0:00 Alright. Hello, everybody. I think we have some people rolling in still. How's everybody doing? We'll give everybody just another few seconds to roll in before we get started, but this is a short session, so we won't spend too much time waiting. 0:13 Hope everyone's having a good day. Welcome in. Alright. We're gonna get started in just a minute. And just so you guys know, you can put any questions and answers in the q and a box, and we will get to those at the end of the presentation. 0:25 Alright. I say we kick it off. So excited you guys decided to join today. I'm Joe Callahan. I am the VP of client strategy and insights here at Bazaarvoice. 0:36 We are gonna talk about connected content to commerce, and the full funnel blueprint for twenty twenty five. I think really focusing on how different types of content play a role against different types of objectives and how you can bring creator and user generated content to life across all of your business and communications objectives. 0:56 And so we're gonna roll right in. Just a quick background on myself before we get started. I've spent a lot of time in the industry, almost twenty years in the industry, thinking about media and content, and how content plays a role in different in different ways. 1:11 And so, I, you know, I've spent ten years at Unilever. I was the head of media for the foods business for eight of those years. And in the last two years, I led our in house studio called U Studio. 1:22 We did about ninety percent of the digital assets across our forty plus brands in the North American market. And so really thinking about fit for platform assets, what content works, where, why, and how, and really thinking through best practice and, and resonating with the consumer from a content perspective. 1:40 I also did, two years at Pinterest. Again, an amazing visual discovery platform and really thinking through content, and how to resonate with consumers in a really meaningful way. 1:51 And so when I got to Bazaarvoice, really started thinking through how all of this works together, and we'll talk a lot today about the content supply chain and how everything, fits in. 2:01 Before we get started, I do wanna do a quick poll. I have lived through all of these. So you all tell me, what is the biggest content challenge that you are facing within your organization? 2:12 And I understand we have people probably coming in from all different types of roles and and, and different, sizes of organizations. But, is it siloed teams that are working to create a consistent consumer journey? 2:25 Is that the biggest challenge you're having? Is it really scaling content production to meet the digital demands, in today's landscape? So if you think through, all of the different places that you have to have fit for platform assets, like, how do you come up with that level and that volume of content? 2:42 Is it creating content that resonates with audiences? How do you create brand content or creator and user generated content? What works? What works best? 2:50 Or is it getting that stakeholder buy in, for UGC and creator content, versus branded content? So I'm gonna stop sharing my screen for a minute while they share the poll results backstage. 3:03 But let us know, what where you feel like some of the biggest challenges are coming up for your organization. So I'm seeing a good mix of okay. Yep. 3:12 Yep. I think, the scaling content production to meet digital demands is number one, and I feel you on that. And then siloed teams coming in, a close second. 3:23 So, I I completely hear you on all of that. And I think, having worked at a large enterprise level brand, and organization, it is absolutely something that those two areas are really big challenges, and we'll talk a lot about that today. 3:38 So I'm excited to have you guys. Before we get started, I do wanna talk a little bit more about the evolution that we've had at Bazaarvoice and why our legacy in digital and specifically ecommerce and now the expansion, of creator and and visual social UGC makes us relevant to talk about all of these different brand objectives, and and how this content plays a role. 4:00 So we totally believe that equity building, shopping, transacting can happen anywhere throughout the funnel. So, we talk a lot about funnel collapse. 4:08 We talk a lot about creating and converting demand within the same occasion. So even if you're trying to drive an awareness and equity message, you can still have a shopper that's, that's ready to convert within that moment. 4:19 And so we've responded to this reality. And in our vision to make shopping radically transparent, we are really focused on putting that authentic content in front, in front of as many people as possible. 4:30 And so we have platforms that we've created that achieve this across, all of your communications objectives. So is it, you know, driving awareness and sourcing creators to help deliver that message all the way through our traditional ratings and reviews offerings, q and a, product sampling? 4:47 How do we create that, content supply chain? You'll hear us talk a lot about content supply chain. And this goes back to scaling that content production to meet the needs of the digital space. 4:57 How do you take everything that you need from a branded content perspective and supplement that with creator and user generated content? Because the reality is it is harder and harder to come up with the volume that you need within the digital space across every channel, every touch point, every audience. 5:12 You guys know what it looks like, that exponential demand in content. And so we talk a lot about supplementing your content supply chain with creator and user generated content in a really meaningful way. 5:22 And by the way, that content is very effective. It's in fact more effective, in many ways than branded content. And so, we'll talk a lot about where that where that fits in today. 5:32 But I'm gonna start with a quick example. This is, this is one of my favorite examples, and this is, this is a true story, but it's actually, a brand that we've made up, to protect, those involved. 