Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Fresh from watching the stunning (and stunningly long) part one of The Hobbit movie extravaganza, I am reminded of the lasting power of amazing content. I know every word of the book, so will happily stand online for all the movies — despite the fact that Peter Jackson’s version is way more gory video game than the novels I love.

Brands have been content publishers for even longer than The Hobbit has been around. The first infomercial was broadcast on the radio in 1922. I don’t know what the storyline was, but I’m guessing it was no sequel spawning epic. Yet if I make just one prediction for marketing in 2013, it’s this:
Brand content will compete with top shelf entertainment.

Like most year end predictions, this is of course already happening. And the reason digitally savvy brands put Hollywood levels of talent, craft and love into what they make is because they are competing for the limited attention of the very same people going to the movies, playing the video games, and yes, even reading books. Sticking ads around the entertainment is giving way to being good enough to be the entertainment. Hello Red Bull, Will it Blend, new style advetorials and every Facebook Page actually worth a Like.

What will content marketing look like in one year? We asked a few smart people for their sharable soundbite.

Many thanks to Claire Candler, Johanna Virtanen of Kiosked, Seb Bell and Brendan Hodgson for their views in the clip above. And thanks to our other D2 Content speakers who gave us some excellent Top Tips for Successful Content Marketing and Advice for budding Contentrepreneurs. Happy Holidays everyone and see you in 2013.

While content has been king on the Internet forever, there is no doubt that it is getting an ever increasing amount of attention. (Even if not everyone likes the term.) For me, I love to see brands offer real value in their communications, rather than just pushing out another empty ad slogan. But it requires an honest mindshift for corporations to become Contentrepreneurs. So we asked some of the bright minds at our most recent Demystifying Digital conference, D2 Content, for their insight and advice.

Top Issue or Barrier for Brands: Cultural Change

Alex Hultgren of Ford, Jon Steinberg of BuzzFeed, Steve Webb of Google, Johanna Virtanen of Kiosked

Top Tips for Brands: Take risks. Emotional hooks. Don’t forget about relationships.

Seb Bell of H+K, me, Simon Langford of GE, Johanna Virtanen of Kiosked, Richard Fletcher of the Telegraph.co.uk, Richard Millar of H+K, Jon Steinberg of BuzzFeed, Alex Hultgren of Ford

At our Demystifying Digital conference on content marketing (#HKD2), I spoke about the concept of brands becoming Contentrepreneurs. Taking advantage of the super smart people on our stage that day, we asked them to give us a soundbite worth of advice for clients who want to become Contentrepreneurs. In fast, furious D2 fashion, here are some great tips, including these wise words from Tumblr:

“Have fun. And don’t be afraid.”

Enjoy the video and share your tip below or via tweet.

1. Value Creation.

2. Commitment.

3. “Create Once. Distribute Everywhere.”

This week has been a whirlwind of all things digital as we held our 8th Demystifying Digital Conference on Thursday.  Focusing on brand generated content, we had speakers from Vice, Tumblr, BuzzFeed, The Telegraph, Kiosked, GE, Ford….. phew I’m still recovering from all of the great learnings. More on that in a different post next week

Friday marked the start of the Skills Show (an annual careers fair showcasing different skilled professions) and H+K client, City & Guilds is the Premier Sponsor.  To celebrate this, and encourage people to think about vocational education, we launched the Careers Happiness Index – a nationwide survey of what makes people happy in their jobs looking at 20 different careers.  We’ve found that florists are the happiest people, bankers are the unhappiest and money doesn’t lead to happiness with those earning over £60,000 the unhappiest.

Our Retail + Leisure team has also announced, the EDF Energy London Eye’s  new Individual Chocolate Tasting Experience delivered by Hotel Chocolat just in time for the festive season.  Whilst sipping delicious Prosecco, chocolate enthusiasts will learn how to taste the world’s favourite treat hosted by a specialist guide over two rotations, giving guests plenty of time to enjoy breath taking panoramic views of London.   In addition, for the third consecutive year, the London Eye is excited to announce the return of Eyeskate. Perfect for spending quality time with friends and family over Christmas, budding skaters are invited to glide across the ice under the silhouette of London’s most iconic landmark

Last Thursday 8th November, Major Paul Smyth appeared on the BBC News Channel’s ‘5 O’clock News’ and on BBC Radio Berkshire to talk about the latest Army Green Paper and the benefits of the Territorial Army.

