CONTENT DRIVEN, CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IS THE KEY TO WIN THEIR HEART, INFLUENCE THEIR MIND AND OPEN THEIR WALLET.

At last month's 2018 China Digital Marketing Innovation Summit- I was asked to share insights on how content can drive and support the marketing efforts, particularly in today's fast moving digital age.

China's O2O customer journey is in itself an amazing insights- of how its consumers' behaviour can really provide us critical data and intelligence to drive our content marketing campaigns- and ultimately build relationship and loyalty- which to me is really the essential goal for business today. It does not take a genius to understand that customer retention is far more cost effective than spending to acquire a new customer. Many of us know this logic well but yet, most brands today still prefer to interrupt the hell out of of their targeted consumers by pushing out their products or services' benefits.

Today's realities- our consumers can ignore irrelevant and meaningless information at will, they are in complete control of what they want to engage in, and technology has changed the game. To connect and to gain their trust, we have to first win their hearts and influence their minds. And the key to that is 'value driven content with content driven experiences. '

Fond memories and great experiences are critical ingredients for compelling storytelling. It is a natural human emotion- and similarly bad experiences can lend itself to negative PR or disaster.

The 'C' in content marketing to me is- Customer. Today's customers are more informed than before. But have the reasons why they make the decisions they do fundamentally changed? I don't think so. Our marketing efforts must still appeal to customer's personal values and purpose. Like I always said- we are no longer selling a product or service, we are selling experiences. Use experiences within your content framework to engage, nurture and evolve your customers- thereby, winning the hearts, minds and ultimately their wallets.

This requires marketers to move from products to experiences. The great saying of Maya Angelou always resonates : " people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel". When we create content driven experiences, we will begin to build an emotional connection with our customers, we will strike a chord, for example, Nike Breaking2. Nike attempted the amazing feat of the almost impossible- pushed the limit of running a marathon in 2 hours. This has raised hope, courage and dream. And Nike can help you realise the dream. Turning customers into hero- the protagonist of your story, and you as the brand- the enabler- the supporting character brings to point- the customer centric mindset we must approach to create the content driven experiences.

Technology is also helping us to better understand our customers. Data is key for us to create the relevant and right story, with the right engagement and right method of delivery to our intended audiences. We can leverage on omni channel marketing technologies and tools. Ultimately, the goal of getting closer and more personalised with our customers, to building relationship and trust (I know you) will lead us to a greater business objective- loyalty. My role is to help brands create the experiences that make the customers fall in love with the brands over and over again.

Tony Chow has been named top 25 APAC innovator of 2017- for individual- reshaping influence and engagement in an era of dramatic marketing and communications disruption. He is recognised as an award winning media and marketing expert in— creative strategy, digital execution, influencer mapping, media and content marketing& storytelling — and represent a compelling picture of what marketing and communications looks like today, and where it is heading tomorrow.