Power Of Cartoons In Content Marketing

Most marketers today know that they need to invest and increase their efforts in content marketing strategies. There is content overload but a definitive need to be different to stand out from the crowd.
51% of B2B marketers indicate they will increase their content marketing spending in the next 12 months - Content Marketing Institute

The main objectives of any content marketing strategy is to:

• Drive sales / Lead generation 
• Engage the relevant audience and Influencers
• Create brand re-call / awareness

Marketers share content in form of whitepapers, case-studies, infographics, blog posts, analysts reports, videos etc. I believe that an untapped form of content marketing is through 'Cartoons.' Ever thought about the power of content marketing with cartoons?

Effective content marketing today means capturing the essence of a great idea in a quick snackable way!

Cartoons can induce life into the content that can strike a chord with your audience. They have the power to capture the attention of your audience and tell a story in a unique way. 

Cartoons can help companies breakthrough the content clutter and are a great way of taking complex ideas and making them easy to understand.

Kronos, an industry leader in time management and talent management solutions, wanted to extend their brand, reach new prospects and engage with employees. They did this by launching a weekly cartoon series that was shared with more than 3,000 employees as well as with industry analysts, customers and the media. They further posted them on a website dedicated to the series.

The cartoons were embraced very well internally and Kronos took a step further to engage with people outside of the company by launching a contest to caption their cartoons, for which they received over 500 entries! One of the companies even wanted the permission to outfit their walls with Kronos' cartoons! Imagine someone seeking permission to print your content at their workplace! Isn't that a testimony of how relevant your content can be?

When you think about cartoons, don't take them in the literal sense always. They could be in form of doodles or illustrations as well.

Amul, one of India’s oldest and most well-known food brands, itself a product of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (and the largest milk producer in the world), uses images in a very effective way.

Be it a cause or social issue, Amul is quick to jump into the story, often introducing the Amul girl into the landscape. This has made the brand iconic. Check out a few examples here.

Topical: Outrage against terrorism



Topical: Legend leaves international arena

The next time you are thinking about ways to break through the content marketing clutter, consider cartoons as a powerful content marketing tool.

Thinking of how to get started?

• Figure out what is the one message you want to communicate 

"For me, it's the narrow focus. You can really communicate one & only one message in a single cartoon #SocialPowWow" - @ErinMFeldman

• Be clear about how much marketing budget you are willing to spend on such an activity: Cartoons have to align with strategy and budget

"Start with a small ask and work toward more budget as you see results #SocialPowWow" - @ErinMFeldman

• Be consistent in your messaging while using cartoons as a tool to share your story

"Cartoons are serial in nature #SocialPowWow" - @ErinMFeldman

• Make it interesting and engaging by adding humor 

"Intelligence, humor. It's about visually communicating ideas, even if using stick figures (like xkcd) #SocialPowWow" - @ErinMFeldman

If you have experimented with content marketing through cartoons, I'd like to know how it had a positive impact on your business!

Visual Content Marketing

Researchers say humans have lesser attention span than goldfish! The average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds to eight seconds and goldfish are believed to have an attention span of nine seconds!

Given the short attention span that humans have, lengthy explanations are indeed less effective. Hence, the need for crisp and engaging content which the audience can consume, retain and remember. Visuals play a big role in engaging the audience and use of effective visuals can boost engagement and spark up social media conversations.



"Visuals attract like a magnet. There's no better way to reach people than through images and emotion." - @KDHungerford

Such content can be effective in any format, whether it is an image, infographic or a video. We must know the context and our audience well enough to understand what they would like to see.



According to @KDHungerford, we must think like a community - the most effective content is the one that your community craves for!



Effective content is like good food. It brings people around the table



And sometimes, it's not just about creating effective content but taking an opportunity of the conversations already happening around us...

An interesting example of this is the recent Facebook Live video of a mom (Candace Payne) laughing joyously about a Chewbacca mask she purchased at Kohl’s which went viral and is one of the most viewed Facebook Live video of all times.

