The connection with the consumer is the final destination of any branded content strategy. However, in brand communication, more perhaps than in any other area of ​​storytelling, in order to reach port, a bold strategy must be defined. Repeating successful formulas (your own or others’) is not usually a good experiment.

Any brand that wants to innovate in the field of branded content must reflect conscientiously on its narrative values, in short, determine which aspects of the brand’s narrative universe can more effectively achieve the main objectives of any branded content campaign: encourage engagement, generate more interaction, get records or simply reinforce the positioning of the brand.

A recent example has struck me as particularly bold. Starting from the base of the videos in square format, like those that Playground magazine has popularized in recent years on Facebook, initially thought to be followed without the need to listen to the audio and with the presence of titles to develop certain information, Marca Chile decided, in 2016, to adopt said style to carry out its own policy of generating content for said social network.

Why are square videos imposing themselves on Facebook?

The reason why brands of all types decide to edit video content following the patterns of the square format hides in the increasingly massive consumption of this type of content via smartphone. A study by Mobile Marketer calculates that up to 98% of the time our mobiles are upright (*). Already in 2014, Mark Zuckerberg announced that in five years, that is, in 2019, most of the content present on Facebook would be audiovisual.

In 2015, it was estimated that mobile reproduction would represent a total of 58% of global online video consumption in 2017

Chile Brand. Strategy and vision

To develop its content strategy on Facebook, instead of spreading landscapes of its country, Marca Chile embarked on a narratively more risky but potentially more attractive path. After analyzing what other national brands were doing, Chile decided to embark on its own path and communicate through short capsules small stories about its culture, its food, its traditions and the particularities of certain iconic places in its geography.

After more than a year and after a great analysis, it can be said that Marca Chile’s bet was a resounding success. Using square format videos to tell the world through micro-stories what makes your country unique has allowed Marca Chile to exponentially increase the numbers of followers in networks and, something no less, impact on certain media for the novelty of said strategy.

To put just a few examples, the micro-story about La Once, the typical snack of Chile, exceeded 800k visualizations; a video about the locations of the incredible houses of Chiloé, exceeded one million views; and another on “el pololeo” (the courtship), got 1.8 million views. This last piece was also analyzed by the Chilean edition of CNN.

The data of the campaign is eloquent. Marca Chile has posted 100 videos following the square format that 22 million viewings have achieved. The monthly interactions tripled, to the point that Marca Chile’s following community increased to 2.2 million followers from October 2016 to November 2017.

In the month of November 2017, Marca Chile had more than 2 million followers on Facebook, 240,000 on Twitter, another 60,000 on Instagram and 21,000 YouTube subscribers

So, thanks to a reasoned and calculated strategy, Marca Chile is creating an intimate, connected and active community that is growing every day. The micro-stories lead the followers to connect with Chile starting from the heart.

(*) Source: “The smartphone sends: the vertical video is here to stay”. Julio Tinaquero. El Economista, May 19, 2016. http://www.eleconomista.es/negocio-digital/estrategia-digital/noticias/7574916/05/16/El-movil-manda-el-video-vertical-ha-llegado -to-stay.html