Learn how using branded content can be a powerful content marketing strategy to define your brand story on social media and reach your target audience.
Branded content can be the key to defining your brand story, attracting customers, and getting the brand loyalty essential for success. But developing branded content isn’t as easy as making a “Who We Are” post on social media. Branded content is a complex strategy that requires a full team experienced in content marketing, high-quality media, and audience engagement.
Explore the fundamentals and find out how First Media uses custom-branded content to help our brand partners get mass reach and engagement across platforms.
Branded Content Basics
Branded content is a form of content marketing that focuses on creating an emotional connection between audience and brand by telling the brand’s story. Rather than advertising a specific product with something like a pop-up or banner ad, the best branded content communicates brand values, story, and voice via content formats audiences would otherwise consume.
Brands often use this marketing strategy on social media, but it can also be impactful outside of socials. You’ve seen everyday examples of branded content like the LEGO movies, Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign, General Electric’s branded podcast, or Apple’s digital shorts. Red Bull’s organization of Felix Baumgartner’s 39,045-foot jump is another excellent case study for effective branded content. Almost every major brand is taking advantage of the benefits of branded content, from Coca-Cola to Netflix – and it’s clear why this type of content is uniquely compelling.
These marketing campaigns attracted viewers – and customers – by presenting a brand story that speaks to target audiences. Branded content differs from traditional advertising or other content marketing strategies, like product placement, because it creates a story that logically works products and services into content. The result is a powerful method of connecting with audiences and generating action.
First Media’s Branded Content Strategy
Branded content marketing is more open-ended than many companies think. It doesn’t have to be the billion-dollar content execution we see from Red Bull and LEGO. There are more forms of the strategy that accomplish the same goal. And, with the right branded content tactics, you can get in the feeds of more audiences, more effectively.
At First Media, we use organic custom content to take a multi-format approach. Producing visually captivating video content, we get mass reach and engagement through native integrations on our social platforms. We meet audiences where they already congregate and present them with content that converts.
Top-of-funnel solutions
Designed to reach a wide audience, our top-of-funnel content campaigns garner extensive reach and encourage engagement through different content formats:
- Short-form video: Breaking through the clamor of audiences’ news feeds is challenging for most brands. We create clever, approachable, high-quality, custom-branded content in a short-form format that boosts brand awareness and sparks action.
- Long-form video: Across our channels, long-form content is designed to entertain and inspire viewers. Amusing, real-life, series-style cooking and craft demos encourage audience engagement across each episode on Facebook Watch, HGTV, and YouTube.
- Influencer marketing: Our paid partnerships with influencers take our top-of-funnel marketing to the summit. We bring influencers into the picture with full series takeovers to talk and promote content and brand stories through a unique home kitchen/living room-style environment. Audiences feel connected to creators and brands, learning more about them on apps they already frequent, like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Our Creative Approach
Though custom-branded content offers significant benefits to businesses, those advantages only come when the strategy is used effectively. We’ve developed a branded content strategy informed by marketing experience, trend analysis, and data use that allows us to create the most successful branded content for our partners.
Following trends
The social media landscape is continuously changing – and riding trends is key to keeping up. We navigate quickly evolving social media trends, ensuring our content formats, influencer collaborations, and content marketing strategy follow the most appropriate creative approach.
Understanding all platforms
If you’ve spent time developing social strategies, you know every social media platform has its own requisites for success. The type of content that works on TikTok is different from that of Instagram and so on. By constantly exploring and optimizing social platforms to generate a deep understanding of each one, we’re able to make digital marketing decisions that work for the platforms your brand will touch on.
Leveraging proprietary technology
The best branded content unites creativity with technology to create the most effective content for audiences to enjoy. Our use of tech tools, including our AI Creative recommendation tool and Comments Analysis Tool (CAT), helps us track key metrics, attack the right audience, and generate actionable insights to design content that converts.
Creating Custom Branded Content with First Media
Telling your brand story is a fundamental part of your marketing strategy. First Media’s team has the expertise to help you deliver that message via branded content that moves your audience to engage and act.We can help you communicate your brand story through short- and long-form video, influencer marketing, and content that converts. Develop organic custom content using technology and processes that help analyze customer data to find the best approach. Ready to explore how custom-branded content can tell your story for mass engagement and sales? Contact us to learn more.
