In the digital world of attention economy where people are constantly scrolling, how do you best get the interest of your audience and further effectively communicate with them?
Today, Asha Burns joins us to talk exactly about that. Asha is Director of Communications at Kayo Sports, BINGE and Flash with 15 years’ experience across external and internal communications.
She has worked on the teams that launched and expanded BINGE, a destination for the best TV and movies in the world; Kayo Sports, Australia’s first dedicated streaming service for sports; and Flash, a revolutionary news platform that unites regional and international news sources.
Now, read through as you continue scrolling down and you’ll surely understand content marketing better.
How do you cut through the attention economy to deliver a successful comms strategy?
We all know there is more competition for consumer’s attention than ever before. Consumers have more choices and less attention to give.
The proliferation of streaming has seen more brands in the market, more platforms to access content, across more formats and devices. And they all want what we want – the attention of consumers.
New and emerging mediums, changing consumption habits and channel hyper-fragmentation are requiring us to reconsider how we cut through and grab our audience’s attention. Of course, this is also creating new opportunities.
Understanding your audience at a very granular level is more important than ever. Knowing what they are consuming, when and how.
Providing content that feeds their passions, understanding what they care about, being part of the cultural conversations and leveraging voices that matter to them in authentic and meaningful ways are part of today’s playbook for brand communicators.
How do you strike a balance between being “clickbaity” and maintaining reliability when trying to grab people’s attention?
It’s about relevance. Delivering relevant messages to the right audience, at the right time. When we are trying to get someone’s attention, we need to offer them something that will serve a purpose in an engaging way.
Being smart and creative with how we engage the news cycle with storytelling, leveraging new and emerging mediums, finding the right channel mix, and turning up in relevant ways will help drive meaningful connections with our audience.
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Do you think the sports industry has certain digital growth advantages that other industries do not offer?
Australian’s love their sport – it’s part of our cultural identity. But the way fans are consuming sport is changing. Sports fans want to consume what they want, when they want and how they want. And they are consuming on more digital platforms, across more devices.
Kayo has been at the forefront of driving this transformation offering sports fans greater choice, control and convenience. For instance, we are witnessing a surge in short-form content consumption with viewers watching more condensed highlights, like our Kayo Minis and our recently launched 5-minute Kayo Bites.
When it comes to engagement, sports fans want to talk, debate, share, like and review the action. The explosion of second screen viewing, with more than two thirds of consumers using their mobiles while consuming TV, led by younger viewers and digital natives, is opening new doors for brands to engage and interact with consumers through digital channels. Working with content creators and fuelling advocates and influential voices to populate these channels, helps a brand harness and be part of this fandom.
Could you provide a couple of your best examples in conveying messages to your audience.
Some of the best examples of effective connections are when we are part of the cultural conversations our audience is having or tapping into their interests.
For BINGE and entertainment, our audience want to find the content they are interested in. They want to talk about it, explore storylines, start or be part of trends. And when they do – we are there, showing up and talking to them in relevant ways. For example, we placed BINGE at the heart of cultural moments by having the famous Sex and the City Stoop pop up in Sydney CBD the morning after Carrie moved back to her apartment in And Just Like That giving fans a way to connect, interact and share their passion.
Another example of tapping into this passion was for Kayo and F1 by taking fans behind the scenes with Red Bull drivers Verstappen and Perez to create digital content pieces that show a different side to the global superstars ahead of the season-opening race, clocking over 3.2 million views and 280k likes. A similar experience for AFL fans, was when we captured Fremantle captain and Kayo ambassador, Nat Fyfe, watching and commentating on his team’s performance from his loungeroom (when he was sidelined). Here we leveraged our ability as a brand to provide a rare insight into the athlete which drove significant earned media and social shares.
Read also: Building and retaining public trust with Nicki Drinkwater of nbn (commsroom.co)
Jaw de Guzman is the content producer for Comms Room, a knowledge platform and website aimed at assisting the communications industry and its professionals.
