THE AGE OF AGILE CONTENTTransforming a branded content machine into an Agile Content EngineSM

BY NICOLE MARTIN, SAMANTHA ABSHER & ANNE ELWELL

THE AGE OF AGILE CONTENT

03 Overview

04 By the Numbers

05 Achieving Content Agility

06 The Walk, Jog, Run Construct

07 Every Engine Has Parts: Every Engine Needs Fuel

09 Media: The ACE Vehicle

10 The Strategic Approach to Content

12 Bringing It All Together

13 Key Considerations

15 Six Critical Success Factors for Implementing ACESM

16 Getting Started With ACE

19 Conclusion

20 About the Authors

21 About Pace

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CContent agility is the foundation of what makes a brand’s investment in custom content and content marketing the workhorses of authenticity. Content marketing is key for nurturing brand attachment and the Agile Content Engine (ACE)SM is a model of throughput that brings nimbleness to brand journalism. It shepherds audience-tuned people, processes, platforms and performance together and gets a brand’s authentic content to market efficiently and effectively while allowing for rapid iteration and optimization across their entire brand ecosystem.

Brands and their marketing leaders are finding that the complex spectrum of content strategy, content delivery, content optimization and audience consumption requires just as much thought as the products and services they are marketing. Bringing a product or service to market is not for the faint of heart. The same goes for the art of storytelling and the science of content creation, curation and distribution.

For decades, software developers have effectively applied agile processes—flexible planning, adaptive development, early delivery with iterative improvement, and fast, continuous response to change—to quickly deploy products and test them in the real market. That same philosophy applies here.

Just like a fine-tuned product marketing and management program, your content investment has to work end to end. The content-to-market journey can get broken fast. Understanding the inherent rigor of content excellence and what is at stake puts the art and science of ACE front and center.

ACE is a content marketing model that organizes people, processes, platforms, performance and optimization into an efficient multichannel content ecosystem that consistently delivers results. ACE helps brands become better at creating and curating content and enhancing content performance. By getting agile with your entire content ecosystem, you will pull customers into the buying cycle faster and with more staying power. How? Your content is tuned to your audience through strategy, content types, timing, distribution and analytics.

OVERVIEW

ACE is a proprietary content marketing model that organizes people, processes, platforms and performance into an efficient multichannel content ecosystem that delivers results.

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Why marketers who are serious about content investment and content performance can’t afford to look at content as “hiring writers”:

BY THE NUMBERS

CONTENT OPTIMIZATION FRAMEWORK: ALWAYS TESTING, ALWAYS LEARNING

Statistics curated from eMarketer and Kapost

78% of CMOs believe custom content is the future of the

marketing industry.

82% 95%

78%

12%

32%

82% of B2C marketers and 95% of B2B enterprise marketers use content marketing.

Only 12% of companies ignore

content in their marketing efforts.

Despite the fact that content is proven to

be valuable, only 32% of marketers believe they’re executing an

effective strategy.

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Orchestrating an editorial process that illuminates your story, or the many-layered stories underneath, requires a newsroom mentality with a consistent intake process that applies key performance questions, or KPQs. These include:

• Who requested the content?• What is its purpose?• Who is the audience?• Where should the content live?• When is it needed?

Lessons learned from the last five years in the content marketing business reflect that the same mistakes are made repeatedly by brands. Those mistakes are typically:

• Inability to generate editorial versus copywriting• Process gaps and hang-ups• Being unresponsive to what the audience wants to hear• Speed of execution, lag time• Misaligned objectives and measurement• Breakdowns in strategic content planning and execution• Inconsistent voice and tone• Creating more organizational complexity in an effort to tackle content• Territory battles and silos with different content ideas, themes and purpose

The top priority of any great content effort has to be results. To get results, a content team needs to feel free from politics and prose and get to the story. They need to learn to jog, run and sprint together. This is both behavior and mindset as well as process and experience. A team of writers, editors, strategists, creatives and analysts should create liquid content that flows the way you need it to.

Is your content team attuned to the methodology of “walk, jog, run”? It needs to be.

ACHIEVING CONTENT AGILITY

The top priority of any great content effort has to be results. To get results, a content team needs to feel free from politics and prose and get to the story.

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ACE presents a model in which production cycles and editorial planning are tailored according to two factors: types of content and time-to-publish. Thus, Pace ensures that three pillars of content agility are put into place:

WALK This is known as the long-lead feature jog, the realm of well-planned editorial that may be monthly, quarterly or even annually in the schedule. This could be content with high production values, a feature series planned way in advance or thought leadership that is timeless. It could also be storylines that take longer to reveal themselves fully, ranging from editorial that comes from long-form research to documentaries and features on the backstories of brands and their customers that take time and investment to accomplish. This content is often scheduled ahead of time across multiple media platforms with updates and iteration happening as analysis occurs to optimize it for a well-known audience.

