The most compelling way to find new audiences and get them to buy into your brand’s ethos is to tell a human story.
While content marketing sounds simple enough, in reality, it is notoriously difficult to get right. Planit Media, an independent strategic agency, is pioneering the way forward in this exciting space – not only opening up new avenues of business for its clients but winning global acclaim for its work too.
“Getting closer to your audience and identifying innovative ways to connect is the biggest challenge business faces when searching for growth in today’s market. In an industry saturated with players, the key to growth lies in creating human connection,” says Erica Gunning, director.
“Content marketing isn’t new,” she adds, “but it’s certainly gaining power. Here in South Africa, brands are finally beginning to realise that in order to improve their visibility and promote their products, they must place people at the centre of their marketing.”
It is this focus on human centric content that has seen the agency win contracts, clients and awards and enabled this small agency to make massive strides with first-of-their-kind “go to market” strategies.
“What we love about content marketing is it lies in the sweet spot where brand expertise overlaps with what the audience cares about. By using content that connects audience to an experience, we’re able to create a first-party, shared landscape that aligns brand affinity with that of the audience brands are trying to reach.”
The power of stories
One example is its recent Made with Soul campaign, which hits the silver screen this past December.
The original docuseries, which aired on Showmax on 21 December 2022, tells the story of three master craftsmen: indigenous fine tea maker, Retang Phaahla; master bladesmith, Neels van den Berg; and forager and wild food artist, Roushanna Gray.
Shot in some of the most beautiful and inspiring landscapes in the country, by Red Pepper Productions, Made with Soul brings the Japanese concepts of ‘Kacho Fugetsu’ (the beauties of nature), ‘Kodowari’ (the uncompromising and relentless pursuit of perfection) and ‘Mottainai’ (don’t be wasteful) to life in a series of engaging, human-centric stories that showcases what true craftmanship looks like.
It is an industry first. But how does a Showmax docuseries align to a brand? you ask.
The answer lies in the brief Planit Media received from client, Mazda Southern Africa.
For years, Mazda’s global marketing approach has been to set itself apart by explaining how it applies Japanese mastery in the manufacturing process to create cars that have been engineered with the human experience in mind.
It is a complex concept. And one that Mazda Southern Africa has struggled to bring to market in a compelling and easy to understand way.
Planit Media’s solution to this conundrum: Humanise Mazda’s vision through content.
“Having worked closely with the marketing team at Mazda, Planit Media used the psychology of audiences and a keen understanding of the customer journey to develop a brand engagement campaign that brings to life the abstract concepts of Japanese mastery around which Mazda aligns itself. By showing audiences what these concepts mean, instead of telling them, we have not only been able to uniquely position Mazda in consumers’ minds, we’re also driving them to consider purchasing one of their vehicles. It’s a unique approach in an industry that traditionally sells its products by showing you what’s under the hood instead of what drives its soul,” explains Greer Hogarth, head of strategy.
“Made with Soul is not your typical content piece. By bringing the Mazda brand to life through humanisation, the docuseries channels the very best elements of craftsmanship – passion, dedication and excellence – in a showcase that has the power to move viewers. Through these incredible stories, viewers are introduced to three local craftsmen whose craft echoes the values entrenched in Mazda’s made with soul philosophy; thereby personifying the creativity, passion and dedication that Mazda has for crafting vehicles and explaining Japanese mastery in an exciting and easy to understand way.”
But what does the client think?
“[Shooting this series] was incredibly humbling for Mazda SA,” says Craig Roberts, managing director. “The result is incredible. A perfect showcase of how great South Africans are and how incredible our country is.”
Adds Deolinda Da Costa, head of marketing and vommunications at Mazda Southern Africa, the Made with Soul series “exemplifies the soul of a craftsman and the passion one needs to create a masterpiece. It’s an authentic piece of work that showcases what it means to be a true craftsman – someone who puts his heart and soul at the centre of every creation, just like we do when we manufacture our cars.”
Marrying storytelling and technology to create a digital solution with heart
Crucially, content marketing also helps an audience own a piece of a brand’s narrative and make it their own. This approach is evident in one of Planit Media’s most successful campaigns to date, the McCain Family Cookbook Creator campaign.
Nothing screams family like the dog-eared, food stained pages of the cookbook your mom has on her bookshelf. It is this iconic family legacy that Planit aimed recreate when it partnered with New Media and Swipe iX to launch a print-on-demand platform that enabled Food24 readers to co-create their own 48-page family recipe keepsake using their favourite family recipes, a bank of Food24’s recipes and six specially crafted recipes featuring McCain’s products.
“Families connect across generations – and that’s where the real lasting magic of the McCain Family Cookbook lies,” says, Catharina Bester, McCain’s marketing manager: foodservice and retail [at the time of the campaign]: “McCain is a catalyst for bringing families and friends together… The opportunity to partner with Food24 on a project that combined food and technology was, therefore, a perfect fit for the McCain brand.”
Launched during the Covid-19 pandemic, which separated family members from each other for months on end, Bester was not the only one who was delighted by the collaborative nature of this human centric content idea.
And it is not only South Africans who loved this idea.
The campaign received international acclaim when it brought home the Gold for Best Use of Technology as Part of Content Marketing Program at the 2022 Content Marketing Awards in New York and won the award for the Best Use of Innovative Technology at the 2021 International Content Marketing Awards in London.
Insight, mastery and humanity: the secret to superior brand marketing
“At Planit Media, we don’t view media as the solution, we make it part of the plan. Using extensive research, we unearth audiences that are aligned to the brands we’re working with in order to identify interest affinities we can own. By focusing on audience-led strategies, we’re able to conceptualise unique collaborations that add value not only to consumers but that use content as a channel to connect the brand and audience in a way that build brand equity that ignites the imagination and turns audiences into future customers,” concludes Gunning.
“With these, and other campaigns, we’ve taken branded content to a new level in both the automotive and the food industry.”
Planit Media’s innovative approach to content marketing is the perfect example of why brands around the world are spending as much as 20% of their budget on creating content. Isn’t it time you start using this approach to tell your brand’s story?
About Planit Media:
Planit Media contact: Erica Gunning – erica@planitmedia.co.za or, Greer Hogarth – greer@planitmedia.co.za
