Social media has given every single business access to a mass distribution tool for their message, branding and advertising. The problem is no longer “I can’t afford to advertise”, it is now “what content do I create”.
Perth Airport has created a great piece of content marketing with their Conversations in Cars series, involving two Fremantle Dockers or West Coast Eagles players interviewing each other on the way to Perth airport. Think Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee but with footy players.
They have invested substantially and in my opinion, wisely. Let’s have a look at a few elements to this series, what makes it work and what the airport gets out of it. We’ll be talking about the content itself, use of influencers, commitment to campaign and the content journey.
CONTENT CONTENT
Hey, here’s a terrible idea, make a video where you say “Hi, this is Ricky from the marketing department at the Perth Airport. Sign up to our email and twitter and stuff and we’ll keep you updated with whatever and that when it happens”.
Let’s state the obvious, your business content is now competing with everything else in a users feed. Whether it’s paid or organic, you need to think entertaining and shareable, not just bearable. Pure info doesn’t quite cut it. This series is excellent because it succeeds in being fun and interesting, which in turn encourages engagement.
A great piece of content is the kind that has a comment section filled with people tagging their friends. I’m certain a bunch of people watched this video and tagged a friend before they even really realised it was from the airport. And that is ok. This is an investment where the goal is attracting eyes. Engagement is the currency.
INFLUENCERS
Speaking of attracting eyes, how about that Lachie Weller future model?
This series is also showcases a fantastic use of influencers. While not super direct as opposed to one of these guys flogging footy boots, you still have popular people engaging with your product (in this case just going to the airport and the related convo). They themselves are the attraction to watch the video in the first place. Colin from baggage interviewing Bree from security would probably have a grand viewership of their parents and anyone who accidentally clicked play.
It also doesn’t hurt to seek influencers where the exposure can be mutually beneficial. This series can act as a nice platform to build personal branding. Fremantle’s Tommy Sheridan is building his RIXX eyewear brand, Lachie Weller as a certified beautiful man (CBM) has already begun his modelling career and who doesn’t love Lewis Jetta after watching these videos? (losers is the answer).
COMMIT TO YOUR CONCEPT
Have a plan with your content. What I love about this series is the amount of planning and commitment that the marketing team has put into this. There isn’t a ‘testing of the waters’ or a one and done element. This is a series that has been approached as a whole and pushed heavily on both Facebook and Twitter, dominating the majority of the pages posts from June through to the end of August. A well managed plan with clear goals is always going to outperform a spur of the moment splurge on a big one and done piece of content.
FOLLOW THE CONTENT
So we have established that the quality content is there. What do we do with it?
With the right plan and the right content you can lead your audience on a journey where you can expose them to different platforms, products and offers depending on your end goal. Think carefully about this however because you don’t want to over stretch your content and confuse a user by drowning them in a sea of links and details.
It is important to remember that for each step of this journey there needs to be some form of reward for the audience. Gotta give a little to get a little.
Let’s have a look at the content journey in Conversation in Cars.
The video is engaging so we want to see more (TICK)
Follow the provided link back to the website (TICK)
That link takes us to the collection of videos AFTER we scroll past a big hero image and an easily accessible and attractive competition (TICK)
Competition is structured to collect email in a non-creepy and non-invasive way
So, sure, this content could be relatively expensive, but what has Perth Airport gained along the way?
Quality Facebook post that immediately catches eye
Facebook engagement
Website traffic
Competition engagement
Building mailing list for further marketing in the future
All while achieving the more long term goals of building a general audience and a good rapport with this audience. The marketing team at the airport can sit back and watch this series take off (unacceptable and distasteful pun).