JOGThe weekly, always-on methodology of planned, timely, disciplined content creation. Typically, midlength, this is the core of a well-thought-out editorial calendar and process that is sensitized to audience responsiveness, current events relevant to the brand, competitive content and channel optimization. This content often provides support to campaigns, products and services, and is organized into batches based on due dates and resource availability.

RUNFast-turn, time-critical content and short-form storytelling for breaking news/response to news, competitive response or crisis-mode editorial. Many brands miss the opportunity to support these often daily needs with newsroom-style rapid creation, review and publication throughput. It requires specialized editorial thinking, a command of process and technology, and the conditioning of a sprinter ready for the 100-yard dash of story creation to distribution. This type of content also requires quick, insightful analysis and rapid iteration to optimize for audience needs that the brand may not fully understand until after content has been distributed.

ACE in action is a combination of brains and muscle working together—not the pure brawn of a content machine, nor simply getting backlogged and stuck in content strategy execution circles.

THE WALK, JOG, RUN CONSTRUCT

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Getting agile with content helps brands accomplish three critical tasks:

1. Control and manage the investment in content2. Own an effective and efficient end-to-end content execution and distribution approach3. Deliver better content performance

So, why don’t more marketing organizations do it? Because running a newsroom and adopting an agile content engine approach is different from the way most marketing organizations are wired to think. When a brand decides to become its own publisher, its own issuer of news, it can take years for the process to mature, and for all the mistakes to reveal themselves.

ACESM enables a brand to cut through the clutter and noise of the process of consistent content creation and distribution. It puts in place the talent, the process, the platform(s) and the media optimization strategies to get the editorial effort running right.

How about the fuel? ACE also turns the adage “create once, publish everywhere” on its heels. Why? Because it really does not work. That train of thought was promoted by various content marketing books to make marketers believe you can spend less on content, cut corners and create a single piece of content, like a white paper, and simply distribute it everywhere, on any channel. To illustrate the point, consider a news agency like CNN. When a story is developed, a reporter is sent, and likely a camera person or crew. The story is reported on once, and the format, length, depth and method of distribution are adapted based on the channel and/or audience segment. In fact, the same “report” on one story may have different story lead-ins for different placement and even social sharing. Rather than mirroring one piece of content across multiple platforms, a creative process takes place to distribute the information, optimizing it for various media channels to deliver the best possible performance for the target audience.

EVERY ENGINE HAS PARTS: EVERY ENGINE NEEDS FUEL

ACESM enables a brand to cut through the clutter and noise of the process of consistent content creation and distribution. It puts in place the talent, the process, the platform(s) and the media optimization strategies to get the editorial effort running right.

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ACE utilizes a twist on this methodology, ROPESM—report once, publish everywhere—which Pace developed from the expertise of finding the story.

ROPE empowers channel owners. Your team members in charge of various internal and external media channels should be experts in what performs well on that channel. They know best how to plan, edit, and deliver a story and a message on that channel, which may be totally different from how the owners in charge of your other channels would tell the same story. Length, publishing cadence, content type (images vs. video or text) all matter, and channel owners know what their audiences like.

In short, creating once can cause editorial failure across diverse audiences and channels, whereas crafting appropriate versions of a story that is centrally reported on once is a ticket to success. The result is better content performance, which means the content investment gets a better payoff.

EVERY ENGINE HAS PARTS: EVERY ENGINE NEEDS FUEL

KEY FACTORS• Audiences• Platform

• Channel

CONTENT OUTPUT• Digital• Mobile• Social• Ecommerce• Video

• Print

TOPIC OR IDEA

Sustain & Optimize

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Content is the fuel that drives the Agile Content Engine forward, but where is it going? This is where media comes into play. Media is the vehicle that gets your well-fueled engine where it needs to go: to your audience.

Media is an all-encompassing term that covers everything from high-production commercials to direct mail. However, digital media has had the most impact on content marketing at a fundamental level. It has changed what brands can do for consumers, and what consumers expect of brands.

The convergence of content and tech-driven media platforms has opened an overwhelming new world of opportunities to marketers. The barriers to entry in digital media are low, leading to a flooded market of mediocre content that is rarely created with the media channel in mind. In order to truly thrive in the world of digital media, a brand needs access to a skilled team of digital marketers that can create channel-based content, analyze the effectiveness of that content, and rapidly iterate new versions and targeting tactics to reach the right people.

