be so sure?

Because the world is CRAVING insights but most of the social web is delivering only information and that just doesn’t cut it. She will stand out because she has the courage to be creating insights and publishing her original views.

I am a huge fan of social media marketing bloggers and content creators.

I’m always on the lookout for the next emerging thought leader and I have a pretty good eye for talent!

But here’s what I’m seeing right now — there isn’t anybody on the horizon who is ready to come forward and lead the pack.

Too many creators today are playing it safe. They offer simple tricks and tips like thousands of others who came before them. You’ll never take the web by storm by creating posts on “10 Pinterest tricks” or “Five Facebook ad tips.” Your content might be good, but it’s not an original insight that will help you stand out.

By the way, I’m happy to be proved wrong. If you see an outstanding, insight-filled marketing blog or vlog out there, let me know!

One last thing.

Creating insight-oriented content requires some peace of mind that allows you to think and process.

In a crisis-filled world, insights might be harder to come by when we’re pre-occupied with the prospect of job loss or isolation. Insights need some brain room to flourish.

And honestly, it takes a little courage to trust your insights and not play it safe all the time. But here is what I’ve learned: When you get to the point when you’re creating insights, the rewards will start to flow.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of several best-selling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

The post Four ways to jumpstart your content marketing by creating insights instead of information appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

This month, I had an opportunity to have an insider’s view of one of the most audacious digital experiments in history. It became a content marketing masterclass … warts and all.

In March, marketing professionals at software titan SAP were tasked with moving their annual SAPPHIRE NOW conference – an event that attracts more than 25,000 people – to an online virtual mega-show. Actual event planning could not begin in earnest until about May 5.

The SAP team had to find more than 50 celebrities, hosts and speakers, script a five-day event, align executive schedules, record content, connect with relevant customer stories, create eye-popping visuals, promote the event, and pioneer new presentation technology … in about one month.

Oh yes, they also had to accomplish all of this while working from home during a global pandemic.

In an earlier post, I had thought out loud (wrote out loud?) about some of the possible challenges and opportunities of this ambitious event. While others have covered some of the technical announcements from the event, I think my audience would benefit from examining:

• SAPPHIRE NOW was created across different departments, different countries, and different cultures. How does the company deliver a relevant and seamless experience with that level of complexity?
• What forms of presentation formats did SAP pioneer? How could this work for you and your customers?
• SAP created SAPPHIRE NOW to replace a beloved annual event that brings people together in one location. How did they reinforce “community” in a virtual setting?
• The company is on the cutting edge of content marketing. Will I see something inspiring and bold?

The gnats descend

When I was in the corporate world, I occasionally had to organize high-level sales events for my executive customers. One Florida resort conference I hosted went great – every precise detail was perfect … until the final 15 minutes. A swarm of gnats decided to descend on our pool-side farewell brunch.

To my amazement, even years later, everybody still talked about those gnats.

Overall, the SAP event was a monumental achievement but unfortunately, the company also had their swarm of gnats. What many will remember and discuss is that for the first two days, the technical side of the operation had a meltdown. The streaming platform didn’t work.

SAP had expected about 60,000 people to attend the conference and on streaming day, more than twice that many showed up.

Very quickly, the team effectively moved viewers to Twitter and LinkedIn viewing options, but the damage had been done as many gave up trying to view the content, at least on the first day.

It seems that the most loyal fans stuck with the company. SAP has had more than half a million content views already, exceeding expectations and far exceeding the reach of their traditional live event.

Presentation forms

What can we learn from the content form used for this event?

The primary communication method was pre-recorded one-hour videos with rapid-fire story changes. To SAP’s credit, viewers could select a geographical region and see content tuned toward different parts of the world.

At first, I was disappointed that there was not more interactivity (as had been originally envisioned). There were very few live and unscripted events.

