The Allied Advantage: Creative Content and The New Paradigm

This is an introduction to a series of ongoing articles that looks at how to stay relevant in a world dominated by social networks, AI, digital natives and great uncertainty.

We approach strategy differently than most creative agencies focusing on video, photo, and content production. Normally, this relationship is transactional, you pay X amount and get Y delivered. Our background in design thinking, product development, and helping organizations innovate has put us at the forefront of a new experiential paradigm.

The New Creative Paradigm

You aren’t just selling your product, you’re selling a lifestyle. Your brand, product, consumer, and the experiences you deliver fill out this new ecosystem-based paradigm. Our goal is to use our collection of strategy tools to help create content that positions you uniquely in the market while staying true to your brand promise and the ecosystem you’ve intentionally or unintentionally created for your organization.

Frog Design, one of the leading design and innovation companies in the world, puts out an annual Tech Trends report at the beginning of each year. Two of their trends Micro-Moments Will Rule Search, and Designing Our Off-Screen Lives directly relate to this shifting paradigm of producer consumer interaction. If you’ve paid attention to Google’s trends and strategy group they’ve been pushing micro-moments for nearly 4 years. This is the idea that you need to create content and experiences for consumers during these small moments of need so your offering can be found when a consumer asks themselves “Where should we go to dinner?” or “Where can I get a new duvet?” and immediately enter it into search. This immediacy now extends to virtual assistants liker Alexa and Google Assistant where the act of taking out your phone and typing in a search is just the spoken word.

Scroll through your Instagram Feed and you’ll see the trend “Designing Our Off-Screen Lives” in action. Businesses have popped up that will literally let influencers rent 30-minutes on a G6 plane, or rent a $400,00 luxury so they can portray a certain lifestyle. The pendulum has swung so far to the on-screen creation of virtual personas that those companies that create content that speak to actually enabling off-screen experiences will win the future.

What Can You Do: Capitalize On Immediacy

The micro-moments mentioned earlier are plentiful, but capitalizing on this immediacy is incredibly important. It may seem counterintuitive, but the brands and companies that invest in the “long-game” of creating meaningful content put themselves in a position of strength when creating digestable content. Why? Authenticity. Authenticity isn’t earned through a well curated Instagram page, or viral tweets. It’s gained through useful content, that connects with consumers, and fits within your larger marketing strategy. It’s a bridge-builder or olive-branch that extends out into a world of fake-experiences and rented homes, and cuts through the shiny veneer of online-only personalities.

Now, this can seem impossible. The questions, how will your company manage to elevate your offering above the digital fray? How can you appear genuine, and at the same time employ a strategy that doesn’t appear forced? That’s what we’re here to help figure out.