If you\u2019re looking to revive your content strategy, or get your next big campaign off the ground, industry inspiration can help take your ideas from point A to point B. Content managers and marketing leaders came together to discuss their challenges and triumphs. Here are a few takeaways to help you dodge any barbs that may prevent your brand from reaching its goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Slow down your storytelling.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Through a tale of two zoos, Ann Hanley, author of bestseller Everybody Writes<\/em>, illustrates the power of drawing out a narrative over time. The Bronx Zoo, one of the largest and best-known U.S. zoos, has achieved viral success with a clever social campaign every Valentine\u2019s Day since 2011. The zoo asks followers to name one of its Madagascar hissing cockroaches after a loved one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Riffing off this idea, the El Paso Zoo prompted visitors to name a cockroach after an ex, which would then become a meal for the zoo\u2019s meerkats. But before the El Paso Zoo aired the main event live on Facebook to an audience of 6,000 viewers, it spent weeks teasing out the spectacle with a multitude of social posts. With only limited resources, the smaller zoo was also able to leave an international footprint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Deliver solutions, not products. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo one wakes up in the morning and says, \u2018I wish someone would sell me a financial product,\u2019\u201d said Allison Baird, Boston Private\u2019s SVP of Products & Solutions. We do however lose sleep over our families or whether we can save enough money to take a trip to Africa in a year, she said. These are the kinds of conversations marketers should strive to have through their content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Baird says marketing professionals have the unique challenge of anticipating customers\u2019 needs and goals in order to drive innovation. Years ago we never knew to ask for a phone that takes pictures, but today \u201cwe all walk around taking pictures all over the place,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Find influencers who inspire FOMO. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Seventy percent of advertisers hire influencers as part of their social media strategy, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau<\/a>. But as anyone who understands social media can tell you, it pays to find the right ones. \u201cWe could not do this without influencers,\u201d said Beverly Jackson, VP of Social Portfolio Strategy at MGM Resorts International, whose team fields 1,700 requests from content creators angling for a free trip to Las Vegas daily. Those who make the cut create original content that makes millennial travelers feel a sense of urgency. MGM then takes the influencer-created content and targets it, putting more spend behind the posts with the highest conversions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n