Samsung Galaxy: The Strange New Dichotomy of "Content Driven Interruption Marketing"

As digital and social content marketing evangelists, we were intrigued by the new Samsung Galaxy Note TV advert (which you can see below) as it is, on the face of it, a baby step towards content marketing:

Many brands (especially tech and comms brands) have already woken up to the fact that their TV adverts (or more accurately their traditional interruption marketing messages) now need to incorporate multi-channel, multi-touch and viral elements to help tie their actual adverts into their social media engagement, for example. With the huge adoption of marketing automation and the fact that content marketing has rapidly replaced traditional marketing in the digital space; it seems that smart brands like Samsung are now happy to explore creating adverts like the one above. 

So what's the difference between this advert and others? The advert at least attempts to be more "contenty"  by focussing on a message centred around educating and helping their audience by providing engaging information about a subject - a subject which isn't overtly about the product itself and which they very much don't focus on.

Of course, that's just a not so subtle vehicle to showcase their product in an interesting context but essentially that's what good content marketing is all about - combining content with context. Problem is that as brave (or cynical) as it is, the creators of "old media" will always try and pass-off marketing content as content marketing - they just can't help themselves. Interruption marketing is still interruption marketing and always will be because no-one will ever switch on the adverts to try and learn something or overcome a challenge they have. In the omni-channel, post-Google landscape we don't believe that TV advertising (and other forms of traditional marketing) can ever recover from what has been a huge paradigm shift in buying behaviour. What is important to note though is that by even attempting to use some of the concepts of content marketing in adverts like this, the producers of it are, at the very least, tacitly recognising the threat that content marketing presents to them (and endorsing it as a contemporary technique).

Interested to see more examples of what we'll now christen "content driven interruption marketing" (clearly a contradiction in terms) so please use the comments below to suggest any that you think fit the bill.

LEGO - Building on Content Marketing Brick by Brick

Here at Superfluity we've been looking at the incredible success of the The Lego Movie after significant pressure from own kids who are currently marketing us heavily across multiple channels to take them to the cinema to see it!

We thus thought we’d ask if there has ever been a greater example of not just incredibly overt product placement but innovative content marketing? We think not.

With a groundbreaking film that blends entertainment with a physical suite of products, Lego has effectively just pulled off the biggest marketing coup since Apple revealed that they don’t need to do ANY advertising to launch a new product (because they are now in the luxurious position of being able to solely rely on the media to create buzz for their products and they also enjoy the huge benefits they get from organic product placement in TV shows and movies).

From a purely demographic perspective, The Lego Movie is what Hollywood calls a “Four Quadrant Success” because it hits the four main demographic groups - young and old, male and female. From a marketing perspective, the film is unquestionably content marketing at its very best and, in fact, it’s a staggeringly effective piece of gated content marketing (because you of course have to actually pay to see the actual content). Content marketing  simply does not get any more gated than The Lego Movie. In turn, Lego has hit all the sweet spots that content marketing is specifically designed to hit and this leads to greater product advocacy, massive engagement across all demographics and, of course, more sales of their core Lego products.

It is the subject of their core products which is perhaps the most compelling thing because Lego almost stands alone as a content marketer in that respect. Why? Because different to most companies who use content marketing to help sell their core products; Lego are actually making money by physically selling their own content. In doing so, they have become a media publisher in their own right. It’s incredibly rare for a brand to straddle both sides in terms of selling content and also using content to sell something else so we take our hats off to them.

Lego Social Media - Building Relationships Through Content Driven Engagement

Not only have Lego influenced architects for a long time now but they’re now actually influencing marketers and content marketing as a dogma.  Leveraging their success with content marketing, they took things to an even greater level this weekend with a whole series of adverts where they 'took over' other brands like Confused.com, BT and the British Heart Foundation to show Lego versions of their own recent adverts. You can watch it below or click here:

Clearly, Lego and their marketing team are a very switched on bunch of people who are to us a shining example of the pinnacles of success that can be achieved using omni-channel content marketing and marketing automation. Lego were early adopters of marketing automation technology like Omniture and they definitely recognised the advantages that storytelling and content gave to their overall sales and marketing strategy a long time ago. This contemporary approach has subsequently permeated through everything they do – from gathering sign-ups with the Lego ID to their many microsites to their community platforms to their Lego network to their social media and beyond. 

They're even doing top tips style content...

All of Lego's channels and activity work in unison using the principles of what we enthuse so much at Superfluity - social, digital, automation and they certainly echo the concept we have pioneered of "Mission Control". 

It is content marketing and not traditional 'interruption' marketing that is driving Lego's sales and with The Lego Movie and the marketing programme shrinkwrapped around that then they're adding yet another dimension to the term bricks and clicks.

The Lego Movie  Marketing - Redefining Bricks and Clicks