Some random thoughts about brands and content! If you want a copy pls sent me an email at thecuriousbrain (at) gmail.com. Pls note that I'm dyslexic so if you find that a word is missing or spelling mistake pls let me know

1. LISTENDEAR BRANDS HAVE A
I might be completely wrong...
but I might also be completely right

2. I HAVE THIS CRAZY THEORY ...
I think that most advertising agencies
don’t know how to make you
really interesting online ...
or simply this is NOT their intention!

3. they know
how to grab consumer attention,
BUT
as you already know this only lasts
for a brief period of time.

4. YOU PAY THEM...
Basically
the majority of them operates
like the drug dealers
of attention!
THEY PROVIDE THE ATTENTION

5. LET’S ALL BE
HONESTABOUT IT
MOST BRANDS OUT THERE
ARE NOT APPLE
They will never be
so interesting, innovative, loved
and they will never have
an engaging fan base online.
Their product simply does not allow that.

6. SO IF YOU ARE NOT A BRAND LIKE APPLE
how do you make consumers
care about
what you do online?

7. Well you need to become
VERY VERY
INTERESTINGand this is where most agencies mostly
ai
f
l.

8. Think about it!
WHY DO I SAY THAT?
Does any consumer out there
DAILY?
visit your website or your social media

9. The answer is probably
NO

10. MOST OF YOU
have spend a small fortune
TO BUILD YOUR MASSIVE FOLLOWING ONLINE
and you continue to invest heavily on content.

11. ..SO HOW COME YOUR CONSUMERS
still don’ t find you interesting enough
TO VISIT YOU
DAILY?

12. Only two reasons exist
either your brand/product
SUCKS
or your content
SUCKS

13. Deep down
YOUnot as a brand or a marketing manager
but as a consumer
already know
that most of your content online
SUCKS!

14. Unless you want to buy something,
you mostly visit non branded websites
and view non branded content.
You mostly visit, newsites, blogs, youtube, vimeo, porn, social media, etc, etc, etc.
THINKabout the things
you do daily online.
THINKabout the websites
you visit daily.

15. NOW THINK
about what makes you
SHARE CONTENT DAILY ONLINE
IN YOUR OWN PERSONAL SOCIAL MEDIA.
IS IT CONTENT FROM YOUR BRAND?
Is it from other brands ?
I DOUBT IT

16. THIS IS THE BRAND THAT PUTS FOOD ON YOUR TABLE.
IS NOT EVEN INTERESTING TO YOU !
Yes, sometimes you do share branded content,
but this is mainly, because this is the brand that you are working for.
But most of the times
that content
Be honest
would you share it/spam
In a daily manner?
The answer is probably no!
NOBODY WANTS TO APPEAR
YOUR PERSONAL SOCIAL ACCOUNTS WITH IT?
AS A SPAMMER ONLINE

17. So if you are still with me on this one...
ASK YOURSELF
IF YOU ARE NOT WILLING
TO SHARE THIS CONTENT ONLINE
why do you expect consumers
TO DO IT?

18. Moreover
after all this
ONLINE INVESTMENT
don’t you think that by now
most of the consumers out there
would have been transformed already
INTO LOYAL FANS?

19. FANSTHAT ARE CONSTANTLY HUNGRY
FOR EVERY UPDATE THAT YOU MAKE?
FANSTHAT WOULD SHARE YOUR CONTENT
WITHOUT ANY MEDIA EFFORT
AND WITHOUT ANY INCENTIVES?

20. If you haven’t managed that
already
there is something definitely
going wrong!
DON’T
YOU
THINK
?

21. The truth is that today things
ARE NOT PROMISING
for the most brands online.
CAN
YOU
HANDLE
THE
TRUTH?

22. The truth is that today
as a brand manager/ marketeer
you don’t even know
WHETHER A BOT
has seen your online ad
OR WHETHER A FAKE ACCOUNT
is following you
on your social media.
THESE DAYS YOU CAN’T EVEN BE CERTAIN
whether the rts, the likes and the hits
that you see daily online for your brand,
that make you so happy,
come from a bot!

