An interview with Tim Clark, vice president, head of native advertising at enterprise software giant SAP. Now in its 7th year, SAPVoice was Forbes’ first BrandVoice partner.
It’s a constant tension in content marketing. On the one hand, you need to provide value to readers, and branded content should be as useful and entertaining as good editorial. On the other hand, you’re facing institutional pressure to maximize “brand mentions” and hammer home your messaging.
To stay on track, take to heart an old journalistic rule: Write the stories you want to write, not the ones you “need” to write — for internal political reasons, for example. In going out on a limb, you might even find that the numbers back you up.
SAP’s Clark told a story that drives that point home. “When we started with BrandVoice,” he said, “we lacked a clear sense of what we should be doing with our content. We talked too much about ourselves in our stories, and saw low page views and flat engagement.”
Then he came across a story about a 2011 Australian indie horror movie called “The Tunnel.” It was fully crowdfunded, and a success — winning distribution from an independent Canadian film company. Clark asked himself, “Why can’t I write about this film and connect the topic back to our business?”
Clark wrote the story, using the movie’s success to shed light on digital disruption — which, he noted, “is what crowdfunding is all about.” His headline? “Indie Horror Flick ‘The Tunnel’ Eviscerates Old Business Model.”
The result was striking. The piece started trending, and fast — hitting No. 1 on Forbes’ “Most Popular” ranking. It was the first article by any BrandVoice partner to do so.
More than that, Clark said, it “opened up our eyes as to what types of stories we should tell. It gave me a back door through which I could tell SAP’s story, which is largely about the changes tech is driving. It was a great example of what’s possible.”
Not to mention, Clark said, the story made SAP “look slightly cooler.”
“Don’t be afraid to put your own spin on your themes,” Clark said. “And don’t be so tightly married to your corporate messaging. Nothing repels an audience faster than marketing talk.”
