In recent years, we have often heard people say that content marketing and content is king. So why is content marketing receiving so much attention? Because many people believe that content marketing is the future trend. Content marketing can be understood as the opposite of hard advertising, where brand concepts are placed in a story, music, or event. The goal is for the customer to remember the brand concept rather than a specific product.
Today, I want to talk about content marketing through an example. In 2020, a famous winery in France faced a challenge. Due to weather conditions, the quality of the grapes was not good, resulting in sour wine. The advertising slogan for that year was also a problem. They were afraid customers wouldn’t buy it if they were honest, but if they weren’t honest, customers would definitely taste it. What to do?
Later, a copywriter on TikTok took on the task of creating the advertising copy. He came up with the slogan, “The weather made the grapes slightly sour, let’s toast to the imperfection of this year with this glass.” You see, imperfection has become a feature. And this slogan is something that customers can actually say. For example, when people gather for dinner and someone raises a glass, they can say, “Let’s toast to the imperfection of this year with this glass.” You see, isn’t it quite emotional?
In fact, if you dig deeper into this advertisement, you will find something interesting. Many products that have successfully captured the essence of advertising are alcoholic beverages. For example, “When Hennessy is opened, good things come naturally.” This is also a slogan that people can say.
To understand the origins of content marketing, we need to go back to its roots. Do you know who first pioneered content marketing? It wasn’t Apple, known for its storytelling, or Coca-Cola, famous for its flashy advertising. One of the pioneers of content marketing was actually a liquor brand called Johnnie Walker. Its slogan, “Keep Walking,” has become well-known worldwide and is often used without translation.
It’s important to note that Johnnie Walker’s marketing approach has had a significant impact on the entire content marketing industry. The founder of Johnnie Walker, John Walker, began experimenting with blending whiskey in the early 19th century, eventually leading to Johnnie Walker’s creation. After scaling up production, Johnnie Walker became an international brand and exported to 120 countries by 1920, making it the first truly global brand before Coca-Cola.
Upon reading this, you might think that it is popular worldwide because of its good taste and high cost-effectiveness. However, this answer is only half correct. It is true that it has high cost-effectiveness, but many people who try it for the first time describe it as slightly spicy with a noticeable smoky flavor, which is definitely one of its unique features.
But you should know that today’s Johnnie Walker has undergone many years of improvement, and its taste was not as good as it is now in the beginning. So, how did it become popular worldwide? One important reason is that their marketing was done well.
The story goes like this. Isn’t our whiskey a bit spicy? This was originally a local feature, but many consumers from other places may not be used to it, so what should we do? Johnnie Walker thought, is there a way to turn our whiskey into a story that can cater to consumers’ emotions?
They found a way. The whiskey is a bit spicy, and if you think about it carefully, isn’t this just like life? Life is not always smooth sailing, right? It’s sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy, just like the five flavors. Yes, let’s use whiskey as a metaphor for life. So, in this challenging life, what kind of attitude should we maintain? We must not give up. As adults, no matter what happens, we must keep moving forward. Following this idea, Johnnie Walker’s slogan became “Keep Walking.”
As a result, when this advertising slogan came out, many people recognized it. At the same time, Johnnie Walker also solved the problem of long-distance transportation by specially designing a new bottle shape.
From this, we can discern two key themes of content marketing. The first is that content and products are separate entities in content marketing. Content marketing only deals with conceptual ideas and does not involve specific products. This is no secret in the industry today, and those in the field are aware of this. The second theme, which is often overlooked, is that content marketing must always start with negative energy.
Negative energy refers to all difficulties, troubles, and negative emotions. For example, Johnnie Walker’s slogan “Keep Walking” was based on the premise that life is full of challenges. Another example is the wine brand mentioned earlier, which used the sour taste of grapes as a starting point to create the slogan “Cheers to an imperfect year.”
Finally, simply talking about the theory of content marketing is not enough. If you want to see some real examples, I highly recommend looking at a country’s advertisements – Thailand. Thailand is widely recognized as having some of the most heartfelt content marketing in the world. They produce several textbook-level works almost every year. One of their more interesting pieces was a tourism promotion video they made a few years ago called “I Hate Thailand.” Yes, a tourism promotion video called “I Hate Thailand.” It was made very creatively and I recommend you watch it. If you have seen any good examples, please feel free to share them with us in the comments.
Content marketing aims to connect the product concept with users by finding common ground and addressing their real-life struggles. It’s about going beyond the surface and making a lasting impression.