Kohl's addressed the video on its social media pages by posting a GIF of Payne’s video on Twitter and sharing it on the Kohl’s Facebook page. Further, Kohl’s posted a picture of Payne with Star Wars products it gave to her family after she posted the video. The picture was liked more than 200,000 times on Facebook and shared nearly 70,000 times! That's not it, to keep the conversation going, Kohl's even posted a video of Payne and her family receiving gift cards and reward points. The video has been liked nearly 700,000 times on Facebook and viewed more than 30 million times. On Twitter, the video has been retweeted more than 2,000 times and liked roughly 3,500 times. This is a perfect example of how a brand seized the opportunity of the content already out there!

"Put your community at heart of your content because that's the content that will win big." - @cmtyworks



If you are not yet focusing on visual content in your marketing strategy, it’s time to re-think your strategy.

I'd love to know how effective visual content marketing has been for your brand or business?

What Makes For A Powerful Marketing Strategy?

With integrated marketing communications, we are moving towards converged media: Paid + Owned + Earned. While having all the three elements in a marketing strategy is not necessary, a mix of all can together create a powerful marketing strategy. For a good brand experience, no channel/medium or either of these elements should be disconnected.

During our #SocialPowWow twitter chat, Josh St. Aubin explained the concept of earned, owned and paid media in a nutshell as:

Earned = Promotions (Free Eyeballs)

Owned = Branded Content

Paid = Ads (Money for Eyeballs)

Organic content reach on social networks is on a continuous decline and in fact, the most powerful pieces of earned media can't break through the clutter occasionally. That's where paid media becomes more effective than earned media. Paid media is needed the most when earned and owned media aren't sufficient.

"Owned & earned should always be the priority. Your goal should be to convert paid into earned." - Josh St. Aubin

That said, brands need to understand that paid media is not just to gain social love instantly and must be used wisely. While no brand can ignore paid media, using it without a strong content strategy will not help the brand in any way. Paid media can enhance the reach but engagement and retention is dependent on a brand's narrative.

It's a brand's responsibility to own and release content that the customers and fans would like to share and engage with. Interestingly, including a loyalty strategy in your content & social strategy engages the audience more. According to @colloquy, VIP & loyalty program customers are 70% more likely to spread word of mouth about your business. It's important to win the trust of your customers, fans/followers and convert them into loyal fans.

A brand should keep tweaking its content strategy to understand what the audience loves to engage with because what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow.

At the core of converged media – of all media – is content. A solid content strategy is essential and central to all media initiatives and without content, brands cannot achieve earned media at scale.

(Photo credit: Altimeter Group)

Social PR - The New Age PR

The Indian PR landscape is continuously evolving and it's fascinating to see clients adapt to the

integration of our digital efforts. As a communications consultant we need to realize that today, majority of our audience is online and we need to think of different ways to reach out to them.

Digital media and technology has paved way for innovation and creativity in our communications approach and we should embrace these new media platforms and tools. This evolution has given birth to what we call today as 'Social PR.'

While the clients are realizing the value of communicating to the stakeholders in an integrated approach - bringing online and offline together, PR professionals in India still seem to be reticent to this change. Of course, change isn't easy and it takes a while to adapt and evolve with change but if we don't embrace this change "now", we might not be relevant in the industry for too long.

How is Social PR different from Traditional PR?

"The principles of good PR don't change. What makes Social PR different is that it uses technology to socialize our work." - @Shonali

Social PR goes beyond social media platforms and is about conversation, engagement, connection and collaboration with the community that matters to you/ your brand. It also means reaching out to the right community and audience through online news portals and blogs.

"Social PR is just a cool way to spice up PR to make it more efficient" - @IvaIgnjatovic

The new age PR/ Social PR is about identifying the right influencers to build a community of like minded people.

It's like creating a safety net for your brand

If you empower and educate the community, be honest and transparent with them, they will stand by you at all times. They can become a brand's biggest ambassadors and can help you reach where you want to be.

Everyone on social media is an influencer in some regard and it's imperative to listen and identify the real influencers for your brand. A real influencer doesn't necessarily need to have a huge social following, but should definitely resonate with the brand's message and should have a strong hold of the content and engagement with his/her community. 

Social PR content strategy is built keeping in mind not just the media but a larger set of stakeholders

In my opinion, content strategy for Social PR should be crafted in a way to spark conversations, not just with the media but with a larger audience and community. Social also gives the ability to re-purpose content which isn't usually the case in regular PR. Content for social can be targeted much more accurately as compared to that of regular PR.

