40 Examples Driving Content Marketing Forward

40 EXAMPLES DRIVING

CONTENT MARKETING

FORWARD

40 EXAMPLES DRIVING

CONTENT MARKETING

FORWARD

GET INSPIRED:

40 EXAMPLES DRIVING CONTENT MARKETING FORWARD

very business works toward a unique set of goals, values, assets, and circumstances.

But one thing is universal: We can all learn a little something from marketers who

have found innovative, engaging, and downright impactful ways to address their business

challenges through content. And, fortunately, there are plenty of amazing brands we can

look to for inspiration in this respect.

In this e-book, we’ve gathered 40 of our favorite content marketing examples. Each one

features a teachable moment for marketers looking to broaden their horizons and increase

the appeal and impact of their content. And they come from companies of various sizes,

locations, and industries.

We hope they motivate you to explore some new ideas and approaches of your own.

IDEAS OF ORDER

MAGAZINE

BRAND: California Closets

CONTENT TYPE: Print magazine

WHY WE LOVE IT: To differentiate the brand in an

increasingly competitive industry, California Closets focused

on elevating its brand perception by showing its elegant

designs for better lives. With the help of its agency, Redbird,

the company launched Ideas of Order – a rich, tangible

content magazine that illustrates how well-organized personal

surroundings can create a sense of harmony and promote

positive feelings of calm, conﬁdence, and joy.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Interior design

LEARN MORE:

How to Be an Agent of Change: Examples From Top Content

Marketing Award Winners

2018

WINNER:

PROJECT OF

THE YEAR

WINNER:

BEST

NEW PRINT

PUBLICATION

– EDITORIAL

#WEARECISCO

BRAND: Cisco

CONTENT TYPE: Social media (Snapchat)

WHY WE LOVE IT: Cisco invited 20 super-ambassador

employees from several of its ofﬁce locations to an online

brainstorming session about how to connect with university

students, new graduates, and other members of Generation

Z. That group (dubbed the Kitten Rainbow Unicorns after

everything that’s awesome about the web) developed a

successful ongoing program in which the company’s young

go-getters share daily Snapchat Stories about what it’s like to

work inside Cisco.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Technology services

LEARN MORE: How 3 Serious Brands Engage Humanly on

Social Media

DON’T SAY VELCRO

BRAND: Velcro®

CONTENT TYPE: Video (produced)

WHY WE LOVE IT: Preserving and protecting your brand’s

trademarks is something you should take seriously. But it

takes a particularly “sticky” business to ﬁnd a fun way to do

it. Hook-and-loop fastener company Velcro® set its branding

message to music – and hired people to pose as its legal

team performing a tongue-in-cheek song-and-dance number.

This educational video spot humorously chides the public for

its careless use of brand names – a problem that can have

serious implications for a company’s trademark rights.

INDUSTRY TYPE: CPG

LEARN MORE: How to Win at Content Marketing

THE CHEF,

BY JAMES PATTERSON

BRAND: James Patterson

CONTENT TYPE: SMS/E-book

WHY WE LOVE IT: Best-selling author James Patterson

turned to a participative format for the release of his latest

book, The Chef. The short novel is delivered as a series of text

messages interspersed with video, audio, Instagram photos,

and dossier documents. It can only be accessed through

Facebook’s Messenger app. Readers control the pace of

message delivery. This gives detective-ﬁction fans a real-

world sense of time and place that boosts the tension as they

immerse themselves in Patterson’s signature storytelling style.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Media

LEGO DUPLO STORIES

FOR ALEXA

BRAND: LEGO

CONTENT TYPE: Voice response

WHY WE LOVE IT: Looking to give your audience a new way

to start a conversation with your brand? Why not try your hand

at creating a voice-command-driven “skill” feature for Amazon’s

Alexa-enabled devices? LEGO took full advantage of this

emerging content platform when it debuted its Duplo Stories

skill. This interactive feature uses intuitive voice commands

to guide young children through age-appropriate stories that

ﬂow in a direction of their choosing. By giving kids a chance

to customize the narrative, LEGO teaches them that they can

build whole worlds with their imagination – even if they aren’t

old enough yet to construct those worlds out of Duplo blocks.

