5 Good Concepts to Assist Your Content material and Advertising and marketing Shine in 2025

A spark can ignite a creative fire.

A spark can light up a moment.

Last week, I saw glimmers of light transform into true radiance on the faces of thousands of attendees at World of Content Marketing as new ideas took root.

The enthusiasm expressed in San Diego was especially welcome given the general “meh” feeling regarding their content and marketing strategies. latest research detected earlier this year.

At CMI, we don’t control good ideas. I will share some of the highlights from the main stage here. And we’ll bring you many more takeaways from other sessions throughout the year. (Of course, if you can’t wait, you can always recover a digital pass and watch the sessions on demand.)

I hope these ideas inspire your enthusiasm to follow CMI Chief Strategic Advisor Robert Rose’s call to do something (bold, big or brilliant) with your content and marketing strategies.

1. Inspire admiration and demand

Another college story also lit up the main stage – this one from R. Ethan Bradenvice president and director of marketing and communications at Texas A&M University and B2C Content Marketer of the Year 2023.

Late last year, Ethan left Purdue University to join Texas A&M, where he chaired award-winning content and marketing programs.

On the Texas A&M campus, he spotted this motto carved in stone:

“From the outside, you can’t understand it. From the inside, we can’t explain it.

Yet that was Ethan’s mission: to tell the history and stories of Texas A&M to the outside world in a way that stood out from the competition (4,000 other institutions of higher education).

He found the spark to respond to this accusation in the verb “enchant”. Although this sounds like a Disney philosophy, Ethan prefers this definition: to arouse and attract ecstatic admiration and demand for something.

How can your brand achieve this?

Ethan describes the four principles that make your brand remarkable (or should I say, “resparkable”?):

Great brands represent something and someone. Ethan cited Patagonia, Nike and Volvo as prominent examples. Defend something and someone may attract an audience, but it often also repels a potential audience. Decide what you stand for and who you stand for.

Great brands deliver results, not features. I loved the quote Ethan shared with Tony Ives: “Be a painkiller, not a vitamin.” » He explained that although people should take vitamins daily, they often don’t because they don’t see an immediate benefit. However, people take painkillers because they solve a problem in the moment. The lesson? Offer something the audience needs or wants now. Determine what outcome your brand delivers for them.

Great brands are based on feelings, not facts. Envy, respect, shame, fear, relief and nostalgia are just some of the reactions your brand can elicit. Ethan shared this observation from Seth Godin (which was a revelation to me): I don’t know if anyone has ever gotten a Suzuki tattoo, but millions of people pay to have a Harley-Davidson tattooed on their body . How do you leverage sentiment to develop a delighted audience?

Big brands tell beautiful stories. What stories do you tell?

2. Efficiency is not everything

A favorite keynote speaker, Anne HandleyI was not disappointed. It aroused public interest with a subject that concerned all participants: the impact of Generative AI. Ann extolled the efficiency virtues of AI. But she also questioned whether efficiency should always be the goal.

Ann’s answer is a resounding no. She sees the value in inefficiency: slowing down can allow you to think differently about the content you create.

Cultivating high-growth projects with lasting impact requires a different meaning for ASAP, says Ann: as slowly as possible. She even coined a word for it, combining slowness and timing into “slowing down.”

3. Keep chasing the shine

Seth Stephens Davidowitzauthor of Everybody Lies and Don’t Trust Your Gut, reminded us all that it’s okay if the spark doesn’t ignite as long as you try again.

He told the story of Jeff Seder, a thoroughbred horse racing consultant. Jeff wanted to adopt a data-driven strategy to determine which horses would be the big winners. He began to study the size of the nostrils of winning horses, but this spark did not shed significant light. Jeff worked on several ideas, including the size of a horse’s droppings, all of which failed. But he finally found one that burst into flames: the size of the left ventricle of the horse’s heart. And that discovery helped him predict a fire at the racetrack – American Pharoah, the horse who became the rare Triple Crown winner in 2015.

Seth shared another story to show how data can trigger future success of your content and marketing programs. Just make sure you get the whole story. For example, likes and follows on social media are not necessarily signals of purchasing interest. Seth used a comparison between The Atlantic and the National Enquirer. On Facebook, Atlantic Monthly has 45 times more followers than the National Enquirer. However, the National Enquirer sells three times as many copies.

4. Deliver content the right way

At one point, a Salesforce content initiative led by Melissa Leu landed on a “hot” list – and not the good kind.

But the initial failure of that program was the spark that pushed Melissa and her team to work toward creating a better program. They decided to create Salesblazer, which was recognized as the content marketing project of the year 2024.

How? They went back to the basics of content marketing: helping audiences solve their problems on a channel they want to use. (I encourage you to read detailed story behind what they did.)

5. Create joy, professionally and personally

Shabnam Mogharabiauthor of Harness the Power of Joy to Uplift and Inspire, sparked something in many viewers.

She co-founded Soul Pancake, a content-driven company aimed at uplifting and giving meaning to the human experience by creating more joy, with Rainn Wilson (of The Office fame).

Stress and anxiety take up so much of people’s professional and personal lives that intentionally choosing joy is an act of rebellion, Shabnam said. And she also came prepared with a toolkit on how to do it:

Express your gratitude: Being grateful and expressing gratitude to others is the silver bullet. Shabnam says expressing gratitude isn’t just about the recipient. It also has a profound effect on the brains of donors.

Know why: What you do matters less than why you do it. HAS discover your whyShabnam suggests the seven-level framework of why. Each time you answer the question, you come closer to the essential seed of truth. For example, you might first say that it’s important to meet a deadline at work because you want to be a good worker. But keep asking why, and you might eventually reveal that it’s because you want your children to be proud of you.

Build a community. Yes, it can be uncomfortable to expose yourself. But vulnerability is the key to good relationships and building trust. How do you do? Join. Introduce yourself. Stay.

Shabnam concluded by sharing the final stages of rebellion through joy: Start small. Get started today.

You don’t have to go big, but you have to start.

What little spark will you light today? And how will you make it shine in your content and marketing programs?

Join the conversation on The world of content marketing on LinkedIn or in the Content Marketing World Slack Group to let us know.

In the meantime, I will express my gratitude for these incredible speakers and the fantastic Content Marketing World community. Hope to see you next year!

I was unable to attend World of Content Marketing in person this year? Register for the Digital Pass to access on-demand session recordings of the live event through January 31, 2025. Use promo code BLOG100 to save $100.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute