Kodak: Why Content Strategy Is the Key to Marketing

I had the pleasure of meeting Tom Hoehn from Kodak at Online Marketing Summit - DC last week.  Tom has a really cool job at Kodak, where he is director of brand communications and convergence media.

After my presentation on the Keys to Social Media, Tom and I got to chatting and we realized that we focus on many of the same things, the most important being the creation and distribution of valuable, relevant and compelling content as a core part of marketing. Tom was nice enough to participate in this Q&A about Kodak's content strategy.  There's some gold nuggets in here...enjoy! Thanks Tom!

Joe: Does Kodak have a content strategy that's a part of their overall marketing strategy?  If so, how do you integrate it into the plans?

Tom: Yes, our content strategy is two pronged. First, we focus on content creation that showcases our products in use. We have a long history of doing this. Our Tips and Projects Center is the best example.
It is chock full of examples, projects, tips, and inspirational photo essays. The second part of this strategy is about distribution. We use the content in a number of different permutations and distribute through our various channels based on seasonality, promotions, etc. Channels include our website, blogs, partners sites, social media, e-mail tips, etc. You can see our social media presence at http://www.kodak.com/go/followus.

Joe: When you hear the phrase "content marketing", does it mean anything to you?

Tom: It means everything to me! Seriously, we love how people use the products we make to tell the stories of their lives. It is great to work in a category that enables people's self expression. Giving voice to those stories and inspiring others is what it is all about.

Joe: What does Kodak call the process of delivering consistent, educational and entertaining information to customers?

Tom: Our job.  It is an expectation of our customers that we walk the walk and talk the talk and have quality content. We make sure that we leverage Kodak's businesses and sponsorship for content at every turn. It is in our DNA.

Some examples include:

• Doing red carpet interviews along side other media outlets during the recent Celebrity Apprentice finale that included Kodak
• Activating on numerous fronts during last summer's Olympic Games in Beijing.
• Showcasing our presence in golf with the start of the Kodak Challenge, which includes a fantasy game that will launch next week.
• Making your Inauguration moment more memorable by combining professional content with personal content.
• Featuring beautiful images on our homepage. Each week we connect the photos to a blog post that contains information about them. This week we are featuring photos in conjunction with the Cannes Film Festival. When we are not featuring photos from events or special occasions we use photos submitted by our visitors. Take a look at the previous selections at the blog posts dedicated to these stunning homepage photos.

So there you have it, we are nuts about content! ;-)

Joe: How do you take customer education to the next level to drive increased loyalty and sales?

Tom: The next level? In my mind it isn't always about what we think people want to learn. Amplifying the voice of the millions of people who take pictures, do cool things with them, and share with others is the big opportunity for us. People take 70 million pictures every day with Kodak cameras. Yes, you read that right. Don't you think that is quite an incredible wealth of source material that can be tapped?

Joe: Kodak has been in the middle of social media for a while now.  What's worked really well?  What are you no so sure about?  What hasn't worked?

Tom: Our blogs, starting with A Thousand Words, have been active since September 2006. That is ancient history in the social media space - in terms of large companies blogging it is positively prehistoric! The stories and photos we have shared from everyday Kodak people have been acclaimed by many. We get kudos for recognizing the space and how to use it. We are adding value to the conversations that are occurring. We are not shoving marketing messages at people. That doesn't work and we knew that from the outset.

Our distributed publishing model has worked really well for us. We decided not to have a few dedicated Kodak rockstar bloggers and opted to have many employees contribute. It helps to spread the work. I am happy to say we have published every business day since our launch - that is no small feat. A wise person by the name of Joe Pulizzi ;-) mentioned that "Frequency" is an important aspect of blogging. It looks like we embraced that from the get go. Every post contains a few photos (of course), most have more. One post I did actually had over 200 clickable thumbnails (but that is a story for another day).

A benefit we saw that was unexpected was the employee pride in contribution. They loved the fact that anyone could contribute their stories and were proud to share with family, friends, and their networks. 

Joe: How is Kodak promoting the use of social media within the company?  Do you have set guidelines?

Tom: We have a simple social media policy that was crafted with input from marketing, legal, our IT group, and corporate security. It contains very sound and practical advice and isn't overly restrictive. We promote the use of social media channels to product marketing groups and adoption rates vary. I find that people are eager to learn and we are happy to share our experiences.

Joe: What's the next great frontier regarding online content? (is there one?)

Tom: It is the power of you. Instead of everyone being famous for 15 minutes perhaps we will be famous to 15 people. Telling your story requires content. Text, photos (yes!), videos (naturally!). What stories are you telling to your network?