Industry type: Entertainment

LEARN MORE: How Voice-Activated Tech Will Change

Content Marketing

THE HUSTLE

BRAND: The Hustle

CONTENT TYPE: Email newsletter

WHY WE LOVE IT: The Hustle supplies a steady feed of the

hottest buzz in business, tech, and contemporary culture. But

these aren’t the hastily written, clickbait-laden stories one might

expect from a (relatively) nascent news organization. Not only

does its news coverage feature an admirable level of detail

and analysis, its editorial team has a knack for digging deeply

into topical areas where more corporate-driven media outlets

might fear to tread. But what makes The Hustle even more of

a standout effort is its colloquial tone, which gives hard facts

a touch of wry wit and personality that makes even its most

complex stories accessible and engaging.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Publishing

LEARN MORE: How the Best Newsletters Get –

and Keep – Readers’ Attention

CAPITAL IDEAS

BRAND: The Capital Group

CONTENT TYPE: Content hub

WHY WE LOVE IT: Financial ﬁrm The Capital Group is

built on long-term investing, so its Capital Ideas branded

microsite goes beyond reporting or analyzing the latest

ﬁnancial headlines. Content focuses on delivering deeper

perspectives, insights, and answers that help guide investors

toward appropriate actions with their ﬁnances. Not only has

Capital Ideas given the company a thought-leadership platform,

it also provides fuel for its other paid, earned, and owned media

initiatives.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Finance

LEARN MORE: How to Win at Content Marketing

BEYOND SILENCE

BRAND: Be Vocal: Speak Up for Mental Health

CONTENT TYPE: Documentary ﬁlm

WHY WE LOVE IT:

This nonproﬁt organization partnered with

award-winning documentarian Shaul Schwarz to launch Beyond

Silence, a 29-minute documentary that takes a novel approach to

discussing mental health. The ﬁlm follows three people living with

mental illness, honestly portraying their personal struggles, yet

showing how their lives changed for the better when they decided

to speak out about those struggles. Despite the absence of any

paid promotion for the ﬁlm, Beyond Silence successfully extended

the reach of the Be Vocal message – according to healthcare

communications agency Biosector2, the effort earned coverage in

more than 242 articles and an estimated 416M+ impressions – and

made important strides as an agent of change in mental health care.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Nonproﬁt

LEARN MORE: How to Be an Agent of Change:

Examples From Top Content Marketing Award Winners

2018

WINNER:

BEST

MOTIVATIONAL

VIDEO OR

VIDEO SERIES

FINALIST:

PROJECT OF

THE YEAR

THE MVMT LIFESTYLE

BRAND: MVMT

CONTENT TYPE: Inﬂuencer marketing blog

WHY WE LOVE IT: Watch company MVMT smartly leverages

inﬂuencer partnerships and multimedia storytelling with the appeal

of almost global grandeur. The brand’s lifestyle-focused blog often

incorporates its partnerships with well-known ﬁtness, fashion, and

style connoisseurs to engage its audience of on-the-move go-

getters. By connecting these inﬂuencers with its blog, MVMT has

enjoyed the beneﬁts of strategic content ampliﬁcation and greater

credibility among the inﬂuencers’ social communities.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Fashion

LEARN MORE: 7 B2C Brands Offer Content Marketing Lessons

and Inspiration

LET’S UNWRAP THIS TOWN

BRAND: Visit Seattle

CONTENT TYPE: Video (series)

WHY WE LOVE IT: Tourism agency Visit Seattle served up some

festive content eleganza with the help of one of the city’s most

colorful characters: RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 5 winner Jinkx

Monsoon. In this rapid-ﬁre, talk-show-style video series, Monsoon

charms viewers with warm and witty banter while sharing details

on all the exciting holiday-centric activities happening throughout

Seattle. Each mini episode lasts less than a minute, but the campy

humor, helpful tips, and Monsoon’s clear sense of pride in her

hometown make thoughts of spending the holiday season in a

notoriously rainy city seem a lot more “merry and bright.”

