An Analytics-Driven Approach to Becoming a Brand Publisher - White paper (CaaS)

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An Analy’csDriven Approach to Becoming an Effec’ve Brand Publisher 2014 Michael Brito Head of Social Strategy WCG, a W2O Company

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An Analytics-Driven Approach to Becoming an Effective Brand Publisher - Content as a Service (Caa

Transcript of An Analytics-Driven Approach to Becoming a Brand Publisher - White paper (CaaS)

An  Analy'cs-­‐Driven  Approach  to  Becoming  an  Effec've  Brand  Publisher  

2014  

Michael  Brito  Head  of  Social  Strategy  WCG,  a  W2O  Company  

INTRODUCTION  There’s  been  a  lot  of  conversa'on  over  the  last  several  years  that  brands  

need  to  think  and  operate  like  publishers.  It  couldn’t  be  even  more  cri'cal  

today,  and  the  reasons  are  in  plain  sight.    

 

Content  Surplus:  Content  and  media  is  omnipresent  and  demands  our  

aQen'on.  There  are  no  shortages  of  mobile  devices  either.  Everyone  with  a  

device  is  a  content  creator,  which  adds  to  the  surplus  of  content  generated  

each  day.  As  consumers  of  content  and  media,  we  are  subjected  to  3,000  

adver'sing  messages  per  day.  This  doesn’t  include  other  forms  of  content  

such  as  blog  posts,  status  updates,  tweets,  videos,  emails,  text  messages,  etc.    

 

A5en6on  Deficit:  Most  of  us  can  barely  consume—much  less  comprehend—

285  pieces  of  content  in  a  given  day.  It’s  the  same  reason  why  the  average  

Facebook  user  has  less  than  200  friends.  Our  brains  are  wired  so  that  we  can  

only  consume  a  finite  amount  of  informa'on.  The  same  is  true  with  

maintaining  online  rela'onships.  Mul'tasking  and  having  mul'ple  devices  is  

a  cultural  norm,  and  it’s  not  uncommon  to  find  a  family  having  dinner  

together  in  a  restaurant  with  each  person  looking  down  at  a  device.      

 

Tunnel  Vision  Is  a  Requirement:  There  is  a  significant  delta  between  the  

amount  of  content  in  front  of  us  and  our  ability  to  understand  and  interact  

with  it.  This  is  why  we  have  tunnel  vision.  It’s  a  natural  defense  mechanism  so  

that  we  don’t  get  too  overwhelmed  with  everything  going  on  around  us.  It  

allows  us  to  consume  content  that  is  relevant  to  us  at  a  very  specific  moment  

in  'me,  and  o\en  'mes,  our  relevancy  filter  changes  each  moment.  If  you  

have  ever  been  in  the  market  to  purchase  a  new  car,  you  might  have  

experienced  this  for  yourself.  For  example,  the  minute  you  decide  to  buy  a  

car,  you  may  suddenly  begin  to  no'ce  Audi  or  BMW  adver'sements,  status  

updates  and  conversa'ons  in  the  hallway  about  others  buying  or  selling  new  

cars.  Once  you  sign  on  the  doQed  line  and  drive  off  the  lot,  all  those  car  

 

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conversa'ons  are  gone.  But  the  reality  is  that  they  aren’t  really  gone,  you  just  

tune  them  out  because  it’s  not  relevant  anymore.  It’s  tunnel  vision.    

 

The  Customer  Journey  Is  Unpredictable:  When  it  comes  to  purchasing  

products,  there  is  no  clear  method  to  our  madness.  We  may  do  research  

online,  ask  a  trusted  friend  or  conduct  a  poll  on  our  Facebook  page;  e.g.,  

thinking  about  an  Android  or  iPhone.  What  do  you  all  recommend?  And  the  

very  next  day,  we  may  do  the  complete  opposite.  But  one  thing  is  for  certain:  

our  purchase  path  is  open-­‐ended  and  dynamic  based  on  the  types  of  products  

and  services  that  we  buy  each  day.  What  is  predictable  though  is  that  our  

consump'on  paQerns  when  we  buy,  research  or  just  read  content  online  is  in  

fact  unpredictable.    