Joe: How about print?  Do you do any print magazines/newsletters for BtoC or BtoB?  Wondering what your take is on the distribution of print content?

Tom: Yes, we do print and make products that support print. Did you know Kodak has commercial businesses that are in the printing and packaging industries? It is a multi-billion dollar per year category for us. That being said, we use print for B2B publications for our Entertainment Imaging (motion picture)
and Graphic Communications (printing) businesses. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that print also extends to personal needs. Are your precious memories locked on a hard drive somewhere? I hope not!

I hope you found this Q&A helpful.Thanks Joe for inviting me.
Leave a comment I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks, tom @tomhoehn on Twitter

Relevant Articles:

• 10 Content Marketing Tips to Start Now
• Six Content Strategies for Keeping Content Fresh
• Five Content Marketing Ideas that will Pay Dividends

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Comments

[MarkThink]

Thanks, Joe. Great article.

Kodak's blogs and social media campaigns are perfect for their brand. I'd love to see them take the design of their blogs to the next level -- bigger pictures, more slideshows, etc.

Thanks for sharing the interview.

[Chrille Hillorn]

Great article Joe, keep up the good work!

[Edward Izzys]

Interesting!

I feel like there is a scarcity of good marketing today. Good marketing means which can convert the leads into sales. The only marketing that has moved me in the last couple of years is Search Engine Optimization.

[Gentlerain Marketing]

You people are sharing great information..
This information is useful to all internet marketers!!!
Content is called as king of websites.
Spider scrawling the sites based on the content of web site...

[katrina morgan]

hi my name is katrina i am currantly a student at community care college i have been given an assignment to do a presentation on marketing and my my partner and i coose your company is ther any way you could give me some pointers on how do this

[Internet Marketing]

Nice Article..Marketing strategy used to increase the sales in business.Customer satisfaction is the main goal of marketing strategy.Marketing strategies may differ depending on the unique situation of the individual business.

[fathers day]

I just love to see a company that isn't tool-centric and that has a strategy that makes sense to them.

[Blogging for Internet Marketers]

incredibly informative post. Among 1 in the ideal ever examine. All I can say is blogging can be an artwork and you happen to be an artist.
Perfectly,If writing is surely an fine fine art, then, running a blog and site-building is a single way of using phrases to can come up with an art. This could be caused by the truth persons who're into running a weblog would be the types who're artistic on their exclusive sense, cautiously choosing phrases that would most efficient describe their feelings, sentiments, wishes, desires, and everything.

Sam singh

[Richard Sheffield]

Great to meet you recently in Atlanta. This idea of content marketing vs. content strategy is an interesting sell to big corps. I'm going through some of the same struggles here at my company but I think we are making progress. Thanks again for the talk.

[Joe Pulizzi]

Thanks Richard...yes, definitely great to chat. I think it's going to be a very interesting next couple years.

[Shaqir Hussyin]

Great and informative article about how big companies, like Kodak, deal with content strategy with their marketing programs. Thanks for the post.

[James Anderson]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the article. I am trying to do what Kodak is doing but on a more personal level. In my site I am trying to teach this type of use of content in such a way that they are not just trying to sell something, but rather form a relationship.

Thanks again,

J Anderson
www.professorofprofit.com/1/

[Darrin]

Nice article Joe,

I have always enjoyed Kodak's campaigns, I think that it always brings up memories of times past and brings up a very good point... they are doing something right.

[Andre Nilsen]

Hi Joe.

Content is very important, but there are 2 other factors that Google now (2010) emphasize a lot as well, and that is:

- Backlinks
- Activity on your site

Get these 3 elements in place and you'll be fine ;-)

[Internet Marketing with Liz]

I think that the most important thing is to balance content for search engines with content for humans. I've seen some sites lately that are nothing but strings of keywords or spun articles which make no sense at all.

[Brent]

Excellent article. Kodak has always been a leader. I agree with Andre, content, back links & site activity will take you where you want to go.

[Jessa Ridell]

Amazing how Kodak made it's way to the top and sharing their best ideas regarding their marketing stategy. Like the "content Strategy" that's been growing as a practice within the industry of web development since 20 years ago. Until now it still draws interest to online-business minded people. Aside from content management which means "everything" to some content strategist, others wanted to get the correct SEO, which is "most valuable" to them and get higher ranked in search engines. Given so much time and depth study I've created a SEO analysis report which you can enjoy the first report for free. Anytime, Anywhere and Anyone can order on their webpage at http://www.website-seo-reports.com

[Dirk Marine]

As a recently layed off worker, I have time (after looking for work) to really get involved with content marketing. The information provided here really opens up resources to take it to the next level. I've written an article that is available to anyone interested in SEO