What Is Branded Content? Here’s How to Create It

Intro

Have you watched Barbie or The Lego Movie?

These are prime branded content examples – content that revolves around a brand and shapes how consumers view it and all its products.

In this article, we’ll explore what branded content is, how it differs from traditional advertising and other types of marketing, and see examples of how to create it.

Spoiler alert: branded content is not just for big brands with huge marketing budgets.

What is branded content?

Branded content highlights what a brand stands for – its values, beliefs, and meaning. It aims to influence how customers perceive a brand, and it involves connecting with an audience on an emotional level. Branded content comes in all forms – from blog and social media posts to audio and video productions – it meets audiences where they are.

Branded content vs. native content

Branded content and native content have different focal points. Branded content is all about creating a brand story. Native content, also known as sponsored content or native advertising, focuses on product promotion.

Native content is paid for and goes on a website not associated with the brand. As the name suggests, thanks to its format, tone, style, and information, this content looks native to the platform where it lives.

You can find an example of native content on Spotify, where users who search for “Netflix” access a library of playlists, soundtracks, and podcasts associated with their favorite shows.

Source: Spotify

Branded content vs. content marketing

Branded content is a sub-category of content marketing, along with blog posts, newsletters, and social media content.

Branded content is a type of content that revolves around the brand. Content marketing is the blanket term for all kinds of content produced by a brand. \

Content marketing aims to educate and entertain. Its target audience includes current and potential customers.

Why is branded content important?

Branded content marketing increases the value of your overall brand, not just a product. Compared to other marketing activities, it ties to longer-term goals.

If your branding efforts are successful, they boost brand awareness, lead generation, and customer loyalty.

However, not all branded content strategies drive results – some go unnoticed, and others may trigger a negative response. We’ll look at successful branded content campaigns from other brands to get you started with your branding.

How to create exceptional branded content

Here are four essential points to consider when creating branded content.

1. Understand your audience

The first step is understanding what your audience cares about – what they like and share.

One way to “snoop” on your industry is to go on Reddit. As the platform keeps users anonymous, they share their unfiltered opinions. The main downside to this approach is scale – you can only read so many comments, and they may not be representative of your audience. \

A data-driven strategy is to use a keyword research tool like the Keyword Finder by Ranktracker to find common talking points in your industry. It gives you insight into the search volume for every keyword so you can gauge which topics are popular or niche. Use the country filter if you’re targeting a specific market.

Pair your keyword research with social media monitoring – a database of all social media conversations about your brand and products, competitors, and industry topics. With social media monitoring tools, you can quickly compile and analyze large data volumes to spot trends. This approach is scalable, and, like keyword research, it can be tailored to a particular market.

2. Define your brand message and values

Branded content is all about making your brand message and values shine. Consumers intuitively make the connection between your brand values and products.

Patagonia, an outdoor clothing brand, has set “Environmentalism” as one of its core values. To demonstrate dedication to protecting our planet, Patagonia is doing something counterintuitive for a commercial company – it encourages its clients to repair damaged gear whenever possible.

There is an entire section on the Patagonia website dedicated to DIY repairs, with videos and articles about repairing different elements (zippers, buckles, etc.).

Source: Patagonia Repairs

3. Make your content engaging and useful

You want your audience to remember your content, associate an emotion with it, and, ultimately, feel a connection to your brand.

To achieve this, you must create content that resonates with your audience while keeping in line with your brand.

It can be tricky to connect the dots between current trends, target audiences’ interests, your brand values, and the emotions you want to evoke. To simplify the process, you can use a concept map – a visual representation of the relation between different concepts.

Next, let’s look at some ways to create engaging and valuable branded content.

Use storytelling

It’s no secret that storytelling is one of the most powerful marketing tools. It comes from our ancestors who used stories to make learning new information engaging and memorable.

Huggies, a disposable diapers and baby wipes producer, launched a campaign called “No Baby Unhugged.” The campaign is educational as it promotes hugs’ benefits for babies – from improving immunity to aiding brain development. It also supports Huggies’ charity program that funds building hospital facilities for volunteer huggers.

Last but not least, the campaign connects with its target market of current and expecting parents by showing it understands what’s most important to them.

Source: Huggies

Create a multi-sensory experience

Use different formats for your branded content to create a multi-sensory experience.

Videos, especially short-form videos, are among the most engaging and shareable content types. If you want proof, just look at TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube. They’re punchy and can convey a lot in just a minute.

Take inspiration from fitness apparel brand Gymshar, which has garnered over 90 million likes on its TikTok videos. How? By creating funny and relatable content.

