Moment Studio 2017 Content Marketing Outlook

2017
CONTENT
MARKETING
OUTLOOK
The 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 KRAEMER
CEO 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.
1
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.
2
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 LENT
Creative 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.
3
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 KRAEMER
CEO

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
Tactical-Led
Consumer Forward
Campaign-Led
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.
4
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 LANDAUER
Head 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.
5
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. SCOTT
Editorial 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.
6
For 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?
7
Live 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 KRAEMER
CEO

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.
8
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.
9
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 TASSEL
Associate 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. TYRA
Associate 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.
FOREWORD
The 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 COOKSEY
EXECUTIVE 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 LENT
CREATIVE 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 JOHNSON
EXECUTIVE 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 KRAEMER
CEO
@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 HUEBSCH
PRODUCER
@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 TASSEL
ASSOCIATE 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. SCOTT
EDITORIAL 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 LANDAUER
HEAD 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.

INFO@MOMENTSTUDIO.COM@HIMOMENTSTUDIO | |@HIMOMENTSTUDIO

Moment Studio 2017 Content Marketing Outlook

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Moment Studio 2017 Content Marketing Outlook