But I came to understand that there had to be a practical trade-off considering the speed in which the event was created. The company had to take risks in the right places – do you place your bet on safe and reliable recorded video, or assuring that every part will work in a complex, global live-streaming broadcast?

One live and interactive stream on the final day was delayed by more than 10 minutes – that surely would have happened a lot more during a five-day event with speakers from all over the world.

This conservative decision was the right one. It also gave SAP an opportunity to show off some stunning visual effects and storytelling techniques. I was in awe as I observed how they pulled this off, considering most of their creative partners were also working from home!

Do yourself a favor and tune into some of the one-hour videos to see how the content was crafted.

As SAP gains confidence with streaming technology, I predict they will feature more unstructured interactivity in future events. 

Streaming + community

One of the most interesting challenges for any organization today is somehow replicating the community aspects of a live event when we’re stuck at home. Of course this is impossible, but I think in this pandemic era we simply have to find a way to keep the momentum of our business relationships alive.

In this respect, the event was very successful since it provoked discussions, broadened its reach, and provided “face-to-face” interactions with its top executives.

The event was highly-produced and perhaps too scripted at times, but there were also moments of brilliance:

• CEO Christian Klein talking about the hope for his children.
• An honest question and answer about SAP’s perceived lack of innovation.
• Rockstar Sting singing “Message in a Bottle” with an emotional pandemic twist.
• Watching the executive team warm-up to a live streaming format and actually joke around with each other toward the end of the final event.

These human moments were the best moments. Seeing the company and its leaders in an honest light promotes emotional attachment and community, even with a painful global lock-down.

Content marketing lessons

From an academic perspective, the event was fascinating to watch. Like every company in the world, SAP is heavily relying on content to maintain connections in a world where meetings, conferences, and business travel have been curtailed.

Here are some content marketing lessons for us all:

Leadership

Trying something new takes courage and bold leadership. What SAP attempted to pull off in five weeks is certainly courageous … bordering on crazy! But it paid off for them as they took a giant leap forward in building a streaming content competency. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Production values

In an earlier post, I reported how SAP was taking its content marketing cue from Netflix. You could see that influence in the SAPPHIRE NOW event with dazzling programming that jumped from story to story. The event consistently kept your attention because even when it lagged, you knew the next story was just moments away.

Long-term value

SAP will continue to benefit from this event for years to come. In a short period of time they produced more than 10 hours of quality evergreen video content they’ll be able to slice and dice and re-purpose for a long time.

The power of influencers

SAP has a very sophisticated approach to influencer marketing and this was a primary method they used to promote the event. The actual attendance was double what they had planned. Yes, influencer marketing works.

“Advertising”

The programming was occasionally interrupted by announcements of customer achievement awards. This was like disturbing the viewing experience with ads. I think the company is correct in using Netflix as a model … but Netflix doesn’t have ads.

This is one aspect of a live event that did not translate to the streaming experience. People don’t like to be interrupted, wherever they are viewing content.

Competent versus awesome

The subtitle of my book Marketing Rebellion is “The Most Human Company Wins.” The pandemic is amplifying this truth and speeding the change companies need to make to connect to modern consumers.

Watching the diversity of this content reinforced this powerful trend. When the company went off script, the content became so much more compelling and believable.

In the opening video, CMO Alicia Tilman kicked off the event with a pre-recorded, scripted message from a beautiful studio. In the final live segment, she was broadcasting from her home computer trying to moderate a global executive discussion.

In the first video, I thought “Alicia is competent.”

In the second video, I thought, “Alicia is awesome.”

Competence is important. Awesome is better. Every company needs more awesome in its content and the difference is showing up as a real, unscripted human being.

This is a critical lesson for us all. To win the war for attention, there must be an authentic, accessible, and perhaps even vulnerable human voice.

Experiencing the highs and lows of SAPPHIRE NOW was a masterclass in modern content marketing. I hope you’ll check out some of the content and let me know what you think.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of several best-selling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

The post Observing this event unfold was a content marketing masterclass appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.