The Beauty & Grooming girls attended the Harvey Nichols LOOK GOOD FEEL BETTER Theatre of Beauty evening, to hold mini-interviews with some of the most sought after beauty journalists, including Elsa McAlonan from the Daily Mail, Liz Hambleton from Grazia and Fumi Fetto and Francesca White from Tatler.

Following the success of the CPG Mo Bake Off, the Beauty & Grooming team are nailing Movember with a pop-up manicure bar for the whole of H+K.

Today is the seventh in our series of Demystifying Digital conferences. I’m really proud that D2 (as we affectionately call it) has grown from our London 2010 launch event into an ongoing platform to educate and inspire our clients. For 2012, we’ve added sector specific days, like D2: Healthcare and D2: Energy.

The concept for this conference grew out of the educational work the Interactive Lab does with brands. I talk with a lot of clients who just want straight talk on what the different platforms do and why their brand should care. The cult aspect of social as the solution to everything doesn’t help communications executives tasked with leading integrated strategies for multinational brands. So we launched the private Demystifying Digital conference as a fun event to showcase what we do with our bespoke workshops and hands-on training for clients and their staff. Understanding how the tools work functionally, overlapped with the knowledge of how real people are using these platforms as part of their lives, makes it much easer to cut through the hype and figure out just where our energy and resources need to focus. Resources, sadly, are always limited, but creativity, thankfully, is renewable.

Will be posting more of the content from today later on. Many thanks to our amazing speakers and all our energetic delegates. We ♥ you.

Last week, H+K Strategies held its first D2 event of the year which was also our first sector-specific D2 for the healthcare sector.  Demystifying digital in the healthcare sector provided a wealth of interesting and insightful tips for healthcare communicators to use in the future.

H+K was joined by Kantar Health, Orital Consultancy, H+K Denmark, Kai Gait (former digital commerce marketing manager, GSK)and Google+ each of whom gave presentations highlighting the key challenges, developments and tips for healthcare PRs looking to extend their communications strategy into the digital sphere.

Kantar Health informed our attendees key stats about healthcare consumers. 47% of people write comments about brands, mainly to share or offer advice. Further to this, 70% of people surveyed said they are influenced by ‘social comments’, mainly from other users rather than from the brand. This insight reiterates the importance of social media and the challenges that brands must to respond to, listen to and engage with.

Arve Overland from H+K Denmark talked about Mobile Health. Digital’s move to mobile apps is an area in which the healthcare industry needs to assess whether the platform is right for them. Healthcare app devices generated $718m in 2011, although this figure is impressive, how can PR’s ensure they are creating a good mobile app in a cluttered environment.

1. Does it solve a problem – is there a need?
2. Does it extend product offering onto phone?
3. Does it provide information, reference or education?
4. Does it increase productivity?

Read the rest of this entry »

More goodies from our Demystifying Digital client symposium. Speakers Jory Des Jardins, founder of BlogHer and Mascha, founder BeautyGloss.nl (one of the top blogs in the Netherlands), continue their conversation from this earlier post.

All this social media madness comes down to the same vital ingredient for any form of human communication. People. Cast the right talent to the task and you will succeed. Our own David Jones shows you how with his star turn five minutes on stage at Demystifying Digital.

We naturally followed his advice. Can you spot these characters on our own H&K London team? Reconnaissance | Mad Scientist | Communications General | Community Manager

Take an insightful 5 minute spin through today’s top trends effecting communication with H&K’s Kati Sulin. (There has never been a more exciting time to be in PR imho.) For Finnish speakers, there’s lots more from Demystifying Digital on the Helsinki office blog.