Moment Studio 2017 Content Marketing Outlook

2017 CONTENT MARKETING OUTLOOKThe Moment Studio Guide to Making Content That Matters

2017 CONTENT MARKETING OUTLOOK / MOMENT STUDIO


FOREWORD / DELIVERING ON THE PROMISE OF DISTRIBUTED CONTENT

1. FUNDAMENTALS OF GREAT CONTENT

2. HUNTER, GATHERER, SCROLLER, LIKER

3. THE MOMENT STUDIO CONTENT MARKETING FRAMEWORK

4. MODERN DISTRIBUTION: MOVING TOWARDS PRECISION MARKETING

5. EDITORIAL PLANNING: FROM SUZIE TO CYRANO

6. THE NEW CREATIVE/PRODUCTION PARADIGM

7. IS IT A LIVE LIFE?

8. TURNING HEADS: THE RISE & FUTURE OF VERTICAL VIDEO

9. FOOD IN FEEDS

10. BESTEST PRACTICE

TL;DR / A CHEATSHEET FOR EVERYTHING ELSE

CONTRIBUTORS

CONTENTS

Copyright ©2017 Moment Studio. All rights reserved. Any third-party content contained herein are the property and responsibility of their respective owners.


DELIVERING ON THE PROMISE OF DISTRIBUTED CONTENT

FOREWORD


$67 billion dollars. That was PQ Media’s projected 2016 U.S. branded content spend. That’s a lot of video, posts and GIFs. And a handful of Facebook Live videos. In fact, if you were a marketer without a content strategy in 2016, you weren’t preaching from the right buzzword bible.

Meanwhile, social media as we knew it—the primary enabler of the content trend itself—was largely replaced by platforms unable to monetize their operations in innovative and effective ways. And so we see our favorite platforms and expe-riences resurrecting interruptive advertising mechanics to monetize the sharing of selfies for short-term gain. It seems the maturation of social media has underscored the saying “if the product is free to use, then you are the product,” while scores of marketers continue to be trapped by manage-ment expectations that social media and content marketing provide ROI via earned distribution without proper media budgets.

But successful marketers have seen the implica-tions and are taking advantage of them. Intuitively, the bedrock of content marketing continues to be strong and unyielding: consumers love smart, funny or useful branded content. And that love can translate, funneled properly and with the proper paid media distribution, into all sorts of brand love and business impact: affinity, sales, equity, advocacy, perception shifts.

Of course, finding valuable and effective distribu-tion methods that make content stand out seems harder than ever. Facebook video is question-able (have you asked your creative team to get the message across in the first 3 seconds yet?).

Snapchat continues to be an enigma to most marketers and is perceived (incorrectly) as expensive. Twitter continues to be the most ubiqui-tous social media platform without a business model. And the open web—equated with mort-gage-crisis-era banner ads—has a sub-premium perception problem.

Nonetheless, it has never been more true that by returning to the fundamentals of branded content—developing human-focused content that people seek out—and pairing that with smart, modern, data-driven media distribution, brands can get outsized results. Benchmark-breaking results. And so, we have the opportunity to make 2017 the year distributed content delivers on the promise of the buzz.

Every brand challenge is different, and people’s points of view and attitudes are perhaps harder to predict than ever before, particularly in the current political culture. But the state of content marketing is strong, and we offer you the observations in this booklet to help provoke some new thinking when going to market in a perpetually evolving digital culture.

We look forward to taking the ride with you.

KEN KRAEMERCEO and Founder



FUNDAMENTALS OF GREAT CONTENT

Just below the surface of the content marketing buzz are a set of fundamental principles that guide content impact and efficacy. When understood and applied in the right way, marketers can use these fundamentals to create something meaningful and drive outsized results.

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Content was one of the biggest marketing buzzwords of 2016 (after maybe “ad-blocking” and “Snapchat”). But in the race to deliver on the hype and buzz of the content trend, many marketers missed the fundamentals that separate the good (and effective) from the bad. What, then, are the basics that marketers need to remember to develop successful content?

Here are six fundamentals of great content:

• Know Your Audience. It’s easy to focus on brand and forget audience, but great content starts and ends with understanding the end user. Learn what makes them tick. Get intimate with their lifestyle, their behaviors, their needs and desires. One of the great benefits of digital content marketing is its potential to target very specifically and efficiently, so use this specificity to drive relevance.

• Start with a Story. Like any good creative, content needs to start with a story—rooted in a concept. The story can be big or small. It can be simple or complex. But even the shortest content unit (a GIF, a photo) needs to deliver a mood, tell a moment in time to take you to a place. Let audience insights and human truths spark your concepts. Content can take many different forms, but it must have a story at the core.

• Give Them the Feels. Emotion connects your story to the recipient. Make them feel something—humor, joy, sadness, empathy, desire, amazement. Emotion not only drives enjoyment of content, it actually helps your viewer connect the message to something they already innately understand. This emotional messaging helps them make a stronger transi-tion from short-term to long-term memory—es-sentially helping them remember the brand message. How’s that for warm fuzzies?

