It’s quite a challenge for companies today to create engaging content for their customers and audiences. After all, audiences aren’t afraid to point out if a commercial isn’t funny, or the advice on a website isn’t helpful. Quality content is the expectation, and last year we saw some great uses of infographics, websites and videos.
While this list could be expanded to 50 or more, I’ve listed what I think are the 10 best uses of content in the past couple years:
2014 will be the year that everyone remembers that time a full-length toy ad become a commercial and critical success. The Lego Movie grossed almost $258 million in the United States and $468 million worldwide. The film holds a 96% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes along with a score of 83 on Metacritic, indicating “Universal Acclaim.” This film could’ve easily been a very obvious cash-grab gimmick with little substance. After all, the movie features existing Lego sets and licensed characters from franchises such as Star Wars and DC Comics. Instead, the Lego movie took the opportunity to create engaging story that brought audiences in. Everyone had their doubts, but this film easily takes the best content piece of the year.
Today’s most talked-about technology ranges from smartphones to tablets to… light bulbs? That’s exactly what happened when comedy duo Tim & Eric was hired by GE to produce a commercial for their Link light bulb. The commercial features Jeff Goldblum giving an infomercial-style pitch on how he’s benefited from the great lighting of the Link bulb. We see him in a Dojo. We see him painting a self-portrait. We see him playing a grand piano in a hot tub. With millions of views on YouTube, this tongue-in-cheek video shows how even the most basic of household items can benefit from great content.
Not many people can say they enjoy ads, unless the ad is interactive with two clips playing at once. Honda called on the London firm Wieden+Kennedy to create a double-sided video featuring a man leading a double life. The viewer simply presses the R key to switch between stories. The first features a man driving a Honda Civic picking his kids up from school; the second shows that same man in a Honda Type R serving as the getaway driver in a high-speed pursuit. Everyone daydreams about being someone they’re not. This Honda ad makes us believe it’s possible.
Kahlua’s “The White Russian Video”
The Coen Brothers’ classic The Big Lebowski is synonymous with the White Russian. Jeff Bridge’s “The Dude” always has one in hand, which is why it’s brilliant to have the actor star in a four-minute video about the drink. The clip features Bridges recalling a time when he was chased in the desert after finding a briefcase, only to be rescued by an astronaut. The clip ends with Bridges contemplating at a bar while mixing a White Russian. Odd? Definitely. Effective? Certainly.
Business Insider India’s Business School Infographic
Infographics are becoming a standard method to share data and stats in an engaging way. Business Insider India recognized this, and created an infographic on their ranking of the 25 best business schools in the world. We see the geographic location of each school, its rank, and some additional data collected from the survey. This sort of packaged information is just as interesting for people not necessarily looking to go to business school. To gain a wider audience appeal, we can all take an infographic lesson from Business Insider.
Curata’s Content Marketing SlideShow
Slideshows were one of the earliest computerized tools used to deliver information in compact, digestible chunks. Curata recognized the demand for content marketing advice, and used SlideShare to post 27 quotes from experts on the topic. Each slide features one expert’s quote along with their Twitter handle. Inspirational, engaging, and relatively straightforward, Curata showed that the basics can go a long way if the content’s there.
Purina and Buzzfeed’s “Dear Kitten” Series
Everyone loves cute photos, particularly of baby animals. Purina used this to their advantage when they teamed up with Buzzfeed to create the “Dear Kitten” video series. These videos feature an older house cat parting his advice to a kitten on topics ranging from a new dog to taking care of humans. Purina offers a humorous answer to the question “what are our pets thinking about?” before showing off a product at the end of each clip.
Companies are learning that content can be created not only to promote their products and services, but to show how they’re a part of a larger lifestyle. Intelligentsia accomplished this by publishing brew guides on their website. Each guide walks readers through a different technique for brewing the best coffee. These guides are free to download, and include pictures and step-by-step instructions that are easy for anyone to follow. From milk steaming to using a french press, Intelligentsia brilliantly demonstrates why they’re a leader in the coffee roasting world.
Electrolux’s “The Next Black” Documentary
If you need ideas on how to make household appliances relevant, you can go the Tim & Eric route and create an over-the-top yet effective commercial. You can also create a documentary about a seemingly unrelated industry. Electrolux took the latter route and created a documentary about the future of clothing titled “The Next Black.” This documentary shows how clothing is evolving to address issues such as sustainability and technological accommodations. With almost 600,000 views on YouTube, Electrolux showed how thinking outside the box could result in original and interesting content.
From tieing a tie to fixing a sink, it’s easy to teach yourself anything by searching for a how-to video. The video-hosting company Wistia recognized this by providing a library of videos to show how users can create top-quality marketing videos. Topics range from lighting to shooting footage with your iPhone–and it’s all free. Great content is essential to building long-lasting relationships with your customers. What better way to do this by not only providing a place to upload videos, but also showing how these videos can be the best they can be?
