CREATIVE SPECIALISTS: 3 Action Items to consider when adding building and emphasizing your companies brand

How Branding Communicates School Pride, Culture and Legacy

by Bill Massey and Emily Parris, AthleticBusiness.com

·      Be consistent – All content should be consistent across the board in order to establish a brand. 

·      Pay Attention to Detail – The little things make the biggest difference, don’t overlook details in the design. 

·      Embrace a theme – Embracing a theme allows the building of a brand and keeps content consistent.

(https://www.wordtracker.com/academy/social/getting-started/social-media-branding)

 10 Social Media Branding Strategies Every Business Should Follow

By Domique Jackson, Sproutsocial.com  

·      Develop Voice – Who or what does your company represent?

·      Be Authentic – Make sure you aren’t trying to be someone you’re not! 

·      Build a Network – Creating a network of influencers and supporters is important to the growth of your brand. 

Sports and Digital Media Marketing: 3 Ways to Effectively Integrate

Whether you are a digital marketer yourself or someone who consumes digital media on a regular basis, it is always good to be up on the trends of today. Unfortunately, digital media and marketing best practices are still novel ideas to many business entities across the globe, and among the many who are starting to be left behind in this space are sports franchises. While some leagues like the NBA and certain super-teams like the FC Bayern soccer team out of Munich have been aggressive and tried to get themselves out in front of social/digital media trends, most in the sports world are still antiquated in their use of these "new-age" mediums.

As an undergraduate student in the Integrated Marketing Communications program
at Northwestern University, I have compiled a couple of articles that illustrate, in a broad sense, where digital trends are heading, and more specifically, how these apply to sports operators.

In a recent DigiDay article online, entitled 2018 Content Trends You Need to Know Right Now, Creative Executive Molly St. Louis speaks to how the digital content world is changing, and thus, how to best evolve with it.  The biggest, arguably most important point, St. Louis makes in the whole article is about just how dynamic this field is.  Long story short, this online, content-oriented world is constantly changing and evolving, and so the most important thing to do - staying up to date - may sound simple, but is most definitely easier said than done.  With that being said, there are trends she points to in terms of what is on the immediate horizon like the rise of "mobile" and "voice" activated AI; all things to consider when moving forward in the digital content space.

Image credit: company800 Staff Documents (https://sites.google.com/a/wcastl.org/the-westminster-school-of-business-and-communication/marketing/sportsmarketingproject)

Connect all of these ideas to what is going on in the sports world and you see some interesting parallels. SportsProMedia recently published an article entitled The Derby County model: digital transformation drives the future of sports marketing about a lower-divison soccer team in England and how they are trying to update many of the ways sports franchises interact with the online world.  Sports franchises used to have simple goals like getting people in the seats of their stadiums and winning games.  Traditional marketing was the means to an end to execute on these goals, but with the evolution of digital, there has been a proliferation of "means" to get to these simple ends. On top of this, sports teams do have the perk of having an abundance of ready-to-go digital consumers, also known as "fans." As the author, Matt Wheatcroft, puts it, "This ‘hidden army’ of support is the Holy Grail for professional sports clubs… a rich but untapped seam of digitally-savvy content consumers."  Matt notes how with the case in the article, the team made sure to make a seamless website no matter the device you are on in addition to an extensive user experience platform to engage with during actual live sporting events.  

In the case, the team seems to be prioritizing a lot of the qualities that Molly St. Louis alluded to previously in her article about content trends.  Now, when you think about these two articles in tandem, certain points begin to stick out.  Based on my review of the aforementioned titles and my studies at NU, I have created 3 key concepts to keep in mind when you are creating digital sports media or engaging with digital sports media.

Think Mobile
Tailor your user experiences for mobile devices – reach your audience where they are.

Drive Engagement
Reach isn’t always the most important metric – make sure your consumers are actually, actively 

ENGAGING with your content.

“Don’t try to be everything for everyone”
Make sure you know where to start and who your targets are before blindly going after every consumer. 

Whether you are just a sports consumer or a marketer by trade, these ideas are good starting points for you to think about in terms of how your favorite team is engaging with consumers online or, if not, how they should be.  Be sure to check out each article on it's own for even more detailed information on the topic.