5:46 But, this is an innovation. It's a it's a new, plant based probiotic ice pop that's hitting the market. 5:55 And this brand is a national brand, and they are using their big national media budgets to land these new RTVs, these new reasons to believe, these unique brand attributes of plant based, probiotic ice pop. 6:08 And so they spent a good amount of money in national media to really drive these new unique brand attributes home. What's happened and and listen, I came from a very large, brand, a very large, company that was able to do a lot of this. 6:22 And I knew that, some of these defender and attacker, some of these challenger brands were coming in and riding the coattails of these national media spends. And so we'd land new formats or new brand attributes, and brands with maybe not as large media budgets would come in and social or, you know, kind of ride the coattails of letting us do the lift of landing that messaging and, come in, and, land the plane to be honest. 6:46 And so, what I didn't realize is that a lot of this was happening on digital shelf. And so if we take this example, one step further and you hit retail dot com, we have a search for the probiotic, ice pop. 7:01 The defender brand, the brand that spent the money in national media pops up, as long as well as this attacker brand, this challenger brand that's swooping in from the side with similar unique brand attributes. 7:12 But the reality is the defender brand didn't spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about how they were showing up on digital shelf. And so you think about the need for quality, quantity, recency of review content and the weight that that carries, especially within this environment. 7:27 What ends up happening is a consumer who now is interested in these brand attributes lands on retail dot com. And in fact, if I'm a consumer, my eye immediately goes to the right. 7:38 And I look at this one hundred nine volume of review with a four point five star rating, and I think, well, that's probably the product I'm gonna go with. And so, really thinking through consistent, and cohesive consumer journeys that are compelling, is absolutely critical in this environment. 7:55 when we think about business objectives and communications objectives, and you all know when you brief your partners, your agencies, when you start to think through your integrated marketing plan, you're obviously trying to drive objectives and goals against those objectives. 8:10 And if you're trying to drive an awareness goal, I hear a lot of brands that say, you know, people don't know what my brand stands for. How do I continue to drive equity in my brand? 8:21 And, you know, that's that's an awareness and an equity goal. And the one of the ways you can do that obviously is through branded content, but the way that you can supplement that effective reach in branded content is through creators. 8:33 Creators are going to deliver deeper storytelling messages. They're gonna use longer storytelling assets like sight sound motion content. 8:41 They're gonna be able to be briefed in a way that will help you land those unique brand attributes, and they're gonna do it really authentically too. So they can help tell your brand story and that creator content can help you supplement that reach that you're trying to drive to to drive equity. 8:56 So is it a variety message? Is it an ingredients message? you're in health and beauty, what types of messaging are you trying to land from an equity perspective, and how are you really trying to drive, you know, those brand attributes? 9:09 And so I think creators are a really nice way to do that, and they're a nice way to do it in a really authentic way. They also and and I know this from past experience can drive a lot of those attitudinal metrics you'll be looking to drive in the awareness space. 9:22 And so if you think about aided brand awareness, you know, purchase intent, a lot of those attitudinal metrics that you that you really look to, from brand lift, they're very, very successful in driving that as well. 9:35 So a very nice option, if you are if you have an awareness goal, of equity. The second type of awareness goal, you you know, a lot of brands are trying to drive relevance, in market by launching new products. 9:49 They're trying to drive innovation to stay relevant, within the market. And the reality is when you when you start to launch a new product, if you don't go out with, a good amount of social buzz or, seeding review content as you're launching, you're not gonna you're not gonna win the space. 10:07 And so, when we think through the opportunity to get product in hands and think through, sampling programs, then you can use our everyday shopper community to do so. 10:17 What'll happen is you'll start to drive that social buzz, you'll start to drive, seed review content. when you do have your launch period, your product will be out on its best foot. 10:28 And so I think about all these micro connections driving scale, and it's a really, really powerful way to launch innovation and make sure that it's landed, in market as you as you go out. 10:39 And then consideration. This is by far my favorite communications objective. I always say if there's ever a party and there's an icebreaker, I hope the question is what's your favorite communications objective because it's gonna be consideration. 10:50 I just think there's a tremendous amount you can do with this, with this objective. This is really where you start to connect your brand meaningfully to need states. 10:59 So how do you widen the aperture on all the usage occasions where your brand can play a relevant role? How do you then authentically connect the brand into those needs states? 11:09 So if you think through amazing recipe content, how to get the look from a makeup perspective, You can have all of this living within galleries, living within the social space, and you can use micro and nano creators to drive that steady drumbeat of content in an efficient way. 11:26 So if you think through it, you may have evergreen moments. So if I'm arrested if I'm a foods brand, how do I how do I start to speak to weeknight dinners, budget friendly dinners? 