Why brands shy away from remixing content

In this article, content marketing practitioners discuss the pros and cons of remixing content. But even though the technique can be quite useful, many brands aren't deploying it. We find out why

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Akansha Srivastava
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Given the unprecedented times we are living in, not every brand can splash money to create jazzy campaigns. Now that we are in the worst phase of the pandemic with Covid-19 cases surging ahead, it’s getting difficult to shoot, lockdowns are in place and companies are working with low capacity.

In such circumstances, how can brands continue creating fresh content? It’s that time of the year when one should look back at all the content created, try to reuse and repurpose them to create something that looks as fresh and engaging like any new content piece. In other words: remix.

According to various explanations and definitions available, ‘remixing of content is defined as the act of rearranging, combining, editorialising, and adding originals to create something entirely new’.

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Manesh Swamy

Manesh Swamy, VP, Creative and Social, Logicserve Digital, said, “If done right, remixing content can be very beneficial. First, it can save a lot of effort in terms of time and money. Second, if the original content being remixed is timeless and relevant to any era, it can work wonders when reintroduced to a new audience in a new way, and provide excellent results.”

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Shrutika Nagpal

Besides saving time and cost, one gets to maximise ROI from top-performing content. Shrutika Nagpal, Creative Director, Scatter, explained, “Pieces that are already performing and have a dedicated audience can be refurbished by updating data and numbers; adding multimedia content like a video or a TL:DR graphic; or even increasing the frequency of high-performing keywords to reap SEO benefits.”

She said another reason why brands must remix content is that one even gets to reuse an idea. “A major part of repurposing is about trying out a different format or platform (like a new social networking site) for an idea that’s working well, thus exposing your idea to a whole new audience. Being present on different destinations, talking about a niche topic can also increase your leadership and authority on the subject in question,” Nagpal said.

One can turn a single blog post into a PDF, podcast episode, slideshow deck, infographic and much more. If the audience is present on Twitter, one can remix content into threads. Instagram posts can be converted into Stories and similarly there are so many options available across platforms to remix content. In fact, having a big video content library is like possessing a huge amount of gold. One video asset can be turned into a blog post, a podcast, short snippets, so on and so forth.

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Sajni Masturlal

Sajni Masturlal, Head of Content at Wakefit, told BuzzInContent that many times, planning content in advance helps brands in times of crisis. Giving Wakefit’s example, she said, “We had shot a video for the campaign ‘Sleep India Sleep’, which we launched just before the Coronavirus hit. We had gone to four different cities to shoot the chaos that one can find in the urban cities. As part of the shooting, we took a lot of family shots and captured working professionals coming late at night. We had to stop that campaign because of Covid. A few months later, we looked back at the footage we had and from that, we were able to stitch together a completely new video for Mother’s Day.”

In another example, Wakefit did a large exercise with influencers during the festive period to style products and how they function. From that content, the sleep solutions company is building a Pinterest type repository for people to find inspiration.

Now that we have understood the importance of remixing content, creators must learn how to use their content repository judiciously.

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Payal Shah Karwa

Payal Shah Karwa, Content Director, The Word Jockey, believes content is the new currency and must be spent well. The marketer has invested time, effort and money to build it, so why not milk it to get maximum value? “Sometimes brands need to think like the efficient homemaker, who repurposes / remixes old household items, upcycles or recycles it into something more meaningful, like old aluminium suitcases transformed into a contemporary table, or old shoes converted into a plant holder. Real creativity lies there — how to repurpose the old into something new and beautiful,” she said.

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Shradha Agarwal

Shradha Agarwal, COO and Strategy Head, Grapes Digital, said remixed content should not look repetitive and by using creativity, a brand can hit a ball out of the park.

“Remixing content allows marketers to take advantage of a single content and repurpose and remix it for other platforms. At times, we see some content getting viral in a few hours. This means, viewers are interested in it and won’t mind watching more on similar lines. If the brand has remixed the content and it is in the favour, then it definitely expands reach and gives high engagement rates across varying platforms,” she added.

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Ambika Sharma

Ambika Sharma, Founder and MD, Pulp Strategy, agreed with Agarwal and said that there isn’t a method of saying that a certain percentage of repurposing is good. “It’s more of a qualitative compass; repurpose enough so that it reaches multiple audiences and platforms, but not too much where you seem repetitive or stale.”

One must smartly and creatively remix content so that it doesn’t look like a copied version of old content and Google doesn’t mark it plagiarised. Karwa said, “There is a lot of duplicate content available on the internet, and search engines like Google do not penalise it unless it is plagiarised. It just categorises similar content in buckets, not as spam.”

Even after knowing the potential of remixed content, why are not many brands doing it in India?

While content marketing is still a fairly new field in India in comparison to many other countries, using remixed content is a different ball game altogether. Despite gaining popularity, only a handful of brands are using the full potential of content remixing.

There was a time when remixing of evergreen songs became a trend. In the beginning, the remixed songs became instant hits but slowly people started criticising them as a cheaper and low quality version of originals.

Swamy of Logicserve Digital said, “Remixing is deemed a negative word thanks to Bollywood remixing some of their original content and the rejection received for most of it from the audience. Remixing, in most cases, is seen as a last resort and the only attempt when you have run out of ideas. Some iconic names have tried remixing their old content and their jingles with the current audience but the results haven’t been very encouraging. All of this creates a bit of a hesitant approach for remixing content among people and brands.”

Many brands feel if they refurbish content, the audience might term the work as lazy and they won’t be able to gain the desired attention. Karwa said the word ‘remix’ is perceived as step-content. “Many brands fear they might be seen as adopting the ‘old wine in a new bottle’ syndrome and lose consumer loyalty or viewership. For instance, if B2B brands want to establish thought-leadership, they want to talk about an original and novel idea every time. So they might not look at re-using throwback content as the best bet.”

Agarwal of Grapes Digital seconded, “The brands fear that copying a piece can result in trolling or negative feedback or will question their creativity. Hence, agencies prefer experimenting when the content has become viral and people start following the trend.”

Nagpal of Scatter said rejecting repurposed content means losing a great opportunity – the goal of content marketing is often to be favourited, bookmarked and returned, but brands spend more energy on creating something people look at once and move on from there.

Throwing some more light on this behaviour of the brands, Nagpal said, “As content marketers, we know that relevance doesn't run out as fast as recency. The majority of our audiences live the same lives today that they did yesterday. Trends come back and normalcy returns. To be truly useful, brands need to look at how to ‘update’ conversations and content as carefully as they look to ‘change’ them.”

One very big reason for brands not using its old content bank, and always looking out for new content each time, is their fear of losing out and to stay at the top of anything that is trending.

Masturlal of Wakefit said, “There is a constant hunger in this digital age, where you are expected to do more around topical themes. Trying so hard to catch up with what’s going around, one rarely looks back at what he/she has done. Everyone wants to make a splash every time they come up with something.”

It’s not that the brands must look at refurbishing content only because the pandemic has made it difficult to create fresh content; it should be a regular practice to save cost and time, and maximise ROI.

Why brands shy away from remixing content