Snippets from Content Marketing World 2017

Content Marketing World was inspirational, instructive and memorable! Sharing some of my personal #CMWorld highlights.

Let's start with a bit of show business. Hollywood star and producer Joseph Gordon-Levitt inspired us to collaborate more and think in terms of community instead of crowd. He's leading hitRECord, an online community working together as a production company. Everyone can contribute to the development and execution of creative ideas, all receiving fair compensation. It does need strong leadership to succeed. Look at this beautiful piece made through collaboration on hitRECord. It all started with a night-blind girl writing down her true story on the platform.

"Market your values instead of products...Don't be a zombie! Zombies all look the same. Zombies don't hula hoop." Melissa Eggleston. When I had just decided that I shouldn't buy any more books [such a heavy suitcase] I couldn't resist buying the zombie business cure. A must-read for everyone that wants to implement identity based marketing to stand out from the crowd.

"Do more. Make it count." says YouTube star Casey Neistat, high school dropout who's currently a MIT fellow :) Check out this cool video he made for Nike a couple of years ago.

"I don't believe in taglines anymore", Linda Boff, CMO at GE. I'm with you Linda! GE's marketing strategy focusses on showing up as a person instead of a big corporation and communicating that material science is actually pretty cool. Embrace your geek(ines)s! What would happen if we treat scientists like celebrities?

"How can you inspire people when you're not inspired yourself?...Make love, not content." Dutchie Cor Hospes, Merkjournalisten at his exciting lunch and learn talk. Funny that I had to travel all the way to Cleveland to meet him for the first time.

"Loosen up, find a voice. B2B content doesn't have to be boring."Doug Kessler. WARNING: the next video includes (cute) swearing.

"Expertville is crowded...Experts build lists, visionaries build legacy."says the lovely Caroline Nuttal. [Sigh of relief from this generalist].

"Coca Cola tells timeless stories, via timely chapters." Their fans are telling chapters of the Coca Cola story too. Kate Santore, Creative content and Excellence at Coca Cola tells us that 80% of their online content is from fans! This fan couple takes it to the next level. And yes, I know you're not Coca Cola or Disney (or maybe you are, good for you!), but we can all ask ourselves: what would Disney or Coca Cola do? and look for that emotional connection with our audiences.

Pam Didner shares her view on creating a global content marketing strategy. She showed a really nice example of localization. Both videos are based on the same master story, but adapted to the local context. Video 1 is from Thailand, video 2 is made in Eastern Europe.

This one is for all the writers out there. Marcus Tober from Search metrics presents quite an eye-opener...content creation often starts with a blank sheet. They've developed a pretty cool Word add-in with data. Here you can include analytics, insights and key elements from your content strategy.

Jay Acunzo inspires us in his keynote to be the exception and trust our intuition. He shares a great example of how 'Death wish coffee' differentiates itself. "Think creatively and for yourself...How long can you talk about your audience before you start about yourself? Food for thought for many of us marketers.

Did you attend Content Marketing World as well? Keen to see your highlights in the comments below or connect to discuss!