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Why Made.com’s ‘fall from grace’ serves as a warning to challenger brands

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By Hannah Bowler

With no buyer in sight, Made.com is set to become one of the first casualties of the UK’s recession. Is it a one-off, or is it a signal of what’s to come for e-commerce?

Made-to-order retailer Made.com stopped trading today (October 26) after talks of a buyout fell through, switching off its e-commerce site and replacing it with a holding image of a dog in a bed and a message telling customers to ‘sit tight, we’ll be back soon.’

The business is short of the £70m it needs to survive the next 18 months and, as a result, the share price plummeted by 93% to 1/2p after the announcement came that it had shut up shop.

But it is far from an isolated case. It follows brands such as Eve Sleep, which filed for administration in June (it was saved by rival Benson for Beds). The mattress D2C business was a darling from the pandemic boom era when consumers were stuck at home investing in delivery homeware and sales were on the up for brands including Emma, Hypnia and Simba.

There are tough times ahead. It wasn’t long ago e-commerce fashion brand Missguided was salvaged by the ever-hungry Fraser Group, and just last week the UK’s biggest online vegan supermarket The Vegan Kind went bust, only to be later saved by an individual shareholder.

Nicola Strange, senior problem solver and impact lead at B+A agency, says category disruptors like Made.com will also find themselves unable to survive.

“Stalwarts can use their vast infrastructures to pivot and respond to rivals, as John Lewis has with its Anyday collection of homewares and fashion,” she says. But for challengers like Made, Strange says they need a way of “adding value, such as social impact commitments, robust sustainability or an overriding brand purpose to keep customers loyal.”

It’s a bleak picture as retailers are suffering from a combination of supply chain issues, spiralling business costs, a living cost crisis tightening consumer purses and a pandemic boom that created an inflated success.

On Monday (October 24) EY-Parthenon’s latest Profit Warnings report revealed 86 UK-listed businesses hit the red zone in the third quarter of 2022 – the highest Q3 performance since the 2008 recession.

The rise and fall of Made.com

Made set up shop in 2011 as an upmarket online-only furniture and homeware delivery brand. It was alone in a niche that was soon crowded by brands such as Wayfair, Habitat, La Redoute and Swoon. The company went public in July 2021 when it was valued at £775m, below its £1bn predicted market valuation. Herschel Ozturk-Walker, marketing manager at Brandwidth, tells The Drum: “Perhaps one can ultimately question the decision to ‘rush’ into public trading during volatile times.”

At the time its IPO was questioned as the company was struggling with achieving profitability at scale.

Ozturk-Walker adds: “Imagine being both the beneficiary and victim of the same thing … For Made.com, the Covid-lockdown phenomenon presents not only their single largest opportunity for growth, but also their greatest risk.”

Strange suggests instead that Made suffered from a disconnect between the external brand and the internal company.

Made-to-order retailer Made.com stopped trading today (October 26) after talks of a buyout fell through, switching off its e-commerce site and replacing it with a holding image of a dog in a bed and a message telling customers to ‘sit tight, we’ll be back soon.’

The business is short of the £70m it needs to survive the next 18 months and, as a result, the share price plummeted by 93% to 1/2p after the announcement came that it had shut up shop.

But it is far from an isolated case. It follows brands such as Eve Sleep, which filed for administration in June (it was saved by rival Benson for Beds). The mattress D2C business was a darling from the pandemic boom era when consumers were stuck at home investing in delivery homeware and sales were on the up for brands including Emma, Hypnia and Simba.

There are tough times ahead. It wasn’t long ago e-commerce fashion brand Missguided was salvaged by the ever-hungry Fraser Group, and just last week the UK’s biggest online vegan supermarket The Vegan Kind went bust, only to be later saved by an individual shareholder.

Nicola Strange, senior problem solver and impact lead at B+A agency, says category disruptors like Made.com will also find themselves unable to survive.

“Stalwarts can use their vast infrastructures to pivot and respond to rivals, as John Lewis has with its Anyday collection of homewares and fashion,” she says. But for challengers like Made, Strange says they need a way of “adding value, such as social impact commitments, robust sustainability or an overriding brand purpose to keep customers loyal.”

It’s a bleak picture as retailers are suffering from a combination of supply chain issues, spiraling business costs, a living cost crisis tightening consumer purses and a pandemic boom that created an inflated success.

On Monday (October 24) EY-Parthenon’s latest Profit Warnings report revealed 86 UK-listed businesses hit the red zone in the third quarter of 2022 – the highest Q3 performance since the 2008 recession.

The rise and fall of Made.com

Made set up shop in 2011 as an upmarket online-only furniture and homeware delivery brand. It was alone in a niche that was soon crowded by brands such as Wayfair, Habitat, La Redoute and Swoon. The company went public in July 2021 when it was valued at £775m, below its £1bn predicted market valuation. Herschel Ozturk-Walker, marketing manager at Brandwidth, tells The Drum: “Perhaps one can ultimately question the decision to ‘rush’ into public trading during volatile times.”

At the time its IPO was questioned as the company was struggling with achieving profitability at scale.

Ozturk-Walker adds: “Imagine being both the beneficiary and victim of the same thing … For Made.com, the Covid-lockdown phenomenon presents not only their single largest opportunity for growth, but also their greatest risk.”

Strange suggests instead that Made suffered from a disconnect between the external brand and the internal company.

By Hannah Bowler

Sourced from The Drum

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What will be the top 5 content marketing trends of 2023?

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By Gavin Jordan

Gavin Jordan is the publishing manager of Open Mic – The Drum’s self-publishing content marketing platform. For The Drum’s Content Marketing in Focus, he predicts the most likely content marketing trends for 2023, and how marketers can tackle them head-on.

In 1999, Jeff Cannon wrote, “In content marketing, content is created to provide consumers with the information they seek.”

Almost a quarter of a century on, it’s amazing how many content marketers still fall at this first hurdle. They provide information – yes – but it’s not information that anyone is actually looking for. It’s no doubt why 71% of decision-makers say that half or less of the thought-leadership content they consume offers any sort of valuable insights.

A lot of the time, the line between content that thrives and content that dives is relevance. Content marketers who look inwardly (What can I say about my business? Why is my product/service so valuable? What are the benefits of my offering?), will always lose out to those looking outwardly (What is the target audience interested in? What are they searching for? What do they want to engage with?).

