GE has become a content company by focusing on attention, passions, context and storytelling over eyeballs and interruptions. They think of products as marketing and aim for coherence across contexts. GE designs content for streaming, lets the brand pulse through subtly, builds emotional arcs and experiments with new formats. They focus on sharing over campaigns, value certain impressions over others based on engagement, and use networked platforms and native advertising to spread content widely. GE measures success based on shares, engagement and cost rather than just views, and optimizes to lift their brand.

1. HOW
@GENERAL ELECTRIC
BECAME A
CONTENT COMPANY
@JonLombardo

2. HI, I ’M
@JONL OMBARDO

3. I T’S A LL
A BOUT A TTENTION

4. 22% OF TIME SPENT ONLINE IS NOW SOCIAL
16%
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5. A ND
R E-THINKING O UR
‘MEDIA MANIFESTO ’

6. SEVEN PRINCIPLES
1. The media is the message
2. Think like a publisher
3. Beyond eyeballs: passions
4. Beyond interruption: context
5. Owning moments
6. Products are marketing
7. Beyond integration: coherence
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7. HOW W E’RE
T HINKING A BOUT
CONTENT

8. KNOW YOUR CONTEXT
1 3
2
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9. THINK ABOUT WHY PEOPLE SHARE
1. Prominent Branding Puts Off Viewers
The solution: Utilize “brand pulsing.” Unobtrusively weave the brand image
throughout the ad. Experiments have shown that this can increase viewership by
up to 20%.
2. People Get Bored Right Away
The solution: Create joy or surprise right away.
3.People Watch for a While but Then Stop
The solution: Build an emotional roller coaster.
Viewers are most likely to continue watching a
video ad if they experience emotional ups and
downs. This fits with psychological-research
findings about human adaptability.
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10. DESIGN FOR STREAM STORYTELLING
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11. LET GO OF THE BRAND (KIND OF)
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12. PLAY WITH NEW FORMATS
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13. ‘THE EXPERIENCE IS THE BRAND’
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14. #CONVERSE, DON’T CAMPAIGN
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15. HOW
W E’RE T HINKING
A BOUT D ISTRIBUTION

16. NOT ALL IMPRESSIONS ARE EQUAL
TY GE! TY GE! TY GE!
• 12,000 unique users engaged
• 4,700 engagement (37% response rate)
• 2,000 gifts sent
• 1,400 organic posts
• 1.4M Peer To Peer impressions
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17. SHARING IS CARING
Users who discovered the
GE content through a
friend sharing the content
were 83% more likely to
consider GE “creative,”
compared to users who
found the content from
within BuzzFeed.
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18. BUILD ON NETWORKED PLATFORMS
Tumblr receives 135M+ MUVs, has 72M+ blogs and sees 59M+ posts daily.

19. NATIVE ADVERTISING (aka CONTENT)
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20. METRICS THAT MATTER
Screenshot from Metrics that Matter, an internal tool aggregating key
metrics across the digital platforms where GE operates.
1. Shares
2. YouTube Likes/Dislikes
3. Engagement rate
4. Cost per engagement

21. OPTIMIZING BRAND LIFT
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22. #A sk Jon