• Be Context Aware. Platforms and distribution channels have unique user experiences, content formats and user behaviors. So in an effort to drive efficiency, a “one size fits all” approach to content really just leads to ineffective work. Producing for the platform and understanding the nuances of each distribution space leads to more effective, efficient content. Lean in to a platform’s unique proposition in the social-me-dia landscape to help you create something that feels really special, surprising and inventive.

• Keep the Brand at the Heart. Authentic brand integration is much more than a logo at the end of a video or a byline at the top of an article. Does the brand have the credibility to play in this space? Is the brand promise central to the story? If the answer is “no,” the brand won’t end up getting credit for the content and, worse,

could be criticized for inauthenticity. Use con-straint and keep the brand’s heart at the center of the content.

• Be Specific with Your Ask. Once you get the content in front of someone, what do you want them to do with it? Do you want to drive sales? Build affinity? Capture emails? Drive positive engagement? Make sure your core story and your surrounding messaging are born from your one desired action. And then make sure that the one desired action is supported by your distribu-tion strategy.

TAKEAWAY

As brands further invest in content marketing, there are critical considerations that can lead to successful strategy development, creation and execution. Putting the core fundamentals into practice can help creative outperform benchmarks and drive progress towards business goals.

CHRISTINA COOKSEY Executive Director of Content



HUNTER, GATHERER, SCROLLER, LIKER

Channels and plaftforms keep changing. It’s nice to know some things don’t. Ever.

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So much has changed in what feels like the twelve minutes that social media has been a “thing.” Every day it seems like there are new platforms, new functionalities and new rules: “From now on, all snapbookgram videos must be displayed at a 38.2° angle between the hours of…” Chasing those constant updates can be tough, but it’s also fun. With changing landscapes to explore, and new mediums to manipulate, we get to tell our stories in fresh and surprising new ways. This is exciting for us creative-types, and we accept the challenge, even if the stage is being remodeled as we are putting on the show.

But there are a few things in the social world that have not changed.

For one, the reason we socialize in the first place isn’t new. It's much more than having something to do with our free time. Being social is a matter of human survival and it goes all the way back to the cave. As a species, we began to thrive when we learned to learn from each other—it helped us to help each other out. We have a need to connect that’s as deep as our DNA, and the best connections, the ones we keep coming back to, are the ones that we can trust will be mutually beneficial. If we both consistently get something out of our arrangement, then we’ll begin to rely on its usefulness (see also: “friendship”).

It’s the same for social marketing. If you want to connect with your audience, if you want your

posts to be more than just a thing that gets in the way of what people actually came to see, then your content has to be more than just informative. It has to be emotionally useful. And if you want people to rely on that, you have to be consistent.

As one of our writers puts it, “If I’m going to crash your party, I’d better be charming.”

Another thing that hasn’t changed is the order in which we process our experiences. The first thing that happens is a “blink of an eye,” gut-level reaction. Your unconscious mind sizes up the situation before you even know what you’re looking at. Right on the heels of your gut, is your heart. This is an emotional (chemical) reminder that your unconscious mind links to your current scenario so you can quickly decide how to proceed: “I’ve seen this before. Should I stay or should I go?” Finally, a head-level, rational assessment: “Yup, that WAS a bobcat. Good thing I ran like a crazy person.”

Again, it’s all about survival. We never would have made it as a species if we tried to rationalize our way through dangerous situations, and not only was this true in the wild world of our ancient ancestors, but it’s true in our news feeds today. Old habits die hard.

So if you want people to stop scrolling, then you must lead with a compelling gut-level

visual. They have to be drawn to it before they even know what it is. Then, if you want them to make a positive connection to your brand, your content needs to remind them of a larger emotional truth that is already important to them. The bottom line: if you want your audience to convert and sing your praises, you have to give them something to believe in—something that is unbreakably true.

Oh, and one more thing, you can’t skip any of these steps and go straight to the next one. Each is a gate-keeper for the other. Random example: people can’t vote rationally (with their head) if they can’t get past their fears (their gut).

But rules are meant to be broken, right? Yeah, sure, but not these rules. These are very old rules.

TAKEAWAY

As digital, and then social, marketing claimed to subvert how marketing works, it is comforting to know that there are basic truths. And those truths have everything to do with the fact that we’re all just humans talking to humans. The best marketing takes advantage of that fact.

RON LENTCreative Director


THE MOMENT STUDIO CONTENT MARKETING FRAMEWORK

Adopting a holistic view of the content marketing space gives marketers an edge—efficiently. It’s easy with the right framework.

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the variety of ways to use our product to create consumption moments—we can devise a well-considered strategy that ensures effective use of resources and budget to optimize results.

Here’s how the framework breaks down.

We start with two axes. The horizontal axis plots the role of the brand at left vs. the role of the consumer at right. Are we talking heavily about the brand or product? Are there targeted words we’re driving into the brand’s equity? Or is this more about fitting the brand into consumers’ lives, or making the brand relatable and integrat-ed into their rituals?

The vertical axis talks about marketing purpose, plotting narrative-led, top-of-funnel campaigns at the top and production-led direct response, lead-generation and tactical programs at the bottom.

When we look at the four quadrants the intersec-tions of these axes form (see chart on the next page), we begin to see distinctive areas that, depending on creative and production methods, can generate incremental value for marketers either within a large campaign or as standalone initiatives.

