While I might get a little antsy at the lack of progress on the content marketing front from Australia’s corporate sector – let’s face it, it’s severely lacking, and what is a fast-growing trend has been very slow to manifest itself at the big end of town for some inexplicable reason – two major corporates have just weighed in with some decent content efforts.
So, credit where credit’s due, hat-tip to some nice work revealed this week by two major brands: NAB, and Bupa.
NAB
Firstly, the day after the the Federal Budget was handed down on Tuesday, I spied the NAB in my Twitter feed with a number of promoted posts featuring content largely from internal experts talking (on video) about the budget’s ramifications for certain sectors of the market.
A few years ago, the bank would probably have defaulted to crafting a jargon-laden press release and dispatched it forthwith to finance journalists. In keeping with most corporate press releases, it probably would have said very little and may have resulted in a few lines in Budget articles published in the finance media (who knows, this might still happen?).
Fast forward to today and NAB has become the media channel, producing videos with little lead time and distributing directly to the public via Twitter. Now we’re talking!
This is content-driven social communications at its best: There’s a key milestone (the Federal Budget) – people want straight talk on how it will affect their sector (or lot in life) – and the NAB is endeavouring to help give them some value in this regard, quickly. And they succeeded.
The bank’s website also features a Federal Budget Hub where the Budget commentary/content is housed. While it’s not super-comprehensive like what you’d find in the business pages of a daily newspaper, for example, at least the bank has provided a showcase for its experts to weigh in on certain niches pertaining to the Budget. The hub also published relevant content in the run-up to the Budget announcement.
(Financial software company, which publishes the popular Pulse blog, was also quick out of the gate producing several blog posts on the Budget implications for its core audience – small business – plus a whitepaper that goes into greater detail).
Bupa
In other ‘corporate’ content marketing news, major health insurer Bupa has recently launched its new initiative The Blue Room (what is it with these major corporations and the word blue? ANZ Blue Notes anyone?).
This looks set to become a serious content marketing initiative providing ongoing contributions across three content ‘pillars’:
- FAMILIES – “Managing the changing health needs of you and your family from pregnancy to raising children”
- HEALTHIER – “Information to start making proactive physical and mental health changes at home and at work”
- MANAGE & RECOVER – “Practical support for managing an illness and getting back into everyday life”
Much of content on the hub was published in early April but I have only just became aware of it through social media so I don’t know if it has been in ‘soft launch’ phase or I just missed its announcement. Either way, it has a good whack of content already in place and the core audience groups – and their particular needs and issues – seem to be well catered to, so I’m tipping this effort has been pretty well planned and is now being rolled out to a schedule.
I also like how Bupa has humanised the content hub. Showing faces of contributors is a mandatory as far as I am concerned, so good to see they’ve placed emphasis in this regard (see below). No doubt they’ll add to the roster over time as the demand for content heats up.
The fact Bupa has co-opted blogger Debbie Elkind alongside their internal experts is also a positive sign – I expect more of this as Bupa has been building relationships with the blogging fraternity for a couple of years now e.g. the Bupa Health Influencer Blog Awards.
However, using technical experts from within the company will also pay dividends for the brand because as the Edelman Trust Barometer study tells us year after year, they are one of the most trusted sources of information for an organisation.
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