One of the top ways to stay relevant with your target audience is to keep up with current industry trends (i.e. the topics that your audience are flocking to time and again). To help guide your content strategy next year, we’ve scoured through a trove of readership data to predict the most-likely content marketing trends for 2023. Here are our top five.

1. E-commerce

While there was an understandable growth in e-commerce vs brick and mortar sales in 2020 (largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic), e-commerce continues to grow at record speed. A recent report by Morgan Stanley predicts that e-commerce could reach 36% of all retail sales by 2026 (up from 32% now), as more shoppers prioritize convenience.

As e-commerce’s popularity rises, so too will competition between online retail brands. Retail marketers will therefore be watching this area closely to see how to stay ahead of the curve, and where the newest wave of growth will come from. But it’s not just retail marketers. The future of retail will affect media owners and tech providers alike – making it a critical topic to stay informed on from all angles.

What topics are likely to thrive? If the past few months are anything to go by, eagle-eyed marketers will be on the lookout for content that covers:

Buy into all the latest e-commerce marketing trends by bookmarking The Drum’s e-commerce hub here.

2. Metaverse and gaming

Most are familiar with the old marketing adage, “meet your audience where they’re at.” And if marketers are serious about reaching younger generations, then where they’re ‘at’ is the metaverse.

Mostly populated with Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha audiences, ‘metaverse’ is a catch-all term to define a virtual space where people meet, play, socialize, shop – and so on. But really, as Chris Sutcliffe says, the metaverse ultimately represents potential. To many, the virtual worlds (including, but not exclusive to, gaming worlds) that collectively make up ‘the metaverse’ are part of a shift from one era of the internet (Web2) to another (Web3). And no marketer wants to get left behind.

With some analysts predicting that the metaverse will grow into an $800bn market by 2024, and the number of gamers worldwide totalling a staggering 3.2 billion, good metaverse and gaming content will undoubtedly attract marketers’ attention in 2023. This year, readers not only flocked to content that provided an answer to what the metaverse means for the industry, but also how their own brand might succeed in the metaverse, taking especial note of how major brands like Nike and adidas developed their own (albeit very different) metaverse strategies.

In 2023, with a better understanding of what the metaverse means (or is likely to mean), brands will be looking for actionable advice on how to enter the metaverse/hone their metaverse strategies, as well as the marketing opportunities within these virtual worlds, be it in-game advertising, audio ad opportunities or by utilizing virtual influencer marketing.

To stay plugged-in with the latest metaverse & gaming news, trends and insights, bookmark The Drum’s Metaverse hub.

3. Data & privacy

Google announced earlier this year that they’re postponing the end of third-party cookies on Chrome until 2024, giving the industry more time to innovate for a privacy-centric, anti-tracking world. But despite all the delays, there’s no denying the inevitable: one day the cookie will crumble.

Mixed with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework (which has been described as hypocritical by some), this will spell the end of collecting, measuring and utilizing audience data with relative ease. In 2023, marketers will be preparing to fill the cookie-shaped hole of the future, and content that helps them do this will reign king.

As well as how to obtain post-cookie data, marketers will also be looking closer at how to best analyze data. 76% of digital marketers evaluate their digital marketing using attribution models, but the so called “walled gardens” that govern these models are making it increasingly difficult for marketers to analyze the data effectively. In 2023, marketers will look to content that helps them overcome attribution challenges, or else provides a clear alternative.

Another opportunity in this space lies in providing genuinely enjoyable, engaging content. Because of its analytical – often jargon-heavy – nature, data & privacy can often be a dry subject to swallow. For content marketers to excel with this topic, content should be accessible, comprehensive and have personality. A lot of content might claim to have the best way to collect first-party data, for example, but it’s the most engaging of these that’ll get the most attention.

Track the latest data privacy news, trends and insights by bookmarking The Drum’s Data & Privacy hub here.

4. Audio

2022 saw a sharp rise in audience interest surrounding ad opportunities in the audio space. This should come as no surprise. With the almost unstoppable rise of podcast listeners, and the multitude of genres to meet their needs, brands have a new way to target niche audiences – and ensure they’re highly engaged. Marketers will be looking to understand how best to advertise on podcasts, how to ensure brand suitability and how to measure results. They may also look to understand how their own brand can utilize an effective podcast content strategy.

But podcasting isn’t the only space that audio can succeed in. With the boom in gamers worldwide, brands are not only using in-game advertising for visual ads – they’re looking to audio ads too. According to a study by AudioMob and YouGov, 75% of mobile gamers prefer audio ads over video. With arguably smoother integration, and less risk of interrupting gameplay, the growing opportunity of audio ads in gaming is likely to spark a lot of interest as we head into 2023 – as is the audio opportunity in the metaverse.

Keep your ears open to all the latest audio news, insights and thought-leadership by bookmarking The Drum’s Audio hub here.

5. Influencer marketing

The past few years have seen a huge shift in attitude towards influencers. The stereotype of the vacuous, Starbucks-sipping, fame-hungry narcissist is dead. Brands have finally come to recognize influencers for what they really are: publishers. And, like any publisher, they use content to build and maintain highly relevant and engaged audiences. For brands, that’s golden.

But influencer marketing is ultimately still in its infancy. For brands wanting to leverage it, there’s still a ton of education that can be supplied through content marketing. How do you find the right influencer? Should you go for one with broad appeal, or opt for a more niche micro-influencer? Do you choose paid content or branded content? What social media is most effective for using influencers?

But beyond these practical questions, marketers will be on the look out to see how influencer marketing continues to evolve. The rise of virtual influencers and live shopping have disrupted traditional notions of influencer marketing, and brands will be looking at thought-leadership closely to monitor these areas.

How to keep up with content marketing trends in 2023

At Open Mic, we keep all our members up to speed with the latest content marketing trends, so that they can target their audience with the right content at the right time. Find out more about how Open Mic can help your 2023 content strategy here.

By Gavin Jordan

Sourced from The Drum

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How PRs guided brands (and saved some from themselves) after The Queen’s death

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In exchange for anonymity, communications specialists spill the tea on what it was really like being on the front line navigating brands through this historic moment.

For 48 hours following the death of The Queen, comms teams and PR professionals were the first port of call for companies unsure how they should respond.

Uncertainty had been brewing since the Thursday morning, with one PR telling The Drum how he had been spending the morning with the media, facilitating filming for a charity campaign due to launch the next day, when the journalists around him began to receive alerts.

The Palace had issued a landmark statement saying that doctors were concerned for The Queen’s health and that she was being kept comfortable. “The journalists warned us this was going to take over the news. They knew what was coming.”