INDUSTRY TYPE: Travel & tourism

WENDY’S TWITTER

RAP BATTLE

BRAND: Wendy’s

CONTENT TYPE: Social media (Twitter)

WHY WE LOVE IT: Don’t call it a comeback: Wendy’s

has been doing this for years. It might not be the fast-food

industry’s market leader, but when it comes to serving up fresh

and funny spontaneous content on Twitter, Wendy’s can’t be

beat(boxed). Take the ﬁerce rap battle the meal-master MCs

served to competitor WingStop, which dared to step to the

burger queen’s lyrical stylings after a good-natured jibe from a

local customer went viral.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Food & beverage

THUG KITCHEN RECIPES

BRAND: Thug Kitchen

CONTENT TYPE: Blog

WHY WE LOVE IT: In the heavily saturated world of food and

cooking blogs, most content creators adopt a gentle, sophisticated

brand voice with descriptive language and long, detail-heavy

sentences. And yes, an air of pretentiousness often ﬂoats around

the foodie arena. But Thug Kitchen took a different route: It offers

no-nonsense vegan recipes and “bad ass” cooking tips in the voice

of a rapper or “gangsta.” Seasoned with profanities, short punchy

sentences, and a tongue-in-cheek twist to the culture of veganism,

this brand content REALLY stands out.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Media

LEARN MORE: Is Your Blog a Golden Egg?

DESIGNER CLOTHES FOR

WATCHING LADIES CLIMB

BRAND: Outdoor Research

CONTENT TYPE: Blog

WHY WE LOVE IT: When GQ published a piece on rock climbing

and couture clothing that featured famous male rock climbers

with “a couple of cute friends” as female accessories, Outdoor

Research responded with an inverted rebuttal – an article and

photo shoot that recreated the GQ piece with female climbers.

Titled Designer Clothes for Watching Ladies Climb, the humorous

piece is a bold response to GQ that reinforces Outdoor Research’s

core values of respect and innovation.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Retail

GH LAB POP-UP STORE

BRAND: The Good Housekeeping Institute

CONTENT TYPE: Live experience

WHY WE LOVE IT: Good Housekeeping has been the arbiter

of household product quality for over a century, testing everything

from cosmetics to toys, clothing, appliances, electronics, and

more for consumer safety and purchase satisfaction. To add

transparency and experiential appeal to its process for awarding

its coveted Good Housekeeping seals, the brand opened a pop-

up store for the 2018 holiday season at the Mall of America in

Minneapolis, Minnesota. Visiting the showroom gave consumers an

opportunity to self-test a selection of top-recommended products,

see how they would work in their own homes, and get a ﬁrsthand

view of the science behind the Good Housekeeping Institute’s

rigorous evaluation process.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Retail

IMAGE SOURCE

WON’T YOU BE MY

NEIGHBOR

BRAND: Shine

CONTENT TYPE: SMS

Why we love it: The feel-good Mister Rogers documentary

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? may leave some viewers looking

for more positive vibes. They’ll be pleased to know that Shine,

a service that sends daily motivational text messages to its

subscribers, partnered with the ﬁlm to send texts inspired by

Mister Rogers. The Shine website, which focuses on “research-

backed content around conﬁdence, daily happiness, mental

health and productivity,” also includes a series of “Won’t You Be

My Neighbor?” tie-in articles like 19 Things Mister Rogers Low-

Key Taught Us About Self-Care and What Mister Rogers Taught

Us: How to Radically Be Ourselves.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Health & wellness

LEARN MORE: Sample 11 of the Best B2B and B2C

Content Marketing Ideas of 2018

19 CRIMES’

STORYTELLING LABELS

BRAND: 19 Crimes

CONTENT TYPE: Augmented reality/interactive labels

WHY WE LOVE IT: 19 Crimes is a wine-and-spirits brand that’s

building its marketing platform around compelling storytelling. In

the late 18th century, English rogues and rebels found guilty of at

least one of 19 crimes were exiled to the new colony of Australia

as punishment. Today, 19 Crimes gives some of those convicts

an AR-enabled voice to tell their historically rooted tales: By

scanning the company’s wine labels with its digital app, consumers

are treated to a glimpse of the exiled convict’s life, crime, and

experience as a pioneering colonist.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Food & beverage

LEARN MORE: 13 Smart Brands Using Technology

to Power Their Content

IMAGE SOURCE

AI REVOLUTION

BRAND: Salesforce

CONTENT TYPE: Visual content (data visualization)

