Traditional marketing is swiftly becoming less and less effective everyday. And, as a result, it’s making you less and less relevant everyday too. Never has the need for embracing forward-thinking marketing been more important. Forget being obvious. Forget being clear. Why? Let’s cast our minds back a little.

When you first started out in the industry it was a very different game.

Just think about it for a moment.

Can you remember the industry before Twitter? Can you remember when the cubicle was king? Can you remember when we didn’t care quite so much about ‘sustainability’?

Yeah – another time, another world.

But, there’s one thing which hasn’t changed and that’s the bottom line:

1 – You need to increase revenue

2 – You need to minimise on costs

3 – You need to build loyalty

When you first started in this industry, the way you approached the bottom line was probably very direct. Your marketing was simpler, it was obvious and (by today’s standards) it was boring.

You have products and services to take to market. But why are you still pitching your products and services? Maybe it was fine to do that 5, 10, 20, even 30 years ago. Not today. Now, you need to pitch yourself – and you need to do it cleverly.

This is why I’ve spent the past year looking at IKEA. No, I’m not planning a budget renovation. I’m planning something bigger, better, and it has to do with maximising your ROI.

A new division of Indesign Media Asia Pacific is about to launch in January 2017 dedicated entirely to opening up a direct line of communication for your brand to all aspects of the A+D industry.

Having now built a team of specialists who produce content for your brand that people seek out, that people want to consume, that people are excited and proud to share, Indesign Media’s latest offering to the A+D market is a total coup.

You see the reason why I’ve kept my eye on IKEA is because they’ve just recently changed the game forever with a new marketing strategy. For over 30 years their slogan “Where Life Happens” has taken this Swedish company from ready-to-assemble furniture retailer to a multinational conglomerate. Having conquered all geographical frontiers with “Where Life Happens” they recently took a step back and asked: “where now?”

Their answer is inspired, funny and devilishly clever. Where now?

Here. That is: your desires, your fears, your worries, your dreams. In short, IKEA has conquered the totality of your mind.

With the help of Swedish Content Marketing Agency Åkestam Holst, IKEA has started marketing off the back of marital divorce, teenagers’ video-game addiction, daughters who prematurely date, partners who snore, and children who don’t respect their mothers.

IKEA’s new website has renamed their products to match high-traffic Google searches in Europe. Now when a user Googles “my partner annoys me” the search results yield up IKEA’s double-desk with separating walls. “My partner snores” comes up with their collapsible day-bed. “Dating three people at once” generates IKEA’s triple-dock charging device. And, my personal favourite, “how to get over someone”… IKEA serviettes at $2.49!

As far as marketing goes, this is much MUCH more than a clever gimmick. Extremely frequent Google searches for terms like “how to ask a girl out” or “he can’t say that he loves me” stacks IKEA’s product ads to the very top of Google’s AdWords pile – an ingeniously intelligent move to gain a stronghold on visibility.

IKEA’s embrace of content marketing is outstanding. This is a strategic marketing approach that creates and distributes valuable, relevant, consistent content and products to a clearly-defined audience – people who have problems and NEED answers now. Endless quick fixes for eternal troubles.

Ultimately, this integrated campaign drives profitable customer action. In our current day-to-day we’re battered by millions of marketing messages everywhere we look. Cutting through the noise – or at the very least, avoiding becoming spam – has never been harder. And this is exactly where I can help you.

Your competitors haven’t started real content marketing … well, not yet. The advantage is all in your favour – time to jump in.

I’m here to help. Everyone is listening.

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