EMBED: https://www.tiktok.com/@gymshark/video/7298815473783721248?lang=en

Audio, specifically music, is another great format for establishing an emotional connection with your audience.

Develop a brand character

Brand characters embody everything a brand stands for. Developing a unique brand character makes your brand’s content memorable and approachable.

Before creating a character, identify your character's desired values and personality and how you want your audience to perceive it.

Reddit’s Snoo is a prime example of a strong brand character. In Reddit’s own words: “Snoo represents every redditor.” – that’s why it has no gender or color. Moreover, Snoo is friendly, which puts you at ease about asking questions and expressing opinions. So, Snoo embodies the feeling Reddit wants to create across its community.

Source: Reddit

Implement quizzes

Quizzes are a type of interactive content that is effective for user engagement and lead generation. Implementing quizzes in your branded content allows users to interact with your brand.

Think of the last time you saw a quiz on your social media feed – did you click on it? Chances are, you did. Quizzes are so captivating that they are the biggest reason for Buzzfeed’s success. You can replicate their approach by adding quizzes to your content strategy.

With Opinion Stage, you can create a quiz from scratch, with a template, or with AI. Next, you can edit the theme and add your logo to align the quiz with your brand’s visuals.

Source: Opinion Stage

4. Leverage strategic collaborations

Partnering with other brands or influencers gives a larger reach to your branded content because you leverage your partner's audience. So, let’s look at a few examples of strategic collaborations and what to consider when choosing your partners.

Collaborate with other brands

Co-branding is a collaboration between two brands for marketing and advertising purposes. By working together, each brand gets exposure to the audience of their partner brand.

Brand collaborations increase reach, trust, and sales for both brands while lowering costs for campaign creation. For successful co-branding, explore other companies that share your brand values and have a similar audience.

You can see many examples of co-branding in the food industry – Taco Bell and Doritos, Burger King and McDonald's, Pop-Tarts and Dunkin’ Donuts’, Brownie Brittle and M&M'S, Milka and Philadelphia. The list goes on.

Source: Philadelphia

Collaborate with influencers

The main advantage of partnering with influencers is getting exposure to their loyal following. Most consumers don’t trust brands, but they are more likely to trust what customers say about a brand.

What is more, every brand can afford to work with influencers. Small brands can collaborate with nano and micro-influencers (from 1 to 100K followers). Depending on your business, you might offer your product or service in exchange for influencer promotion. So, you don’t necessarily need a big budget to leverage influencer marketing.

Like in co-branding, you must carefully consider the online personas you partner with. Some questions to address include:

• Do they share your brand values?
• Have they been involved in any scandals?
• Do they demonstrate integrity?
• What other brands do they partner with?
• Is their following engaged?

To get started with influencer campaigns, look for influencer tracking tools. They can help you identify the top influencers in your niche, verify that their followers are real, and track the performance of your campaigns.

Logitech, a computer peripherals manufacturer, regularly collaborates with influencers to build trust with its audience and show its products in use. Also, Logitech integrates influencer-made branded content with user-generated content, which saves resources on content production.

EMBED: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1IfrjxPDB2/

Branded content distribution channels

You can share your branded content on any channel, such as websites, social media, email, podcasts, and radio. Understand where your audience is, and then format your content accordingly for every platform.

We’ll look at a couple of the most common branded content distribution channels, but there are no limitations to creativity.

Email

Email has long been marketers’ favorite way to reach their audience on any device – it’s timely, personalizable, and affordable, while results are measurable.

To aid with branded content creation, email builder Stripo has developed a "Brand Guidelines" feature, which helps create consistent, on-brand newsletters regardless of who designs them. It’s a kit that includes a guideline PDF file detailing the design styles used in a chosen template, such as headings, headers, buttons, and mobile view styles. It also contains PDF files of the templates, content modules, images used in campaigns, brand assets like logos, and contact information.

Social Media

Social media platforms are another excellent distribution channel for your branded content because they have a wide reach and content is shareable. Also, social media marketing is cost-effective, which makes it accessible to brands of all sizes.

Spotify Wrapped – the audio platform’s yearly review of user activity – is an excellent campaign to learn from. As it’s personalized to every user, it encourages social media sharing and sparks user conversations.

EMBED: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1FxQLbyA3h/

Starting with branded content

Branded content can increase brand awareness, engage current and potential customers, and build brand loyalty. With all that it offers, it’s time to add it to your marketing strategy.

Start by exploring what topics your audience cares about in Keyword Finder.