23. In addition we see the rise of ad blocks
with more and more people
installing them
TO AVOID YOUR CONTENT.
WHY IS THAT?
Even Apple in the future will be against you on this one!

24. THIS MAKES ME WONDER
DO YOU EVER GET YOUR ROI BACK
FOR ALL YOUR EFFORTS ONLINE?

25. Sometimes you do.
If you and your agency are lucky,
something it goes
“VIRAL”
But for the majority of you,
that you can’t invest so heavily,
to brain wash people,
the answer is probably
NO

26. All this time agencies
HAVE CONVINCED YOU,
that this is the way fwd
for your brand online.
However what emerges is
THAT THINGS CURRENTLY ARE NOT WORKING
as they promised you.
RIGHT?
AM I

27. THIS IS BECAUSE
as I already told you,
MOST AGENCIES DO DECENT WORK
TO GRAB ATTENTION FOR A BRIEF PERIOD OF TIME
but they are not in the business to make you interesting
IN THE LONG TERM.
THEY
SIMPLY
DON’T KNOW
HOW!

28. The theories they got,
everything they advise you to do online
IS MOSTLY TO BLEED YOU DRY!
How many times they have convinced you
to create something online
that will create buzz/awareness etc
that is now completely
A MICRO WEB SITE THAT NOW NO ONE VISITS?
PRE ROLLS?
DO YOU SEE MY POINT?
DEAD?
BANNERS THAT NOW NO ONE SEES?

29. You all need to undestand
AGENCIES ARE NOT PUBLISHERS THEY NEVER WERE..
Their DNA is to make product announcements,
not to create content for the digital era
and most of them haven’ t evolved yet!
THEY CONTINUE TO WORK
WITH THE SAME OLD MANNER AND APPLY
THE SAME OLD PRINCIPLES

30. DON’T TAKE MY WORD FOR GRANTED.
Go to their websites, blogs, twitter facebook fan pages
and check what they share!
DO YOU FIND THEM INTERESTING?
They claim they know consumers,
but do you see any of them following them daily ?
Actual consumers..
not people that work for them,
students that hope to get a job there or marketing people.
The answer yet again is probably

31. So my argument here goes
that if by now most of the agencies haven’t managed
TO BECOME INTERESTING PUBLISHERS ONLINE
like all the other websites
that you as an actual consumer,
visit daily
HOW ON EARTH THEY WILL ADVISE
YOUR BRAND TO BECOME ONE?

32. How they will advise you
TO CREATE INTERESTING CONTENT ONLINE,
that people would like to visit daily?
Content that will not require
so much media pressure?

33. The reason behind all these crazy assumptions came to me
AFTER I PAID CLOSER ATTENTION
TO THE BEHAVIOUR OF MY OWN FANS
AND FRIENDS ONLINE.
Due to my blog I have a few
and they are very diverse as a crowd.

34. What became apparent to me
was that the most of them,
especially those who do not work for advertising/marketing
ACTUALLY DON’T GIVE A SHIT
ABOUT BRANDED CONTENT AT ALL.
They never share it.

35. In their feed they are constantly
sharing things that are interesting,
things that are funny,
things that are unique, inspiring, news worthy etc etc.

36. Mostly they share things that make them appear
like a better version of themselves.
They share content that will make them appear
SMARTER
FUNNIER
PHILOSOPHICAL, ETC
ALMOST NO ONE SHARES
BRANDED CONTENT
UNLESS IT IS A CONTEST
AND THEY WANT TO WIN SOMETHING.

37. So ask yourself
IS THIS THE ONLY FUTURE
that your brand has online?
More incentives and more media pressure?
Don’t you feel that things need to change?
Don’t you think that your content
needs to perform better for your brand?
That somehow it needs to make you more interesting online
and transform you to an actual publisher?
A PUBLISHER THAT PEOPLE ACTUALLY
WANT TO FOLLOW AND NOT BLOCK?

