Google tells us that 84% of North Americans turn to the web to research before making any purchasing decisions. When we consider this statistic, the visibility and sentiment around your brand in the online space are more critical than ever. As social media platforms now drive unprecedented amounts of content on a daily basis, the ability for both the positive and the negative stories about your brand to be amplified exponentially is redefining the way brands think about risk and building reputation. At the same time major brands around the world are hedging their bets that content marketing, integrated with a strong presence for amplification across social and emerging platforms, is the way to reach consumers today and grow mindshare and loyalty to see their brand through good times and bad. In this session, Andrew delves into a methodology that enables brands to look at content and story at the centre of their marketing and communications mix to help build a strong and lasting reputation in a world where your brand is only as good as it's last search result.

1. content
marketing
INTRODUCING WEBER SHANDWICK TO KELLOGG DECEMBER 6,, 2011 | PAGE 1 1
CANON | | SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 | PAGE

2. this is not a presentation –
it is a discussion

3. “Content marketing, an
idea that's been kicking
around since companies
started firing up Movable
Type blogs, is in the full flush
of its industrial revolution.”
Matt Creamer, Ad Age Digital
February 28, 2012

4. Every individual on the planet has the
power to create and share stories at a
level previously reserved for major
media outlets…
24 hours 200 million
of video tweets
uploaded delivered daily
to YouTube
each minute
800 million+ All of the content
active created in the history
Facebook users of the world up until
(over 300 million
2003 is now replicated
via mobile)
every 48 hours
- Google

5. Content Fusion provides direction for an organization to become
its own media outlet that owns its message with a consistency
designed to drive stakeholder loyalty and business results
Content Fusion is not a product –
it’s a new way of approaching brand storytelling

6. think about it this way

7. every
organization
can use its assets
to forge
news
tools
knowledge
leadership
resources
history
people

8. formats
every story can be told in multiple
text photo image video audio

10. every vehicle
desti-
has multiple
nations
website
microsite
blog
advocates
events
apps
scribd
internal policy
flickr
youtube
ustream
OOH
tv
radio
magazine
Employees facebook twitter newswire intranet
DM linkedIN newspaper retail forums

11. every destination creates multiple
conver-
sations

12. listening to these
conversations generates more
(and so the story goes)

13. news tools
leadership knowledge
STORY
resources conversations
history people

14. whitepaper tweet
slideshow email
news tools
faq news release
leadership knowledge
fb post image
STORY
resources conversations
blog post video
comments history people podcast
paid media infographic
content vehicle

15. whitepaper tweet
slideshow email
news tools
faq news release
leadership knowledge
fb post image
STORY
resources conversations
blog post video
comments history people podcast
paid media infographic
content vehicle brand ground common ground user ground

16. whitepaper tweet
slideshow email
news tools
faq news release
leadership knowledge
fb post image
STORY
resources conversations
blog post video
comments history people podcast
paid media infographic
content vehicle brand ground common ground user ground conversations

17. every business lives
within a wholly unique
storytelling
ecosystem

18. this ecosystem exists, whether
you choose to harness it or not

19. but what does that mean for a brand?

20. reputation

21. today
63% of company’s market value is
attributed to reputation and The
Economist Intelligence Unit rates
Reputation Risk as the highest risk
factor to a business – greater than
regulatory risk or crime
41% of Global executives regard
confidential or leaked information
appearing online as a top risk to their
company’s reputation.
In the global media, the words
“media” and “leak” appeared
together in 6,449 stories in 2008, a
118% increase from 1998
implication:
a socially connected
world accelerates
reputation damage from
CEOs down to employees
– but can also be used to
protect against it

22. relationships

23. today
people want their relationships
with organizations to mirror their
personal relationships – personal,
accessible, empathetic and
responsible
In his book “GROW” Jim Stengel studied
high growth companies over 10 years,
noting their differentiating factors as
being able to connect with consumers
to elicit joy, Inspire exploration, evoke
pride, impact society and enable
connection
According to Time Magazine, 40% of
consumers in 2009 said they purchased a
product in 2009 because they implication:
appreciated the values of the company Consumers, stakeholders
from which they purchased it and employees want to
associate themselves with
brands that demonstrate
human qualities, leading
to trust and loyalty

24. recruitment
& retention

25. today
Booz + Co. reports that Americans
in 2011 have developed a different set
companies struggle to fill a talent gap
and build loyalty with an emerging
workforce who have grown up digital
of expectations from companies: desire
for “kindness and empathy” went up
391 percent since 2006, “friendly,” 148%
and “socially responsible,” 63 percent.
The Rockefeller Foundation reports that
88% of customers leave a company
because they feel you don’t care
about them, only 14% because they’re
dissatisfied with service. implications:
with a workforce that
has increasingly been
“raised social” it is critical
companies embrace a
new kind of worker or risk
being unable to
retain them

26. brandBrand
equity
recognition

27. today studies argue that consumers are
subject to between 500 and 3,000
media messages on a daily basis
The combination of brand, earned and
paid media resulted in a 61% lift in brand
awareness according to a June 2011
Financial Post article
Executives are finding that the winning
differentiator is no longer product or price,
but the level of customer engagement
relative to the competition.
implication:
breaking through in a
fragmented and cluttered
media environment
requires a strategy that
shares a consistent
message across multiple
touchpoints

28. SEO
drive sales

29. today
consumers have more access to
information than ever before and use it
to make smarter decisions with their
money
Gallup reports that organizations with
optimized engagement have
outperformed competitors by 26% in
gross margin and 85% in sales growth
According to Google, 84% of consumers
research a brand or product online
before they reach a purchasing decision
implication:
today’s consumer is highly
invested in the process of
researching their
purchasing decisions and
access to information and
content through search
play a major role in
this shift

30. recap
Content Marketing, when leveraged effectively,
is a powerful tool that empowers brands to:
 Proactively build reputation against attack
 Build deep and meaningful relationships with
customers and stakeholders
 Impact recruitment and
retention efforts and overall
brand perception
 Drive brand equity
 Contribute to SEO – a critical
element for visibility with
consumers and stakeholders

31. any more questions?

33. contact
Andrew Lane
VP, Content + Platforms
Weber Shandwick Canada
alane@webershandwick.com
@LaneAndrew
http://slideshare.net/LaneAndrew
http://webershandwickdigital.com
@WeberShandwick
@WSCanada