Is your brand ready to rock the world as a media giant?

When you buy something, you're probably not thinking about the crafty marketer behind the curtain. (And if you are...well, you have my sympathies.) If you're like most of us, you buy at least in part because of what you believe the product will do for you. Floating above that judgment is something more amorphous but perhaps even more powerful: how the brand makes you feel. 

Nike and New Balance (among others) have made major investments in their marketing to make us feel healthy and strong — and even healthier and stronger when we're wearing their shoes and clothes. Sephora and StitchFix have done the same to make us feel beautiful — and yes, all the more beautiful when we've been anointed by their magic touch. We all buy things aspirationally, and of course the brands that tap into our dreams most effectively have always been a step ahead. 

Many of these brands are now making even bigger investments to behave aspirationally themselves — to become "part of the conversation" that informs us not only when we're consuming products — but also when we're consuming information and entertainment. It makes fiscal sense too: with "publishing" now as available to brands as it is to bloggers, why shell out huge sums of cash for visibility on media sites, when you can create a media empire of your own? 

A few examples? On the smaller end of the scale, WeWork is a chain of co-working spaces that publishes Creator, a magazine that's similar to Inc. or Entrepreneur.  And, more well known -- LinkedIn recently bought Pulse (an RSS feed), and now the company has 29 million active users that read and share their media every day. Other big brands are acting in kind— Uber, Casper, and Boeing have all become successful media brands.

They've all found a new way to provide value, in the form of storytelling and information, and the big payoff comes as they're automatically associated with narratives and benefits that are as big — sometimes bigger -- than their products. When you see it done successfully, it sure looks and feel a great idea... but how do you actually do it? Glad you asked...

7 Keys To The Media Kingdom 

Brands can learn a lot from media companies, but it's not as simple as hiring a consultant or agency to give your brand a media makeover. It takes significant planning, significant internal buy-in, and a shift in the way you approach publishing. To successfully make this shift, follow this checklist:

1. Determine if it's right for you. Don't become a media company because everyone else is doing it. If you don't have clear goals or enough resources, your efforts will be wasted. Decide first, then act.
2. Find the intersection. Successful brand publications can tap into their audience. You need to find the intersection of what your brand stands for and what your audience cares about. “As you consider what your audience cares about, think about the micro-moments they might be experiencing," said Kim Larson, global director of Google BrandLab, in a Think with Google article on YouTube strategy. "Micro-moments are the I-want-to-go, I-want-to-do, I-want-to-buy, or I-want-to-know moments when people are turning to devices to find answers, discover new things, or make decisions." 
3. Get internal buy in. To be successful as a media company, you need to identify new roles and hire new talent to get (and keep) the content-making machine running. Leaders and executives will have to buy-in to the idea, so make sure everyone who needs to be is on board and understands why the move is being made.
4. Break away from product. Media companies thrive because they publish relatable, funny, and inspiring videos, and share truly interesting insights, not because they're trying to push a product. "Mountain Dew, for example, released an extended version of the team's Kickstart™ 'Come Alive' spot on YouTube," Larson offers, "entertaining audiences with a longer, more interactive story than television allowed." 
5. Define your audience — in their terms. Who are the ideal readers & viewers of your content? Find out who they are, then talk to them. Figure out what they're interested in and what they share. Then, create personas and define a style guide to help you and your team reach them.
6. Plan carefully, but hey...loosen up! Media companies are much more flexible than brands. They publish content constantly without a lot of red tape or legal approval. BuzzFeed even built its own software to make content creation and publication nearly instantaneous. To compete, you'll need to create an efficient and speedy system.
7. Scale up. Be prepared to partner and/or grow quickly. In order to be successful, you'll need more content produced at a faster rate than ever before. That means you'll need a plan — and the funds — to scale up.

Scaling Content All The Time

As a media company, you'll need to produce content. But what types of content, and where will that content come from? You'll need to think about what you want to produce, how you'll produce it, and who can lead the charge.

Content Types

You have options— you can produce videos, articles, graphics, data visualizations, or podcasts. The only thing you'll need to do it? A plan. Make sure to create an editorial calendar, then think carefully about what you need to bring that plan to life. Will you hire freelancers, in-house creators, or use a combination of the two? How much time will you give them to create these assets? 

Resources

Some of the biggest brands are publishing more content now than many household media names did in their heyday (remember MONTHLY magazines)?  With the huge uptick in output, the first question you'll confront is: who's going to create this content? Well, people, of course. So ask yourself how you'll get these human resources. Will you use a creative platform like Tongal — or hire in-house? Do you have the funds to support the growing costs of content creation? Do you have the buy-in from company executives?

As you scale, you'll need systems in place that can grow with you. Publishing software, content marketing software, and analytics software can all help you reach your goals. There are many more companies than we can list here, but here are two worth noting for would-be media giants:  Pixability can help you perfrom better on YouTube, and Percolate, who describe themselves as "The System of Record for Marketing" can help you keep everything organized and running smoothly -- even when your brand goes over the top.  

In the end, it's the consumers who get to decide where they turn for news and information. They'll read and view what's most interesting, regardless of whether it comes from a media company or a brand...or both. If you're considering taking your brand and building it into a media company, get ready for a wild ride, one that could result in a stronger, more sustainable brand.