Sure enough, by the time he got back to the office the decision had been taken to pause the campaign. The press launch was axed and social media influencers were told to hold off on promotions. “They shut it down.”

Across town, another PR exec within an ad agency had just hit ‘send’ on a press release announcing the launch of a client’s major new TV ad campaign. “We had literally got the release signed off that morning and issued it that lunchtime,” she explains. “Then came the news that The Queen was ill.“

She says that the agency’s account director then spent the next few hours going back and forward between the client, the media agency and the media owners, debating whether to go ahead with the launch that night.

‘It was the CEOs, CMOs and CFOs ringing me personally’

As the world’s media hastily set up on the periphery of Buckingham Palace, clients began making frantic calls asking what they should do if the worst happens, explains the owner of an agency that specializes in crisis comms. “The phones were ringing off the hook from about 3pm onwards and didn’t stop for two days.”

What surprised him, he says, was that brands’ internal communications departments were being shut out. “I usually deal with those teams on crisis comms, but this time it was the CEOs, CMOs and CFOs ringing me personally. I found myself saying ‘trust your team’, but they wanted an agency opinion.”

Many of those calls from the C-suite were to ask what other big brands had planned. “I was taken aback at the size of some of the companies that had clearly put no thought into this. There were global brands that had nothing in place, no plans for these situations.”

A PR agency owner with almost three decades of experience running her own business, handling multiple clients across different sectors, tells us how she moved early to hit the brakes on planned activity for the remainder of that week. “It was obvious the direction things were moving.“

With a couple of big campaigns due to break, she says: “We started telling clients ’have a think about what you want to do before the morning’. We were trying to be front-of-foot. Some heard us, but others chose to ignore and were steadfastly plodding on.”

‘Most got it, but some were tone deaf’

Of course, the decision on what action to take came much sooner. By 6.30pm that day, Buckingham Palace confirmed The Queen’s death. Unlike brands, most broadcasters, publishers, media owners and platforms had processes in place for the passing of the nation’s longest-serving monarch. They went into mourning mode and immediately paused all advertising on commercial stations, out-of-home and online media for two days.

At media agencies that had been primed to release big new campaigns, retractions were swiftly being issued. An exec at one tells how his client felt it would be more appropriate to pause its new spot until later in the month. “But then they came up against a problem with media owners in that some were unwilling to pull the ads for any longer than their 48-hour blackout unless they were in direct conflict with the royal family.”

The brand CMO and the media agency are still in negotiations with certain media owners about what happens to the significant ad budget they’ve invested, but not all clients have been so attuned to the situation.

The PR agency owner that we spoke to tells us how, “once the penny dropped on the enormity of this moment and the tsunami of reaction across the world on social media” her agency started advising all clients to stop all activity until at least September 20, the day after the funeral. “Most got it, but some were tone deaf and have continued, regardless of how crass, naff or disrespectful it is. Some turned it into an opportunity.“

She reveals that one client – despite all her emails and calls beseeching it not to – went ahead with a big comms push that will “at best have no response, but at worse will have negative impact on the brand“. “It has been very revealing about the kind of organization we’ve been working with and how they see the world,“ she says. “There has been a big misread.“

Now, she is diligently recording every interaction with said client in anticipation that, three months from now, she’ll be faced with complaints about why the activity didn’t achieve the KPIs they’d agreed. “I’m keeping it all in writing and recording everything. Response rates will not be anything like what it wants. Unfortunately, apart from covering ourselves in that way and putting every bit of advice in bold and underlined, there’s little we can do.”

‘Consumers don’t give a crap about an FMCG brand commenting on societal affairs’

As we saw in the hours following the Palace’s announcement, too many brands – from Playmobil to Pizza Express and The British Kebab Awards – were too quick to share their ill-judged messages of condolence. So what guidance would these trusted PRs and crisis comms specialists offer corporate giants on paying their respects on social media?

Without fail, all of the experts we spoke to say that, unless your brand is one of the 800 or so with a royal warrant or well-recognized connection to The Queen, it is strongly advised to simply stay silent. They stand by that advice for comms on the day of her funeral.

“If you have a royal warrant then it’s fine to put something out there, but otherwise just shut the fuck up,” stresses our crisis comms specialist. “Brands were worried that by not saying something they’d be seen to be disrespectful. Consumers don’t give a crap about an FMCG brand commenting on societal affairs. And no brand that hasn’t put out a statement has had feedback from customers saying they really should have.”

At the downright bizarre end of the spectrum, one ad agency tells The Drum they had a brand (not UK-based, it is important to note) brief them to create a tactical stunt. “We told them to fuck off.“

Aside from talking brands down from ridiculous ideas of how to insert themselves into this seminal moment, most PRs are expecting the next seven days to be quiet. Clients are actively avoiding PR opportunities, they say, declining interviews that are likely to run before the funeral and continuing to put major news releases on hold. “We need to wait until the mood changes,“ they all agree.

By Jennifer Faull

Sourced from The Drum

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How To Build Your Content Marketing Strategy for the Future

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By Connor Cohen

The conversation around content creation and strategizing is trending, with many companies debating whether they need a content marketing strategy or whether it’s a waste of time, money, and resources. However, it is a relatively new concept, and older professionals in the marketing industry are still not convinced that it is just as vital as the other traditional forms of marketing.

If you don’t have a digital content marketing strategy in this day and age, you might be left behind. Whether your company is just starting or is already firmly established in the market, it needs a quality, consistent and relevant digital presence.

Why? Because now more than ever, people are using their phones and other devices as a tool to find information, solutions, and service providers. According to a February 2021 research study, nearly half of the respondents said they spent five to six hours per day on their phone, not including work-related cell phone use. Another 22% of respondents said they spent three to four hours per day on their phones on average.

The marketing transition

In the past, when people needed work done, they relied on referrals and yellow pages. However, today’s service bidders rely on referrals and word of mouth less frequently than recent years. In fact, referrals fell by over 16% in the last five years. It appears that, the holy grail of corporate development for aeons, is losing its clout as the business world unfolds.

Now that we know how critical your digital presence is, let us look at what a digital content strategy is and what it means for businesses.

What is a digital content strategy?

A content strategy is a framework that assists businesses in curating, managing, distributing, and promoting valuable digital content. It’s a way to ensure that the organization’s digital content is consistent with its overall goals and strategy.