 

Internally,  brands  have  different  challenges.  A  2013  report  from  the  Content  

Marke'ng  Ins'tute  highlighted  that  78%  of  B2B  marketers  have  a  hard  'me  

crea'ng  original  content,  and  44%  of  them  do  not  have  a  documented  

content  strategy.  Other  challenges  include  the  inability  to  produce  enough  

content  (content  that  engages,  various  types  of  content)  as  well  as  having  a  

lack  of  budget,  execu've  support  and  training.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Producing Enough Content 64%

Producing Content That Engages 52%

Producing a Variety of Content 45%

Lack of Budget 39%

Inability to Measure Content 33%

Lack of Knowledge, Training 26%

Lack of Integration 25%

Lack of Buy-in, Vision 22%

Finding Trained Content Marketers 14%

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If  you  look  at  the  four  external  factors  and  couple  that  with  the  internal  

challenges  that  face  many  marketers  today,  it  starts  to  become  clear  that  

brands  struggle  trying  to  reach  their  audiences  online.  

 

Brands  Need  to  Get  Content  Right.  It’s  Either  Now  or  Never.    

Content  is  how  we  reach  a  specific  audience  online  in  order  to  change  a  

behavior.  It’s  the  gateway  into  the  social  ecosystem.  But  the  reality  is  that  the  

external  landscape  will  not  change  just  because  your  engagement  numbers  

are  low.  In  fact,  it’s  only  going  to  get  worse.    

 

So,  in  order  to  adapt,  you’ll  need  to  evolve  the  way  you  think,  operate  and  

communicate  with  your  customers  and  prospects.  This  means  that  you’ll  have  

to  change  your  content  approach  or  adopt  one.  The  reason  why  many  of  us  

struggle  with  content,  storytelling  and  being  able  to  scale  our  opera'ons  is  

because  we  don’t  take  content  serious  enough.  Many  'mes  it’s  an  

a\erthought.    

 

Content  isn’t  a  box  you  check,  a  bubble  you  fill  in  or  a  bullet  point  on  a  

presenta'on.  It’s  more  than  search,  more  than  real-­‐'me  content  and  so  

much  more  than  building  a  content  marke'ng  strategy  in  a  silo.  And  you  can  

only  learn  so  much  about  content  from  clever  blog  'tles  like  “10  Proven  Tips  

to  Do  This”  or  “5  Smart  Tricks  to  Do  That.”  

 

Content  must  be  considered  a  strategic  impera've  for  your  brand.  You  must  

become  a  content  organiza'on  if  you  want  to  take  your  business  to  the  next  

level  and  stand  out  from  your  compe'tors.    

 

Just  as  there  is  an  art  to  storytelling,  there  also  needs  to  be  a  strategic  and  

opera'onal  plan  that  can  help  you  create  and  distribute  content,  integrate  it  

across  paid,  earned,  shared  and  owned  media,  and  measure  it  effec'vely.  As  

a  marketer  or  a  brand  manager,  you  must  move  beyond  the  content  

marke'ng  buzzword  and  commit  to  becoming  a  brand  publisher.    

 

 

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Introducing  Content  as  a  Service  (CaaS)    The  CaaS  model  is  meant  to  address  and  solve  for  both  the  external  

challenges  of  reaching  your  target  audience  and  also  the  barriers  you  face  

internally.  The  goal  of  CaaS  is  to  ensure  that  content  is  considered  a  strategic  

impera've  for  business  today  and  making  it  core  to  business  and  marke'ng  

objec'ves.    

 

The  model  is  broken  down  by  four  separate  work  streams—grounded  in  

analy'cs—and  supported  by  an  opera'onal  framework  that’s  meant  to  

facilitate  integra'on  at  key  touch  points.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOCIAL  NARRATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  Both  a  quan'ta've  and  qualita've  analysis  are  needed  to  cra\  a  story  that  

can  break  through  the  cluQer,  reach  new  audiences  and  to  tell  a  beQer  story  

than  your  compe'tors.  We  use  four  analy'cs  approaches  to  achieve  this:  

Social  Graphics:  Your  audience,  categorized.  By  looking  at  what  your  

audience  members  follow,  share  and  discuss,  we  group  them  by  interest  and  

passion.  