11:34 Then you may have seasonal content. So you have evergreen, then you have your seasonal moments where you start, you know, becoming relevant for various holidays, seasonality, including summer, winter, holiday. 11:48 There are there are a number of ways from a seasonal perspective you can come to life and then tent poles. So, again, this could be, are you launching a new product? It could be, are you are you playing within the Super Bowl space? 12:00 Are you playing within any other tentpole moments that are relevant for your brand? How do you start to drive consideration? And what it what it looks like, ends up being threefold, which is an evergreen seasonal and then tentpole strategy. 12:13 And you can drive that sort of that salience and that always on content across the entire year for your brand. And so we think this is a really nice way to land, to land consideration in market. 12:26 And then to bring us home from a conversion standpoint, all of the things we talked about above and awareness, and consideration with, micro and nano creators or everyday shoppers, All of this can be achieved in a conversion, from a conversion perspective with the right messaging, the right call to action, attaching it to shoppability. 12:46 And so if you look at some of these examples, and I love these examples, you know, we have, we have a shoppable element on a website with that social proof, coming from our from our creator content. 12:58 And we are seeing massive increases in conversion with this type of content. So a hundred and forty percent increase in conversion from social UGC. This is inspirational content that consumers are seeking, not only social proof, but it inspires them beyond traditional ecommerce assets. 13:13 And so I think about where all this can live and it's absolutely incredible. You can take this content, and this is one of my favorite examples from from, my days back at Unilever with Suave. 13:24 You see increases in sales, by using, star rating in store. And you think about what's happening within especially the retail media space, when you think about what's happening, in digital opportunities at shelf and the in store opportunity in media for retail media. 13:41 This is how it comes to life. And it's it's something that really, really drives, that additional, social proof that consumers seek and right at shelf, which is really, really powerful. 13:51 And then we also know that, two thirds of shoppers research products online while they're shopping in stores. So think about your own behavior. Think about how you're standing an aisle. 14:00 You may be looking, you know, you may be trying to decide between between products, and, you know, you do you do a quick search. You check the the the review content. 14:09 That's how you're that's how you're making your decisions in a lot of ways. I know I do it. I'm sure a lot of you do it. And so, this is just a really nice way to bring conversion to life from a creator and UGC standpoint. 14:21 And then all of this is truly underpinned by an optimized digital shelf. And I'm gonna talk a little bit more about a digital shelf in a second, but just just so you get an idea of what we're starting to see. 14:32 If you think through quality, quantity, recency of review content, all of this plays a role not only within the algorithm, but also within the consumer, with consumer decisioning. 14:43 We see tremendous lifts in conversion when shoppers are engaging with reviews. A hundred and thirty six percent increase in fact, which is which is fantastic. 14:52 Think about q and a on-site. Think about the social UGC and the visual UGC that can come to life on your on on PDP. 15:01 This is a really important opportunity. And we'll talk a little bit more about how this fits in with especially within, like, the retail media space for a lot of brands that may not be DTC. 15:11 It's just a really important component of a strategy. And so we we bring all this this together and, and, you know, when I think back, to my days on brand and my days in media, it's it's this integrated marketing plan. 15:23 And so we've talked about the content supply chain. We've talked about branded content. How do you leverage creator and user generated content to supplement that branded content? 15:33 And this is what it starts to look like for me. So, we talked about awareness. So you have creator content, driving those unique brand attributes using the longer storytelling elements, sight, sound, motion, video. 15:45 Maybe you have paid support that goes behind some of these really high performing assets, some of the higher quality assets to increase your reach, and that's gonna supplement, your branded content. 15:55 Maybe you're launching a product or an innovation, you'll start to see spikes and activity, with some targeted sampling, you're seeding review content, you're generating that social buzz and so that's where you start to get that, that next layer of awareness, especially with innovation. 16:12 And then consideration, we talked about widening the aperture, with usage occasions. And by the way, listen to consumers in the space. There may be usage occasions that you didn't even consider for the brand that might be relevant, and you can you can tap into those as well. 16:26 So leaning into nano and micro creators to drive those evergreen moments, drive seasonal moments, drive tentpole moments. It just it fluctuates and it comes to life across your across your year in different ways. 16:39 And then it's all it all comes together from a conversion standpoint. How do you deliver content that inspires beyond traditional e commerce assets? 16:47 How do you leverage creator and UGC within, within the conversion environment closer to those decision points? Is it, you know, is it on PDP? Is it at shelf? 