A performance-driven media program is an investment, and the success of a campaign depends not only on the channels and audience selected, but the content within. Digital content gives teams flexibility that print limits. It provides an opportunity to test promoted content to find the best assets to drive audiences to action—and this requires more content to ensure program success.

While a brand might have strong content creation skills, the convergence of the content and media sectors means that thought must be given to all ways in which a consumer may interact with that content. It is no longer enough to simply have great editorial content. With the volume of competition from tech-savvy competitors, investing in knowledge and innovation is key if a brand wants to fully benefit from innovative media tech and reach expanding audiences.

Audiences have come to expect highly targeted, personalized experiences. With brand loyalty becoming less of a deciding factor, consumers are quick to discard brands that don’t deliver a high-quality, immersive digital experience. It is up to brands to develop, test and learn, and optimize these digital experiences as part of the buyer’s journey. The intertwining of ACE, ROPE and a knowledgeable media team allows channel owners to reach a broader, highly engaged audience. Having a team that is ready to build and deliver these experiences provides a brand the wheels to get the content engine where it needs to go.

MEDIA: THE ACE VEHICLE

The convergence of content and tech-driven media platforms has opened an overwhelming new world of opportunities to marketers.

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Oftentimes content strategy is a well-meaning effort that leaves actionable and executable planning off the table, becoming only directional. The ACE approach presents a unique production process that employs digital strategy, content strategy and deep rigor around editorial planning and content excellence. ACE is a content center of excellence in and of itself. Getting the parts of ACE right that span people, process, platform(s) and performance is critical.

THE STRATEGIC APPROACH TO CONTENT

Sprint

Run

Jog

Topic selection

Cross-channeleditorialplanning

Apply ROPE

+CuratedContent

Digital

Video

E-news

Print

Social Closes loop back to insights

EDITORIAL PLANNING

CONTENT STRATEGY

CREATION & DISTRIBUTION ANALYTICS

Digital strategy:

promotion, syndication

Analytics &optimization

DIGITAL STRATEGY

DIGITAL STRATEGY

OPTIMIZATION

Digital and content strategy brief to

Creative

Defines the who,

what and how of content

Defines the project and overall

direction

WALK

JOG

RUN

ACESM IN ACTION

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THE STRATEGIC APPROACH TO CONTENT

Additionally, each part of ACE can be seen as a practice unto itself, and the magic happens when you make them work together. The key components:

DIGITAL STRATEGYPlanning, platform, content promotion and expression of your brand

CONTENT STRATEGYAudience, voice, tone, the stories you have to tell, technology, distribution and desired outcomes

EDITORIAL PLANNINGCadence and short- to long-term schedules, themes and storylines, sources, reporting, cross-channel plans

CONTENT CREATIONReporting, writing, editing, curation, syndication, creative/visual, multimedia, social, stakeholder reviews

CONTENT MEASUREMENTDistribution, reach, resonance, content types and attributes, feedback loops, analytics, audience sentiment, key performance indicators (KPIs)

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The steps to setting up ACE help solve issues brands encounter when developing their content and media strategies. Not only is the agile content methodology implemented and a content/digital strategy created, but it also helps to solve some of the complexities and questions that marketers face across their companies when it comes to content.

Chiefly, it delivers answers to questions like: how do I make my content more effective and create it more efficiently? How do I get more from my content across every channel? How do I ensure that my target audience is receiving the content on their preferred channel in a way that resonates with them?

It all starts with discovery and then the business case. The best way to go into the process of considering ACE and becoming your own newsroom encompasses five key steps that help you bake the plan, inclusive of the very content strategy that needs execution: Discovery, Analysis, Concept, Execution, Governance/Evaluation

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

DISCOVERY ANALYSIS CONCEPT EXECUTION GOVERNANCE/EVALUATION

PHASES OF WORK

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It’s difficult to be agile if you evaluate every aspect in pieces. Remember, this is an engine, so the integrated operation and the big-picture investment in content excellence is essential. The engine is designed with your objectives and financials in mind.

The setup and ongoing steady-state nature of an agile content engine requires equal consideration to process, people, platform and performance. The temptation is to isolate costs versus looking at the whole picture and whole benefit. Questions emerge quickly. Is my talent costing me too much, and should I trade down in those costs to spend more on technology? What is the right balance? What technology do I use with this model? Where does the process design come from?

The good thing is, these questions can be answered. The results of ACE pay off the investment in many ways. In some cases, a brand may not be able to afford not to adopt ACE. Spending money on content is the same business-case thinking that goes into product or service investment or funding. Content behaves like a product and a service —it is tangible, it adds value, it is consumable and shareable, and it can create its own type of affinity or brand attachment.

