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That’s Rich: Do less better

Hold still while we talk about TikTok. That’s right, that thing your 12-year-old niece is always looking at on her phone. It won’t seem very relevant to your business today, but neither was LinkedIn five years ago. I collected some insights on this emerging marketing environment at a recent BC marketing association conference.

Content marketing is constantly changing as the media that carry those messages to the intended audience evolves. Gen Z audiences have spurred on the rise and adaptation of visual social media platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Metaverse with storytelling platforms.In 2018, Snapchat developed the six-second unskippable ad that was short enough to pacify impatient viewers. Most TikTok videos range from nine to 15 seconds long. This is important insight on how a rapidly growing segment of your customers and employees communicate, seek entertainment and gather information.

“We’re seeing content density more prevalent as we see the evolution of social media networks,” says John Entwistle, outdoor marketing strategist and photographer at Whistler’s Origin Outdoors. “There is an expectation from audiences that the content they consume will be concise, well-produced and relevant,” says Entwistle. “We have conditioned ourselves to require more value per second than ever before.” Entwistle doesn’t believe that well-produced necessarily means a high budget. “I do believe that it requires a lot of thought and planning. Social platforms like TikTok are leading the way. Look at how well-planned your TikTok feed is. You are engaging with every little six-second, 15-second, 30-second clip on there. Deliver as much as we can with the time that we have is really becoming a thing.”

Jason Carnew, managing partner for Ackelo, says that over the last few years there has been a lot of conversations around a “frictionless experience.” “What this has created is a world where everything feels the same,” says Carnew. “Everything is Amazon-ish or Netflix-like or Apple-esque, and it creates a vanilla approach across the content sphere. Everything blends together and nothing stands out.” Carnew goes on to say that TikTok is not operating like a social brand but much more like an entertainment entity. “Creators are going more niche,” says Carnew. “Content is now being created at the speed of culture. It’s being created so fast that it’s starting to lead culture instead of just following it. Trends are immediate.”

According to Carnew, over the next five years, there’s approximately $30 to $60 billion that is going to transfer from baby boomers to their children. “It’s the largest transfer of money in history,” says Carnew. “The people that are going to be receiving this money, and instantaneously changing their position the economic ladder will have grown up with these social and entertainment channels working for them.”

“As a writer, I look at content from a storytelling perspective,” says creative director and writer, Katie Ainsworth. “Storytelling takes time. Stories have an idea and an emotion connected to them. You can’t engage people and bring them into the brand in six seconds. Try to tell someone a story in six seconds.” Ainsworth says that super-succinct messaging is great for retail and fashion but, “Ryan Reynolds is a great storyteller and I’ve never seen him do a six-second video.” Ainsworth goes on to say that it’s a myth that people have short attention spans. “They have high standards. Give me something engaging and I will engage with it.” Ainsworth recommends creating one large anchor spot where you plan a big thing and then slice it into a lot of little things. “You really do have to figure out all the bits upfront before production, so you’re not caught short-handed later,” she adds. “The content hole is infinite. You don’t have to fill it. Be selective. Pick what works for you. Do less. Do it better.”

Rich Porayko is a professional writer and founding partner of Construction Creative, a marketing and communications company. richp@constructioncreativecom