The great dilemma of choosing between content built for incidental discovery vs long-term visibility

BuzzInContent.com caught up with content marketers to understand how they go about building content strategy. Do they rely more on incidental discovery content or content with a longer shelf life?

author-image
Akansha Srivastava
New Update
Post Thumb

Be it short-term, long-term or long-form, short-form – all forms of content building require an equal amount of effort, manpower, time, investment. While many would say we need all forms of content to get desired results, it’s definitely an uphill task to maintain this strategy in the long run. Therefore, one always keeps on questioning – What works better for a brand? Content built for incidental discovery (which is mostly via Instagram and FB feeds) that could give massive but very short-term spikes versus content built for YouTube and blogs that could keep giving returns over a longer time-frame. 

Many content marketers believe that even when hundreds of brands are creating content by the second, their discoverability by consumers always remains doubtful and only long-term content fetches visibility and shelf-life.

Let’s face the truth. As long as the consumer stops by the content and gives it a look, a thought, shares and in the best-case scenario buys the brand’s product, it doesn’t matter if the content is built for incidental discovery or for a longer shelf-life.

Last year, Indian coffee brand Sleepy Owl became the talk-of-the-town because it played on every marketer’s desire, which is to be seen by consumers after all the money and efforts a brand has put in creating content to achieve that and launched a campaign. 

The eye-catchy aspect of the ad was that it was purposely created on mute to showcase that even after spending a huge sum of money, it’s difficult to get noticed by the consumers as most of the time the ads are muted. In the ad, the protagonist enacted out what she wanted to say, supported by subtitles.

Take a look at one of the campaign videos here: The Sleepy Owl campaign: 

The whole idea of giving the Sleepy Owl example is that as long as any piece of content gets noticed and grabs the consumer attention, it works. 

But mind it! If something gets viral once, doesn’t mean it will work every time. 

publive-image
Laalit Lobo

Laalit Lobo, VP of Marketing, Bombay Shaving Company, said that over time, brands tend to get into the pitfall of making a successful marketing gimmick into a formula and start repeating the same type of ad and then it doesn’t work. “On social media, everything changes by the second. One needs to have a very smart content manager on social media. One needs to be part of trends and at the same time create relevance for the brand. It’s a very difficult space to be in. But if you crack that then there are huge dividends to be made.”

publive-image
Anirudh Singla

Anirudh Singla, Founder and CEO, Pepper Content, said there isn’t an either-or scenario. He explained that as a brand looking to play the long-term game, one needs to focus on content built for the ages across platforms like blogs and YouTube. “This is like saying the ‘the blog’ as we knew it, is irrelevant today. We all know that it isn’t. Creating relevant, high-quality content, consistently for your blog or other owned channels will always reap results in the long-run. Not only that, it is the way to build a brand.” 

He further said that short-term content built for Instagram or Facebook serves its own purpose - it drives a large number of people to the brand’s account for a while. “But they may not stick for long as they are not coming for your brand as such, they are coming for that specific piece of content.”

publive-image
Asif Upadhye

Asif Upadhye, Director and Darth Vader at Yellow Seed, agreed with Singla that both incidental discovery content and content for blogs and YouTube are equally important. But he also pointed out that it totally depends on the brand’s objective. “The question is, do you want to position yourself as a brand that focuses on selling its products? Or be the one pioneering brand that is constantly at the Top Of Mind while driving impact? That decision is what your brand story narrative will be identified with.”

Every platform has its own uniqueness. Instagram and Facebook Feed is the go-to place if one wants to bank on shorter content. YouTube can be for longer content. Facebook and Instagram are more of an engagement platform, whereas YouTube is a discovery platform. 

publive-image
Gurpreet Singh

Gurpreet Singh, Co-Founder, One Digital Entertainment, explained that it would be unfair to call either of these platforms (Insta/FB, YouTube) less or more efficacious to each other since it depends upon the kind of engagement the brand/campaign or creator is aiming for. He said, “The verdict is quite clear; if looking for detailed, in-depth content and which is not necessarily relevant only for a short period of time, pick YouTube and if looking for more visually appealing, short format, and quick snacky content, pick Instagram.” 

publive-image
Kruthika Ravindran

Kruthika Ravindran, Associate Director, TheSmallBigIdea, added that long-form content is generally more comprehensive and focuses on extended narratives and immersions, thus catering to a highly invested audience. On the other hand, short-form content, also defined as 'snackable' content is largely for brand discoverability and daily engagement.

publive-image
Pawan Sarda

However, the common thing about all the platforms is that one has to be consistent. “If the brand is not consistent and creates content as just ‘one-off things’ it will not help,” said Pawan Sarda, Group Head- Digital, Marketing and e-commerce at Future Group India. 

Singh of One Digital added, “Connecting and having a presence on all the top platforms by working on platform-specific derivatives for the same content works wonders to build on the combined strengths of all.” 

Upadhye emphasised, “The brand’s content marketing ROI isn’t going to see success the minute you share your first post! It takes time, but more importantly, an airtight strategy that includes content, customised for social media platforms is what will help your brand break through the clutter.” 

Along with being consistent with a particular content strategy, one also needs to humanise the brand. Sarda commented, “What people also care for is ‘your behind story’. If you are able to put up some behind the scenes, what went behind making the content and make value additions in people’s lives, it works best. But all this should be done in a consistent manner. The Indian calendar gives the brand several opportunities to communicate with its followers and community. One just needs to be topical and talk about the things, the consumers want the brand to talk about.” 

publive-image
Sandeep Balan

Most of the time we think like marketers while creating content, but according to Sandeep Balan, Partner, Branded Content, Spring Marketing Capital, one needs to think like a content creator and let people be the media. “Because when you know to stay true to content just like a creator, people will carry your content forward and share it further. Therefore, one needs to stay true to what you are creating rather than falling into the trap of creating formats.” 

Ravindran concluded, “The debate over short-form and long-form content is a never-ending one and there really is no clear winner since both have their own pros and cons. The question isn't what works better for a brand. The question really is what meets the brand objective and the preferences of the audience. For some objectives, long-form content may give better returns while for some, snackable content might be more valuable.”

content marketers incidental discovery long-term visibility