Custom Media Programs: How Content Drives Customer Strategy
A custom media program integrates your core message across media channels. This means that your customers are engaged in a way that suits them, allowing them to opt in to whatever media channel they prefer. This puts them in control and makes your message all the more welcomed.
One of the greatest benefits of customized branded content is the ability to keep the dialogue with consumers timely and ongoing. More importantly, custom media puts the brand firmly in control of the message. Studies show that customers respond to this approach: The Roper Public Affairs Custom Publishing Survey from March 2009 reveals that 70% of surveyed participants have acted on tips and information delivered to them in a custom publication.
“A custom media program is the optimal tool for brands to connect with consumers throughout the customer life cycle,” says Redwood SVP Marketing & Business Development Joseph Barbieri. “By combining journalistic insights with marketing acumen, we deliver inspiring and entertaining communications to customers through branded storytelling. We’ve proven that this approach results in loyal consumers and the building of brand communities.”
This is the essence of custom branded content: It can entertain, inspire and inform the reader (or viewer) at the same time that it delivers a solid brand message.
Here’s an example
The work Redwood does for Aeroplan is a good example of a highly tactical custom media program that integrates a focused content plan across multiple media channels. The magazine, Aeroplan Arrival, is a glossy compendium of inspiring travel and lifestyle articles targeted to one million of Aeroplan’s high-value customers. Content from the magazine—say, a travel article on Tel Aviv’s 100th anniversary—is extended online at Arrival’s website, where readers are directed for more travel content, as well as program messages. Portions of the article might also live on Aeroplan’s transactional website, where readers are directed to redeem their Aeroplan Miles for a trip to Tel Aviv. Customized emails can leverage different messages about the Tel Aviv content “package,” depending on customer segmentation and level of interaction with Aeroplan. Finally, that same Tel Aviv content can play a part in Aeroplan’s direct mail messaging, leading readers to any of the channels—print, email, online and mobile in 2010—that make the most tactical sense.
If you look at the Aeroplan example, you can see how the content seed (Tel Aviv travel; or travel in general) is the building block on which the program is designed. It’s the topic upon which all messaging is built. It would work the same way if the originating media were a book, film or music CD instead of a branded loyalty program magazine.
In essence, building a custom media program around content is about knowing your customers so well that they become advocates for your brand and become active participants in your brand communities. Then, it’s about getting the most “mileage” from that content by optimizing it across customer touch points, or channels. Finally, most importantly, it’s about measuring the results, proving the ROI and refining the program as it evolves. If anything, customized branded content is a living, breathing, organic entity. Treat it as such, and the possibilities are endless.
Steps to develop a custom media program
Developing a custom media program for a client depends on myriad factors that include the client’s objectives, profile of customers, budget, overarching marketing plan, current CRM activity, etc. Here are some of Redwood’s strategic recommendations when developing a cohesive and integrated plan:
1. Define program objectives
Knowing what you want to achieve—such as sales uplift, increased ROI, brand awareness or perception—is step one. The objectives determine everything from the communications channels to the tone and subject matter of the content. Most importantly, clear objectives allow for accurate measurement in order to determine success.
2. Know your customers
Understanding your customer is at the core of each program. It’s crucial to shaping content that is relevant and welcomed. Barbieri highlights that at Redwood, dedicated teams ensure that staff are steeped in client objectives and customer insights. This ensures that all messaging enhances brand objectives while also delivering value to the customer.
3. Craft your brand story
Exemplary branded messaging is a true art, requiring the skills of written storytelling combined with the tactics of persuasive marketing. Redwood has developed this skill set in the hybrid title of Marketing Journalists. Most importantly, they are experts in all media channels, from print and online to video and mobile.
4. Optimize content across customer touch points
The brand’s overall strategy and objectives determine communication tactics, which in turn determine the best channel or vehicle to deliver your message. Studies show that consumers who are engaged with your brand through more than one channel spend 30% more than those engaged only through one.1
One example of this approach is Rouge, a North American custom media content program developed for P&G. This program is built around a smart, savvy and alluring magazine that targets high-value consumers and brings the power of scale to P&G’s beauty brands, with content extensions that include enewsletters, social media and website channels. Click here to explore this multi-faceted program.
5. Measure the results and improve
Ongoing qualitative and quantitative program measurement and analyses tools ensure that results are achieved. Measurement is also leveraged to shape messaging and targeting so that the program constantly evolves to meet changing customer needs, as well as your brand’s evolving communications strategies. In the end, it’s about delivering content that anticipates customer needs and desires.
Get to know us
Redwood Custom Communications forms part of Transcontinental Marketing Communications Sector and has been a North American leader in creating branded media programs for 10 years. Leading brands such as Procter & Gamble, Aeroplan, Bank of America, Canada Post, CAA, The Home Depot, Frito-Lay and Geico have chosen to partner with Redwood to develop content solutions worthy of a customer’s time and attention.
Visit us online at www.redwoodcc.com
View our portfolio at www.redwoodcc.com/evolution
1MLC – Making the Case for Direct Mail Investments, April 2007.