To incorporate meaningful conversations on social, it is very important to listen to what your audience needs, wants and desires. Unless you learn to listen, it will be hard to crack the Social PR strategy.

With the rise in Social PR, a question that's often asked is whether there will be a fall in media relations. In my opinion, the role of media will still be very crucial and important to the overall PR strategy. However, the way media relations is conducted will change overtime.

Who is considered as media is also changing with the rise of influencers

A Social PR strategy will include targeting the influencers and media will be a sub-set of those influencers.

Given the changing dynamics of the communications landscape, it's important for communication professionals to understand that Social PR is just an extension of PR. To stay relevant in the industry and provide strategic communication counsel to the clients, we need to change our mindset, believe in the power of integrating marketing, embrace and accept this change with open arms.

What do you think?

Rise of Influencer Marketing

The increased presence of social media has given consumers a lot of power and it's becoming

increasingly difficult to distinguish who the real and ethical influencers are. With this power, there comes a need for marketeers to build an influencer marketing strategy.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influncer marketing is the type of marketing that focuses on using experts or leaders in a specific domain to drive a brand's message to a larger audience.

According to a May 2015 study by Schlesinger Associates, 84% of global marketers expected to launch at least one influencer marketing campaign in the coming years, and 81% of those who had already done so reported they were happy with the results.

With this trend picking up, it's important to understand what makes someone an influencer considering everyone on social media is an influencer in some regard.

"The potential to influence can be zeroed down to three important pillars: Reach, Resonance and Relevance." - Tejas Krishna

When we talk about an influencer, most of us think of of it as a person with large number of followers on twitter or a huge fan following on social networks. That's a very myopic way of identifying an influencer.

Anyone with followers above a threshold, provided they are not bots, can claim to be an influencer today. I recently read a story in Mint, where a 17 year old boy with close to 23K followers on twitter, considers himself to be an online influencer. Brands pay him to tweet and reach out to a wider audience. Is that a right approach to influencer marketing?

In my opinion, *Absolutely NOT*

If a brand's target is to reach out to a wider audience through influencers who have a massive following on social networks, then they must target the people (including celebrities) who 'truly believe in brand's value and what it has to offer to its audience.'

In the above example, a teenager is making his pocket money just by tweeting. With multiple brands reaching out to him for their campaigns, makes him believe he is an online influencer. He isn't an expert in a specific domain, he doesn't believe in a particular brand but is ready to work for multiple brands at the same time to earn extra bucks! This example makes me believe that most brands are getting 'Influencer Marketing' wrong.

What makes for an ethical influencer?

• An influencer is someone who is an expert in a specific domain
• A huge follower base is indeed a plus for an influencer. However, the quality of the followers matters just as well. It's important to identify those who have grown their following organically over time 
• Massive follower base isn't a necessity to qualify as an influencer but what matters the most is content & engagement 

"A good sign when you've become an influencer is when that authority goes unquestioned and folks trust you automatically"- Hemant Gaule

It's often said that influencer marketing is paid for. While in most cases, influencer marketing is "assumed" to be paid for, it doesn't hold true for every campaign. However, it's important to be transparent and open about such an engagement.

"Brands are identifying ways where they can let influencers experience something great and not link it to money directly." - Tejas Krishna

That said, I do believe that it isn't necessary to always pay influencers to market a product/service. A lot depends on the kind of relationship you share with them. If brands develop strong relationships with its customers, then they can leverage those customers on social media as their biggest influencers.

But hey, what's more powerful? - voice of a customer or voice of an influencer
A cutsomer's voice goes a long way in making or breaking a brand! Your customer is the king BUT if an influencer has the power to change the decision of those customers, that makes an influencer's voice more powerful.

If you are looking to engage influencers for your brand, do take a note of the above points and use social media platforms to identify, engage, interact and build relationships with your influencers.

What do you think it takes to be an ethical influencer on social media? I'd love to know your views in the comment section below.

The Emerging World of Brand Journalism

The Internet has made brand publishing ubiquitous. Gone are the days when brands required an intermediary to reach their target audience. Now, they have the luxury of reaching out to their audience directly, through content storytelling.

