Content Marketing

Branded content design

Branded content that goes beyond marketing to direct sale

Having successfully created over 100 national and internationally used brand names for upstarts to F100 corporations over the last decade, it’s become an ongoing specialty. Our success has, in part, come from using two well-developed naming systems—one from senior marketer training and semiotics, the other from brand development—and using the upfront process of discovery, dual-positioning mapping, and then engineering words starting with roots and neologisms. We also start by naming into 6 separate stylistic groups, to provide types of names that resonate with different decision makers based on their own biases. This leads to typically only one naming round (90%) versus multiple rounds of iteration and guesswork as is the norm.

Client:
Multiple

Introduction

We’ve created and distributed every type of “content” as writers, designers, and marketers, but also at professional levels in a time where “content marketing” was long form books & articles (Wired), brochures (Hewlett-Packard), brand videos (multiple, including Nike). For clients, we do larger pieces, using the following brand-dev sub-process so that they can then use those central pieces as guides for their longer term content marketing.

But we also see CM as a core brand dissemination vehicle for upstarts and also like to contribute ideas or findings in any market, which is the secondary motivation around creating unique content, and why we’ve seen several pieces turn into unexpected income streams, sellable due to unique content and professional design; as we refer to it “Marketing that pays for itself, and then some”. As an example, we spent a year developing a Brand Development course for eCommerce CEOs, for the Canadian government in conjunction with an econ partnership out of Montreal. It in itself added new information that was delivered before, but within it, we created in every format, from infographics to spoken scripts for professors to worksheet design, even how-to-videos. We’ve also created eBrochures to a full series of Graphic Novels.

Content Marketing - Introduction

P1: Strategy

As we only do “larger” pieces, we do so through a brand development lens, with a standardized process. Assuming we haven’t done any brand work for the client, this starts with Discovery work.

Customers/Targets (and needs and wants, thus unique informational or entertainment needs to match), competitors (and review of their content marketing), and then either a quick brand identity canvas to coordinate the visual guidelines, and Tone of Voice development for the verbal/writing components.

P2: Plan into create

Our standard task list:

Persona based needs/wants
Trending development in areas (metrics/research)
Goal of piece: business
Goal of piece: target (learn XYZ, solve for X)
Idea outline
Content outline
Key brand phrases
Write and edit content
Graphics
Design layout
Design and vary piece for use
Recommendation marketing tactics
(Content marketing calendar)

Content Marketing - Plan into create

Breadth

We’re trained in creative writing (long form), copy-writing (brand & ad/sales copy), and technical writing, and have designed and produced print (magazine, brochures, book layouts and covers), and web so are ready-made content marketing agency, except we’re not. We focus exclusively on branded content, and larger pieces that clients can re-purpose for ongoing content marketing pieces as a master template.

Depth

The unique components are both brand design frameworks applied to content, but also finding unique topics and POVs to convey through studying the latest developments and related news to create content for clients that doesn’t just supply clients’ customers with information, but delight them in sharing new ideas and solutions they can’t get anywhere else, and in the process often saleable content products for them, too.