WHY WE LOVE IT: Salesforce does such a great job with

research in large part because of the strict information design

that underlies each publication. Charts and graphs are clean and

easy to understand. Rather than simply restating research ﬁndings,

Salesforce uses its visuals to explain the brand’s point of view on

key issues affecting the industry. The clear, usable, and impactful

data visualizations in Salesforce’s AI Revolution report prove the

advantages of adhering to this design ethic.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Tech services

LEARN MORE: Dataviz: A Critical Skill for Modern Marketers

HEALTHCARE IT

NEWS AUSTRALIA

BRAND: HIMSS Media

CONTENT TYPE: Digital magazines

WHY WE LOVE IT: HITN Australia’s daily news content helps

its audience implement cutting-edge technologies, instigate best-

practice cybersecurity, and run more cost-effective organizations,

all of which ultimately contribute to maximized patient care and

improved outcomes. But it’s how HIMSS approaches content

improvement through analytics that truly stands out, enabling it to

continually reﬁne its key audience segments, content pillars, and

topics, as well as its use of distribution channels like social media.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Nonproﬁt

LEARN MORE: How to Be an Agent of Change: Examples

From Top Content Marketing Award Winners

2018

WINNER:

BEST NEW

DIGITAL

PUBLICATION –

EDITORIAL

WINNER:

BEST OVERALL

EDITORIAL –

DIGITAL

FINALIST:

PROJECT OF

THE YEAR

BED BATH AND

BEYOND APP

BRAND: Bed Bath and Beyond

CONTENT TYPE: Mobile app

WHY WE LOVE IT: This big-box store for bed and bath

merchandise added a nice “beyond-level” feature to its mobile

e-commerce app: the ability to shop outside the store environment

by using visual search. Users can snap pictures on their phone of

design inspirations or products they ﬁnd appealing, and the app’s

photo-recognition technology enables it to instantly suggest Bed

Bath and Beyond products that might match their needs.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Retail

LEARN MORE: How to Build a Branded App (and Never

Look Back)

EDGE OF THE WEB

BRAND: Site Strategics

CONTENT TYPE: Podcast

WHY WE LOVE IT: Created by Indianapolis-based marketing ﬁrm Site

Strategics, the Edge of the Web podcast features need-to-know news,

trends, and interviews with top-notch marketing talent. After moderate

early success, the company upped its commitment to podcasting by

building a dedicated broadcasting studio, which enabled it to push past

some of the creative, promotional, and logistical limitations it had been

experiencing. With greater production efﬁciency, the Site Strategics team

was able to spend more time with its podcast guests, increase the variety

of discussion topics, and expand the show onto streaming platforms. One

year later, the company was thrilled to report that these changes led to an

increase in podcast downloads of 385% and a boost in website trafﬁc of

145%, proving that an investment in podcasting can really pay off for B2B

businesses.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Digital services

LEARN MORE: How to Get Listeners to Push Play on Your Podcast

BODYBUILDING.COM

BRAND: Bodybuilding.com

CONTENT TYPE: Website

WHY WE LOVE IT: With multiple educational and ﬁtness-

based forums, Bodybuilding.com has become a go-to authority

in the sports nutrition/health industry. Its site is content rich and

comprehensive, but the real value to visitors is the opportunity

to contribute to and learn from people who share an interest

in attaining better health. User-generated content, a “FitBoard,”

member search, and other interactive sub-sections/forums serve

to unite members of this tight-knit community and motivate them

to progress on their personal ﬁtness journeys.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Health & wellness

LEARN MORE: 7 B2C Brands Offer Content Marketing Lessons

and Inspiration

GOING UNPLUGGED

BRAND: Wrike

CONTENT TYPE: Research reports

WHY WE LOVE IT: Rather than conducting a study on how

its products and services perform in the workplace, work

management and collaboration software company Wrike found

a more compelling and relatable focus for its original research

efforts – examining how workers’ vacation plans play a role in their

productivity. Wrike then compiled the resulting study data into a

gated report to generate sales leads, thus delivering value to its

business and its audience simultaneously – without getting all self-

promotional about it.

