🍱 Thrift Shop of Ideas; Timeless Coca-Cola now with A.I.; Ann Incredible Insight

Power to the people

Hello and welcome back to The Marketing Kable, where I'm taking you along on my journey to discover ideas, voices and campaigns that can inspire us.

something to read

cheating bad. arbitrage good. Picture this. You're in middle school, answering a biology test. You have no idea how to answer Q3. You discreetly nudge your bench mate on your left. As she looks up at you quizzically, you gesture at 3b with a desperate look on your face. As she slowly moves her answer sheet towards you, you take a quick peek. You add a bit of fluff to what you read and write down your own answer.

A few minutes later, you feel a poke in your left rib. Your bench mate on the left is mirroring your desperate expression. Q3 is the Devil. You show her what you wrote and get back to the rest of the test.

All three of you score the same marks, more or less, but forget everything you learnt in Biology faster than you can say amoeba. Indian education is broken like that - it sets you up for high scores, not deep learning.

Anyway, what's with this random story? This is my way of explaining how content arbitrage works in the content marketing world. Not a perfect analogy, but stay with me.
 
Arbitrage is a strategy where you take advantage of the value differences in different markets. Just like buying something cheap in one place and selling it for a higher price in another, content arbitrage applies the same concept to content marketing. In class, you sourced content from your right bench mate, added your own bit, and passed it on to your left bench mate. We can apply the same principle to generate content for marketing purposes.

Animalz, one of the shiniest stars in the SaaS content marketing world, published a thorough article on what content arbitrage is and how to make use of it:

Here's the deal: information can have different worth depending on the context. So, content arbitrage happens when you take existing content from one source and use it to create even more valuable content somewhere else, with minimal effort. It's all about making the most out of information imbalances.

There are three cool ways to add value through content arbitrage.

First, you can curate fragmented information by combining scattered sources of relevant content in one convenient spot.

Then, you can summarize and repurpose information from one format to another, making it easier for a different audience to access and understand.

Finally, you can translate ideas from niche or esoteric publications into the language of your industry, unlocking valuable information that might have been hidden before.

The beauty of content arbitrage is that you can leverage existing content, like ideas, frameworks, data points, and stories, to create new value without starting from scratch. The trick is to find content that's fresh to you and your audience, even if it's not entirely new to the world.

Pretty smart, eh?

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something to watch

always Coca-Cola. I'm a Coca-Cola stan. I'm obsessed with that stuff, seriously. They could legit hire Voldemort as their hype ambassador, and I'd still be chugging Coke like there's no tomorrow. So honestly, they don't even need to bother with ads for people like me.

But they do make ads, some of them absolutely fabulous - like this one. It's set in one of my favourite places to visit - an art museum! This is an imaginary art museum where many of the world's greatest art resides. And guess what? They brought in some A.I. wizardry to bring it to life.

Isn't it remarkable! 

They've totally nailed it by blending mainstream culture in a way that shows just how much Coca-Cola is ingrained in our everyday lives. The ad is super smart, using iconic artworks that have stood the test of time to show that Coca-Cola is here to stay, no matter the era.

What really blows me away is how they captured that amazing feeling you get from your very first sip of Coke, no matter what's going on in the art. This sense of refreshment and relief unites people across time and differences.

And here's the best part: this ad is not just about selling soda. It's also educating people, especially us younger folks, about art. By showcasing both famous and modern artworks, Coca-Cola gives a voice to talented artists and gets us curious and interested in art. Seriously, you must watch it.

something to listen to

online actions as marketing. When you don't see your online actions as content, you end up with inconsistent messaging. It confuses your audience and makes it harder for them to connect with your brand. This snippet from an Ann Handley interview sheds light on this simple yet often overlooked reality. 

And hey, if you're not bringing value with your content, people might not have a reason to stick around. And let's not forget about the dangers of having a fragmented content strategy. If you're not intentionally crafting your content across different platforms, you could be missing out on reaching your audience effectively. It's key to maximizing the impact of your marketing efforts and making the most of your online presence.

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Epilogue

One of the game-changing moments for me on my marketing journey was when I heard Karina say, "Everything a company does - both internally and externally, is marketing." I hadn't thought about that before. Usually, we are taught to think of marketing as the showy bits, the frills, and the sparkles that are used to "package" a product or service to potential customers. But that's a reductive approach. How you handle someone leaving, payments to a contractor, a job advert or an Instagram comment all contribute to how people perceive your brand. It's just common sense if you think about it.