Nice is Not Enough

By John McGory

Is the lack of corporate creativity in marketing creating a chasm between business and the public?  Can corporations truly be creative or is the threat of offending people and losing market share keeping a lid on attention-getting social media tactics such as content marketing?

Today’s world of content marketing is creating conflict in corporate boardrooms across the world.  It has been a long time since George Carlin riffed on the seven words inappropriate for television and Lucy and Ricky slept in separate beds.  The Internet brings an uncut version of the world to anyone who wants it.

The public seemingly wants more and more outlandish content.  Videos need to be faster, crazier and more eye-catching than ever before.  Text is too slow.  No topic is taboo.

Content marketing’s goal is to attract attention to brands by providing interesting and free content to the public in exchange for their attention.  On the surface it makes sense, but putting it into practice is really tough.  The public wants shock and awe and the corporate world wants nice.

The Coca Cola Company is buying into content marketing in a big way.  Its Content 2020 initiative is designed to double its sales through the use of content marketing.

The bottling giant released two videos http://blog.junta42.com/2012/01/coca-cola-content-marketing-20-20/ that outlines how it is going to reach its sales’ goal.  The plan is to “create ideas so contagious that they can’t be controlled.”  Those are big words bound to create big pressure on Coca Cola’s creative types.

Grabbing the attention of the world is a monumental task.  Contagious ideas must be practical and hip at the same time.  Successful ideas for global brands such as Coke must be practical enough to cross cultural, language and political barriers.  The same ideas must also be trendy enough to engage younger markets, while not turning off the more conservative elements of society.

Most corporations are conservative by nature.  Some may see Coke’s content marketing effort as a foolhardy attempt.   Conservative corporations’ attitude is to keep its head down till this fad passes. 

Unfortunately, this approach has less of a chance of working than Coke’s effort.   Consumers today expect to be entertained.  The “let’s keep doing what we’ve been doing” strategy is severely outdated.

So the gulf between what corporations are willing to do to capture customers’ attention and what customers will watch grows by the day.  Coke deserves credit for jumping head first into the content marketing pool.   Whether it can swim in that pool and entertain the masses is another story.

The question for the rest of the corporate world is:  What are you doing to gain the attention of your customers in a world where nice is not enough?

John McGory is a partner at Webface (www.web-face-solutions.com), a content marketing company that can create video and written materials to get the attention of your fans.