Eli Sachs is a passionate digital marketer, social media strategist, and die-hard sports fan. He's pursuing his undergraduate degree in Learning and Organizational Change along with a certificate in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University.   You can get in touch with Eli on his twitter page here.

CMOs: 3 Tips to Spice Up Your Content Marketing with Great Visuals

I won’t go there but we all have heard the cliché a million times. Yet what’s interesting is how much attention visual content has been getting lately. As a graduate student in the Northwestern Medill Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) program and content marketer, I have looked at two articles on visuals – why they are important in social media and what mistakes to avoid.  

Although visual content marketing is on the rise, posts with images can also increase your visibility and response. The first article, titled “EverythingYou Need to Know about Visual Content Marketing” by Brett Relander published in April 2015 compares response rates to tweets and posts with and without images to make a compelling case for why one needs to use visuals. But not just any image; our image choices should enhance the UX. 

Image source: http://www.dailyinfographic.com/right-vs-left-infographic

Another article from January 2015 by Chuck Frey of the Content Marketing Institute talks about common mistakes marketers make. These include anything and everything from using poor-quality image to confusing pictures that don’t align with the brand’s perception, and look and feel. This piece, titled “Experts Share Visual Content Mistakes to Avoid,” discusses why graphics and images can be just as powerful as words in content marketing and branding. It then outlines recommendations on how to avoid some of the mistakes and provides a list of helpful questions to help marketers guide their visual strategy and design work.

Three tips for you to consider if you want to hit a home run with your visual content:

• Think Visual – You have invested in your content marketing strategy. It’s time to also carefully evaluate your visual strategy and what you are trying to accomplish with your visual content.
• Quality is King – Don’t take the easy way out: find the time and money to create the quality of image your target audience expects.
• Know Your Audience – Carefully select the type of visual that best fits your audience’s needs – video vs. photos. 

More and more companies are investing in content marketing. Although visual content is becoming more prevalent brands continue to face pressure to deliver outstanding user experience online. The challenge is in picking the right type and quality of visual that enhances your content as opposed to detract from it.

Dora Bank is a M.S. Candidate in Integrated Marketing Communications at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She has worked in print and digital media in travel and financial services focusing on marketing strategy, content marketing and direct response. You can follow her on Twitter @dbnyc2004 or connect on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/dorabank 

Cable Network Executives: Think Outside the TV

In a time when streaming has become increasingly popular, HBO has joined other companies, like Netflix and is going to offer a standalone streaming service for non-cable subscribers. In this article from Salon.com, Ben Branstetter discusses how the premium cable channel faces challenges from Netflix in competing for millennial audiences. A comScore study released concurrently with HBO’s announcement shows Netflix leading in premium digital content, with Amazon and Hulu lagging behind. Netflix especially has the lead among millennials, half of whom subscribe to some form of online streaming.

Image Source: Appleinsider.com

With every device becoming our “television”, television networks have more options in on how they distribute their content and what platforms they use. This New Yorker article titled Outside the Box discusses how television is changing and where the industry is headed.

After reviewing these two articles, here are three action items I recommend you consider:    

Distribute content across all Digital and mobile platforms to allow viewers choice in how and when they watch “television” programming: Expand offerings that reach across all channels. Millennials make up half of subscribers of online streaming and are the first generation of viewers who may not have grown up with traditional television viewing habits.  As the New Yorker article pointed out, “the linear TV experience, with it’s programs offered at set times, is ripe for replacement.” Viewers, particularly Millennials, binge watch and consume programming on their own time. This trend will only continue and become the norm in the future.

Expand Children’s Television Programming on Mobile and Digital: More children are consuming content through mobile devices than ever before.  Viacom’s Nickelodeon is a good example of a cable network adapting to the TV revolution that is underway. “Welcome to The Wayne” is the network’s first original cartoon series that was created for digital and mobile channels, including the Nick app.

Continue to create original, drama and comedy series that are distributed across both traditional and digital channels: It’s important to build original programming to attract new audiences and keep existing customers engaged. Successful cable networks, such as AMC, are increasing viewership by creating high-quality, original programming and moving away from unscripted television. Demand for good television shows is higher than ever; however, cable networks need to ensure these programs are reaching audiences across platforms.

Danielle Pizmoht is a corporate communications professional and writer who loves comedy and film. She is pursuing a master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University’s Medill School. Connect with her on Twitter @DaniellePizmoht