Therefore, the ACE model helps you identify:

The people you needOutsourced model or hybrid (blended with your team), it is staffed and operated with a publisher’s mindset and a content marketer’s eye.

The processes you need The model employs tried-and-true processes that work and generate results. The operating model has a system and parameters as well as operating principles that can be plugged into any organization. The necessary interfaces with people and technology are considered and designed to promote fluid content.

KEY CONSIDERATIONS

The big-picture investment in content excellence is essential, and the engine is designed with your objectives and financials in mind.

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The platform you need A suite of recommended technology for content management, workflow and distribution can be put in place, and a custom evaluation can be conducted for any brand’s needs. The model allows for a plug-and-play, turnkey technology approach, or using and improving upon what you have.

The performance you needEvery period and pixel counts when you are investing in content. What ACE has consistently proven is that more money is lost with internal content production inefficiency and lack of content consumption, even if the volume feels right. ACE is focused on content optimization as well as production and distribution. There is a set of measurement principles that work for looking at audience insights, feedback and sentiments, content proliferation, resonance and digital presence. The model incorporates the performance measures the brand needs as well as the tools to ensure the program is working.

With the organizing principles of ACE, clients have seen results up to:*

KEY CONSIDERATIONS

* Metrics and results vary by client and industry

92%

Lift in site visits when content is

present in the digital experience

200%+Lift in organic traffic, as content gained in

search traction

50%

Nearly 50% reduction in

customer churn

3 TO 5x Lift in purchase rate

when content is encountered in

the purchase path

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Creating and delivering with the ACE model has a number of critical success factors and dependencies that allow ACE to meet its mission with any brand.

The mission of ACE is to create an end-to-end engine of content that is fine-tuned to audience needs through a newsroom culture. It helps brands know who they are talking to, how to talk to them and whether it is working. In short, ACE helps content fire on all cylinders with efficiency and effectiveness at the helm. Spending more money on content is not the answer; spending it right to get payoff from the content investment, the time and the energy is what ACE does.

Here are six success factors to keep in mind when considering the ACE model:

1. Changing and evolving mindsets in the enterprise around content strategy, alignment and putting newsroom practices into action

2. Centralizing the end-to-end creation, curation, distribution and analysis of content

3. Leveraging a fresh set of eyes and specialized knowledge of authentic editorial, a journalist’s eye, unique publishing and editorial processes and a fast-paced, multilayered and tenacious approach to content

4. Understanding how to choose, leverage and integrate content technologies, from planning to in-market performance of your program

5. Discovering and delivering upon what your audience wants to hear and how they want to hear it through a walk, jog and run approach

6. Mastering the “report once, publish everywhere” (ROPE) system of content excellence

SIX CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR IMPLEMENTING ACESM

Spending more money on content is not the answer; spending it right to get payoff from the content investment, the time and the energy is what ACE does.

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Pace has used the ACE model to help B2B and B2C brands, from regional names to Fortune 100 companies, achieve content at scale with repeatable results. The most recent implementation of ACE was for a new financial brand, one that was the result of a merger of two well-known legacy brands. Anne Elwell, a vice president with the Client Solutions Partner group, led the effort and has some recommendations for getting started with ACE.

1. Conduct a thorough audit • Assess a preliminary model that serves to create a strategic plan that aligns with business

objectives and audience needs • Determine the content needs and assess how these needs align with in-house capabilities • Audit existing demand to determine volume and cadence required to meet that demand

2. Determine the strategy Refine the existing content model using insights gained in the audit process. This model should dictate: • Model type • Division of content accountability • Roles and resources • Naming conventions, labeling methodology and file structures • Workflow and process • Technology requirements

GETTING STARTED WITH ACE

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1 53

2 4

CONDUCT A THOROUGH AUDIT

BUILD THE ACE TEAM

EXECUTION & OPTIMIZATION

DETERMINE THE STRATEGY

INTEGRATION

3. Build the ACE team • Build a team that consists of: • Creative: both art and edit • Strategy & analytics • Content operations

• Managing editor for the content vision• Content director for the distribution vision

• Determine accountabilities, workflows and governance of the relationships • Implement tools: technology and platforms

4. Integrate • Develop systemized process documentation • Conduct organization-wide training around the new model • Build an editorial board • Implement process workflow to collaborate, create, deliver and execute strategic

and project-based content needs

5. Execute and optimize • Use formal structures and processes for content to ensure efficiency and consistency • Use the workflows and processes to ensure on-time and on-quality content delivery • Scale the system to meet demands • Conduct performance analysis and education for continuous content optimization • Use insights gained from analysis to implement optimizations using the ongoing

content creation cycle

GETTING STARTED WITH ACE

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GETTING STARTED WITH ACE

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Intake process• Briefs• Prioritization• Establish KPIs