People’s perception of an online presence usually starts and ends with a company website, but it is much more than that. Your digital presence includes a company website, social media platforms, eBooks, video interviews, podcasts, case studies and success stories, infographics, blog posts, webinars, emails, presentations, and whitepapers.

The digital content creation mistake

Some companies shy away from creating a digital content strategy because they don’t know where to begin or what it entails. That’s why they make the mistake of only sharing content when it’s available, for example, when they have a new product, service or upgrade available. The truth is, you are not harnessing your company’s true potential.

With competition increasing, you have to ensure that you stay on the radar of your potential buyers. How? By providing information and solutions outside of the services and products you provide. Your goal is to be the first brand that comes to mind when a business or consumer needs a service or product.

Before you sit down to create a strategy, you need to consider the following questions to grasp a rough idea of the direction you want your digital content to take.

  1. Why am I designing this content strategy?

What are you trying to achieve by putting together a digital content strategy? You don’t need to have one hundred reasons before starting – two to five will do. For example, are you trying to increase brand awareness and generate leads or sales?

  1. Who is my target audience?

It would help if you had a clear idea of whom you are curating this content for. Understanding who your target audience is can help with decision making and allows you to narrow down your choices. For example, knowing your target audience or buyer persona will determine the type of content you put out, the tone of your content, and what channels you use to distribute content.

  1. What kind of content are they interested in?

As we mentioned earlier, there are different types of content available that you can use in your digital strategies, like blog posts, podcasts, videos, among others. Find out which type of content is most popular with your target audience and focus on that through market research. Keep in mind that you need more than one type. Even if you have one or two sure choices, try to have a mix.

If, for instance, you are a clothing brand targeting 16–25-year-olds, short videos and pictures are a great way to grab their audience. You can also write short blog posts about quick ways to style their outfits or color block.

  1. Where do they usually search for this kind of content?

You might develop unique and valuable content, but if it’s on platforms your customers do not frequent, it is as good as useless. Carry out surveys and polls and let your customers fill out questionnaires ranking their most addictive and popular apps and platforms so you know where you should publish your content.

  1. How often should I publish this content?

It is essential to strike a balance between being persuasive and not being irritating. You want your potential customers to always have your brand in mind, but you do not want them to find you annoying and too persistent.

For example, if you choose to connect to your clients through email marketing, do not send them emails every single day. Even if your content is valuable, they may unsubscribe from it as it could become a bit of a nuisance. So instead, let your clients consume your information in doses.

  1. Who will be curating this content?

This is a critical decision because it will determine the type of content you put out. Just because you know everything there is to know about starting an eCommerce store, it does not automatically mean you have the skill to write blog posts or eBooks about it. But, if you do, that’s perfect.

If you do not know how to use this knowledge to produce insightful and valuable content, you can outsource it to different content creators like writers, influencers, and videographers. In addition, you can hand over this task if you have an in-house content creation team.

Why is good content important?

  1. It asserts your company as a thought leader

If you googled ‘how to lose ten pounds in a month’ and found a simple program that worked, and then ‘how to grow your glutes’ a few weeks later, and it also worked, chances are, you will start to rely on that source for your fitness needs.

By putting out informative and valuable content, you show your target audience that you know what you are talking about. Good content makes it easy for you to stand out from the hundreds of companies providing the same product or service.

  1. It is an SEO tool

If you are in the digital content creation business, you know a thing or two about SEO. Search engine optimization is a tool that boosts a website or web pages chances of showing up at the top of search engine results.

The more you publish your content and strategically place keywords that your audience usually searches for, the higher the chances that your brand will be noticed, hence creating new leads.

One way to do this is through publishing evergreen content, both written and video. Why? Because it’s timeless and is relevant all-year round.

Evergreen content examples

  • How To…
  • Tips & Tricks
  • Product reviews
  • Guides / Recipes
  • Top ten…
  • FAQ’s
  1. It attracts new leads

Good content is a promotional tactic on its own. If you consistently put out quality content, you attract serious clients interested in your services or solutions. Your content will walk into recruitment meetings before you even go in for a pitch.

  1. It increases brand awareness

Unless you build rockets or are Lewis Hamilton, chances are there are hundreds or thousands of people who can provide the services or products you do. So, if your goal is to be a class apart from the competition, you must publish well-thought-out content. The more you create helpful content and publish it across multiple platforms, the higher your chances are of growing a more prominent and broader following.

  1. High-quality content has the potential to influence purchasing behavior

If you believe that advertisements influence buyers more than article content on the internet, you are mistaken.

In fact, 7 out of 10 buyers prefer to learn about a business or brand through articles rather than advertisements. This fact demonstrates that article-type content delivered via a company blog or other content marketing mediums is the preferred approach for customers to learn about products and services. Why? It allows you to have more of a voice, style or flair, and story than typical ‘professional’ web pages.

Why is good content distribution essential?

Content distribution is a tactical approach to delivering content to your target audience through various channels. It entails publishing, sharing, and promoting high-quality content in strategic locations where people can actively and successfully engage with it. There are three main distribution channels: owned, earned and paid.

  • Owned

These are the networks your business owns and has total control over, like your website, blog, email or newsletter, and social media accounts.

  • Earned

Earned channels encompass third parties who share or promote your content at no cost—for instance, social media mentions, reposts, shares, guest blogs, and product reviews.

  • Paid

Some channels are not freely accessible. You have to pay to distribute your content to a highly targeted and specific audience. For example, pay-per-click ads, sponsored content and paid influencer content or ads on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, and Instagram.

In marketing, content is king and distribution is queen – they are part and parcel of any digital content creation strategy and need to be handled tactically. We’ve seen a rapid influx of content met with shrinking demand in recent years. We can only consume so much information with almost 4.5 million blog posts published every day. As a result of this content shock, your distribution plan should be strategic and well-thought-out if it’s to be effective.

The beauty of a digital content and distribution strategy is flexibility. You can adjust it as you go depending on the metrics and results. If you try one channel and it fails, try another one or a mix until it is just right.

Companies that tweak their distribution strategy until it’s perfect enjoy perks like increased brand awareness, recognition, lead generation, increased sales, and revenue. The starting point is to get people to talk about your brand, trust it and rely on it as an authority figure. Then, you can start leveraging these benefits to boost revenue and sales.

Social media content strategy

Social media is the perfect marketing tool right now. With new and popular apps popping up every other day, brands have an excellent opportunity to capitalize on the frenzy to grow their businesses and brand awareness. For example, Instagram and TikTok have emerged as two of the most addictive content creation and sharing apps, with YouTube retaining its power and influence.

