If you work in content marketing, you’ve experienced the “battle of the brains.”
Your creative brain gets excited to develop your next innovative, engaging, and impactful content effort. But your logical brain points to the blank screen and kills the buzz, saying: “OK, hotshot. Where do we start?”
When at a loss for actionable inspiration, exploring highly successful campaigns from other brands can push your brain in new directions. The valuable insight into what’s resonating with audiences like yours can fuel your creative and strategic minds.
To assist that journey of discovery, we’ve assembled an e-book: 20 Examples of Brands Leading Through Content (registration required). It features leading B2B, B2C, and nonprofit/government organizations that exceeded their audience expectations and achieved their marketing goals through novel content approaches and creative executions.
Here’s a peek at six of my favorite initiatives.
Lesson 1: Develop a strategy that showcases your unique strengths
Developing (and documenting) your content marketing strategy can do more than focus your team on content types and channels. It can guide the organization’s direction as you adapt to new marketplace opportunities, shifts in consumer behaviors, and emerging audience interests.
Case in point: Travel Oregon – TravelOregon.com
In their efforts to provide trustworthy, easily accessible information, regional tourism websites risk coming off as cookie-cutter content. To stand apart, marketers in this business sector must balance practical utility with uniquely desirable experiences in their strategy.
According to Travel Oregon’s director of global integrated marketing and publishing Mo Sherifdeen, the organization found its sweet spot by building content success on driving equitable economic impact across the state and welcoming all.
Its strategy emphasizes lesser-known tourist destinations and activities. It also prioritizes attracting diverse audiences by showcasing the region’s rich history — including stories about its first inhabitants.
This welcoming and inclusive approach is working. According to Travel Oregon’s Content Marketing Award submission, its website attracts 9 million page views and 4 million sessions a year. Its social content reached users’ feeds 41 million times in a year.
Yet, what nailed Travel Oregon’s 2024 win for Best Content Strategy is that its approach delivers significant bottom-line results: A 12-month analysis showed a $48.9 million economic impact from the 25,255 incremental trips made by out-of-state website visitors who hadn’t committed to traveling to Oregon until after they visited the site and a $6.2 million economic impact from 16,190 new visitor days — the time out-of-state website visitors extended their stay in Oregon.
Learn more: How Travel Oregon’s Content Strategy Drove $50+ Million in Economic Impact
Lesson 2: Enhance content resonance with customized relevance
Audiences gravitate toward brands they relate to — whether a shared business goal, a passion for a hobby or activity, or an affinity for a value or belief. The more the audience sees themselves in the content, the more likely they’ll engage and act on it.
Tailoring content to your customers’ needs can plant the seeds of deeper, more resonant connections — even when marketing a highly commoditized B2B product or service. Exhibit an understanding of a relevant concern, then show how your business considers it a priority. Ultimately, let consumers know you see them as people to increase their trust in your brand and satisfaction with their purchases.
Case in point: Salesforce – Salesblazer
Salesforce enjoyed tremendous success with its Trailblazer online community, which was built to enhance the value customers receive from its products. Yet, sales professionals — the primary users of the company’s Sales Cloud product — found that the community lacked the career-centric guidance they sought.
The company answered the call with Salesblazer — a centralized content hub for sales professionals. Like Trailblazer, it’s filled with free resources and opportunities to receive advice from industry experts. It also features educational demos, webinars, downloadable templates, worksheets, and reports.
What distinguishes Salesblazer isn’t just its niche audience target. It customizes the pathway to the visitor’s functional role in sales (e.g., representatives, operations, or leadership). All content helps these professionals grow more successful careers.
In its first year, Salesblazer hit over 5 million unique page views, fueled by ranking for thousands of keywords on search. However, the Trailblazer community format didn’t fully click with the audience, so the community was rebuilt as a Slack channel, helping Salesblazer grow at two times the pace of the original forum.
Learn more: How Salesforce Blazed Award-Winning Content Trail for Sales Pros
Lesson 3: Soothe pain points with a well-timed brand experience
What’s more powerful than understanding consumers’ future-focused challenges? Content solutions that meet them where they are right now.
Delivering educational insights and tactical advice is a staple of content marketing. But when you present that information so it’s easy to engage with and activate at the moment of need, your content becomes a living testimonial to your brand’s overarching value.
Case in point: Siemens Healthineers – Magnetic Stories (Click translate on site for English)
An MRI exam is essential when diagnosing serious pediatric health concerns like cancer. But try explaining that to a young child as they endure the noise and discomfort in the machine.
To help pediatric patients (and their caregivers) feel more at ease, MRI manufacturer Siemens Healthineers developed an imaginative solution: Magnetic Stories — a series of audiobooks children can listen to on their headphones during their scans.
According to AdAge, the campaign created cheerful narratives incorporating sound sequences from common pediatric MRI scans performed on Siemens Healthineers equipment. In one story (shown above), viewers see a young child wearing headphones as she undergoes a cranial bone scan. As she listens to the Magnetic Stories audiobook, the chugging clamor of the scan is whimsically reimagined as a “magical [flying] train called imagination leaving a trail known as inspiration,” putting her at ease.
By creating a more comfortable and satisfying patient experience, the brand extends the value its health care service providers receive from their equipment purchases. Siemens also achieved another benefit from this campaign: Magnetic Stories won the Pharma Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Learn more: Did Cannes Lions Awards Just Say Content Beats Advertising?
Lesson 4: Let influencers bring your brand into their world
Influencers are a hot commodity in the marketing world, with some personalities building lucrative careers by inserting partnering brands into their social conversations. Yet, a common critique remains: “How do we trust that the person behind the handle is truly familiar with the product they’re pitching?”