INDUSTRY TYPE: SAAS

LEARN MORE: If Your Content Doesn’t Have This, the Majority

Won’t Trust It

VIRTUAL EASTER

EGG HUNT

BRAND: SEMrush

CONTENT TYPE: Gamiﬁcation

WHY WE LOVE IT: SEMrush is a competitive research toolkit for

online marketing with more than 20 research tools for SEO, PPC,

and content marketing, and an expanding list of features. Although

coming up with those new features hasn’t been a problem, telling

its users about them has. So, SEMrush gamiﬁed its educational

content with a virtual Easter egg hunt, challenging users to ﬁnd 15

hidden Easter eggs by completing desired actions within various

SEMrush tools.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Business services

LEARN MORE: 4 Case Studies Show How to Crush It With Out-

of-the-Box Content Marketing

NATURE ADVENTURE

BRAND: Old Spice

CONTENT TYPE: Streaming video (Twitch)

WHY WE LOVE IT: Old Spice partnered with Twitch to launch a

wilderness adventure livestream. The program left a man (dubbed

Nature Man) in the woods for three days and let Twitch users

control his movements – exactly the type of brand-led livestream

that works well on the video-based social community platform.

INDUSTRY TYPE: CPG

LEARN MORE: Ready to Go Live? All You Need to Know Now

PERSONALIZED

UTILITY USE REPORTS

BRAND: DigitalSTROM

CONTENT TYPE: AI-generated content

WHY WE LOVE IT: DigitalSTROM – a company that provides

smart home systems – uses a customized version of Wordsmith

(developed by Automated Insights) to deliver original, on-demand

status reports and other service-related narratives to customers

through its app and via email. These content pieces help keep

DigitalSTROM users informed about the status and comparative

impact of their home energy usage – a value-add that can go a

long way toward increasing consumer trust and satisfaction.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Technology

LEARN MORE: 13 Smart Brands Using Technology to Power

Their Content

IMAGE SOURCE AUTOMATED INSIGHTS

#THEFRANKEFFECT

BRAND: Frank Body

CONTENT TYPE: User-generated content

WHY WE LOVE IT: Australia-based beauty brand Frank Body

conducted an Instagram campaign to promote its coffee-ground-

based body scrub. A team of inﬂuencers showcased the product

in creative ways, and each of their posts included the hashtags

#Let’sBeFrank or #TheFrankEffect to encourage users to post

their own images of the coffee scrub. The results? Over 25,000

user-generated images posted to Instagram and 350,000

followers in 12 months.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Health & wellness

LEARN MORE: 4 Tips for Engaging Instagram Content

AMANDA FOUNDATION

COLLECTION

CONTENT TYPE: Visual content (photos)

WHY WE LOVE IT: Adopting a pet is a rewarding experience on

its own. But the Amanda Foundation (a Los Angeles-area rescue

organization) found a great way to make gorgeous pictures of

the animals under its care pay off, too. The group partnered with

Getty Images to create a stock image collection using the photos

the Amanda staff routinely takes in its efforts to help homeless

pets ﬁnd loving homes. For every stock image purchased from the

collection, the Amanda Foundation receives a donation.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Nonproﬁt

LEARN MORE: How to Win at Content Marketing

BIRTHUAL REALITY

BRAND: Gjensidige Insurance

CONTENT TYPE: Virtual reality

WHY WE LOVE IT: Sweden’s Gjensidige Insurance worked

with a hospital to ﬁlm a birth in 360-degree video, creating a VR

experience anyone can watch. It’s a fantastic way for expectant

moms to get a sneak peek into the birthing experience, which

typically remains shrouded in a cloud of anxiety-inducing mystery

until they are in the thick of labor themselves. The insurance

company anticipates that the video (shot from a respectful angle

that lets viewers stand in alongside the mom) may help make

expectant parents feel more comfortable and prepared for the birth

of their own child.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Insurance

LEARN MORE: Does Your Health Care Content Hold the Cure

for Customers in Crisis?

