3 big content marketing lessons I learnt at a DMO (Singapore tourism board) for COVID-19
Yesterday, our agency TBWA, announced to the STB marketing team that we had clinched our 15th and 16th award- a Silver and Bronze, for City Of Possibilities (COP) at the 41st AWARD festival. It has previously won 2 Silvers and 3 Bronzes at Spikes Asia 2019 and 4 Silvers, 5 Bronzes at GONG Awards 2019.
For those who do not know how COP works, or what it is, do see the video below, it is pretty self explanatory. Well, as the content nerds say — speak to your audience with VIDEOS!
This is by far, one of the marketing projects that I am most proud of, in my marketing career. It was a multi-faceted project that stretched me, across various disciplines and skillsets. From the basics of project management, negotiation, and stakeholder management, to technical aspects, like software, hardware, data analytics and user interface design (UI-UX), and even to the art, creative and storytelling department. Projects like this, are hard to come by in one’s career and are good opportunities that force you to strike a fine balance between art and science.
Reflecting on my time at the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and also this project I led, I wanted to pen down some of my lessons I gleaned, through this experience, that may also be relevant or helpful, in creating quality content during these unprecedented, COVID-19 times. I hope these pointers will be helpful to all marketers, especially those who are starting their career in content marketing or mid-careers like myself.
1. Think evergreen OR pandemic proof content
Evergreen content is any kind of content that is continually relevant, never goes out of date, and stays fresh for readers. — webmindset.net
Evergreen content is any kind of content that is continually relevant, never goes out of date, and stays fresh for readers. — webmindset.net
Never underestimate the power of evergreen content. If you are a business, brand, or startup, who only focuses on branded or regular hub content, I highly recommend to also focus your efforts on creating a content bank of good quality evergreen content. Evergreen content never goes out of style and is especially relevant and useful during COVID-19, when you need content that drives top-of-mind recall, that shows the destination in a pre-masked, pre locked down, state.
The beauty of evergreen content is also in its malleable nature, where you can continually re-use, re-purpose, re-angle, and re-package the content in 10,000 other ways. In other words — evergreen content provides more “bang for your buck”.
Because of STB’s foresight, in creating a bank of evergreen content of Singapore, at a steady-state, including the content created out of COP (which was initially for trade show audiences)- we were able to turnaround quickly, in an agile manner, to adjust to meet the changing needs of travel content that travellers were searching for, online. We could easily draw on our bank of visual, video and even 360 evergreen assets, to showcase online, while at the same time, re-purpose new angles out of them.
I quite like an article on evergreen content posted by Si Quan Ong on Ahrefs, which also provides you more technical tips and tricks, from an SEO perspective on Evergreen content: What it is, why you need it and how to create it.
2. Think scalability
Two years back, when I was working on COP with the team, one thing that we were always keeping at the back of our minds — was content scalability and adaptability.
It was not sufficient for our content to only fulfil the purposes of this project in a silo. It was necessary for the content created out of this project, to be scalable to other team’s workstreams across STB, stakeholders, partners, or can be repurposed quickly and easily (divorced from the COP table and hardware) onto other platforms.
While other destinations are now realising that the nature of how people can “travel” in the COVID-19 world today, has to change, with many DMOs scrambling to quickly create content like virtual zoom tours or 360 videos/photos; STB could quickly pull out existing evergreen, yet adaptable content to be put on our various owned platforms, such as the 360 videos that came out of COP. COP assets were created to not be limited to being housed within COP, but for scalability to Facebook 360, Youtube 360, websites or VR/AR headsets.
Our team’s strategic and long-term thinking back then, in the creation of COP assets paid off, leading to the culmination of VisitSingapore’s Rediscover page today, where travellers can now view Singapore’s key iconic attractions and take a virtual tour in 360 — all from the comforts of home.
3. Think “discontentment”
Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress
- Mahatma Gandhi
People always talk about being content with what you have, to adopt a mindset of thankfulness. I don’t disagree. I strive to be contented with what I have in life too.
However, to become a great content strategist, a certain degree of healthy discontentment, is helpful, in pushing your content strategies and formats into new uncharted territories.
In 2018, when 360 images were all the rage and people started exploring social images in 360, brands were all jumping on the bandwagon to also push out such novel formats of content. STB was, of course, not one to be behind and we were quick to the trend too.
For COP specifically, when the first content strategy and the draft came in two years ago, we were discontent with allowing our audiences to explore Singapore only with static 360 images or videos, we wanted it at a higher bar. What we landed on eventually was a mix-media of 360 videos that people could control tactilely with an avatar through RFID technology, plus 360 degrees 16:9 carousel video content that people could explore within COP, like a digital book. Because of this discontentment, it led COP in having a great UI-UX, plus great content formats that empowered travellers in their exploration of Singapore.
When we are discontent with our content strategies, it creates discomfort, forcing us out of our comfort zones. To be discontented with the status quo, to be discontented with what the world deems as a “trending” topic, to be discontented with the norms of the world, allowing you to continually sharpen your content strategy and bring it to new heights.
Final thoughts
I’m so humbled to have had the opportunity, to work on and lead, COP together w/ my TBWA counterparts — Lena, Marvin, Jerine, Ellen, and my mentoring bosses at STB, Reshee, and Terrence. And I would never trade this STB experience for another!
I hope my insight has more or less helped you think strategically, when creating content, in one way or another, for your business in the COVID-19 world :)
