Gone in 60 hours.

The importance of continuous content.By the time you read this, Priya Warrier’s wink would’ve been relegated to the fringes of your Hippocampus – the human brain’s seat of memory. Chances are that it would be replaced by something more important, recent or more memorable.

Our short-term memory is only capable of storing about 7 items at any given point in time. This is the working memory that guides us constantly in making decisions, drawing out priorities and simply getting on with life.

The long-term memory is the indelible stuff in our brain. The things we have done repeatedly (learn the alphabet or math tables or driving or a sport), important memories or incidents (school friends, becoming a parent or all the Sholay dialogues).

Brand owners and managers have over time always tried to create that one piece of messaging (let’s call it a campaign) that attempts to stick to the consumer’s mind, memory and psyche – making them purchase that car, cola or book that vacation. Or, in other words, they have tried to create content of a type that embeds itself in the intended target’s ‘long-term memory’.

Things are a little different in our world since the penetration of smartphones and affordable data has redefined consumption of all form of content. It becomes important for brands, movements, societies to use repetition using different stimuli to draw out the desired action.

There would be little disagreement today for a brand to create multiple forms of content that are relevant to a central message. While this may not overnight replace the need for a ‘hero’ content or a traditional ‘campaign’ – the need for it to coexist is already here.

Brand teams, however, are still structured around delivering ‘campaigns’ – thematic, tactical, testimonial and any other handle you choose to call it. But it may not always take a total re-engineering of approach and structure to start developing newer forms of messaging to target audiences.

There are, at the core, five easy things for a brand to start doing that can become the beginning of a healthy, reliable and planned content programme.

1. Step one – a strategy:

Knowing what to do is always the first step in any brand activity. And from here comes knowing what to say and knowing what to expect. A deeper look at any brand will reveal many supporting reasons (other than a driving USP, if there is one) for a brand to be consumed. Very often they tend to get overshadowed by a single-minded grand message. But are still important and will form the blueprint from where your messaging will emerge. Along with a defined set of messages, it is also key to keep the personality (tonality, visual world, icons) consistent with every form of content that is attempted.,/ 2. The discipline of repetition:

Developing one great campaign or that mega blockbuster TV spot and expecting wonders for a brand is like going to the gym once in 3 months. Working out for 2 hours. And expecting to wake up the next morning with Tom Hardy’s body. Unlikely, right?

The discipline of developing consistent, on-brand, relevant content has to be done regularly until such time as you cannot imagine a brand activity without it. Don’t worry about firing that silver bullet with every content brief – more is better. Focus on the accurate messaging instead of superlative production values and you’ll have taken the first step to a healthier brand.

3. Develop different types of content:

Traditionally content was defined by the media that was available to us. TV spots for TV. Press ads for print and so on. Now, there is a single device which is the focal point for consumption of multiple formats of content. And consumers are consuming it all. In great numbers. Without trying to jump-start your brand to cool forms like AR and VR – make small confident steps with formats that are abundant.

Have you ever made a video blog for your brand? Have you ever put up testimonials on the internet? Those might be less daunting places to start.

4. Take a programming approach:

Let’s ask ourselves who makes content because their lives depend on it. These are the TV and internet content companies. Because it’s so critical for them they plan and plan and plan their programming. Is there someone in your brand team who can plan your brand’s programming calendar? Putting together a simple calendar of content around brand attributes make it a more predictable and planned approach to creating the desired content.

Sure, there will be the disruptions from new opportunities and sudden tactics – but largely most of it would be planned.

5. Seek audacious partners:

Someone once picked up the phone and asked Big B if he would do a quiz show on TV. Audacious, right? Creative people love to create. And they hate being in boxes. The best musicians, producers, comedians, writers, and artists of all ilk have achieved a degree of super specialization. But they would be the first people to be willing to try a new format of expression.

It’s surprising at how many of them are happily willing to break out of their comfort zone and try out a new form of expression. The one thing your brand will gain by this is an amplified ‘craft’ partner – with greater chances of creating entertaining and engaging content.

Once a brand has embraced a content calendar and is sending out messages that are consistent with its core purpose and personality, it becomes more extroverted and can connect with audiences at many levels. Kind of like transitioning from a lone superhero to a suite of heroes – like The Avengers.

And that’s nothing to wink at.

Go Back