Video content should form at least part of your content distribution strategy because it is one of the best ways to truly show potential customers your core values, purpose, goals and objectives. In addition, videos are an excellent way to tell your story and inspire an emotional and psychological connection with your customers.

Furthermore, you can combine your YouTube content strategy with a case study to accurately depict your business solutions and services.

YouTube is the most profitable video sharing and viewing platform, with 2.3 billion people accessing it each month. If you can invest in a good videographer and content development team, you can leverage your social media platforms to boost the subscription and viewership for your YouTube channel.

Other social media content examples

  • Written posts, blogs and articles
  • Images
  • Videos and video stories
  • Infographics
  • Links to external content
  • Testimonials and reviews
  • Lives

This article cannot entirely cover everything there is to know about developing a digital content marketing strategy, but it is a good start.

If you found this piece helpful and would like to learn more about creating a digital content strategy that works, visit our content marketing hub, where you can find more news and information about content marketing.

By Connor Cohen

Sourced from The Drum

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Web3 101 for brands: here’s your cheat sheet

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By Lauren Griewski

Web3 could revolutionize the relationship between brands and their customers. Here’s an introduction to what marketers need to know.

When the internet first went live, publishers would create content and users would consume it – a period known as web1. A decade or so later, web2 took over with the emergence of web apps and social networks, which made it easy for everyone to create, share and engage with content.

Fast forward to today, and the novelty of web2 has largely worn off. Some of the most impactful web2 companies – such as Meta (Facebook), Google and Apple – have made a killing by leveraging user-generated content (UGC) to engage consumers and create unique profiles for each of them, only to turn around and ultimately sell that data to third parties for advertising purposes.

The worst part? The vast majority of those users had no idea this was taking place – and none of them gave their permission to allow it to happen.

If advertisers want to rebuild trust with consumers, they need to take an open, transparent approach and ask their audiences for their permission to collect data. And this is exactly what the web3 opportunity – a new era of the internet characterized by decentralization, transparency and autonomy – enables.

What are the core principles of web3?

Ask 10 people to define web3, and you might get 10 different answers. But at a high level, web3 is a new iteration of the internet powered by blockchain technology and token-based economics, and it’s also governed by three central tenets:

  • Decentralization. In web2, companies own platforms. In web3, platforms are decentralized. No organization has control over any content; users do
  • Transparency. Thanks to blockchain technology, all users on peer-to-peer networks and decentralized apps (dApps) will share open, unalterable databases that they can verify with their own eyes
  • Autonomy. Ultimately, users will be able to control their own digital destiny and have the final say in whether their data is collected and how it’s used

According to a recent study, 96% of consumers don’t trust advertisers. This is exactly why brands should be incredibly excited about the web3 moment.

With the right approach, digital advertisers can rebuild the trust they’ve lost during the web2 era – connecting with consumers on a meaningful level and in an open and honest way.

Web3 is here – it’s time to prepare for the tectonic shift

Though we’re still early, the web3 moment has already arrived. Unfortunately, advertisers that wait to adapt to this reality will learn the lesson the hard way.

In the not-too-distant future, users will demand a cut of the revenue generated from the data they create. As an internet-native currency that is incredibly divisible, crypto is the easiest mechanism to deliver incentives that users can immediately put to use.

As the world gravitates toward the web3 standard, user data will increasingly be held on the blockchain or in decentralized storage solutions, which will give users more power over their data than ever before. As a result, they will be able to choose exactly which brands they consent to share data with, what data they wish to share, and for how long.

Advertisers that don’t prepare for this tectonic shift and adapt their methods to offer a real value proposition in exchange for interacting with user data will be left behind.

By offering tokenized rewards – whether that’s fungible crypto coins or non-fungible tokens (NFTs), an on-trend, blockchain-based, one-of-a-kind digital asset – advertisers can tap into the web3 ethos while exciting users about what they have to offer. Plus, they get to take advantage of the magnificent properties that come with blockchain technology, such as:

  • Immutability, or the permanent, unalterable nature of a blockchain ledger
  • Validation, or the way in which users can verify transactions are legitimate
  • Disintermediation, or the absence of intermediaries between advertisers and users
  • Profound security, made possible by cryptography and decentralization
  • Ease of transfer, which makes it simple and quick to send and receive tokens

How crypto can help advertisers thrive in web3

One of the easiest ways to reward users when they give their permission to share their personal data or perform specific actions is by issuing crypto rewards. For example, you can give them rewards when they watch videos, view personalized ads and opt to receive content from brands.

By offering an opt-in value exchange – where they’re willing to part with their data or their attention for tokens – advertisers can begin building long-lasting customer relationships and regain trust while ensuring regulatory compliance.

Though cryptocurrency remains in its infancy, adoption continues to increase; today, some 27 million Americans own crypto. With steady growth over the last decade, it’s only a matter of time before crypto usage reaches critical mass. The sooner advertisers embrace the inevitably of crypto, the faster they’ll be in a position to capitalize.

Since the future of digital advertising will be fuelled by permission and digital rewards, brands need to start looking for a purpose-built crypto-rewarded advertising platform that will guide the journey ahead. Strategies that enable aligned incentives – where all participants, including users, advertisers and the platform, benefit from the permissioned sharing of data – will lead to victory in the web3 era.

With the right approach, the lopsided relationship between brands and consumers suddenly evens out, and both parties engaging with each other is more of a partnership than anything else.

Feature Image Credit: Adobe Stock

By Lauren Griewski

Lauren Griewski is chief revenue officer at Permission.io.

Sourced from The Drum

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Fiverr launches Togetherr: ‘It’s fantasy football meets advertising’

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By Audrey Kemp

Fiver’s new launch, Togetherr, leverages AI to build optimized “dream teams” of creative talent for brands on individual projects.

For brands and agencies, putting together a dream team of talent has never been easier—at least, that’s the idea behind Togetherr.

Popular freelancer platform Fiverr teamed up with Tel Aviv-based advertising veteran Amir Guy to launch Togetherr. The platform’s algorithm, called the Creative Genome, builds virtual teams of highly skilled, independent talent and connects them with brands and agencies on an individual project basis.

Togetherr’s creators have compared its interface to fantasy football. “Togetherr allows brands to build creative teams that are tailored specifically to their needs… They are getting access to world class talent for any project they can imagine,” Guy told The Drum. “Togetherr gives brands what they need, faster, and with exceptional quality.”