Social Narrative Development

Social Channel Strategy

Content Performance &

Analysis

Participatory Storytelling

ANALYTICS & RESEARCH

Content Operational Framework

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Influencer  Meme  &  Muse:  A  meme  is  a  ranked  list  of  the  top  50  people  who  

are  driving  the  conversa'on  about  a  given  topic,  industry  or  brand.    This  is  the  

digital  1%  of  the  popula'on  that  is  driving  the  conversa'on  about  a  given  

topic  or  industry.  The  Muse  tells  us  where  they  get  their  inspira'on.  

 

Content  Gap  Analysis:  We  examine  influen'al  conversa'on  about  a  topic  or  

brand  and  compare  it  to  what  a  brand  is  sharing  online.  The  gaps  that  emerge  

are  the  brand’s  new  areas  of  focus.  

 

Search  Insights:  A  broad  analysis  that  examines  the  search  volume  and  

frequency  of  certain  topics,  keywords  and  industries.    

 

Qualita've  data  is  studying  the  various  percep'ons  and  general  

conversa'ons  about  your  brand  from  various  stakeholders  (media,  analysts,  

influencers,  the  community,  etc.)  purely  from  a  contextual  perspec've.  When  

the  community  talks  about  the  brand  or  when  the  media  men'ons  you  in  an  

ar'cle,  what  is  the  actual  context?  Are  they  valida'ng  your  narra've  or  giving  

you  insights  on  how  you  might  want  to  talk  about  yourself  differently?    

 

The  output  of  this  exercise  is  to  establish  an  architecture  that  takes  insights  

from  the  data,  developing  a  strategic  and/or  crea've  framework  and  puong  

it  into  an  editorial  framework  from  which  all  future  content  is  created.  While  

there  are  several  ways  to  do  this,  the  best  way  to  think  about  storytelling  is  

through  three  different  lenses,  whereby  the  brand:  

 

•  ...  is  the  story  (events,  campaigns,  product/brand-­‐focused)  

•  ...  is  a  character  in  a  story  (customer  stories,  third-­‐party  ar'cles)  

•  …  comments  on  a  story  (lifestyle,  real-­‐'me/agile  content)  

 

From  there,  you  can  begin  to  map  out  content  for  your  editorial  calendar  and  

align  content  to  specific  social  and  digital  channels  with  some  strategic  

thinking.  

 

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At  WCG,  we  ensure  that  all  content  follows  some  very  basic  fundamentals  

and  delivers  on  the  following:  

 

•  U'lity  -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐>  helps  me  “do”  something  

•  Educa'on  -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐>  makes  me  smarter  

•  Entertainment  -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐>  makes  me  laugh,  inspires  me  

•  Access  -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐>  connects  me  to  others  

•  Altruism  -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐>  facilitates  my  sense  of  purpose  

•  Emo'on  -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐>  elicits  a  visceral  reac'on  

•  Exclusivity  -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐>  makes  me  feel  special  

•  Informa'on  -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐>  delivers  me  news  

•  Financial  -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐>  provides  me  with  a  sale,  rebate  or  coupons  

 

SOCIAL  CHANNEL  STRATEGY  Brands  struggle  with  social  media  because  they  are  using  it  just  to  amplify  

and  distribute  all  content  in  an  effort  to  tell  several  disjointed    stories  in  every  

channel.  This  approach  dilutes  the  message  and  contributes  to  the  content  

surplus  that  many  people  ignore.  

 

A  social  channel  strategy  consists  of  two  very  important  steps.  The  first  

requires  an  in-­‐depth  analysis  of  exis'ng  communi'es/social  channels,  a  

compe''ve  content  analysis  and  examining  internal  resources  that  manage  

the  content  process.  This  determines  what’s  working  and  what’s  not  working  

from  a  content  perspec've,  and  the  analysis  will  deliver  insight  as  to  what  

needs  to  change,  which  channels  need  consolida'ng  (e.g.,  mul'ple  TwiQer  

accounts,  etc.),  or  it  may  even  uncover  the  opportunity  of  crea'ng  new  

channels.  

