Aldi spoof, FT Google tie-up and the Middle East – Content24

Tech tie-ups, better targeting and content marketing in the Middle East all feature in this review of the top stories from Friday and the weekend.

Aldi creates spoof of John Lewis ad

In response to John Lewis’s Man on the Moon Christmas ad, discount retailer Aldi has created a spoof version featuring a telescope that is £20 cheaper than the one used in the original.

But is it content marketing? Well, it was launched on Aldi’s YouTube channel, which in effect is the brand’s own platform.

Interestingly, most brands love spoofs. Despite the irreverence, they echo the message of the original – and in this case John Lewis appears to be happy with Aldi’s take. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

But the most important question to ask is: how many views has it had? The answer? Around two million. Not bad for a budget piece of content.

Quality trumps quantity

This comment piece in Marketing, from digital agency Possible London, talks about the need for brands and companies to take a ‘less is more’ approach. It suggests they should be more focused in their content marketing rather than trying to publish constant news.

It talks about changes to social media creating “a systematic reduction in the ways that you can ‘game’ the system”. Although coming across as a bit of a how-to, it does make some interesting points based on actual research.

The main point is: create quality content less often. Then, don’t be afraid to push it out more than once on social media. Analytics show that people are more likely to engage with content if they have seen it once before on social media.

FT teams up with Google Maps

The Financial Times is linking up with Google Maps to create an app showing London’s ‘hidden gems‘. Part of FT Weekend’s Hidden Cities series, it shows favourite places to eat and drink that are frequented by the paper’s journalists. We hope they were given some free drinks for the plug.

This sort of tech partnership could be the way forward for content marketing. It follows Coca-Cola’s #Howoldareyou push with Microsoft.

Content marketing in the Middle East

CampaignME has produced a piece of editorial about the rise and rise of content marketing in the Middle East. Although it pumps out the old ‘brands are publishers’ line that we were talking about a long time ago, it is an interesting guide to the way business works over there.

Aldi spoof, FT Google tie-up and the Middle East is part of Content24, a review of content marketing news from the last 24 hours.