Of course, any kind of framework-based decision-making runs the risk of getting too cerebral or analytical; all content work should live and

breathe the brand personality, be consumer-focused, extend business goals and work within the brand’s ecosystem of communications. None-theless, by considering these four quadrants and creating briefs and creative purposefully in the areas that make sense for the brand’s marketing strategy, marketers can realize efficient, incre-mental value.

Many marketers equate content, traditional advertising and “online video.” It makes sense: it is both convenient and comforting to believe that you’re covering all of your marketing bases across the rapidly proliferating expanse of messenger, mobile and social platforms by lumping the many kinds of content along with more traditional advertising methods: com-mercials, videos, print ads and even packaging descriptions.

While there is a great deal of overlap among the different classes of marketing assets, to simply check all boxes with one blunt mark is leaving a lot of value on the table. Case study after case study shows that creating and distributing high-quality, native content that is channel aware leads to outperforming of benchmarks.

The challenge remains, though, that prioritizing budget and effort can be daunting. Marketers need a new framework for thinking about content and advertising so they can be deliber-ate and intentional with their marketing plans.

As the content marketing space has evolved out of social media marketing, we’ve started to look at it using such a framework. By thinking methodically and holistically about intent and approach—e.g., are we going to use hard-sell messaging and a big media budget to drive perceptions, or are we going to demonstrate

TAKEAWAY

As brands consider allocation of scarce resources, it is important to look holistically at the content space and align content types to brands’ strategic purposes. By considering the content marketing framework, marketers can optimize production and media budgets to effect improved results.

KEN KRAEMERCEO


I. Premium Advertising: campaign-led, brand forward. This quadrant is where traditional, linear narrative campaigns live. Work in this category tends to be distributed with big media buys in expensive, tra-ditional channels, and thus tends to be high in produc-tion value, highly deliberated and highly tested.

© 2017 Moment Studio

PREMIUM ADVERTISING

ADAPTIVE CONTENT

NATIVE CONTENT

UTILITY CONTENT

Repurposed or extended content that gets more mileage out of cre-ative by refreshing it via editing.

• Customizations

• Resizes & cutdowns

• Scale edits

Platform-specific content and ads made to work on user-driven content platforms like Facebook and Snapchat. May be campaign driven, paid or unpaid.

• Microcontent

• Snap Ads and bots

• Real-time

• Platform custom (e.g., Pins)

Useful or entertaining content that provides value to the consumer beyond (but in support of) a brand message.

• Recipes

• DIY/makeup tutorials

• Knowledge videos

• DVD extras

Brand Forward

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Consumer Forward

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ed II. Native Content: campaign-

led, consumer forward. This quadrant is the successor to social content marketing, and includes made-for-social and made-for-messenger content and advertising that may be based on a campaign (or brand “big idea”) but is extended as platform-specific or native via original produc-tion or re-editing. It is created in a way that fits or blends in with the user-created and publisher content people consume on these platforms. More innova-tive work in this quadrant might include branded cable content and streaming branded content.

III. Utility Content: tactical-led, consumer forward. This quadrant is perhaps the most fun but also the most overlooked. Utility content is that which actually helps people, or even just makes them feel good, while extending the virtues of the brand. Think recipes, fashion tips, hair-styling and makeup tutorials and DIY how-tos. With or without paid media distribution but produced properly, this content can drive results from top of funnel to bottom.

IV. Adaptive Content: tactical-led, brand forward. Adaptive content is based on efficiently reusing and adapting existing assets to get even more mileage out of them. Think optimization, per-sonalization or even creating content for remainder or value-add media.

Brand narratives and manifestos, and long-lead, highly reviewed, large-budget creative.

• Big-buy TV Ads

• Trailers and previews

• Streaming programming and integrations



MODERN DISTRIBUTION: MOVING TOWARDS PRECISION MARKETING

One of the most fundamental rules of effective advertising is pairing the right message with the right person. With an abundance of new data, this has never been more important.

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Too often we see an ad and wonder, “Why on earth did I get this?”

Whether you’re a vegan getting ads for A1 Steak Sauce or an urban city dweller seeing sponsored posts from Jeep Wrangler, there’s one thing both marketers and consumers can agree on: it’s wasteful. For the marketer it’s wasted dollars, and for the consumer it’s wasted attention. This leaves no one happy. This is why we’ll see more brands turning to precision marketing.

Let’s take a step back. According to the White House¹, 98% of Americans today are connected to high-speed wireless internet. That’s a lot of people surfing the web, speaking in emoji and snapping selfies on their phone. As a result, brands are able to reach an enormous number of people with digital media (far more than TV), they can do it faster and cheaper than ever before, and they can even measure ROI via direct store sales—the holy grail of digital marketing. Furthermore, with the expansion of advanced interest and behavioral targeting on platforms like Facebook, reaching the right people has never been easier.