The platform also provides freedom and flexibility to creatives by allowing them to choose the types of projects they want to partake in.

In addition to 30 micro-independent agencies, Togetherr’s growing portfolio counts over 1,100 vetted, award-winning creatives and ad industry leaders, who have worked on campaigns for Nike, Coca Cola, Apple and Netflix. The site launches today at Cannes.

Guy has spent over 25 years at creative agencies. Starting out at Young & Rubicam, he eventually climbed the ranks to take the helm of agency Grey, Israel, where he led regional accounts for P&G,Volkswagen and other brands.

It was here, Guy said, where the idea for Togetherr was born. After pitching the idea to Fiverr’s founders, they were happy to make it a reality.

How Togetherr works

When a client uses Togetherr, they’re immediately asked what they need, be it brand strategy and identity, creative concepting or something else. After making that choice, they can specify the channels they’re interested in, such as video, social or experiential.

Finally, the client inputs their industry, budget and brands that inspire them. That data helps Togetherr’s Creative Genome to quickly match the client to three teams of creatives best suited for their project.

Each team at least one creative lead and freelancers who have worked together previously, which ensures compatibility and punctuality among members.

a screen grab of togetherr's interface

A “dream team” built via Togetherr’s algorithm / Image credits: Fiverr + Togetherr

Togetherr’s future milestones

Guy has big dreams himself for this dream team model. Togetherr could also replace the advertising industry’s agency-of-record (AOR) model, which has gone stale over the past 25 years, he says.

“[AOR’s] hefty retainers, bloated head-count and overheads, combined with complex processes, is not meeting today’s client needs,” he saidsays. “Clients need a lot more for less, and faster. Trying to meet these needs without changing our industry’s complex system resulted in broken spirits and a lack of excitement.”

Although the site is officially live, Fiverr plans to continue to build out Togetherr’s platform and improve its AI, as well as add new talent that specializes in different areas, such as media buying and production.

“It’s also important to us to have talent from all over the world We want every team to be as diverse as possible.”

Feature Image Credit: Amir Guy, General Manager, Togetherr / Fiverr + Togetherr

By Audrey Kemp

Sourced from The Drum

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Forget everything you know about influencer marketing and start from scratch

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By Crystal Duncan

Influencer marketing has evolved and so must your approach. Here’s what you need to do to make this powerful approach work as part of your full-funnel marketing strategy.

Like most nascent marketing channels, influencer marketing began as something of a Wild West. Metrics were thorny, processes were clouded, and many brands got burned working with influencer platforms or individual creators who produced scant measurable results.

The upshot is that, even now that influencer marketing has matured into a more structured discipline, some brands remain skeptical of the entire medium.

We are at the point where brands who have struggled to produce and prove value from working with influencers in the past, must consider starting from scratch. That doesn’t don’t mean scrapping your Influencer program, but effectively taking a beat to re-evaluate your approach and reset it.

Build an influencer marketing strategy from the ground up with the same scrutiny you would apply to any other strategy. That means a rigorous brand analysis and quantitative vetting process should drive discovery of potential influencers. While the process of engaging and partnering with or deploying an influencer should be as automated as possible. And, last, measurement should focus on influencers’ ability to drive sales. Influencers who can move the bottom line are the ones brands should redeploy to optimize over time.

Gone are the days when influencer marketing was purely a brand awareness play. In the right hands, influencer is now a full-funnel, full-service discipline, meaning it covers awareness and bottom-of-funnel activations, discovery upfront, and measurement on the back end. Here are three cores to building an influencer marketing strategy from scratch and turning it into a proven revenue generator.

Understand who you are and what you need to accomplish

Brands need to set clear specifications to select the right creators. Brands should ask themselves: What are your values? Which audiences are you trying to reach? What backgrounds would you like your creators to represent? What messages do you need to send to your audience?

Next comes the quantitative decision-making process that has historically eluded the discipline. What are your key performance indicators? What calls to action will you bake into your influencer campaigns? How will you measure success? Beyond numbers of followers (the conventional metric), what engagement rates do you expect influencers to command, and how do those rates line up with sales goals?

Once brands have figured this out, they can select influencers who meet their criteria. Brands should also implement a repeatable process for creating content briefs to set influencers up for success. These, too, can be optimized over time, allowing advertisers to eliminate ambiguities. Now is when cutting-edge influencer practices come in, transforming the discipline into a full-funnel strategy.

Maximize distribution, measure influencer success and optimize

The fatal flaw in most content marketing strategies is that brands focus all their attention on creating great content, and after they have created it, they simply slap it into a blog or repost it to a couple of social channels. The same failure has historically applied to influencer marketing.

But sophisticated practitioners can turn distribution into a source of value. For example, a video created for Instagram might be amplified by paid social, an OTT campaign, digital out-of-home billboards, or programmatic display.

After brands have transformed what could have been a simple influencer Instagram video into an omnichannel campaign, they can leverage cross-channel data to quantify sales driven collaboration. This is a far cry from the old influencer measurement framework in which advertisers would report on the number of eyeballs a campaign reached or how many comments it spurred.

Once brands understand how much revenue individual influencers are driving, they can optimize campaigns, staffing a bench of key collaborators. Over time, by following this model, they can build an “army” of Influencers who deeply understand the brand and can convert their audience, ultimately making things more efficient and seamless. This process of distribution, measurement, and optimization should ultimately equip brands with a well-oiled machine of creators proven to be worth the investment – and then some.

Raise the bar for influencer marketing

It is understandable that many advertisers are wary of influencer marketing. But forward-thinking brands should not let past failures dictate future strategy for a channel that has evolved.

Influencer marketing should be part of a full-funnel strategy. It builds awareness and trust through powerful, authentic content that resonates with consumers on an emotional level. It also drives sales and lends itself to granular measurement, which allows for optimization so that influencer becomes not only more lucrative but also more efficient over time.

The only thing standing between many brands and a revenue-generating Influencer Marketing strategy is outdated assumptions about the channel. By challenging past wisdom and applying the same structure that governs other performance marketing channels to influencers, brands can unlock fresh revenue-generating opportunities.

By Crystal Duncan

Crystal Duncan is senior vice president, head of partnership marketing, Tinuiti

Sourced from The Drum

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How brands can stand out in the customer experience economy

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By Morgan Mitchell

Online customer experience is changing like never before. So, brands need to decide: adapt or die, writes BOSCO™’s Morgan Mitchell.