16:59 Are we talking about linking social UGC to a shopability function on your on your, site? There are just a number of ways that this comes together. 17:08 And really thinking through that evergreen review collection and syndication. So you're driving the, you know, the quality, quantity, recency of review content. 17:17 And so all of this comes together and it docks in really nicely with an integrated marketing plan. It'll look familiar to those of you who are who are brand side. 17:26 And then one more thing I wanna touch on before and we we did say that we're gonna dive a little bit deeper on the PDP conversation. So that's how everything can come together. 17:36 One of the things I really wanna touch on in terms of relevance and the second you'll remember from our poll, the second place winner of the toughest challenge was the siloed teams across your organization. 17:48 As a media professional, I never really gave the PDP the respect it deserved, but since I've been at Bizzare Voices since I've learned about how important and critical this asset is within the media journey, it is it is really eye opening to me. 18:05 And so, if you think through an optimized digital shelf playing a major role in upstream media investment, and you think about the growth, especially in retail media, the brand building is happening on retail dot com. 18:18 This is a tremendous amount of traffic is being driven here. This is an opportunity to get those assets in front of consumers. And so, if I think about, you know, we've talked a lot about the out driving the algorithm from a search perspective on PDP, driving consumer behavior and actually landing conversion with the PDP. 18:39 The other thing that this does, which is really interesting, and by the way, the retail media spend is the fastest fastest growing media spend, for for many, many brands, and will continue to do so. 18:50 You'll remember this landing experience. If we're not thinking about the content that's going into the PDP, we're truly not landing the best assets within the social search environment on retail media dot com retail dot com through a meter retail media perspective. 19:06 So remember this example, and remember when we landed here, the assets that are pulling up include ratings and review content. Remember the decision we made our eyes going to the right and we're saying, hey, listen, this looks like a better product, even though I like the you know, the the other brand landed the unique brand attributes. 19:22 What's happening is PDP content is actually pulled into sponsored search and sponsored product ads. And so if this is a majority of the retail media investment dollars, and you think about all four of these are ads. 19:33 So you have, you know, it includes the product shop price, product description, and the star rating and review count. By the way, the star rating and review count is the most heavily weighted element of these four of these four elements in the asset. 19:47 We spend so much time thinking about within a display environment, within the, you know, video environment, especially in media. 19:55 What's the messaging? What's the visual? How is this coming to life? We AB test things, we, you know, we try to learn so much before we before we launch an asset. 20:04 Well, if all four of these are ads, why are we not putting the same rigor behind thinking through how these ads are showing up? Especially, it's it's a majority of retail media investment dollars. 20:13 Search is still the primary, the primary, largest investment within retail media. And so what's happening is the way I see the PDP is it's a critical media asset. 20:25 So we've talked a lot about the role that it plays within consistent and compelling consumer journeys. But in fact, if you think about how we bring silos together and we start to talk about why this is important from a media perspective, a commerce perspective, and everything in between. 20:39 The reality is this this p these PDPs are critical media asset. They're driving the algorithm, they're driving consumer behavior, and they are actually populating your your ads. 20:50 And so, you know, this is category dependent, but if we start if we if we're if we're thinking through best practices for PDP, what is the right this let's say this is a foods example. 21:01 What's the right quantity of review? What's the right review count that I need to be optimized? What's the right quality? Four point six plus star rating. And then, from a recency perspective, how many fresh reviews do I need within the last ninety days? 21:14 All of this is gonna help drive into that system. And so I think it's a really nice way to say, we have to come to the table with enough content for the demand of the digital space, but we also have to start to break down silos internally and talk about how things work together, and they work really, really closely, and they help each other. 21:34 And so, that is, that's my that that's just another view on the PDP, and and how it's so critical from a media perspective. 21:43 I've been humbled by the PDP. It's an amazing asset. I think, I think we need to spend more time there thinking through how it's how it's showing up from all parts of the organization. 21:53 So anyway, I'm gonna wrap up for you all now. A couple key takeaways, some of the things we we started to go through today. 22:01 UGC really helps drive purchase behavior. We know shoppers are researching products online. We know that this, content gives them the inspiration they need above traditional ecommerce assets. 22:15 The social proof is necessary to convert. And so, we've seen, a hundred and thirty six percent increase in conversions, when shoppers are engaging with those reviews on-site. 22:26 That's a really, really big increase and it's a very nice number. Video content's under leveraged. We talk we talk a lot about sight sound motion video assets and longer storytelling assets to land unique brand attributes, RTVs, that deeper storytelling message. 