Not so fast. Sure it might be easier, but we’re still not getting it right most of the time. Think about it: how often do you get an ad unrelated to your interests? Something you’re not in the market for, or even considering? This is the fallacy of modern media: we have the opportunity to reach

an unprecedented number of people (scale), but we mistakenly continue to address them as one group (uniformity). We must recognize that while the idea of “one size fits all” may work in print or broadcast, it is antithetical to the digital experience. Especially in social media and on mobile devices. These are the most personal and intimate environments, where the context of your content matters most. This is where we, as marketers, must work harder to be relevant.

Let’s say, for example, you’re a weight-loss brand. This is a category comprised of nearly 70% of Americans with a wide range of reasons to diet. Depending on where your customer is in their journey (e.g., just starting out vs. can’t keep the weight off), their motivation will vary drastically. For one consumer, it might be about self-image or looking their best and tuning up before the summer season. For another, it might be more dire, like health-threatening obesity.

Now imagine we used a photo of a swimsuit model in this ad, highlighting a slender waist. How would the creative perform with each of our audiences? With the first group it might resonate—tapping into their desire for self-improvement and their aspiration to be beautiful. But for the latter there is a good chance it will come across as unattainable, crass or simply out of touch. Knowing the difference is crucial to the success of our message.

This is the sort of precision that is becoming more and more important in marketing. Let’s stop treating everyone the same and recognize where there are meaningful differences. We can do this by being smarter about how we utilize the data that’s available, and by taking the time to develop messaging that speaks to the individual experiences of our consumers.

TAKEAWAY

We are moving into an era of advertising that is defined by data and how we utilize it to our advantage. This includes: (1) how we segment our consumers into unique need- or interest-based groups; (2) how we target them through distinct media strategies; and (3) how well we customize creative to resonate on a personal level. Marketers that utilize data in this capacity will have a greater chance of being relevant and achieving their goals.

GLENN LANDAUERHead of Client Strategy

¹ www.whitehouse.gov, “98 Percent of Americans Are Connected to High-Speed Wireless Internet”



EDITORIAL PLANNING: FROM SUZIE TO CYRANO

As content strives for authenticity in a pay-to-play universe, editors become the matchmakers in the relationship between brands and consumers.

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There are many fish in the sea. Many brands in the feed. But with hyper-customization, precision marketing and algorithms eroding organic content performance, most fish are paying to get a chance even to swim these days. Before pay-to-play, editorial planning was your trusted Aunt Suzie, the go-between with the good intuition. She loved you as is and told you to be yourself. Find your voice. Join the conversation. Shout from the rooftops of every social platform. But things have changed for the worse. Now, you’re being upstaged by friends, family, cute dogs and things exploding in slow-mo. Users ask not to see you unless they ADORE you or you’re paying to be seen. Tough crowd. Time to upgrade. Sorry, Aunt Suzie. Editorial planning has gone from Suzie to Cyrano (with a laptop, not a quill), combining the power of planning with content and platform strategy. Now, what matters is what to say, how to say it and where to say it, all backed by data and insights. It’s gone from “let’s see where this goes” to a personalized love letter and custom mix tape titled “marriage material.” It starts with a brand’s assessment. (Sorry. You’re great, but it’s for your own good.) Before calendars, themes or stories are built, Cyrano creates a brand’s dating profile. What makes you consistent, cohesive and memorable? What makes

you attractive to the consumer? What do you talk about? Vague is bland. Focused is sexy. With large investments (and the approval process that comes with them), fewer content pieces and bigger goals, the brand/consumer dynamic goes from milling around the same bar every Friday night (organic) to getting on every dating app (large scale pay-to-play). It’s going out. Being seen. Exposure. Impressions. Standing out with a POV. It’s pop and fizz and laugh and cry and think and talk and rally and move. It’s all eyes on you. Editorial planning tells you what museum, bookstore, party or concert to head to. What conversations to take part in. How to woo the target in a meaningful way without losing a sense of self. We’re not in 2016 anymore. Consumers can smell disingenuous content a thousand posts away—so you best be authentic and clear in showing how distinctively different you are from your competitors. No more quick and meaningless engagements; the one-night-stand-ness of a “click 'like' if...”. There’s no time for cold impressions, the no-second-date-ness of a blatant product push. The hunger for connection is alive and kicking. Except now it’s 2 dates per month instead of 3 dates per week…and, boy, those dates are going to be expensive, so don’t waste them on Poultry Day if you’re selling cake. Nope. You’ll need to

meticulously plan every aspect of those precious few dates to ensure success. Enter your editorial planning, your Cyrano de Bergerac. Catch their eye and the brand/consumer relationship blooms with a ride off into the lush social sunset. As pay to play becomes the norm, brands can look to editorial planning to help court the consumer and guarantee that their in-feed dates, no matter how few, are the most memorable and impactful they can be.

TAKEAWAY

Money gets content in-feed, but that doesn’t guarantee consumer attention. Not the right message or platform? Media plan didn't roll out at the right time? Not authentic to your brand? These are failed dates. As brands continue speed dating through feeds, tight editorial planning will be key to deeply connecting with consumers and making lasting impressions.

NAMI M. SCOTTEditorial Director



A NEW CREATIVE/PRODUCTION PARADIGM

In the past, agency structures adhered to a process in which production was a sequential output of creative development. The evolution of social and digital content has created an environment that benefits from a new way of working. A new generation of talent, a desire for innovation, and improved technology—brought together in the crucible of a demand for efficiency—have given form to a new creative/production paradigm.

