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VISUAL CONTENT MARKETING

25 IDEAS

CONTENT MARKETING INSTITUTE

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Visual Content to inspireIn today’s fast-moving, mobile-centric world, visuals are easy to understand, eminently sharable, and can be used to tell stories and evoke emotions that are much harder to do with words. This Look Book examines 25 remarkable examples of visual content marketing. From inspiring customers to use their products in creative ways (Sherwin-Williams and Kraft) and entertaining us (Kellogg’s Pop Tarts and Pringles) to showcasing product quality in unforgettable ways (Volvo) and helping the public understand key issues (GE), visual content marketing’s uses are limited only by marketers’ imaginations. We hope this Look Book inspires you to consider creative ways in which your brand can incorporate visuals and video into your content marketing mix.

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sherwinwilliamsThis paint manufacturer uses Pinterest to share inspiring images of rooms painted in different colors. Some of the boards are seasonally-themed, while others focus on a particular color.

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Downtown resourCe GroupDRG saw a huge opportunity to create a compelling piece of content that created a different impression than an eBook or brochure when it created this interactive guide to Minneapolis.

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KronosKronos sponsors a weekly cartoon series to showcase the lighter side of workforce management.

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Callaway GolfCallaway uses its YouTube channel to engage with golfers. They create videos in a series to create consistency and build anticipation for upcoming videos. Celebrities like Phil Mickelson appear in their instructional videos to show golfers how to improve their game.

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waterwiseCreated for UK nonprofit Waterwise, the website “Every Last Drop” is a great example of how parallax scrolling can invigorate a static infographic. The website’s animation leads visitors through a series of statistics about water usage — creating a virtual story that unfolds as they scroll down the page.

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linColneleCtriCThink welding is boring? Think again. This captivating video series shows how much welding makes possible.

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splenDaSpenda’s image-heavy website (with a mix of photos, short videos and graphics) promises 365 ways to replace sugar with Splenda.

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intelIntel does a marvelous job of engaging with their tech-savvy users via their Instagram channel. The use of this highly visual social network that features humor, pop culture references, and creative tie-ins to holidays is a great way to promote new products and innovation.

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starBuCKsStarbucks relies heavily upon creative user-generated photos to populate its very popular Instagram feed, which is followed by over 2.2 million people. Most pictures showcase a Starbucks drink, but make it part of a story.

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tourismaustraliaUser-generated content fuels Tourism Australia’s uber-successful Facebook site. They receive 900 photos daily and tens of thousands of likes on most posts.

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KelloGG’sKellogg’s Pop Tarts’ quirky images are perfect for social sharing and storytelling through single images, or an image series released over a period of hours or days. They even have recurring characters that pop up now and again, breeding familiarity and creating anticipation.

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prinGlesThe brand marketers behind Pringles use some funny ideas of their own plus user-generated content to create an amusing, fun and informative Facebook page.

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KraftKraft Foods’ Pinterest page showcases images of meals created using its products. A brief description emphasizes the rich taste of each dish and its ease of preparation. Clicking on an image takes you to the full recipe on the Kraft website.

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oreoOreo does a great job of engaging fans of its popular Oreo cookies in creative ways. Perhaps the most famous was the great Cookie vs. Creme debate, which played out in TV commercials (and later repurposed into videos for online consumption), and a user-generated content campaign on Instagram, where fans could submit their cookie or creme ideas. Oreo took the best ideas and created them, and shared images on its social channels.

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tarGetTarget’s Pinterest account is a good example of a major brand thinking outside the box. On 49 boards, it shares a variety of products, home decor ideas, recipes, holiday inspiration and more. In addition, it collaborates with well-known designers and bloggers, like David Stark. These boards tie in nicely with the in-store Target experience.

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wiDenWiden produces enterprise digital asset management software. To nurture prospects, it has created The DAM Decision Toolkit that includes a visual process, things to do, and issues to consider.

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rainforest allianCeThe Rainforest Alliance’s Follow the Frog is a short, fast-moving video that makes a compelling, straightforward point. Viewers are left with: “I can do that!”

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CalVin KleinCalvin Klein’s Tumblr takes visitors to its photo shoots and highlights the supermodels forever linked with the brand. Tumblr is a stylish conduit for delivering the visual marketing “scoops.”

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lowesLowe’s Fix in Six series is a gold standard for six-second Vine videos.

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VolVoVolvo Trucks knew it wasn’t enough to simply talk about its high-precision dynamic steering. Instead, it opted to SHOW it in a memorable way, featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme doing the splits between two reversing trucks.

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DunKinDonuts#DunkinReplay was a fun way for Dunkin Donuts to use its hot and iced coffees to recreate a play from the first half of the Monday Night Football games.

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GeGE’s data visualization blog contains data-driven graphics that help the public understand key issues in the fields and technologies in which the company operates.

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the palms hotel & spaThis brief presentation does a great job of summarizing the services and benefits of a high-end destination in a compelling way. The beauty of this place makes you want to share it with your friends — which is exactly what The Palms wants you to do!

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salesforCe.ComSometimes a presentation doesn’t need to be about your products or services. In this case, Salesforce.com manages to create a “halo effect” for itself by associating with some of the best companies and customer service quotes ever, presented in a very attractive and simple design.

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VansThis is a 12-episode documentary seriesof cultures (punk rock, US in Russia, East LA). While the demographic in the #livingoffthewall series matches that of Vans’ demographic, there is no mention of the brand. It’s first-rate content marketing in so many respects: the site, the photography, and the way the program is executed.

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Special thanks to those who contributed ideas to the Look Book: Chuck Frey (@chuckfrey), Mark Sherbin (@MarkSherbin),

Amber van Natten (@moxieingreen), David Rossiter (@David_Rossiter), Joseph Kalinowski (@ringo66), Margaretha Finseth (@Magga2You)

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