Hello again today we're lucky enough to be in the company of Hong Kong Montanary, a man who was already creating branded content before the term was coined for Microsoft and several MSN channels and who is today a freelance consultant and lecturer at IE, among other Spanish and international academic institutions. Welcome to Hong Kong, thank you very much for being here. >> Thanks for inviting me sufficient. >> The argument we've been defending up to now in the first module of this course, is that due to the war for attention among saturated audiences and the explosion of content and the huge shift in business models, making traditional advertising somewhat obsolete. A good alternative is building consistent brand narratives through storytelling and also applying journalistic skills. That's what, well, that's been the the central nucleus of of our arguments. First of all, do you agree with this train of thought? >> Yeah, absolutely. I think that even more important than that is that with content, you are not just able to catch the attention of the users, but you are able also to create a longer relationship with them to engage them. And I think that this is the main difference that you have with content and other communication tools. >> It's remarkable because the word engagement know as well as empowerment is all over the place and and on the other hand, it's essential to build them, but everybody is trying to build those relationships, long lasting relationships. >> Absolutely. >> So which would be the best tools to achieve that purpose? >> Well, I think that to start, I'm not sure if everyone who is trying to get that, I think that one of the trends that you see in the market is that some people is going through the way after the click bait and that is not exactly wanting to have a longer relationship with your audience. >> No, not at all. >> Your question was about the best tools to achieve that, I think that the best tools is to have a consistent content for your audience. So you have to think about your audience to start to have it built with good, I mean with good sources, with a good style, with the values that you are going after as a company and and finally to have patience. I mean, this thing of the content is not creating anything, any big explosion from today to tomorrow, you have to be patient and you have to start building something. >> And build solid and editorial teams with at least a midterm perspective, no. >> That's it, that's it. >> Even. >> Thinking about content, you have to think about the conversion funnel and you have to think about attracting the people, but you have to think the most important thing is because you can extract the people with advertisement. The most important thing is how are you going to create that, that journey with your audience? How are you going to retain it and are you going to convert it and how are you going to get loyalty users in the future. >> Yes, it's the fight for attention and in the long run it's a fight for getting paid. But first you have to get noticed, which is increasingly difficult. >> And you have to build a brand and that means that one of the things that content has is we rely on good content, good content is trustworthy. This is something that the advertisement has lost completely. So yeah, I think that this labor is pretty serious as, it happens the same as with any human person. If you're right, you rely on me and I mean, I betrayed you somehow. I mean, for you, it's going to be really hard to regain. I mean, to believe once again in me and it happens the same with the content and with the brand of content and the communication strategies. Once I don't believe in you, it's going to be real hard for you to regain that. >> Yes, I completely agree and it's quite interesting because it also happens in the journalism industry know intimately related. It's not surprisingly, we find every day more branded content in their home pages. Why do you think the media industry continues to rely on the click bait model when it seems so clear for many of us that it's the wrong path? >> Because they have investors and they have to present them good figures. The best story is usually someone with a lot of money, but who not necessarily, nose, but the figures are meaning. So if you can say to anyone, we are getting like 15 million users, daily users, I don't think that this is really important. I mean today, but as an investor, I mean when you have to go to investors and improve them, that they are putting the money in the right place, it's easier that way than trying to explain them that you're building a long term relationship that it's going to be three years. >> And that we need a stable newsroom to create a strong narrative. >> That's it, that's it. I think that it's just about the numbers that you have to present to others. >> So it's basically about a short term planning. >> Absolutely, absolutely. >> Versus a long time. >> Absolutely, I will ask the audience, the people who see in this how many click baits media are they visiting every day? Because the answer will be mostly will be none. I mean, you get cut by a very good title or a very astonishing title. But the thing is that you don't get, you don't convert into a real user of that big of that platform. >> Because the content does not respond to the astonishing headline in many cases. >> No in any case, yeah it will be funny. It will be something funny for you to read this morning, but it doesn't give you anything. I mean, it doesn't give you any value. It doesn't give you any more emotional value. Not even and of course it doesn't give you good information. So. >> But yeah, the problem for the industry is that somehow we've all established that the only criteria to measure success is the number of clicks. >> I think that the industry it's. >> Devilish >> But I think that currently the industry is far beyond that. >> The journalistic industry. >> Okay. >> We're talking about the journalistic industry. >> Maybe the journalistic industry is going after that. Yeah, especially thinking in some media because I think there are some others that still are making or trying to make a good journalism. >> But now it seems it's only possible to make good journalism if you have a very strong financial structure. >> Absolutely. >> Which means that there is a process of concentration. If you want good stories and newsworthy stuff, you can visit in any country two or three places because all this flock of new digital media doesn't have the financially independent to be editorially independent. >> Yeah, the other thing that we all know as journalists is how long does it take to make a good content? A truly good content, a truly good article. How much do you have to investigate or research, how many hours do you have to wait until someone phones you back, calls you back. >> How many lunches like that? How many lunches you have to pay? >> That's it, so yeah, you need a pretty stable financial situation to make good content. And yeah, I think that the journalistic industry is going between those different oceans. But on the marketing industry, anyone knows that the number of visitors is just what they call today vanity metrics, no. >> Absolutely. >> I mean good to fancy, but maybe it doesn't mean anything. >> Swept by the rain tomorrow. >> That's it. >> Well, thank you very much, most interesting. [MUSIC]