THE INDUSTRIAL

INTERNET OF THINGS

BRAND: IBM

CONTENT TYPE: Interactive white paper

WHY WE LOVE IT: Considering the thousands of white papers

IBM publishes in a given year, chances are more than a few of

them go unread. To avoid wasted effort, the brand’s content team

challenged itself to convert a standard white paper on the Internet

of Things into an engaging interactive experience that would bring

the information to life. The result is this immersive informational

experience, delivered in a choose-your-own-adventure format

that gives audience members control over the level of detail they

receive. The team’s efforts put the campaign on the ﬁnalists list at

the 2018 Content Marketing Awards.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Technology

2018

WINNER:

BEST

INFOGRAPHIC

A QUICK GUIDE TO

JAPANESE CUISINE

BRAND: Azamara Club Cruises

CONTENT TYPE: Infographic

WHY WE LOVE IT: Luxury boutique cruise line Azamara Club

Cruises sails to some of the most fascinating places in the world,

so naturally its content team wants to give intrepid travelers a taste

of the culturally rich experiences the brand offers. For example, the

team created this mouth-watering infographic for travelers to feast

their eyes on, tempting them to book an exotic ﬂavor-ﬁlled voyage

to Japan.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Travel & tourism

MYCHART PATIENT PORTAL

CONTENT TYPE: Interactive tools

WHY WE LOVE IT: A patient journey complicated by the

need for ongoing care presents health care industry marketers

with a distinct set of informational challenges. Cleveland Clinic

rises to this kind of occasion with its patient portal and MyChart

system. This invaluable content tool offers patients direct access

(online or through the mobile app) to relevant portions of their

electronic medical record (including lab test results, diagnostic

images, prescribed medications, and physician notes and

recommendations), enabling them to easily share information with

their health care providers and take better control of any follow-up

care they might need.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Health care

LEARN MORE: Does Your Health Care Content Hold the Cure

for Customers in Crisis?

PERSONALIZED MESSAGES

TO ORLANDO MAGIC FANS

BRAND: The Orlando Magic

CONTENT TYPE: AI-generated content

WHY WE LOVE IT: NBA team the Orlando Magic uses

Wordsmith to personalize its emails and in-app messages to fans

and ticketholders. Triggered by preset rules, conditions, or available

offers like ticket resales, the AI-powered personalization makes

messaging more targeted and valuable to individual audience

members.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Sports & entertainment

LEARN MORE: 13 Smart Brands Using Technology to Power

Their Content

THE DREAM GAP PROJECT

BRAND: Mattel

CONTENT TYPE: Integrated content

WHY WE LOVE IT: Barbie may be turning 60 this year, but the

iconic doll is inspiring a new generation of girls to grow up into

empowered, successful women. As part of its Dream Gap Project

– a research initiative to help young girls overcome self-limiting

beliefs – Mattel is producing a range of content to be shared

across popular Barbie platforms, including a YouTube channel

devoted to sharing supportive, teachable moments; posts on

Barbie’s popular vlog; and a dedicated site with tips and insights to

educate parents.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Toys & amusements

LEARN MORE: How to Be Purposeful With Your Purpose-Driven

Content

HER SHOT

BRAND: Procter & Gamble/ Gillette

CONTENT TYPE: Social video (Instagram)

WHY WE LOVE IT: Procter & Gamble’s women’s razor brand

Gillette Venus launched “Her Shot,” which the company describes

as a social experiment designed to promote women’s perspectives.

The brand hired 10 up-and-coming female directors, selected

through the creative and digital marketplace Fiverr, to create

videos that showcase the impact of a female perspective on the

world. Fans can view the content on Gillette Venus’ Instagram TV

hub and follow the conversation on social media with the hashtag

#HerShotxVenus.

INDUSTRY TYPE: CPG

FACT VS. FEELING

BRAND: OppenheimerFunds

CONTENT TYPE: Interactive tools

WHY WE LOVE IT: To help potential clients assess how best

to approach long-term ﬁnancial planning, OppenheimerFunds

conducted a series of “Optimist index” research studies, using

biometric technology to gauge the physical cues that bodies

exhibit in reaction to three key investment themes: aging, emerging

markets, and innovation. The resulting emotional response data

formed the basis of a multi-sensory interactive content experience

that provides visitors with a personalized reﬂection of their

economic optimism and suggests investment strategies that would

best align with their comfort level.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Finance

CX IN THE AGE OF

SOCIAL MEDIA

BRAND: Search Engine Land

CONTENT TYPE: Webinar

WHY WE LOVE IT: One mistake webinar organizers often

make is picking a broad, generic topic and then trying to squeeze

all their subject-matter expertise into a single, time-constrained

conversation. Search Engine Land broke this pattern by narrowing

its webinar focus to a single social media sub-topic: how to provide

better customer service through the use of social channels. This

niche educational angle is still highly relevant to the SEL audience,

yet it also provides a unique opportunity for the company to

share its deeper insights on the topic, rather than limiting itself to

surface-level discussions.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Marketing services