Welcome to the emerging world of brand journalism

Brands are using digital publishing tools and social media to directly reach out to their audience. 

On January 11th this year, one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in India, Flipkart.com announced the news of their new co-founder on Twitter. As a PR professional or a reporter, we usually expect big announcements to unveil at a press conference/event BUT with digital media, things are changing.

Flipkart tweeted the news via their handle @FlipkartStories and uploaded the full story on stories.flipkart.com. The news of course spread like fire!

Flikpart now shares all their stories on the stories.flipkart.com.

This example reiterates the fact that:

• Brands want to own the narrative and want to be storytellers to reach out to their consumers/stakeholders directly
• Brands are looking for quick and effective ways of communicating with their target audience 
• There is no need for intermediaries to tell a brand's story - with brands sharing their own stories, they don't need reporters to reach out to the stakeholders. However, how 'authentic' the story is, cannot be judged 

Brand journalism and brand content have very different purpose and ethics. Journalists/reporters share authentic news with the public, however, a brand's content is always targeted at its consumers. The ultimate aim of a reporter is to'inform' the public and that of a brand is to 'sell.'

So while we say that the world of brand journalism is emerging, not sure if it will 'shake up' the media industry. That said, we might see a rise of brand editors in the near future. What do you think?

Are you a thought leader on social media?

Recently I hosted Jason LeDuc, Founder and President of Evil Genius Leadership Consultants, LLC,

an executive and leadership coaching firm on #SocialPowWow twitter chat . The one hour chat with him fueled a lot of questions and conversation around positioning oneself as a thought leader on social media.

While offline networking and communication with the industry peers can position oneself as a thought leader in the industry, social media is the vehicle for effective leadership online. Leaders have multiple audiences, from customers, employees to industry peers and social media helps reach them all.

In the words of Jason, "Social media is an incredible way to show the world about your leadership values and style."

To become a leader in your own community, start by helping existing communities

"Communities are made of people, so connecting existing communities is a great way to build a new one!" - Jason 

Engaging and building relationships with the existing community helps strengthen your own network. An interesting point that Jason pointed out during the chat was that often best results come from connecting two communities that don't know each other and social is built for that.

While having an online presence and engaging with communities on social platforms is a must to be seen as a thought leader, what's more important is to understand which networks should a leader be present at.

We can never define one platform where presence is a must to be visible as a thought leader. It depends on your goals and who you are trying to connect with.

Interestingly, during the chat, the community voted for Twitter and LinkedIn to be the most effective social networks for thought leaders. Twitter is great for real-time engagement, feedback and to build a community. LinkedIn is effective to network with the peers in the industry and engage with them via LinkedIn groups/ posts.

Platforms like Blab, can bring across personality and authenticity. However, it isn't mandatory to be on live streaming apps or on video networks to position yourself as a leader.

And to be a like-able leader, you got to be "Authentic."

"Likeability comes after lot of work. Approachability, Accessibility, Attitude to help, Humility & Updated content" - @falgunivasavada

In fact, those in the leadership position and active on social media come across as more friendly, transparent and accessible to the followers.

If you want to be seen as a thought leader, raise your social media profile

• Focus on your objective and reach out to your target audience via online forums / LinkedIn groups / Twitter/ Blogs
• Start small - like participating in Twitter chats and building connections 
• Engage with your audience with effective and useful content
• Always respond to questions and comments 
• Share your thoughts, learnings and opinions with the community
• Engage for social good. Support causes that are closer to your heart and associate with like minded groups - @1DigitaLife

"Leadership is about people and if we are not engaging, we are not really leading" - Jason

Our community gave a shout out to the leaders who engage, communicate and lead in the areas of HR/ Entrepreneurship/ Leadership/ Communications/ Travel: @richardbranson; @anandmahindra; @AshishJThakkar;@GautamGhosh @narendramodi; @BarackObama; @sureshpprabhu;@guykawasaki; @PrabirJha; @AbhijitBhaduri; @IndianYash; @JoyAndLife;@JLipowski; @Nicolette_; @TheTravelCamel;@Sihpromatum;@PRmomentIndia; @shonali

I'd love to know the thought leaders who have inspired you on social media. What is your like-ability quotient for a leader on social networks? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!