Asking influencers to co-create content with your brand is a great way to overcome those authenticity accusations. It also can help your content to stand out from other brands mentioned by influencer spokespeople and provide the flexibility to repurpose their assets for different purposes and platforms.
Case in point: Knorr – Yummy K’s
@mattymatheson I’M HERE AT YUMMY K’S WITH @KNORRCA AT 179 CRAWFORD STREET IN TORONTO AND WE’RE SERVING UP MY TASTE COMBOS! COME GET SOME BBQ CHOPPED CHICKEN SANDWICHES OR CHILLED CHILI SOBA THIS WEEKEND ONLY LET’S GO! #KNORRVSCOMBO #AD ♬ original sound – MATTY MATHESON
Unilever’s Knorr is known for its flavoring packets used in tasty dips, sauces, and soups. However, as delivery services and meal prep kits began to dominate young consumers’ dinner tables, the brand struggled to have a place in their kitchen pantries.
Recognizing that 81% of Gen Z consumers say they made recipes they discovered on social media, Knorr seized an opportunity to blend some influential star power into its marketing mix.
First, the brand transformed a home in Canada into Yummy K’s — a first-of-its-kind takeout joint and delivery service. Then, it partnered with celebrity chef (and actor from Hulu’s The Bear) Matty Matheson to design a menu of simple, delicious dishes inspired by popular TikTok recipes. Knorr packaged each customer’s order in a branded box with its ingredient packet to encourage them to recreate the recipe.
Knorr also cooked up a tasty platter of promotional content to drive consumers to the pop-up, including outdoor ads and TikTok-style recipe videos. In the example above, Matty plays into his frenetic energy as a fast-talking food aficionado as he tours Yummy K’s pop-up location and describes the menu. As he receives his order, he opens the Knorr-branded packaging and excitedly digs into the barbecued chopped chicken sandwich and soba noodles combo.
With the help of Matty, Knorr put its creative spin on the latest mealtime trends. The effort earned the brand a seat at the popular kids’ table while strengthening awareness of its value as a home cooking staple.
Lesson 5: Activate the values you share with your customers
Cause marketing remains popular, as consumers (particularly younger generations) go out of the way to support brands that put their money where their mouths are. In fact, according to January 2024 Ipsos research, almost seven in 10 U.S. adults say they tend to buy from brands that reflect their personal values.
To compel your audience to use their wallets to vote in your favor, don’t just talk about the good your brand does, activate your intentions and empower your audience to benefit.
Case in point: Visit Myrtle Beach – Traveling the Spectrum
Most people consider travel a rewarding experience. However, not everyone has equitable access to its benefits, and some aspiring travelers — including people who live with autism — face challenges venturing out of their usual routines.
To minimize their travel-related discomfort and doubt, Visit Myrtle Beach produced Traveling the Spectrum. It’s an eye-opening six-part video series highlighting the region’s autism-friendly offerings, as seen through the eyes of three families visiting the first autism-friendly certified destination in the United States.
Like other travel-related video series, viewers preview the area’s beautiful beaches, amusements, and recreational activities. They also see the realities of vacationing with a family member on the autism spectrum, which includes the potential for meltdowns, extra planning, and memories of frustrations that often deterred them from traveling.
Yet, as the trailer above shows, the audience also witnesses the feelings of gratitude, connection, and joy these families experience because Myrtle Beach welcomes and accommodates their unique needs.
To reinforce Myrtle Beach’s reputation as a relaxing and inclusive tourism destination, the marketing team also created an autism-friendly travel guide filled with resources like sensory-friendly events and information on accessible accommodations.
By helping travelers with special needs plan their trips more confidently, Visit Myrtle Beach activates its inclusive mission: to prove that ‘The Beach’ is a place where everybody can belong.
Learn more: Groundbreaking Autism Travel Series Rockets Myrtle Beach Tourism
Lesson 6: Highlight the people behind your products
Behind-the-scenes videos are a great way to make your company more human-relatable. Highlight day-to-day operations, your offices, your manufacturing processes, or intriguing aspects of the business that audiences usually don’t see.
Profile employees, talk to your vendors, or film conversations with your best customers to lend more credibility to your video stories. They give consumers a clearer idea of how your company works, what’s unique about it, and who helps make it successful. If your videos are entertaining and informative, viewers are even more likely to share your brand story with others.
Case in point: Grainger – Everyday Heroes
High demand for skilled technician labor makes industrial manufacturing an attractive field in which to start a career. However, employment trends make it difficult for companies like Grainger to find qualified candidates to fill the roles.
To help close this gap, Grainger developed Everyday Heroes, a series of videos to motivate more people to pursue trade careers.
The subject matter might be highly technical, but Everyday Heroes approaches it in a human-centric way. In each episode, a Grainger technician shares a personal story about their passion for the job and describes what makes the trade an exciting and fulfilling career option.
For example, in the video (above), wind turbine technician Jenna Stokes details the technical aspects of her craft, such as the repairs her team handles and the skill and knowledge required. She walks viewers through a typical workday, which includes a debrief on the team’s plan for the day and the potential hazards, such as climbing towers up to 328 feet.
That’s a personal challenge for Jenna, who fears heights. So, how — and why — does she do it? Jenna says she relies on her safety equipment and draws strength from her team of skilled technicians. She notes that the energy she feels when she accomplishes the work keeps her going.
Insights + inspiration = exemplary performance
Want more creative ideas and helpful tips to inspire your content program? Download 20 Examples of Brands Leading Through Content. Get a glimpse of successful efforts from companies like Marriott Bonvoy, Intuit, Honda, The Gates Foundation, and others. Not only has this work earned the attention of their audiences, but many have earned the admiration of their fellow marketers — and have the Content Marketing Awards to prove it.
Want more content marketing tips, insights, and examples? Subscribe to workday or weekly emails from CMI.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
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