38. SO
HOW
ON
EARTH
ARE
YOU
GOING
TO
DO
THAT?

39. As I said
at the beginning of this presentation
maybe I’m completely wrong
but I really believe
THAT IT IS TIME TO
they way you do content strategy
and they way you create content online.
RETHINK

40. w
THE
thing you need to do is to install an ad block...
See what kind of content remains
in your feeds, in youtube,etc
Then you have to stop investing
on the things that you don’t see,
like prerolls, banners etc
1st

41. Then you need to move away
from your boring/annoying product announcements
and your old ways of thinking
AND START CREATING
MEANINGFUL
INTERESTING
CONTENTFOR ALL YOUR FOLLOWERS ONLINE.

42. Authority: Power to influence
or command thought, opinion, or behaviour
*
YOU NEED TO BECOME AN ESTABLISHED AUTHORITY*
ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS THAT ARE IN LINE
WITH YOUR BRAND AND VALUES THAT PEOPLE
WILL FIND INTERESTING, TO VIEW AND SHARE.
I’m not saying stop your products announcements completely, but
you need to mix them up with more valuable content.
PEOPLE TEND TO COME BACK TO SOURCES OF VALUABLE INFORMATION,
THEY DONT BLOCK THEM.

43. YOU NEED TO START THINKING
AS A REAL PUBLISHER
AND NOT SO MUCH
AS A PRODUCT SELLER.
You need to understand that your content daily
needs not only to be very interesting
but that it needs to combat
more effectively every piece of content that is out there
(daily news, a new music video, a new funny cat video etc etc).
You can’t do that by making
only product announcements, ads, competitions
and with the rise of ad blocks now you can’t even
rely on media pressure.

44. w
You also need to stop feeding people
with content online that they have already seen ages ago.
YOU HAVE TO BE IN THE KNOW
Don’t let your agency convince you
that it is worth investing on something similar
they have seen online.
That piece of content will never fly.
ORIGINALCONTENT TENDS TO PERFORM BETTER

45. MOREOVER YOU ALSO NEED
TO LEARN NEW WAYS
TO WORKTO WORK

46. As a brand manager/marketeer
you now have to pay close attention to the fact
THAT THE MOST VIRAL CONTENT IS NOT BRANDED.
THAT THE MOST VIRAL CONTENT ONLINE DOES NOT
COME FROM AN AGENCY.

47. You need to understand
THAT THE MOST VIRAL CONTENT COMES
FROM REAL PEOPLE,
students, experimental film makers, illustrators, animators etc
all desperately seeking to become famous .
THOSE PEOPLE PUT SO MUCH MORE EFFORT
IN THE CONTENT THEY PRODUCE!

48. Therefore in an era where talent lives almost freely available
on vimeo, youtube, behance, vine etc
and their personal content there becomes truly viral
without any media pressure.
YOU NEED TO ASK YOURSELF
WHY DO YOU STILL NEED TO USE
AN AGENCY TO PRODUCE CONTENT?

49. WHY YOU DON’T TRY WORKING DIRECTLY
WITH ALL THESE TALENTED PEOPLE?
They will probably ask you only for a fraction
of what you currently pay your agency
Most of them are not one hit wonders,
they know what their doing.
They keep producing amazing content over and over again.
THEY HAVE A
LOYAL FOLLOWING ONLINE
OF ACTUAL HUMAN BEINGS NOT BOTS
THAT YOU CAN USE TO YOUR ADVANTAGE.
Do you know them?
Does your agency want you to know them?
HUGE

50. Ending, If I were you,
I WOULD ASK DIRECTLY
THE INFLUENCERS
that your agency recommends to you
or the bloggers/websites that you visit daily...

51. How come they generate millions of views
with a fraction of what you pay?
What do they do differently from you
in terms of content strategy to attract people?
Why they are so interesting online?
How come their fans are constantly hungry for their updates?
THEY ARE THE KINGS OF CONTENT
NOT YOUR AGENCY!
With their established experience
they can certainly advise you better,
on how to appear more interesting online.
You only have to ask them!

52. DEAR BRANDS
IT IS TIME
TO BE
MORE
INTERESTING
DON’T
YOU
THINK?
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