 

The  second  step  involves  strategically  aligning  content  to  specific  social/

digital  channels  based  on  the  audience  segmenta'on,  plarorm  behavior  and  

documented  brand  goals.    

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Social  Channel  Strategy  also  involves  building  converged  media  models  that  

integrate  brand  storytelling  across  PESO  (paid,  earned,  shared  and  owned  

media).  It  starts  with  a  sharable  idea  (campaign,  agile  content,  etc.)  and  then  

strategically  ac'va'ng  each  channel  around  engagement  (earned),  content  

(shared)  and  customer  experience  (owned).  From  there,  it’s  using  paid  media  

to  amplify  the  idea  using  search,  a  content  syndica'on  plarorm  like  OutBrain  

or  OneSpot  and  na've  paid  media  on  Facebook  and  TwiQer.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From  a  real-­‐'me  marke'ng  perspec've,  we  approach  it  a  liQle  differently  

than  most  other  agencies.  Instead  of  building  real-­‐'me  crea've  based  on  

what’s  trending  on  the  broader  Internet,  we  build  custom  search  engines  of  

very  targeted  audiences  (healthcare  professionals,  ITDMs,  millennials.)  We  

then  ac'vate  a  content  engine  team  to  find  what’s  trending  within  this  group  

and  then  deploy  the  crea've  and  distribu'on.    

 

PARTICIPATORY  STORYTELLING  Data  from  the  Boston  Consul'ng  Group  tell  us  that  when  it  comes  to  trust  

and  credibility,  “people  they  know”,  “consumer  opinions  online”  and  

“colleagues  and  friends”  rank  the  highest  when  people  are  seeking  

informa'on  about  a  brand  and  its  products.  

 

 

 

EARNED  MEDIA  Media  rela'ons  Influencer  engagement  Word-­‐of-­‐mouth  

SHARED  MEDIA  Social  media  channel  strategy  Community  management  Social  content  crea'on  

Experiences  

Content  

Engagement  SH

ARAB

LE  STO

RIES  

PAID  MEDIA  AMPLIFICATION  Content  syndica'on    Na've  adver'sing  

Search  Social  paid  

OWNED  MEDIA  Brand  website/newsroom  Campaign  micr-­‐osite  Mobile  apps  

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Brand  storytelling  is  more  than  just  distribu'ng  branded  content,  na've  

adver'sing  or  crea've  campaigns  on  Facebook.  It  also  involves  mobilizing  

employees  to  par'cipate  and  feed  the  content  engine.  And  it's  not  just  

employees  twee'ng  or  sharing  company  news  in  social  media.  It’s  about  

finding  good  stories  about  the  brand,  its  products  or  employees  and  using  

long-­‐form  content  to  tell  everyone  about  it.    

 

Employees  aren’t  the  only  ones  that  are  influen'al  either.  Brand  advocates  

and  influencers  can  also  move  messages  rather  quickly  across  the  social  

ecosystem,  and  their  content  is  equally  as  trustworthy.  We  look  at  influencers  

through  the  lens  of  the  1-­‐9-­‐90  model:    

 

The  “1%”  are  bloggers,  forum  posters  (think  Reddit),  video  reviewers  and  

journalists  who  create  content.  They  focus  on  telling  a  story  and  are  seen  as  

the  experts  on  a  given  topic.  At  WCG,  our  algorithms  show  that  there  are  

never  more  than  50  people  who  drive  the  majority  of  share  of  conversa'on  

for  a  brand,  topic  or  industry  in  a  given  country  or  language.  

 

The  “9%”  are  highly  ac've  online.  These  are  your  brand  advocates,  and  their  

behavior  probably  aligns  with  what  we  do  online  every  day.  We  recommend,  

share,  sign  up,  download,  comment  and  other  ac'ons  that  let  our  

communi'es  and  our  peers  know  what  we  think  about  certain  topics  and  

brands.  In  many  respects,  this  group  serves  as  the  “trust  filter”  for  the  

broader  marketplace.  

 

The  “90%”  is  the  mass  market.  They  lurk  and  learn.  This  rather  large  group  is  

sa'sfied  with  using  search  or  consuming  the  content  of  their  peers.  They  

decide  how  compelling  the  1%  and  the  9%  really  are  in  telling  your  brand’s  

story.  