6For most of our commercial history, TV, print, radio and OOH marketing have dominated as branded message distribution platforms. The ad formats in these spaces are known quantities—rarely changing or innovating. The stasis of these distribution platforms and formats supported a very traditional process in which the idea was developed and then the production of that idea was executed as a separate process.

The explosive growth in the number of consumer touchpoints and the volume of messages required to be relevant to an audience have increased significantly. This, paired with the rapid innovation of digital platforms, has driven the need for a more efficient creative and production process.

Brands need a different approach to content production. One where you can get new work done in days or weeks, rather than weeks or months. One where work can be adapted to the requirements of various formats and emerging platforms, as well as to testing results. One where you can do multivariate testing as easily as you can innovate content for a media format or distribution platform that has never before existed.

Enter the creative/production hybrid.

A creative/production hybrid merges the creative process with the production output. Creative is ideated side-by-side with produc-tion talent to innovate and develop content efficiently. The creative/production hybrid uses both the artistic and pragmatic sides of the brain to develop work dynamically. It is respon-sive to change and challenges the ways things have been done to invent what can be done.

The key change is efficiency: What is the story to tell? What is the best way to tell it? What partners/specialists are needed to create the story? All the same considerations (talent, location, casting, wardrobe, art direction, post production, audio…) are made, they are just made in a parallel space. The approach allows high quality content to be delivered more quickly AND more cost efficiently. The saying “affordable, fast or good—pick two” is blown wide open, allowing you to deliver on all three.

Getting credit for digital innovation is an important criterion for most brands in the space, but creating for digital platforms is more complex. Facebook best practices may change mid-campaign. A new Snapchat ad format may be released while you’re mid-production and you may add We Heart It to the social strategy in the middle of a major program. The acces-sibility of creative technology allows makers to create and innovate with an unprecedented

level of quality. With the availability of afford-able commercial-quality equipment, a spark of an idea can rapidly turn into a polished execution. The walls of experimentation have been knocked down.

In a traditional production process, ideas and opportunities can get lost in a cloud of time and budget. Working within a creative/production hybrid facilitates experimentation, encourages optimization and allows brands to be first to market when new opportunities arise.

TAKEAWAY

As they find themselves needing to create more nuanced stories for more targeted/niche audiences, brands need a production solution that allows the specificity of the story to evolve fluidly along with the creative. A creative/pro-duction hybrid is nimble, efficient at the core and encourages brand innovation in a digital environment that rewards speed to market.

CHRISTINA COOKSEY Executive Director of Content



IS IT A LIVE LIFE?

All our favorite social platforms now provide free, easy-to-use ways for people and brands to broadcast “live” content. Should they?

7Live streaming via the internet isn’t remotely new. It has been cheap and available for almost two decades, although the quality cameras and broadband connections needed to make it mainstream were harder to come by. But since Meerkat (RIP) emerged as the winner of SXSW in 2015, there has been a marked interest around live streaming content on social platforms. When Facebook threw on its live switch, with the potential of reaching over a billion people (or accounts, at least), live social became the shiny object of 2016.

Some platforms are now betting big on users creating live content, with the likely objective of building strong consumer consumption habits. Those platforms may be seeing live programming as the next logical step in their manifest destiny to become the TV of the next generation. These habits are critical as the platforms look to host the most important live events—NFL, FIFA and Olympic events and awards shows such as the Oscars, Grammys and Emmys. And they’ll eventually be looking for brand partners as they seek to monetize.

But is live social important for a brand? Of course the answer is “it depends.” It depends on your marketing strategy and business goals, your brand’s equity and personality, and your consumers’ behaviors and habits. To decide, how should marketers even think about live social?

When a new content product is introduced, it is helpful to find analogs to which we can compare it. So let's look at three interesting live models:

• TV news. Every night, well-coiffed, semi-scripted anchors get in front of cameras everywhere and tell us the events of the day.

• Home shopping. Networks such as QVC, HSN and EVINE Live allow brands to make direct appeals to actively engaged audiences, even hosting telephone-based testimonials (analogous to the “comments” on a Facebook Live execution).

• Live, branded events. Brands sponsor events such as the X Games, where we see heavy integrations from energy drink brands, eSports events (e.g., Mountain Dew and live gaming) and single brand events such as the type Red Bull might sponsor or run.

Aside from the DRTV opportunity that the home shopping model provides, traditional brand narratives are generally absent among our analogs. That's because marketers operate within processes that carefully hone a message, craft a story around it, test it, revise it, approve it up the chain and then run it. Live requires relaxing the control marketers have over both message and execution, and it doesn't provide audience guarantees.

So marketers should ask themselves, “can I imagine my brand in one of the three mentioned scenarios and is my organization ready to relax its control?” Most will answer “no.”

The fact of the matter is live videos—or broadcasts as we call them—subject a brand to live event production scenarios that they (and their agencies) are not

typically equipped for. Brands must consider approval methods, broadcast production requirements and driving tune-in (a skill in marketing all its own) to have an impact.