LEARN MORE: The No-Fail Formula for Creating Killer

Webinar Content

7-ELEVEN SUMMER SERIES

BRAND: Brisk iced tea (PepsiCo)

CONTENT TYPE: Social media (Twitch)

WHY WE LOVE IT: PepsiCo and social video platform Twitch

created an off-season competitive gaming tournament for

the popular video game Rocket League, where the event’s

commentators and personalities drank Brisk iced tea and

performed skits about purchasing the product at 7-Eleven. Viewers

not only cheered for shoutcasters (live gaming commentators) to

consume bottles, they engaged with Brisk via social media after

the broadcasts were over. The effort positioned Brisk not as just a

brand name appearing in front of a broadcast but as an interaction

point in the fan experience, a conversation piece, and a content

provider.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Food & beverage

LEARN MORE: Non-Gaming Brands Find Value in

the Twitch Audience

THE (REAL) ULTIMATE

POWERPOINT SLIDES

BRAND: 24Slides

CONTENT TYPE: Presentation (template)

WHY WE LOVE IT: 24Slides designs PowerPoint decks for

companies that need to deliver a large number of presentations

over a period of time. To build its email list, 24Slides created a fully

editable, 20-slide corporate PowerPoint template that leads and

prospects could access for free by entering their name and email

on a home-page pop-up, commenting “yes,” on social media, or

sharing it out to their connections as a LinkedIn Pulse article.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Design

LEARN MORE: 4 Case Studies Show How to Crush It

With Out-of-the-Box Content Marketing

SHUTTERSTOCK’S

CREATIVE TRENDS REPORT

BRAND: Shutterstock

CONTENT TYPE: Annual report

WHY WE LOVE IT: Shutterstock is one of the largest online

marketplaces for licensing royalty-free images, videos, and music.

For its annual Creative Trends report, Shutterstock analyzes its

customers’ search and download data to create predictive models

on the styles and trends that will likely dominate the coming year

and then distributes those results in the form of an infographic

hosted on its site.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Digital services

LEARN MORE: 4 Case Studies Show How to Crush It

With Out-of-the-Box Content Marketing

YETI’S HOW-TO VIDEOS

BRAND: YETI

CONTENT TYPE: Video (demos)

WHY WE LOVE IT: There’s no shortage of outdoor lifestyle

brands selling coolers, travel bags, and related accessories.

YETI differentiated itself by producing documentary-like videos

of people living the kinds of outdoor lifestyles that enhance the

brand’s emotional appeal. And the effort seems to be working: Its

YouTube videos receive tens or hundreds of thousands of views,

with high like-to-dislike ratios.

INDUSTRY TYPE: Retail

LEARN MORE: No Lies: How to Get Content Marketing

Right in E-Commerce

heck out our events page for our in-person and virtual events including Content Marketing

World, ContentTECH Summit, our weekly webinars, and much more!

Want other killer content marketing examples? Here’s how to ﬁnd more:

Check out the complete list of winners and ﬁnalists from the 2018 Content Marketing

Awards.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see campaigns that have captured our

attention.

Share your own favorite examples and inspirations during our weekly Content Marketing

World Twitter Chats.

Download our best-of-breed collection of examples, tips, and takeaways: How to Win at

Content Marketing.

CAN’T GET ENOUGH EXAMPLES OF

INNOVATIVE CONTENT MARKETING?

Content Marketing Institute is the leading global content marketing education and training

organization, teaching enterprise brands how to attract and retain customers through

compelling, multichannel storytelling. CMI’s Content Marketing World event, the largest

content marketing-focused event, is held every September in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and the

ContentTECH Summit event is held every spring. CMI publishes the digital magazine Chief

Content Ofﬁcer, and provides strategic consulting and content marketing research for some

of the best-known brands in the world. Watch this video to learn more about CMI. Content

Marketing Institute is organized by UBM, which in June 2018 combined with Informa PLC

to become a leading B2B information services group and the largest B2B Events organizer

in the world. To learn more and for the latest news and information, visit www.ubm.com and

www.informa.com.

ABOUT CONTENT MARKETING INSTITUTE