 

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Regardless  of  what  group  you  are  going  to  go  a\er,  there  are  several  

considera'ons  for  making  par'cipatory  storytelling  successful:  

 

Content  Strategy  Alignment:  Before  you  decide  what  you  want  your  

advocates  to  say,  you  must  know  exactly  what  the  story  is  that  you  want  to  

tell.  A  comprehensive  content  strategy  should  help  you  establish:  

 

•  What  you  want  to  say  (storytelling  principles,  narra've)  

•  How  you  want  to  say  it  (tone  of  voice)  

•  Where  you  want  to  say  it  (aligning  stories  to  digital  channels)  

•  Who  you  want  to  par'cipate  (employees,  customers,  etc.)  

 

A  solid  editorial  framework  will  determine  content  and  plarorm  priori'es  and  

the  content  supply  chain  (workflows  that  facilitate  content  idea'on,  crea'on,  

submission,  approval  and  distribu'on).  

 

Smart  Technology  Deployment:  It’s  difficult  to  manage  an  advocate  program  

using  email  or  a  private  Facebook  or  LinkedIn  group.  There  are  several  

technology  vendors  in  the  market  place  that  can  help  streamline  the  process  

and  make  it  convenient  for  your  advocates  and  influencers  to  share  content:  

   

•  Dynamic  Signal  (community-­‐based)  

•  Social  Chorus  (community-­‐based)  

•  Addvocate  (plarorm)  

•  Everyone  Social  (plarorm)  

Strategic  Content  Ac6va6ons:  As  much  as  your  program  must  include  

cura'ng  and  distribu'ng  content  from  your  advocates  to  help  tell  your  brand  

story,  you  must  also  have  a  content  plan  for  engaging  directly  with  them.    

 

10  

Unfortunately,  many  teams  that  manage  these  programs  o\en  overlook  a  

content  plan  and  then  struggle  to  keep  the  conversa'ons  alive  and  fresh  with  

advocates;  more  so  with  customers  than  employees.  Your  content  should  be  

planned  weekly,  monthly  and  even  quarterly,  and  take  into  considera'on  

several  factors  like  the  following:  

 

•  Upcoming  events  or  industry  trade  shows  

•  Upcoming  product  launches  or  new  releases  of  an  exis'ng  

product  

•  Fun  things  like  contests,  polls  and  research  ques'ons  

•  Asking  for  user-­‐generated  content  (uploading  and  sharing  photos  

on  Facebook/TwiQer)  

 

You  must  also  document  the  opera'onal  plan  by  answering  the  following  

ques'ons:  

 

•  Will  you  focus  on  employees,  customers  or  both?  

•  What’s  the  criteria  for  selec'ng  advocates  (invita'on,  open)?  

•  How  long  is  the  program  and  will  you  rotate  in/out  new  

members?  

•  What  do  you  want  to  call  your  program?  

•  What  technology  plarorm  will  you  use?  

•  How  are  you  going  to  measure?  

 

CONTENT  PERFORMANCE  AND  ANALYSIS  In  April  2014,  Contently,  a  content  marke'ng  plarorm,  surveyed  302  

marketers  split  evenly  across  B2B  and  B2C  businesses  about  their  content  

goals  and  measurement  prac'ces  and  unearthed  some  key  findings.  The  

State  of  Content  Marke'ng  Measurement  report  found  that  90%  of  

marketers  expressed  uncertainty  that  their  key  content  metrics  are  effec've  

in  measuring  business  results.    

 

11  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rather  than  measuring  content  (status  update,  press  release,  blog  post,  

tweet)  at  the  “social  network”  level,  there  is  more  value  measuring  content  at  

the  actual  content  level.  At  WCG,  we  use  what  we  call  the  Branded  Scoring  

Content  Approach,  where  we  score  each  piece  of  content  that  gets  published  

online  on  a  1–100  scale.  High  performing  content  ranks  higher  on  the  scale,  

low  performing  content  ranks  lower.    

