Blog @ Percolate

Yesterday I did a presentation at AdAge’s digital conference about “Finding Your Brand’s Inner Publisher”. I presented right after Randall Brown, who runs digital strategy for Gatorade (and was great).

AdAge wrapped up five points from the two of us including something I said about balancing promotional and non-promotional content:

Maintain a Balance Between Selling and Non-Selling Messages
Mr. Brier shared his stock vs. flow analogy. “Stock” are the durable observations that brands can make — the high-production-value messages that brands are already good at producing. “Flow,” on the other hand, is more fleeting, the “breadcrumbs” that brands aren’t good at getting a handle on. While stock attracts new customers, flow is what keeps them engaged. The challenge is to find a balance between both of them, said Mr. Brier. “What we do in marketing is sell stuff,” he said. “So when you think about your social content, you have to think about how you’re going to break down the selling and the non-selling.”

Thought maybe it was worth sharing the slide that went along with the balance point. What I was trying to say is that one of the big things you’re trying to do when you create content is to raise the value of your ad space. The more interesting your stream is, the more likely people are to interact with your more promotional messages. Check out the slide below (click to get full size):