Content.
Content doesn’t need to be complicated. It’s how you bring a brands value proposition to life in ways that are unexpected, creative, multidisciplinary, and culturally relevant.
Culturally Relevant
Whether it’s a moment for the brand, or a moment in time, content should always be created to be an addition to culture, and not a reflection of it.
A brand should always ask, how can we create work that adds to the cultural conversation but delivers the value proposition of our brand?
Brand: Airbnb
Cultural Moment: Mother’s Day 2017
Original Posting Date: May 2017
Brand: Airbnb
Cultural Moment: Lunar New Year 2016
Original Posting Date: February 2016
locally created, globally loved
Just because you work for a (primarily) english speaking brand
Doesn’t mean you always need to speak english first
Especially when your community speaks english second
Data and Insights Driven
Content should always be created in partnership with insights and data, without it you’re just creating for the sake of creating. Data stories share commonalities and trends, and insights stories elevate moments happening around and throughout a brand to showcase the value proposition of the product.
Brand: Airbnb
Data: Showcase amount of stays happening and where for New Years Eve.
Original Posting Date: December 24, 2015
Brand: Airbnb
Insight: Turning reviews from a guest of a host into a content series.
Original Posting Date: August 25, 2017
Social First
Always.
You know it when you see it. An image or a post that was made specifically for social, and specifically for sharing with your friends.
Create.
That’s the best type of content. The ones you know were created just for Instagram, or Twitter, or just anything but TV. Because that shows the brand cared where this image or video would go, they knew it would fit the aesthetic, and that is why you follow them.
Social First.
Because honestly, brands that get it understand that each channel acts as a homepage. A beginning of the consumer journey for someone, and each channel is a billboard to tell you something about the brand.
So why in the world would you use all your billboards to show the same image 10x over?
Community Powered
Fiction, while a beloved genre for generations, has no place in marketing today.
People are communal beings. They desire community. So they don’t want a brand to show them what they’re not, they want to be shown stories of who they love. They want to see their friends, neighbors, and coworkers.
Because you relate more when you look at someone and think, ‘hey, they’re not so different from me’.
Brand: Hill City
Editorial Content Series: Hill City Stories - Ime Archibong
Original Posting Date: October 2018
Brand: Airbnb
Editorial Content Series: Brought To You By
Original Posting Date: March 2017
Brand: Hill City
Editorial Content Series: Hill City Stories - Jeff Johnson
Original Posting Date: October 2018
Brand: Airbnb
Editorial Content Series: Brought To You By
Original Posting Date: February 2017
HELPING B2B BE LESS B2B-Y
Just because you’re speaking to another business about a business, doesn’t mean you need to remove emotions, aesthetic, or humanity.
Brand: Airbnb
Business Partner: American Express
Original Posting Date: November 2015
Bridging Digital to Physical
What Starts On Social.
Great. You perfectly tailored the copy to hit 240 characters, square adjusted, and posted at the exact right time for engagement. Just because you did that doesn’t mean the content journey ends there.
Doesn’t Need To Stay There.
Great content can live anywhere, even in experimenting with ‘traditional’ methods like print. Because when done right, the content lives a brand new life in a new medium, telling a much different part of the experience bringing the story to life.
Brand: Hill City
Editorial Content Series: The Hill City Magazine (Print)
Original Mailing Date: October 2018
The Best content is an experience worth sharing
Just because it happens in the physical world, doesn’t mean it stays there.
Brand: Hill City
Editorial Content Series: Hill City Office Visits - Twitter
Original Posting Date: November 2018
…And SOMETIMES YOU get the chance to Build For The Biggest Stage
Sometimes, just sometimes, you get it right.
Like really right.
So right that a video originally created for social, get’s turned into a Super Bowl Spot.
Brand: Airbnb
Cultural Moment: Presidential Election 2016
Original Posting Date: November 8, 2016
Brand: Airbnb
Original Posting Date: November 8, 2016 (see above)
Second Posting Date: SuperBowl Sunday, February 4, 2017