The new customer experience economy is set to be the making or the breaking of not just newer brands but established ones too. Since 2020, the customer experience (CX) online has evolved dramatically. The need for a winning online CX is essential for success and is proving to be one of the most important and fundamental elements of marketing in today’s digital landscape.

With 81% of retailers increasing their investment in CX over the past two years, what does that mean for brands, consumers and the long-term relationship between the two?

The BOSCO™ index measures the online footprint of brands and benchmarks how effective they are with their paid and organic media channels. Using third-party data, BOSCO™ generates a score between 0-1,000 to determine how successful brands are in the digital space.

What is online CX and what does it include?

Online CX refers to the digital customer experience of your brand. It includes every stage of the consumer buying journey, including pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase.

Online CX is a huge part of brand perception as it encompasses every interaction a customer has with you digitally. That could be from first finding your Instagram page to using your online chat function to troubleshoot an order problem. While that may sound overwhelming, online CX is really just about providing a persona to your brand and carrying this through every customer-facing element of the business. And as we’re sure you know, consistency is key.

Why is online CX changing?

Unsurprisingly by now, the online and digital space is changing. Major steps have been brought forward by the Covid-19 pandemic as the world moved solely online as a result of international lockdowns. The need for online customer support skyrocketed and brands that previously didn’t have a digital-first approach scrambled to catch up.

Plus, it’s getting even more difficult for brands to retain consumers. 94% of sales and marketing professionals say that their business is effective at nurturing newer relationships during the ‘interaction’ and ‘awareness’ stage of the buyer journey. But that all changes at the advocacy stage, where professionals feel they are only 77% effective. What that tells us is that it’s harder to sustain long-term consumer relationships. This is where online CX comes into play.

So, how are brands adapting and strategizing to fit this new customer experience economy? What can we learn from these insights and consumer behaviour patterns?

Instant messaging & online chat functions

As the pandemic hit in 2020, consumers moved their lives entirely online in a way that hadn’t been seen before. We couldn’t pop into a shop to see a product, make a return, or just speak to an employee. Phone lines became jammed, so consumers turned instead to online messaging.

Since then, brands and retailers alike have amped-up their online messaging capabilities. Whether that be a live chat function on their site or through their social media, messaging became the go-to way to interact with brands online. In fact, between 2019 and 2020, social messaging rose in popularity by 110% – that’s huge.

Implement an omnichannel CX approach

Businesses fail to form meaningful, positive relationships with consumers when processes become tricky to navigate. For example, support tickets are passed from department to department without proper follow-up.

Let’s put that into context. A consumer messages you on social media with a complaint. The social team pass this on to customer service where the consumer has to explain the issue again. This then gets passed on to a complaints department and once again, the consumer must explain the problem. This could go on and on, meanwhile, the consumer is becoming more and more annoyed at the lack of communication within your business.

Instead, an integrated omnichannel CX system is seamless. Agents can easily transfer customer messages between apps and departments without the need to start from the beginning every time. This creates an easy, problem-free interaction that solves problems quickly, efficiently and, most importantly, leaves the consumer with a positive experience.

It’s not just about problem-solving either. Great online CX is more about being proactive rather than reactive. A great example of omnichannel CX is Zara’s (BOSCO™ score: 731) use of ‘Store Mode’ in its app. This allows users to only see products available in their local Zara store which they can then buy online and pick up in that store on the same day. This real-time shopping perfectly blends both online and offline channels using GPS and QR technology to its advantage.

Be open and responsive to feedback

When it comes to consumer feedback, there tends to be only two options: incredibly positive or incredibly negative. No one bothers to leave feedback or a review for an average experience, but they have plenty to say when everything has either gone right or wrong.

Being open to and receiving feedback is a huge part of uncovering valuable insights into your consumer base. While you may think your online CX is bulletproof, your consumers are the people who can really put that to the test. What they have to say is a massive part of the digital evolution of your brand. Plus, that open-ended communication helps you to build that relationship further and patch up damaged ones. Often, your next clever CX move will be the result of real-time feedback directly from the consumers themselves.

Uber (BOSCO™ score: 738) is a leading example of using customer insights to improve its online CX. The business makes around 22,000 tweaks to its app every month to customize it in every city it operates in. It does this using incident and reliability reports to tailor how the app operates based on where its user is. This eliminates data problems early and lets users know it is listening and adapting.

The key to digital transformation

Standing out in the digital space isn’t easy, and with the rapidly changing online CX expectations of consumers, brands need to fast decide their strategy.

The first step is to stay up to date with changes and developments as they happen. Take note of other brands that are adapting their online CX well and look at how you can implement something similar. With 58% of consumers expecting more from services than they did pre-pandemic, the need for integrated, omnichannel CX with room for personalization is key to digital transformation.

BOSCO™ is an AI learning platform that integrates your cross-channel digital marketing data into one personalized dashboard. The data allows marketers to make better digital marketing spend decisions with the help of data-driven insights, forecasting and mapping tools. Unlock your BOSCO™ score, today.

By Morgan Mitchell

Sourced from The Drum

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Businesses get the message – email is crucial to successful marketing

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By Michael Nutley

Many businesses turned to email to connect with their customers when pandemic measures sent so many people online. Now with increased privacy concerns for marketers and a need for joined up omnichannel marketing, email is about to be catapulted back into the limelight, finds a new report.

Email marketing in 2022 is more important, more integrated and more mature than ever, but email marketing teams still need to be faster, more efficient and better at personalization. Meanwhile the biggest concern marketers face – privacy – is also email’s biggest opportunity.

That is the snapshot of the discipline provided by a new report, Email In 2022 – The Trends, Behaviors & Benchmarks Driving Email Forward, published by email sending and deliverability platform SparkPost.

The report puts email’s growing role in the context of the recovery in business activity. It found almost a third (63%) of marketing leaders globally saying their budgets reflect pre-Covid levels. However, the pandemic has left its mark. Priorities are shifting, says the report, in that advertising and wide-net marketing efforts are too much of a gamble for organizations. Instead, businesses are investing in branding, CRM and email marketing. Content remains as high a priority as it was last year.

Email shines during lockdowns

Businesses certainly turned to email when pandemic measures sent so many people online.

“Email became a critical tool for organizations of all kinds to contact various stakeholder audiences with the combination of flexibility, speed, precision, and low cost not available through other modes of communication,” says George Schlossnagle, email evangelist and founder of SparkPost.