 

The  algorithm  uses  two  variables  to  determine  the  score:  1)  where  that  

content  was  published  (how  many  distribu'on  channels)  and  2)  the  

engagement  level  in  each  plarorm  it  was  published.  It’s  a  fairly  simple  

algorithm  that  provides  maximum  insight  if  done  correctly.  Here’s  the  

process:    

 

Content  Gathering:  We  collect  all  your  content  from  its  mul'ple  plarorms,  

even  content  shared  across  mul'ple  plarorms.    

 

Content  Processing:  All  content  is  loaded  into  a  custom  database  and  scored.  

All  possible  variables  (likes,  shares,  comments,  clicks)  are  taken  into  

considera'on.  Primary  and  secondary  channels  are  weighted  appropriately  to  

their  importance.  

12  

Content  Scoring:  Total  post  scores  are  the  average  of  all  possible  channel  

variables  (e.g.,  likes,  shares,  comments,  clicks  for  Facebook).  Each  post’s  

score  is  a  func'on  of  all  content  for  the  brand,  rather  than  an  isolated  

quan'fica'on.  As  such,  engagement  is  a  realis'c  reflec'on  of  your  brand’s  

content.  

 

We  use  this  scoring  system  to  op'mize  future  content,  to  determine  where  

it’s  shared  and  whether  or  not  to  push  paid  dollars  behind  it  in  order  to  

improve  reach/engagement.  

 

CONTENT  OPERATIONAL  FRAMEWORK  This  is  an  opera'onal  step  that  spans  across  each  of  the  four  work  streams  

above.  It’s  a  consulta've  approach  that  helps  our  clients  structure  their  team,  

assign  roles  and  responsibili'es  with  internal  stakeholders  and  other  agency  

partners,  invest  in  the  right  technology  and  build  a  content  supply  chain  

(editorial  process  that  facilitates  the  movement  of  content  from  idea'on  to  

distribu'on)  that  can  scale.    

 

Essen'ally,  it's  helping  brands  build  a  newsroom  organiza'on.  It  starts  with  

having  the  right  team  structure  that  can  help  streamline  content  through  

what  we  call  the  “content  supply  chain.”  We  typically  recommend  building  a  

centralized  editorial  team  that  supports  and  enables  mul'ple  business  units,  

product  organiza'ons  or  geographies.  This  used  to  be  called  the  Social  Media  

Center  of  Excellence.    

 

This  also  involves  assigning  roles  and  responsibili'es,  much  like  a  newsroom  

organiza'on.  You  have  to  decide  who  in  your  company  has  the  right  skillset  

to  write  content,  approve  content  and  create  other  assets  (videos,  Infograms,  

photos,  etc.)    

 

 

13  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This  may  require  you  to  reach  across  the  hall  and  collaborate  with  other  

teams  if  you  don’t  have  all  the  resources  yourself.  Some  brands  will  a  create  

centralized  “editorial”  center  of  excellence  to  help  augment  the  gaps.  These  

cross-­‐func'onal  teams  are  responsible  for  deploying  and  opera'onalizing  a  

brand’s  content  strategy.    

 

You  must  also  go  through  the  daun'ng  task  of  assigning  roles  and  

responsibili'es  to  your  external  agency  partners  and  manda'ng  that  they  

play  nice  together.  Editorial  workflows  are  essen'al  to  ensure  that  your  

content  is  being  distributed  at  the  right  'me  and  in  the  right  channel.        

 

Deploying  workflows  such  as  this  will  not  only  protect  the  brand  from  making  

mistakes  (think  US  Airways,  Kitchen  Aid),  but  also  ensure  that  there  is  enough  

content  in  the  pipeline  and  that  the  stories  are  consistent  once  distributed.  

COE   B  

C  

A  

M  

B  

C  

A  

M  

B   Brand,  Business  Unit,  Region    

M   Media  Agency  

Crea've/Ad  Agency  

C   Content/PR  Agency  

A  

Develop  Content  Strategy  

Scale  Content  Globally  

Source  Technology  Vendors  

Content  Governance  14  

For  more  informa'on  on  how  CaaS  might  help  you  achieve  your  content  

marke'ng  and  brand  goals,  please  contact  Michael  Brito.    

 

MICHAEL  BRITO  

[email protected]  

415-­‐871-­‐5165