Editorial strategyDiscovery and content playbook

Editorial program & planningOngoing editorial development and content planning with audience personas and data

Content creation• Assign content• Write/edit• Design • Creative & Strategy review

Client reviews• Content review of editorial, look/feel/design• Revisions• Approvals

Content deliveryFinal asset(s) for upload, placement & distribution

Content analysis• Assess performance• Communicate learnings

Review rounds

ONGOING CONTENT CREATION CYCLE

Most marketers these days are embracing the importance of content creation to generate brand awareness and brand trust. However, those who value the quality of the content can implement the ACE model to create and curate high-performing content at scale. It’s exceptionally rewarding when clients entrust us with this process, and those who have done so are enjoying some pretty fantastic results.

Anne ElwellVice President, Client Solutions Partner, Pace

The pressure is on to compete not only with high-quality products and services, but also with winning content that propels your brand’s story into the market and adds value for your audience. Producing content mechanically in high volume commodifies content and probably works against your purpose. Using the ACE model helps you attain agility with multiple tracks and channels of content. The question may not be whether you can afford to spend what you’re spending on content, but whether you can afford to do it in a less efficient and effective way. The answer may be blending the mindsets of a publisher and a marketer, putting your audience first, creating the end-to-end content, production and distribution that maximizes return, and executing your content with the same rigor of quality that you do with your products and services. Pace’s Agile Content Engine is the answer.

For more information on content strategy and brand journalism:

How Much Content Does Your Audience Need? A B2B Case Study

Brand Attachment: Building Emotional Connections Across the Customer Journey

Customer Journey Maps: Setting the Path from Prospect to Customer and Beyond

Power of the Parent: The Science and Impact of Master Brand Storytelling

CONCLUSION

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NICOLE MARTINVice President, Strategy and Marketing Solutions

Nicole is a creative strategic marketer and analytics professional who boosts online visibility, plans and creates efficiencies for content, brand, and digital marketing strategies; increases conversions; and maximizes ROI. She has extensive strategic planning experience with e-commerce and content-related websites involving both traditional and digital marketing, brand management, content marketing, organic and paid search, social media, email marketing, CRM, and lead-generation programs. Nicole works with Pace clients including Gold’s Gym, 3M, Walmart, Argo Group and Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts. Prior to joining Pace, Nicole served in various marketing and analytics roles for large corporations, including Hanesbrands Inc., Kayser-Roth Corporation and Tanger Outlets.

SAMANTHA ABSHERResearch Analyst

Samantha is a creative and data-driven marketing professional, who has a passion for research and using analytics to tell stories with a unique point of view. She brings 10 years of marketing experience to the Pace team with expertise across a range of functions including overall strategic planning, email marketing, social media strategy, analytics and client relationship building. In her current role as marketing research analyst, Samantha delivers in-depth research and insights that are used to build successful audience strategies across multiple platforms. She is an integral part of the Pace team, working across multiple departments with various clients including Southwest Airlines, Four Seasons and Wells Fargo as well as Pace’s marketing team.

ANNE ELWELLVice President, Client Solutions Partner

Anne is a passionate leader, strategist and champion of ideas with experience in a wide range of disciplines. She has a deep understanding of the evolving marketing landscape and an ability to deliver results-oriented marketing solutions. Her most recent role as a BB&T client introduced her to the power of Pace’s storytelling prowess and reignited her passion for the agency side. She is grateful for her time on the client side but is definitely an agency girl at heart. She loves to brainstorm, collaborate, ideate and generally does so with optimism, enthusiasm and a healthy dose of humor. Anne may be a North Carolinian now, but was raised in California and attended Loyola Marymount University. She has deep agency and marketing team leadership experience in roles such as EVP, Group Account Director at MullenLowe, VP with Dailey & Associates in Los Angeles as well as FCB Global, with some time in Singapore leading a wide range of business—Nestle, Hilton Hotels, Unilever, Ulta Beauty and Food Lion, to name a few.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

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For more information, contact:Nicole Martin nicole.martin@paceco.com336.383.5608

ABOUT PACE Pace is a leading creative agency that develops integrated experiences for a diverse client base of some of the world’s most iconic brands. Its staff of more than 370 employees across the country produces award-winning work that moves audiences to action. It has offices in Dallas and San Antonio, Texas; Greensboro, North Carolina; and New York City.

ABOUT PACE

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