This doesn’t mean that marketers shouldn’t consider experimenting with live social in thoughtful ways, as live social can breathe some much needed life into brands’ ability to engage with and build relationships with consumers. The watchout is that brands are not people; unplanned, low production-value or giggly homemade live productions will induce more eyerolls than embraces. Brands should consider even test-and-learn executions as broadcast events rather than cute, fun one-offs.

TAKEAWAY

Live social broadcasts could be an interest-ing experimentation opportunity for brands, as platforms look for brands to help build consump-tion behaviors on their platforms. But brands should approach it with the right planning, likely working with creative/production partners that can help execute with the gravitas of a major broadcast event. The more likely future of branded live social will manifest as sponsorship or integration opportu-nities as opposed to original branded content.

KEN KRAEMERCEO



TURNING HEADS: THE RISE & FUTURE OF VERTICAL VIDEO

2016 was supposed to be the year for vertical video, and although it is definitely on marketers’ radar, we have yet to see the true creative implications of the format.

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Pull out your phone and take a look at the last ten apps you opened. Odds are that eight or more of them serve content in some sort of vertical feed, ranging from email to social media platforms like Facebook. The user experience comes natural because it’s how we hold our phones. So why did it take so long for vertical video to gain acceptance, and does it have the potential to become the primary way video is consumed?

It wasn’t long ago that vertical video was considered taboo—a rookie mistake made by amateur smartphone videographers. People were shamed on social media for “doing it wrong” and it was even denounced in the 2012 viral video titled “Vertical Video Syndrome.”

Our initial resistance to the format makes sense. In addition to our eyes being on a horizontal plane, from the earliest televisions and desktop computers to modern flat screens and laptops, screens have always been horizontal. It’s what we all grew up with. But as affordable smartphones and mobile broadband infiltrate our lives, share of time spent interacting with our phones—more than three hours a day currently—has already eclipsed desktop and will ultimately surpass time spent with TV in the next ten years.

While Evan Spiegel, founder of Snapchat and a champion of the format since 2012, built his

empire on a platform that emphasizes vertical video, others are just now buying into the fact that it might be here to stay. YouTube made the leap into vertical video support in mid-2015, but Facebook didn’t buy into vertical until August of 2016, later rolling out a vertical video unit to Instagram and solidifying its role in the media landscape. Many others are following suit, including Twitter with both Periscope and Moments. So will 2017 be the year of vertical video? With all of the biggest social platforms supporting the format, it appears the answer is yes. But it will have interesting implications on our business and media as a whole. Just like websites and other digital experiences that have migrated to a mobile-first philosophy, brands and content creators will need to think about it as a starting point, or just one of two potential vehicles for delivering the same message.

The bigger question will be how brands and their agencies adapt to this new content format, as it will undoubtedly have an impact on how ideas are expressed, produced and distributed.

TAKEAWAY

While we don’t anticipate seeing portrait televisions hanging in households this decade, vertical video will continue to evolve as we’re actively thinking about how to deliver premium storytelling in a format—and on devices—that have historically restricted creatives. Sucess-full marketers will consider how the format can improve their ability to tell stories and live events, exploring how the format can enhance experiences through native content creation.

JUSTIN JOHNSON Executive Director of Business Development

2017 CONTENT MARKETING OUTLOOK / MOMENT STUDIO2017 CONTENT MARKETING OUTLOOK

2017 CONTENT MARKETING OUTLOOK / MOMENT STUDIO 2017 CONTENT MARKETING OUTLOOK

FOOD IN FEEDS

Social media has an insatiable appetite for food content, so bring out the good stuff.

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We’re human. We have to eat. It’s nothing new. But food is more than a means to meet a basic biological need. We enjoy eating, we enjoy cooking, food brings us together—and our food choices become a part of our identity. “I’m vegan.”—“I’m strictly Paleo.”—“I consider myself a volumetric macrobiotic flexitarian.” Food doesn’t just give life, it’s a way of life.

Not only are we all becoming foodies, we’re becoming food photographers. When was the last time you had dinner with friends without someone sharing a snap of their meal? Everyone has a camera in their pocket and no one can help themselves.

Naturally, food brands can’t help themselves either. With fast-motion how-to videos, recipe pins, celebrity chef collaborations and mail-order meal kits—the internet is exploding with food-related marketing. But making appetizing food photography can be a tricky thing. Gone are the days of elaborate hors d’oeuvres and Jell-O molds and perfectly arranged platters of cocktail shrimp. Consumers want their food to look like, well, food. Fake ice cream may be easier to photograph, but it doesn’t have that little bit of melt that makes it irresistible. Store-bought cookies may all be perfectly round, but they lack the appetite appeal of a homemade batch fresh from the oven.

So food marketing has become more challenging. Luckily, we know what works. Marketers that find themselves behind the camera for daring to foray into the world of social foodies can benefit from considering a few key tips as they develop their marketing programs. Or even when they’re snapping their next meal at Olmstead. • Lighting is everything. Show foods in their best light, which is almost always the light of their natural environment. Shoot pancakes near a window in the morning and your photo will feel like breakfast time. Illuminate a cocktail with the twinkling lights behind the bar.

