The demands on brands in a world where everyone has a voice

Ariadna Grau (Ari) has more than ten years experience as a Brand Manager in the Beauty and Food industry. I recently joined Prospekt Agency, where we work with a lot of Brand Managers, so I wanted to get Ari's take on what it's like.

We spent two hours on google meet talking about her experience. I could have talked for much longer, but then I realised I had to condense the interview into a blog post.

I actually ended up splitting the blog post into four segments:

The definition of brand and the role of a Brand Manager
The qualities you should be looking for in a Marketing Agency
Knowing when an idea is good
The demands on brands in a world where everyone has a voice (this blog post)

I asked Ari about her thoughts on the content clutter online and how you get your voice heard as a brand.

Anyone can share their experience online

Nowadays everyone is talking about their buying experience online. They share their reviews online, educate themselves and use social channels to ask for recommendations. I believe they're searching for the truth.

My specific question to Ari was: "In a world where the consumer has access to so much information, do they even care what the brand is saying?"

9 in 10 people say that online reviews impact their buying decision (source: igniyte), so I wanted to know how much of what the brand says is actually being considered by consumers.

There is no easy answer. Probably because the brand is just another voice in the overcrowded world we live in. Ari says there is far too much content online, and it's hard to know what is true.

People are completely overwhelmed. There is so much fake news out there. This makes it important for brands to be authentic. What you say as a brand should be the source of truth for consumers to believe in the brand.

Be a credible brand

If you want to be heard as a brand, you have to build trust. Ari recommends sharing 'behind-the-scenes' information.

The more open you are to the world, the easier it is for your audience to trust you.

Some brands are better at being authentic than others. They understand how to talk to and engage with their audience.

Content is the currency of digital media

Some brands are lucky enough to have fans increasing their reach by blogging, vlogging and TikTok-ing about them. In fact this is becoming a popular strategy for brands, as they recognise their audience connecting with their ambassadors.

But for a lot of brands good content doesn't come from doing nothing. And with content being the currency of digital media, brands need to get a handle on their content creation.

Ari says:

Content is the world around a brand. As marketers, it is our job to understand and nurture that world.

Get a handle on your content creation

Content creation has to be consistent if you're to remain top of mind. It's no good pumping out content just for the sake of it, though. It has to resonate and engage your audience, and it's your job as a marketer to track that.

I asked Ari what advice she would give to marketers who need to create a constant stream of content to reach their audience.

She says to have these three types of content at the ready:

Evergreen - content that can be used any time of the year, which you know resonates with your audience. This kind of content can be prepared in advance and used at any time, as it's not time or topic sensitive.
Upcycling - this is a way to adjust and repurpose existing content. Ari said that 3D/CGI is a good way to go if you want to get maximum mileage from your digital content, because it can be tweaked and adapted as often as you like.
Trending Topics - you need quick reaction times as well as flexible and available resource to cope with changing demands.

There are so many formats to consider too, it's hard to know what will work best for your audience: Text, Video, Image, Memes, 3D, VR... and while there is some data out there to suggest that visual content converts better, it ultimately comes down to the quality and substance of the content.

Regardless of format, it has to resonate with the audience to be relevant.

This is what we work on with our brands. We take the time to understand your brand, the audience you want to engage, and come up with a plan on how we can achieve that with our striking visual content.

Our goal is to make the scrollers stop for you. Like we did for Ari and all of our brands.