22:42 But in fact, digital video, while it makes up more of the viewing hours, is getting less of the spend. And so, thinking about how to how to bring that up, that's really where consumers are, are are craving, the content. 22:56 And then, commerce needs that blended approach. So think through how UGC creator content ratings and reviews, all of this is increasing conversion. 23:05 So it really works everything works better together. You'll see incremental lift when you have everything, everything running, from a content perspective. 23:17 And then businesses that integrate content into commerce wins. So when your PDPs, your UGC, all of your paid media works together, again, that goes back to the earlier point, you're gonna have stronger business results. 23:28 Create that effortless path to purchase. You know, don't forget about, landing the plane, especially on PDP. 23:36 We saw how the the ice cream brand, innovation showed up in media, but then didn't didn't land the plane on PDP. And so all of these really important important critical points. 23:47 So I'm gonna stop talking. I know we have five five minutes left. We're gonna go to q and a. Before we do that, there's a button on the right top right of your screen. 23:57 It says register for summit. If you like this content and you want more, we're gonna have panels. We will be speaking to more of the creator economy, content and commerce, more of the full funnel experience and driving brand objectives. 24:12 We have a tremendous amount of content for you all coming up in March. Register for summit. I think it'll be a really good show for you all, and you can do so with that button in the top right. 24:21 And so I think we'll go to q and a now, Okay. First question from Lauren. What is the best way to find content creators to tell your story? 24:29 That's an excellent question. There are a number of ways to identify creators to tell your story, and I think part of the identification one of the things that is really powerful is that we have, some of the acquisitions that we made at Bazaarvoice have very, very compelling search capabilities for creators. 24:46 A lot of it has to do with building, building creator ambassadors, that really can authentically communicate your brand, and you can do so with some of the sophisticated search functionality that we have within our Vibe platform. 25:00 And so, I think when you are when you are looking for those content creators that can meaningfully connect to your brand, you can you can search by interest, you can search by demographic, you can search by, aesthetic. 25:15 There are just a number of ways that you can help identify the right, the right content creators to be able to deliver your unique brands, your unique brand message, and build ambassadorship with them instead of one and done. 25:26 I think that's a really important point too, and I think the industry is really craving that. there's a massive, need for really having that, that ambassadorship, and driving and driving that with a community of creators. 25:39 Next question. Can you talk more about aligning brands to moments that matter and building, let's see, a content strategy around that? 25:48 Yeah. Absolutely. One of the things, and I did touch on this earlier, you will have identified moments that matter for your brand based on, you know, evergreen thinking through where your where your product fits in from a need state perspective with consumers in everyday moments, seasonal moments. 26:07 A lot of those are are obvious for brands, The thing that I think is really interesting is listening to consumers to identify new usage occasions. 26:16 So essentially, I think one of the ways, you know, use them as insights drivers. And so you may identify a new usage occasion, you may identify a new way to use the product. 26:26 How do you latch on to that if you're seeing a trend and start to generate more content with your consumers and amplify that, with your consumers, around around those types of topics? 26:36 And so, widening the aperture on those usage occasions is absolutely an incredible way to do this, and, and making yourself relevant across as many moments as you possibly can. 26:50 Part of that's agility too. So identifying cultural moments or trends that may pop up. How do you how do you as a brand pivot very quickly to be able to tap into something like that? 27:01 Who needs to be involved? Identify that ahead of time. Is there gonna be budget to support it? Who's gonna create content or tap creators and users to create content? 27:10 How are you going to activate something very quickly? Because it can't it can't take you have to move at the speed of culture in order to in order to land it. And so just a number of ways, that you can start to maintain that salience across your entire season. 27:25 How do you see creators and UGC playing a role in retail media outside of PDP? Excellent question. PDP is a media asset. It's gonna feed right into that sponsored search. 27:34 It's gonna, it's gonna drive the algorithm. It's gonna drive consumer behavior. If you think about how retail media is expanding up the funnel, you have social syndication. 27:45 Right? So social inventory being bought across the social web on behalf of retail media networks, on behalf of brands. You have on-site display, off-site display. 27:55 You have, premium online video. You have addressable television and CTV. How do you take creator and user generated content and use it in these different formats? 28:04 It's effective. It's attention grabbing. And so those are some of the things you can start to think through too. Sweat the asset. Use it in as many places as you can, and it's very, very compelling in the retail media environment. 28:15 So we've started to think through some of those things, and we're pretty excited about it too. Alright. I think we are out of time. They're gonna kick me off of here if I don't stop talking. 28:24 Thank you all so so much for joining. If you have any questions, please always feel free to reach out. We are we are always excited to talk about these topics and register for summit button on the right top right.
