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Creating and nurturing a premium brand requires serious care, especially these days when consumer interest is so difficult to pin down. Marketers and creatives are finding themselves having to juggle greater demands with fewer resources, while pressure mounts on established brands to stay ahead in an increasingly complex online world.
newly, Fast company Visual communications platform Canva hosted a panel discussion on creating scalable content featured during the annual SXSW conference in Austin. Three marketing leaders discussed the new technology, formats, and trends they plan to embrace this year, and how other innovators can do the same. Here are four takeaways from their conversation. Scroll to the bottom to see the entire panel discussion.
1. Lean into the power of storytelling.
Compelling stories are a powerful tool for turning potential audiences into die-hard fans. For example, one barrier to entry for potential new fans into auto racing is unfamiliarity with the sport and its drivers, explained Peter Young, NASCAR’s chief marketing officer. Young suggested creating authentic narratives that help demystify the brand. NASCAR addressed this issue by launching “Full Speed,” a show on Netflix that humanizes drivers and their teams by showing the challenges they face as they compete for wins.
“This is an example of a universal, broad and scalable way to start overcoming some of those challenges in understanding sports,” Young said. Entertainment-driven narrative can accelerate an audience’s journey from initial curiosity to active brand engagement and loyalty.
2. Enjoy your campaigns.
Sometimes, it may seem that the creative process gets bogged down by the focus on achieving specific results or sales numbers. “Sometimes, we might have taken ourselves a little too seriously in the past, so have fun with it,” Young said. Incorporating fun, innovation and engaging visuals is essential for brands to be noticed and remembered.
Bold brand statements and throwbacks to early digital, like DIY culture and vintage ’80s-style cutting, are fun trends right now, said Sylvia Oviedo, senior vice president of content, discovery and print at Canva. “It’s really great to see a lot of brands that have a very strong visual language embracing that and leaning into it,” she said.
Mass marketing is another way to revitalize marketing. In NASCAR, technology, such as in-car cameras, helps put viewers in the driver’s seat. “We’re trying to make the on-screen experience as immersive as the live experience can be,” Young said. “If there’s an idea, implementation, channel, or partnership where you can bring some of that energy or those types of feelings to life, try it.”
3. Avoid the trap of perfectionism.
In a fast-paced industry where risk is often rewarded, marketing teams cannot afford to slow down due to fear of failure. Oviedo argues that sometimes it’s better to “go with the good,” taking risks and putting out content knowing that nothing will be perfect before it’s released. However, she emphasized that polish is important, and brands must rely on tried-and-true design tools and principles to put their best foot forward. Doing so will help brands feel more comfortable with enduring those big and sometimes scary fluctuations. “This way, you’ll need to obsess less about perfection, and you can go more comfortably with good,” Oviedo said.
Every brand has a different threshold for what they feel comfortable putting out into the world, said Mohan Ramaswamy, co-founder of digital products company Work & Co (acquired by Accenture in January). Some companies welcome a trial-and-error approach, while others insist on making the content as complete as possible. One way to find a happy medium is to perform more personalized tests. For example, consider launching prototypes to a small percentage of users. “It’s helpful to bring it up and get over that initial fear,” he said. “We can test it with smaller groups along the way to feel confident.”
4. Let AI get personal.
For the past decade or so, digital channels have been the dominant way through which customers interact with brands. But this does not mean that brands can treat every user or consumer the same. Instead, brands should think carefully about how best to reach consumers on a more personal level. “There are many [more] “It’s an opportunity to think about what that experience could look like and, ultimately, how to transform that for a different user in a different country, in a different country, with a different degree of awareness or relationship with that brand,” Ramaswamy said.
AI provides marketers with a powerful tool to help make this personalization possible. For example, it can help teams analyze demographic data to create diverse content that accommodates the precise preferences of individual users. This may mean directing a customer who is familiar with the brand to a different home page than a new customer who may need to see more introductory or educational materials. “The ability to localize at scale is something we are just starting to take advantage of,” Ramaswamy said.
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