Branded Content: How to Build Your Brand in Turbulent Times

We live in turbulent times, and given the high degree of similarity among products on the market, only those brands that manage to set themselves apart through intangible benefits will come out on top. In this regard, branded content has a lot to offer. In this post, Javier Regueira, a leading expert and professional in branded content, explains why it matters, what it is, and how this discipline can benefit your brand. Don’t miss it.

Turbulent times.

The latest crisis has not yet subsided, yet experts, the media, and ordinary consumers are already predicting the next one.

To the point where uncertainty, hypercompetition, and commoditization (the growing lack of differentiation among products) seem to have become permanent features of the markets in which we operate.

In more and more product and service categories, offerings are as similar as two peas in a pod. Using the perceived value formula shown below as a reference, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate ourselves based on our tangible benefits (flavor, quality, durability, etc.).

What sets us apart in these turbulent times? Without a doubt, intangible benefits.

Because, as you can see, when tangible benefits are equal, intangible benefits are the only way to offset the drawbacks of trying a product for the first time, the uncertainty, or even a price higher than the competition’s.

In this way, your brand’s value becomes a shield that protects your business through thick and thin. Customers don’t buy from you just because they remember you, but because they’ve formed an emotional connection with your brand.

How can you build the intangible benefits your brand needs?

We know that intangible bonds are built through close interactions,

…in your day-to-day interactions with your audiences.

Helping customers make purchases, not using high-pressure sales tactics.

Accompanying rather than interrupting.

And the best way to engage your audience and turn those conversations into relationships that lead to brand loyalty, leads, and sales is to have a voice of your own.

A prominent voice that offers educational or entertainment value.

Your brand’s voice is its content, and in today’s market, silencing that voice is the worst decision you can make.

You may have heard that branded content is a long-term gamble, that it can’t be measured, and that all you can do to track your content investment is cross your fingers…

Well, if you’ve heard all this… it means you’re not getting good advice.

Is investing in branded content risky?

No, investing in branded content does not involve any greater risk than investing in any other form of communication.

Let me explain.

It’s true that you won’t see immediate sales, but there are ways to track the positive impact of content on the conversational value your brand offers—and, at the funnel level, on building brand consideration. To cite a methodology that’s gaining more and more traction in the industry, the Branded Content Suite (BCMA Spain, Ipsos) helps us measure the impact of content on building brand value.

It’s also true that a content strategy deployed across your channels doesn’t guarantee you’ll reach a large organic audience (publishing content isn’t like buying GRPs). But there are ways to reduce this uncertainty. At MIO Group, we’ve long based our content strategies on audience data insights. As this chart shows, we combine social login sources and databases like AIMC to decipher the behavior of our target audience: the screens and platforms they use and the topics that interest them.

That way, the content you produce and publish on your channels isn’t the result of a subjective decision, but rather of a rigorous analysis.

It’s only fair to acknowledge that we haven’t invented anything new. We’ve simply taken the time to observe and learn how the experts do it. Because for decades, major film and TV production companies have been basing their releases on market research. If shows like *Elite*, *The Umbrella Academy*, or *The Walking Dead* exist, it’s because there are producers who analyze the market and identify sociological insights that inspire that content—before they even start writing the first script.

As we’ve just seen, now is the time to raise your brand’s profile and set it apart.

And that doesn’t mean putting your investment at risk. It means that to publish content that’s relevant to your audience, you have to switch from thinking like an advertiser to thinking like a publisher.

Javier Regueira

General Manager of Zond