This month we are looking at the connection between content, marketing and culture to explore what works and what doesn’t. We sat down with Laundry Service's Creative Director, Ollie Williams, to hear more about their fundamental approach to content creation and insights on effective branding in content marketing.
Content is the bridge between you and your audience. How do you anticipate and then integrate the right topics for your audience while maintaining a consistent brand voice?
This one’s simple: hire your audience. Don’t second guess what your audience wants to see – let them make it.
We all sit on mountains of data and have no end of available tools to find out what our audience is talking about at any given moment. But ultimately there is no substitute for having creative and creators from your audience on your team making the content they want to see.
What role does branding play in content marketing?
Clearly it’s important that your audience know that content comes from your brand – otherwise, what’s the point? But effective branding in content isn’t about logos, end cards and color schemes; it’s about giving your brand a clear, natural and authentic role within the content. Your brand should add to and enhance the content rather than intruding upon it. If you have to stick a logo in the corner for people to know it’s from you, the idea probably isn’t right or good enough.
Not everything can be advertised the same way, which can require a different approach across clients. How does content affect the way something is marketed and how do you pivot to treat this?
Honestly, I don’t necessarily believe a different approach is required across clients. Whatever the client, the fundamental approach remains the same: create shit that you’d watch if you weren’t paid to. Things that have a value to the viewer beyond what brands are trying to sell – whether that be to make you laugh, think, cry or learn.
Without giving away your secrets, what are some things that are integral to your internal checklist when creating content?
Personally, I don’t believe there’s a checklist or a rulebook when it comes to creating great content. Again, there’s only one question that I want my teams to keep in mind when they’re creating content and that’s, “Would I watch this if I wasn’t paid to?”
We all spend all day, every day on social scrolling through our feeds, liking stuff and sharing with our friends. We instinctively know what’s good and what we want to see more of. And yet, when we come into work, for some reason we forget those instincts.
We think: ”It’s work, so it has to be serious, right? I can’t possibly make something I’d actually want to watch.”
Wrong. Forget about what you learned in ad school, forget about checklists, and just make stuff you’d be happy to tag your friends in.
How do you strategize for the way audiences will want to interact with content in virtual realities, Web 3.0, and the metaverse? To what extent do you involve influencers and consumers in creating the brand narrative?
My honest opinion is that, for the vast majority of consumers – and therefore brands – Web 3.0 and the metaverse are still some way off becoming a mainstream and relatable reality. The adoption of these technologies is (for the time being at least) fairly niche. Unless your audience is part of that niche, branded experiments with the metaverse run the risk of coming off as media industry navel-gazing or glib in-jokes.
Basically, what I’m saying is: please, no more branded NFTs!