News
This Month’s Best Content Marketing Reads
As many know, I’m a big fan of reading everything and anything that helps us improve our strategies and processes for our clients. So, without dragging it out, I’ll throw out some of the best of the best articles in the last month that we found interesting, as well give you our take on the piece. Maybe you will find these articles and opinions equally as interesting!
Just Some Good Content Marketing Reads…
For those who truly know us, you know that we have a hard time sitting still. When we do eventually sit still, we are typically reading…and usually we are reading about…marketing. So instead of hogging all of our good reads, we like to pull up our favorite articles, quotes, and nerd-out a bit on them. So without delay, here we go!
The Fundamentals Haven’t Changed: Strong Photos tell a Strong Story
As many folks know, our roots at TDC are visual - specifically, photography and videography. We’d like to think that because we are fluent in the language of visual content, we have a distinct advantage when it comes to knowing what moves the needle, or more pragmatically, what moves the client’s audience’s needle. We all talk about visuals as being ‘king’, but more to the point, the real king is the story - whether it’s told in photo or video format, ‘story is king’.
All Eyes on Recruitment
Most people think Marketing = Advertising. On top of that, the goal is to advertise in order to gain more sales. That’s the perceived goal: market to make more sales. End of story...?
In the last few months, I’m certain everyone has witnessed the labor market turn virtually upside down. Without beginning to go into depth about why that’s happening, I would instead like to explore how most clients we work with changed their goal from ‘help bring us more work’ to ‘help bring us more talented employees, so we can service our clients and customers’.
Year in Review // Auto-Play-On-Mute
Summarizing an entire year of changes and trends in integrated marketing isn't easy. Nor is it really possible. So instead of doing that, I thought I'd focus on one very, very specific evolution in video that's not a trend, but instead a movement. It can be summed-up in one super-hyphenated word: Auto-Play-On-Mute.
Square Video + Caption Files Make the Difference on Social
Here's a question we get with regular frequency: why are you sending us so many darn files, I thought we just needed a video?
Yes, you just needed a video…sort of…
“How Many Minutes Should My Videos Actually Be…?”
Here’s a quick breakdown of what we witness on a daily basis:
Some videos are 2 minutes and feel like 10...
Some videos are 3 minutes and feel like 1.5...
Some videos are 12 and don't feel long enough because the audience wants to know more...
The 'secret to the right video length' has nothing to do with video duration, it has everything to do with whether or not the audience CARES about what's happening, thus making the video FEEL short or long. We've all been there: we started watching a video, and about 10 seconds in we pause the video to see how long this is going to take us to finish. It's right-then-and-there that we lost our audience.
The goal is to tell your story and make sure your audience cares: not to think about a specific target video duration.
Stop Being the Hero of Your Own Headlines (On Social Media)
What exactly is the point of your company's presence on Social Media, anyway? If you look around, you'll quickly notice that many of the most reputable brands around you haven't exactly 'figured out' why they are on Social Media yet, either. Most, it seems, are on there because someone at the company said 'we need to be on Social Media, someone here in the office should do that...right?' - and that pretty much sums up the entirety of the strategy: "I think we're supposed to this". That's a fine starting place, but not a solid long-term strategy.
How does the Facebook / Apple Privacy Disagreement Impact Your Company?
Before we can dive into the heart of the disagreement between Facebook and Apple, we first must understand the term 'Remarketing/Retargeting', as that's the most direct impact for businesses leveraging Facebook's tracking abilities. The best definition I've found is the following:
Illustrating The ‘End-Run’ Video Strategy
Merriam-Webster defines 'End Run' as the following:
"a football play in which the ballcarrier attempts to run wide around the end of the line"
So...what does that have to do with marketing? And more specifically, video content? Well, to answer that question, we need to back up a bit and look at a project we're actively working on with F&M Bank.
Year in Review // Integrated Marketing Edition
This year has brought each sector their own sets of challenges. This brief article isn’t about the pandemic’s impact on those sectors, but instead about the three main takeaways from The Downtown Creative’s sector: Integrated Marketing, and more specifically Content Marketing. The first two are observations of strengthening trends, the third is about the marketing goal-posts that seem to be moving over time.
SEO is Dead...and Other Good Content Marketing Reads
It's satisfying to read this perspective, especially written by an industry veteran. I cannot tell you how many times I've heard clients discuss SEO as something that can be outsmarted, gamed, or bought. It doesn't work, it goes against the point of 'Search', and breeds confusion. And because of this confusion, it's created a cottage industry of nonsense. There's a difference between making your website is optimized for 'Search' and buying/manufacturing backlinks to make your brand seem like an authority on a specific topic.
Strong Corporate Photography Requires the Human Element
Brands implement many tactics in achieving their marketing goals, one of which is often creating and publishing strong images of their business in-action. Instead of getting into the nitty-gritty of the creative processes, technical details, or publication platforms, this article is about the common thread that most corporate photography contains: the human element.
Interest and Behavioral Targeting In Action
Paid ads have come a long way over the last decade - not just the duration of the ad (shorter), the number of hard cuts and length of each clip (increased and shorter), or the strategic voice of the ad (authenticity, not authority) - but the targeting of the audience has changed just as much.
Our Strategy Team
Our Content Team
Our Web, Design, and Operations Team