• Perspective is key. Shoot from the angle that makes the dish look its best. A bowl of soup from the side isn’t that interesting, but a slice of layer cake is. Position the camera to face the food the way you look at it when you are about to dig in.

• Imperfection is perfection. Food should look like food; a little mess is best. Avoid extraneous garnish (looking at you, parsley!). Place a strawberry, not a mint leaf, next to a slice of strawberry pie.

• Be human. A little human element, such as a hand, can lend a lot of warmth and context to a piece of content. A photo of a banana split becomes a story when you see two hands, one large and one small, squeezing chocolate syrup on top together.

• Know when to post. Think about when your followers are going to see your creation. No one wants to see last night’s dinner in their feed at 7:15am, but your cappuccino? Like.

With a little simple, natural, human touch, your good stuff will look its best in the feeds.

Go on, do it for the ’gram.

TAKEAWAY

Today’s consumers are craving food and beverage content like never before. In an age where everyone’s a content creator, brands can easily join and make the conversation more appetizing—as long as they follow the rules of good taste.

EMILY VAN TASSELAssociate Creative Director



BESTEST PRACTICE

There are a lot of best practices in place to guide creative development for social videos. But there’s one that keeps getting lost.

10

“Make sure you follow best practices.”

We hear this a lot, especially when we’re in script development and production for videos that will live predominantly in social feeds.

And we know what this means. We know that it’s frequently the rubric with which our work will be evaluated—is there branding in the first three seconds? Is the product in the opening frames? Does it work with and without sound? If someone only watches for a few seconds, will they get the entire message?

But there’s one best practice that never seems to get served back to us. One that gets lost in the ever-growing, ever-changing, channel-specific rules for social video. A best practice that’s so obvious, we often forget to mention it, think about it or value it.

Just tell a good story.

Obnoxiously simple, right? I know. Sorry. But without a good story, all the rest is meaningless. Logos and branding and sound mean nothing if no one watches, cares or remembers. And can we really blame someone for not wanting to watch a 15-second video that’s exclusively about a product’s existence?

This is not to say that the current best practices don’t serve a purpose. They do. And that purpose

is to assist the story, not usurp it—to guide viewers deeper into it, not become it.

After all, it’s pretty hard (perhaps impossible) to get absolutely everything into the first three seconds of a video. But a good story can earn you three more seconds with the viewer, and then three more, and so on. And if you’re telling a story worth watching, people will want to know how it ends.

A story doesn’t need to be a monomyth or a fairytale. It doesn’t need to tell a hero’s journey or teach a lesson or have a twist. But it does need to be able to answer one question very simply: “What’s it about?” If the answer is a technique, it’s not a story. If the answer is too long, it’s probably not a good story.

So here’s a new best practice for those of us creating short-form content for social—every video must have a log line. A one-sentence summary of what the story is about. If you can’t come up with one, you don’t have a story.

Why write a log line for a ten-second promoted video about cat food? Because algorithms will change, social channels will come and go, new platforms will emerge, and all the other best practices we’ve come to lean on will evolve or go away. But none of that will matter.

Just tell a good story.

TAKEAWAY

Is it a challenge to tell an engaging story through video in the current social landscape? Yeah. It is. But it was probably super hard to tell stories without sound in the 1920s or without visuals during the Golden Age of Radio or without computer-generated imagery during the birth of the blockbuster. But it can be done. It can always be done. And when you do it, you’ll have an audience.

ASHLEY J. TYRAAssociate Creative Director


This book is filled with good stuff. But we get it, time is tight. So if you can't read all of our words, read these and you'll get the picture.

FOREWORDThe state of content marketing is strong. Now more than ever, well-executed, consumer-focused content produced with good storytelling fundamentals can get brands outsized results—when distributed with smart, modern media methods.

1 Fundamentals of Great Content

As brands further invest in content marketing, there are critical considerations that can lead to successful strategy development, creation and execution. Putting the core fundamentals into practice can help creative outperform benchmarks and drive progress towards business goals.

2 Hunter, Gatherer, Scroller, Liker

As digital, and then social, marketing claimed to subvert how marketing works, it is comforting to know that there are basic truths. And those truths have everything to do with the fact that we’re all just humans talking to humans. The best marketing takes advantage of that fact.

3 The Moment Studio Content Marketing Framework

As brands consider allocation of scarce resources, it is important to look holistically at the content space and align content types to brands’ strategic purposes. By considering the content marketing framework, marketers can optimize production and media budgets to effect improved results.

4 Modern Distribution: Moving Towards Precision Marketing

We are moving into an era of advertising that is defined by data and how we utilize it to our advantage. This includes: (1) how we segment our consumers into unique need or interest-based groups; (2) how we target them through distinct media strategies; and (3) how well we customize creative to resonate on a personal level. Marketers that utilize data in this capacity will have a greater chance of being relevant and achieving their goals.

5 Editorial Planning: From Suzie to Cyrano

Money gets content in-feed, but that doesn’t guarantee consumer attention. Not the right message or platform? Media plan didn't roll out at the right time? Not authentic to your brand? These are failed dates. As brands continue speed dating through feeds, tight editorial planning will be key to deeply connecting with consumers and making lasting impressions.

