It is impossible to predict the changes that content marketing will undergo, like any other area of human experience. After the COVID-19 pandemic and the planet to locked down. The alterations in consumer behavior and human psychology will inevitably modify the way in which cost customers purchase goods and view brands. If you believe, as I do, that inbound marketing will remain an excellent long-term strategy in an era of increasing cord cutting and relative decline of paid digital advertising, here are some recent and it's accessible examples of content marketing initiatives that we can all learn from. They are not only entertaining, they also bring specific, measurable results. Let's start with Spotify and Wrapped. I'm sure many of you will remember Spotify's Wrapped project, a user data-driven social media campaign that leverages on it seamless collection of data from listeners. The campaign takes listeners data and produces a series of engaging slides with very surprising information about music lovers behavior and their user experience every day. The slides are simple, shareable, and attractive and continue to be one of the apps favorite traditions. A yearly tradition in which the Swedish company compiles you're listening data from January 1st to October 31st and builds a list with your profiles characteristics, new artists, genres, favorite songs, podcasts, artists, etc. A neural X-ray of your relationship to music during the past year, which can be fragmented and reduced to small stories in bits that you can easily share networks. Do users like it? According to data from the company, in 2020, Spotify Wrapped was responsible for increasing Spotify's mobile app downloads by 21 percent in the first week of December when the lists were offered to each individual. This is a fantastic example of applying data analysis to engagement and conversion. Let's talk now about Neutrogena and it's Creator Studio. In 2021, Neutrogena, Johnson & Johnson company presented a brand new user-generated video content Studio that focuses on the skin health. Informative and educational pieces to improve our knowledge about the skin through storytelling and entertainment, as they put it themselves. They also released their first documentary called In The Sun to enrich conversations about skin health and Sun safety for all. Thirty eight minutes in which we learn through powerful personal stories. Very important information about preventing Melanoma, one of the most common cancers in the world. With this project, filmmakers would be able to submit informative or educational content about the skin and its wellness to Neutrogena, who will publish it. This is a very smart move from the company which relies on the customers in a similar fashion to what we talked about when we discussed the fabulous example of North Face and it's question Madness campaign, remember? Although advised by a board of editors, the company allows its own audience to expand the brand awareness through its own content, stressing, authenticity, transparency, and loyalty. Leveraging talent from followers and customers throughout the whole planet. It is still early to evaluate its success, but its content will eventually become a valuable, inaccessible library for all those who are interested in the protection of our skin, wouldn't you think? Let's finish with GoPro. GoPro was founded in 2002 by Nick Woodman, surfer, skier, and motorsports enthusiast. What started with a 35-millimeter camera and a wrist strap made from old wetsuits and plastic scraps, has grown today into an international company. It has sold over 26 million cameras in more than a 100 countries. Their YouTube channel is filled with compilations of extreme sports, which course attract the attention of users. To such an extent that the company celebrated their first two billion views on their channel with a classic extreme video. GoPro is quite logically a great example of user-generated content, which the company afterwards edits to produce quite attractive compilations. Actually in relative terms, they don't create too much content themselves because they don't need to. As these cameras are normally employed in risky situations or breathtaking environments, the content is naturally appealing and users are proud to share with the world their adventures and their accomplishments. This company is yet another great example of allowing users to advertise their products through user-generated content, which don't remember, is set to influence at least two of every three consumers when they purchase goods. Their next step in 2019 was their million-dollar challenge. A project where people submit their adventure videos for the chance of winning money. GoPro use the winner's videos to create a marketing campaign which was hugely successful, both in terms of sharing in Facebook or TikTok, and also in the creation of free original marketing and storytelling content for them. Forty two thousand clips were presented and 45 were finally chosen. Each of the selected contributors received 22,000 dollars and the company earned media spaces all across Europe and the United States. It is very, very difficult to beat the combination of storytelling and allowing your customers to become brand ambassadors. To bring it all together. What we can learn from these three examples is, first, that driving your content by data is key as data allows to know your audience. Second, create content that provides value to your users. I cannot stress anymore the amount of saturation of content with which we live in today's world. Think about what your client base needs from your content before incorporating your brand message. Third, and very important, use your audience as a resource. We live in a time where authenticity is crucial for the success of content and no one is more authentic than the people who genuinely believe in your brand.