This crucial role continued into 2021. Three-quarters of marketing leaders (76%) say their email marketing program made a positive impact on the business in 2021, compared to 58% in 2020. And email’s increased importance is reflected in a greater maturity in the way it’s measured. Almost three-quarters (70%) of leaders said they changed the way they measure email marketing last year, compared to half (51%) who said the same thing in 2020.

Just as importantly, the pandemic also accelerated the integration of email with other marketing channels. Almost everyone who took part in the 2021 survey (95%) said their email marketing was aligned with other marketing disciplines, compared to half the respondents in 2020.

Intriguingly, this acceleration has happened despite the massive switch to remote working at the same time. Despite the fact that only 10% of the world’s companies are fully back in the office, almost everyone surveyed said collaboration is the same or better (98%) and that communication is the same or better (96%) than they were before remote working became a necessity.

Greater integration also ties in with the growing importance of an omnichannel approach to marketing. This means talking to customers on the channels they prefer and breaking down the silos between channels in order to deliver a coherent, consistent customer experience across every touchpoint. This is ‘absolutely the future of marketing’, the report says, particularly with the impending demise of the third-party cookie and the rise of first-party data.

The future is private

Indeed, privacy and data are the biggest concerns for email marketers in 2022.

“What we’re seeing now is only the beginnings of a paradigm shift that will continue to drive marketers to rethink data collection and usage practices,” adds Schlossnagle. “Changes in privacy regulations and a shift in consumer perception of personal data are big factors in marketing leaders’ commitment to investing in earned and owned marketing channels.”

The report found that the biggest concerns for respondents were the fear of existing digital marketing assets being unusable in the future; the threat of having to overhaul existing systems; and the need to re-do things from scratch.

More specifically, email marketers are most worried about Apple’s iOS 15 changes (a medium to high concern for 81% of respondents), Google’s third-party cookie tracking (77%), and government regulations and the deprecation of app tracking data (both 72%).

Email returns to centre-stage

Despite these concerns, the report predicts another impact of these changes will be to thrust email marketing even further back into the limelight. Companies leaning more heavily on first-party data and on the channels that are closest to their known customers – like email – creates an opportunity to build better profiles. In turn, these will drive longer term loyalty and engagement, leveraging audience behaviour on the company’s own website or app.

Email has the ability to be the glue between consumers and brands.

“The demise of third-party cookies puts a tailwind behind channels that leverage first-party data – email being the most pervasive,” says Schlossnagle. “We should all be gearing up for more investment in email and SMS because owned data is about to be more valuable than ever.”

Budget pressures demand greater efficiency

All this talk of a bright future for email marketing comes with a downside. The resources to support all this extra work haven’t necessarily arrived just yet. Two-thirds (69%) of leaders say their teams are busier than ever, but only 5% of respondents report having higher budgets in 2021 compared to 2020.

The result is even greater pressure for marketers to be more efficient – email marketers included. It’s one reason for the push for closer alignment of channel teams. Another effect is the increase in the proportion of companies bringing email marketing in-house. In 2020, just over half (55%) of leaders said they relied on agencies for their email marketing. Last year that fell to under a third (29%).

In addition, one of the key trends identified in the report is the increasing use of email design systems. These are pre-created and optimized selections of HTML templates. As the report explains, all the coding is done before marketers start creating an email – which means you can crank out high quality emails quickly. But it also notes that ‘there are clear opportunities for faster, more intuitive martech solutions, streamlined email marketing processes, and improved collaboration between stakeholders within the marketing team.’

One thing is clear. Email has long been seen as boring and unfashionable, but the current convergence of such trends as more time being spent online, increased privacy concerns and the need for joined up omnichannel marketing are just about to catapult it back into the limelight.

To explore this and more findings from SparkPost’s Email In 2022 – The Trends, Behaviors & Benchmarks Driving Email Forward report, click here.

By Michael Nutley

Sourced from The Drum

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The Importance of Form and Content

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By Tess Wicksteed

When I first started in brand strategy, I was introduced to the ‘brand key’. One of many generic strategy models that ensures that all the right bits and pieces are in one place. I can remember thinking, “surely the key to a brand’s strategy should look and be different for each brand it unlocks, right?” I was such a greenhorn, I kept quiet, thinking that there was probably a good reason for it that I was too ignorant to understand. Some 25 years on and I’m not such a greenhorn and the same question still bothers me – strategy positions a brand, describing its relation to its competitors and to its consumers. It dictates the form of all that follows, so why is it formless itself?

After my early training in a pure brand strategy agency, I quickly moved into heading up the brand strategy in a design agency and have stayed in this realm ever since. It strikes me as the best place to create properly rigorous brand strategy because your work is always in conversation with reality – is this theory actionable? Can we create something from it or is it just clever-sounding hot air? Over time, another thing happened from being in a creative environment where things became real. I came to believe that, in order for it to inspire, a great activation strategy needs to be something more solid than a theory. It needs to practice what it preaches and establish a form to match its content.

I’ll give you two examples of what I mean. Allpress is an incredible quality coffee company from New Zealand. It has a B2B component selling bulk coffee to independent coffee shops and gorgeous branded retail hubs in NZ, Japan, and London. We repositioned the company for its next stage of growth – kicking off with global semiotics of coffee and a series of stakeholder interviews. The resulting positioning captured the soul of the company, the values of its founders, and added a healthy dose of aspiration for the future – when we were finished, it was a thorough and inspirational blueprint to unify all brand activity. Signed off by the management, the next step was to share it – to take that beautiful keynote/ppt and present the hell out of it. But here we were talking about independent thinkers in this utterly generic form – it just didn’t feel right. So we made a comic. The first strategic comic ever. The brand history, brand strategy, behavioural principles were all covered, and form and content were in harmony. The way we said it was half of the message.

The same was true of a very different brand – Farmacy, Camilla Fayed’s biodynamic gourmet restaurant. As a lifestyle brand, a flat document wasn’t going to cut it so we made a beautiful, moving, and evocative film that spoke the strategy through the head of its biodynamic garden – the source of its difference and its beliefs.

If we look to art and culture it has always been acknowledged that form and content must match, so why has strategy been allowed to become a neutral ‘theory’ that is then given form by a creative vision? A strong strategy will always have a form that can be brought to life creatively. Strategy needs to get off the fence, put a stake in the ground, and stand for something.

Feature Image Credit: jens schwan

By Tess Wicksteed

Sourced from Brandingmag

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