“Copy – copy with pride!” This comment from the trainer at a recent Content Marketing & Brand Storytelling Master Class I attended brought smiles and caused laughter among attendees. Organised by TerraBiz, the Master Class was led by Hando Sinisalu, CEO, Best Marketing International who has also worked in newspaper publishing. This wasn’t his first visit to Pakistan and we are glad that he came back.

Attending the Master Class was a very fruitful experience; not only was it a refresher about how marketing has changed – and is being changed – but there was also plenty to learn.

The day began with Adil Ahmed, Director, Symmetry Group, talking about the importance of content marketing on a global scale and then introducing Sinisalu who spoke about marketing and this year’s content marketing trends. Throughout the day, Ahmed shared his perspectives on certain aspects of content marketing.

The biggest issue facing marketers even in 2017 is that they don’t know how to calculate the ROI on social media. This has been the pressing issue in the minds of global CMOs for a few years now. Interestingly, Sinisalu informed attendees that research has proved that the ROI in the sales of a Facebook like is zero. This might have been a shock for some of the attendees, but I’ve felt that there was always a tenuous relationship between a like and sales. He went on to talk about how shares are a better KPI to aim for.

Sinisalu also shared examples of various methods such as using products as content (an example would be the Australian road safety campaign that created Graham) and using Big Data to find insights and creating content from it such as the German insurance firm Advo Card who created an interactive map of the litigation behaviour of their nation by city, region etc.

I believe in what Sinisalu said – “copy, copy with pride.” But in another different way, we need to have copy, copy with pride and quality so that Pakistani brands can embrace content marketing the right way.

Another example was of the Swedish online real estate brand Hemnet that created the ideal home, smartly called ‘The House of Clicks’ using data. The best case was of a brand using content and advertising to shorten the path to purchase. The brand in question was 'Cheap Flights' and the execution was amazing.

Sinisalu also showed videos of individuals who are YouTube stars. The number one Youtuber (he has over 57 million subscribers) is PewDiePie who basically makes videos of himself playing video games. What’s the attraction there?

I think the global gaming community is huge and if the content is interesting or original, views will come. Interestingly, even the best brands like Coca Cola (Around 1.7 million subscribers) lag far behind PewDiePie and his peers.

Next, the participants had their interest held by Ali A. Rizvi, CEO, What's Next Entertainment, who was sharing the formula to creating good content. Rizvi, who is a respected name in advertising and marketing, shared examples from India and other countries to back his points, which centred on the belief that ‘content is king’. The examples he cited included a video by Samsung India in which the brand logo was not in every frame, but appeared three or four times, as well as one by Volvo in which the brand’s features were part of the story. He also showed an excellent ad by Geico in which the holy grail of communicating the message in 10 seconds was achieved.

Overall, the Master Class was an excellent learning experience; Sinisalu has a great style and his habit of asking participants if an idea or technique would work locally was very effective in initiating a conversation and enhancing the practical application of the knowledge he imparted.

To conclude, I believe in what Sinisalu said – “copy, copy with pride.” But in another different way, we need to have “copy, copy with pride and quality” so that Pakistani brands can embrace content marketing the right way.