TL;DR


6 A New Creative/Production Paradigm

As they find themselves needing to create more nuanced stories for more targeted/niche audiences, brands need a production solution that allows the specificity of the story to evolve fluidly along with the creative. A creative/pro-duction hybrid is nimble, efficient at the core and encourages brand innovation in a digital environment that rewards speed to market.

7 Is it a Live Life?

Live social broadcasts could be an interest-ing experimentation opportunity for brands, as platforms look for brands to help build consumption behaviors on their platforms. But brands should approach it with the right planning, likely working with creative/produc-tion partners that can help execute with the gravitas of a major broadcast event. The more likely future of branded live social will manifest as sponsorship or integration opportunities as opposed to original branded content.

8 Turning Heads: The Rise & Future of Vertical Video

While we don’t anticipate seeing portrait televisions hanging in households this decade, vertical video will continue to evolve as we’re actively thinking about how to deliver premium storytelling in a format—and on devices—that have historically restricted creatives. Sucessfull marketers will consider how the format can improve their ability to tell stories and live events, exploring how the format can enhance experiences through native content creation.

9 Food in Feeds

Today’s consumers are craving food and beverage content like never before. In an age where everyone’s a content creator, brands can easily join and make the conversation more appetizing—as long as they follow the rules of good taste.

10 Bestest Practice

Is it a challenge to tell an engaging story through video in the current social landscape? Yeah. It is. But it was probably super hard to tell stories without sound in the 1920s or without visuals during the Golden Age of Radio or without computer-generated imagery during the birth of the blockbuster. But it can be done. It can always be done. And when you do it, you’ll have an audience.


CONTRIBUTORS

CHRISTINA COOKSEYEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

OF CONTENT

@cookseycc

Christina oversees the creation of all of Moment Studio’s content, implementing integrated creative and production techniques to develop work that performs for brands. She manages the team’s diversely talented contributors including production, creative and editorial operations.

RON LENTCREATIVE DIRECTOR

@ronlent

Ron is a deeply creative individual with keen instincts and an understanding of what people want to share. Since the early dot-com days, he has been making compelling experiences for brands. He has a simple and clear sensibility that results in irresistible work for clients. When not at work, Ron can be found walking around in the world, taking photographs and drawing in his sketchbook.

JUSTIN JOHNSONEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

@justinmjohnson

Justin leads business development, client services and strategy efforts for Moment Studio, leveraging his unique background spanning creative and social media stratetgy, and his experience working with brands like eBay, Frito-Lay, Walmart, Unilever, Nestlé, ESPN and American Express.

KEN KRAEMERCEO

@kk4i

As founder and CEO of Moment Studio and a 20-year veteran of the digital advertising industry, Ken guides the vision, business and work of Moment Studio as it becomes a leading brand in engaging consumers through digital and mobile strategies.


ASHLEY J. TYRA ASSOCIATE CREATIVE

DIRECTOR

@copytyra

Since joining the team, Ashley has created award-winning campaigns for everything from chips to pretzels to pizza to coffee. If a human can eat it, she's probably worked on it.

ALEX HUEBSCHPRODUCER

@alexhuebsch

Alex brings 10 years of film direction, production and project management to Moment Studio. As founder of two video production companies on the West Coast, he’s directed/produced everything from feature-length documentaries to narrative films to big-brand commercial and social campaigns. He’s excited to push this work forward at Moment.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY

RON LENT

EMILY VAN TASSELASSOCIATE CREATIVE

DIRECTOR

@emilyvantassel

Creative by day, amateur chef by night, Emily is all about food. From pouring the perfect glass of sparkling water to styling real ice cream for the camera, she’s amassed an arsenal of tips and tricks for marketing food and beverage brands in the ever-evolving social landscape.

NAMI M. SCOTTEDITORIAL DIRECTOR

@namimscott

Nami's diverse background, ranging from copywriting and creative direction to community management and platform strategy, has helped shape her process for building content themes, storylines and cohesive messaging

for various brands—messaging that resonates

with target audiences while providing

creative guidance and planning.

GLENN LANDAUERHEAD OF CLIENT STRATEGY

@glandauer

As the founding member of his department, Glenn is focused on bringing account stewardship and strategic thought leadership to Moment’s rapidly expanding client relationships.


About Moment Studio

Moment Studio is the agency for the new first screen. Part studio, part creative group, part editorial newsroom, Moment Studio was purpose-built for a world where people make, consume and are influenced by more content in a day than their grandparents saw in a lifetime.

We create content through a unique, creative/production hybrid model that takes advantage of—rather than fights—the seismic changes social marketing has effected. So we can deliver all the nimbleness, can-do flex-ibility and value our clients need. Delivered with our modern, performance-driven distribution approach, the content we make reaches the right audiences in ways that outperform benchmarks.

Part of Engine. Moment Studio is a part of the Engine ecosystem of marketing companies. More than a holding company, Engine is a culture and an approach. Our network allows us to offer our clients seamlessly integrated specialist services at scale. Learn more about Engine at enginegroup.com.



[email protected]@HIMOMENTSTUDIO | |@HIMOMENTSTUDIO