Embracing the product offer with content

Basic information
Hamburg, September 2013
Topic: Content Marketing
Embracing the product offer with content – how OTTO inspires with Content Marketing
Stadium streakers with painted-on advertising, short films on Facebook, or flash mobs in the
shopping precinct – companies are highly creative when it comes to getting consumers’
attention. And recent years have seen the rise of completely new marketing concepts, with
social, guerrilla and viral marketing surprising customers and getting them involved. Content
Marketing is different, as it’s not only entertaining but also informative. ‘Content is king’ is the
catchphrase and with this form of marketing, companies are offering consumers above all
content rather than hot air. OTTO seeks to inspire its customers with diverse Content
Marketing formats and ideas.
Through radio advertising, posters, stickers and TV ads, marketing consultancies estimate
that the average west European is bombarded with up to 5,000 advertising messages a
day1. It’s impossible for today’s consumer to go through a day without massive exposure to
advertising stimuli. Like market-stall hawkers, companies blast potential customers 24 hours
a day with their advertising messages.
The customer reaches the advertising
Loud forms of advertising reach the customer whether he likes it or not. For attentiongrabbing, this form of advertising has its place. However, it can be done much more subtly:
“With Content Marketing, the content doesn’t come to the user, but the user to the content –
and voluntarily”, explains Dominique Korschinek, Team Lead Online Campaigns and
Campaign Management at OTTO.
Otto (GmbH & Co KG) · Unternehmenskommunikation · Wandsbeker Straße 3–7 · 22172 Hamburg
Telefon +49 (0) 40 64 61 8732 · Fax +49 (0) 40 64 61 7197
www.otto.de · www.otto.com
AG Hamburg, HR A 62 024, Persönlich haftend: Verwaltungsgesellschaft Otto mbH, Hamburg, AG Hamburg, HR B 13 762
vertr. durch: Hans-Otto Schrader (Vorsitzender) · Dr. Rainer Hillebrand (Stellvertretender Vorsitzender) · Alexander Birken ·
Dr. Timm Homann · Hanjo Schneider · Jürgen Schulte-Laggenbeck · Dr. Winfried Zimmermann
Aufsichtsrat: Dr. Michael Otto (Vorsitzender)
Seite 1 von 3
The successful fashion and lifestyle blog Two for Fashion is a vital element in Content
Marketing at OTTO. It has been inspiring readers for two years now with colourful lifestyle
worlds and stimulating fashion topics. “Two for Fashion isn’t advertising but rather a blog that
takes its readers seriously and lets them interact. Users look for new content on their own
initiative – and this brings them into contact with OTTO”, says René Murowski, OTTO
Campaign Manager responsible for the project.
Besides the blog there are now also apps for mobile devices and a Web TV format named
Two for Fashion TV, already airing its fourth series. Moderator Johanna Klum and her guests
offer viewers useful fashion and styling tips and advise, inform and entertain. In-vogue
fashion designers share their ideas and concepts with the fans and present their own
collections. What’s more, viewers get the chance to access the OTTO online shop via links
placed under the videos, to try out the trends presented for themselves. Service rather than
advertising, inspiration rather than market-stall hawking – marketing can work this way too.
Editorial content embraces the product
Editorial Commerce is also about inspiration, and is currently a hot topic at the Hamburgbased online retailer. Together with BurdaCreative, OTTO has developed an editorial content
pool for a range of diverse formats.
The Oktoberfest is a good example. If customers are hunting for a sumptuous traditional
Bavarian costume for a visit to the ‘Wies’n’, in the OTTO Worlds at www.otto.de they will find
not only a list of various mini or maxi dirndls, jankers or Haferlschuhe, but can also click
through a styleboard generously dotted with inspirational images and useful information. In
both the online shop and print-format advertising, OTTO is counting on editorial content that
says more about a product than merely giving its price, fit and size. It sketches lifestyle
worlds, inspires, advises or motivates the customer to interact. The Social Media team puts
collages together on OTTO’s Facebook page, on its YouTube channel or on Pinterest, and
gives customers an insight into the OTTO fashion worlds. To present the products, the
editorial content from the Content Pool not only links to www.otto.de or to social media, but
also to OTTO’s own iPad app. “Customers respond very well to the idea of displaying our
products in a lifestyle context. We are now taking the concept of Editorial Commerce a
decisive step further and dovetailing it with all our sales channels”, says Marco Schubert,
Division Manager Concept Advertising.
Otto (GmbH & Co KG) · Unternehmenskommunikation · Wandsbeker Straße 3–7 · 22172 Hamburg
Telefon +49 (0) 40 64 61 8732 · Fax +49 (0) 40 64 61 7197
www.otto.de · www.otto.com
AG Hamburg, HR A 62 024, Persönlich haftend: Verwaltungsgesellschaft Otto mbH, Hamburg, AG Hamburg, HR B 13 762
vertr. durch: Hans-Otto Schrader (Vorsitzender) · Dr. Rainer Hillebrand (Stellvertretender Vorsitzender) · Alexander Birken ·
Dr. Timm Homann · Hanjo Schneider · Jürgen Schulte-Laggenbeck · Dr. Winfried Zimmermann
Aufsichtsrat: Dr. Michael Otto (Vorsitzender)
Seite 2 von 3
We love to advertain you
Content Marketing formats can be distributed in special editions of high-traffic online
magazines or news portals – the keyword here is ‘advertorial’. This mix of advertising and
editorial content relies on information, inspiration and useful tips that help readers, rather
than on a marketplace-megaphone approach. However, the product and the advertising goal
are more clearly in the foreground here than in pure Content Marketing and Editorial
Commerce.
“In the jungle of empty advertising and permanent media bombardment, Content Marketing is
becoming an increasingly important topic – also because social channels offer new
opportunities to distribute this content”, Korschinek believes. Content Marketing, Editorial
Commerce or Advertorials – through their own different approaches, all follow one aim: if you
arouse genuine interest, you deserve a corner of users’ memories.
This press pack also includes “Three questions for … Dominique Korschinek, Team Lead
Online Campaigns and Campaign Management”, as well as a presentation offering clear and
detailed examples of Content Marketing in practice at OTTO.
Press contact:
Ulrike Abratis, tel: +49 (0)40 64 61-8630, fax: -4490, e-mail: [email protected]
Otto (GmbH & Co KG) · Unternehmenskommunikation · Wandsbeker Straße 3–7 · 22172 Hamburg
Telefon +49 (0) 40 64 61 8732 · Fax +49 (0) 40 64 61 7197
www.otto.de · www.otto.com
AG Hamburg, HR A 62 024, Persönlich haftend: Verwaltungsgesellschaft Otto mbH, Hamburg, AG Hamburg, HR B 13 762
vertr. durch: Hans-Otto Schrader (Vorsitzender) · Dr. Rainer Hillebrand (Stellvertretender Vorsitzender) · Alexander Birken ·
Dr. Timm Homann · Hanjo Schneider · Jürgen Schulte-Laggenbeck · Dr. Winfried Zimmermann
Aufsichtsrat: Dr. Michael Otto (Vorsitzender)
Seite 3 von 3