It’s a bit of an owned-media special this week!
In the latest show, we talk to Will Sturgeon, head of content and thought leadership at PwC. Will talks us through PwC’s content strategy and explains why he believes the opportunity for owned-media content, distributed via a business’s experts, has never been greater.
In the UK, PwC has 22,000 employees and 900 partners and operates across multiple vertical sectors and disciplines. Will has a content team of about 10 people.
Here’s a flavour of what Will and I discuss:
[00:01:37] Will talks us through some of the set-piece content pieces that PwC does – including its Annual CEO Survey.
[00:01:51] How an organisation like PwC with 22,000 people in the UK and 900 partners, develops a co-ordinated content strategy.
[00:02:25] How the concerns of CEOs have changed over the last 23 years.
[00:03:28 ] How PwC's owned content also includes the UK Economic Outlook Report and its Women in Work Index as well as reports into prominent social issues such as gender pay and ethnicity pay.
[00:04:09] How the reports that PwC produces reflects the structure of its organisation.
[00:04:28] What is the role of a content department in an organisation like PwC – does all the content have to go through Will's team?
[00:06:34] How does the team behind the content work – in terms of the co-ordination between the partners, the partners’ staff and the content team?
[00:06:53] Why PwC has restructured to develop a centralised marketing centre of excellence that breaks down across content, digital and campaigns.
[00:08:54] What are the rules PwC follows to ensure it produces engaging content?
[00:10:04] How B2B content is often different to B2C content
[00:10:42] How B2B communicators are learning from the consumer world.
[00:10:45] Why B2B podcasts will become an important part of the communications mix.
[00:11:15] What mix of content does PwC produce and what works?
[00:13:17] How B2B communicators must understand the links between the different channels.
[00:14:20] How Will's team aims to provide engaging content for PwC's people to use in their individual networks.
[00:14:53] Why PwC is using content to try and change people's perceptions of the business.
[00:15:55] Why Will doesn't want his team to produce every piece of content, but he does want to influence every piece of content.
[00:16:09] Why Will's team is producing best practice guides for writing social media content and blogs.
[00:17:08] Why PwC has rationalised and reduced the number of blogs it produces across the organisation to approximately 15.
[00:19:32] What are PwC's content objectives? Reach, share of voice, new business?
[00:21:49] Why the opportunity for branded and owned content is greater now than previously.
[00:22:40] How trust trends, like those identified in the Edelman Trust Barometer, are making the opportunity for owned content greater.
[00:23:55] Why owned content does not come without its risks for brands and must be used responsibly.
[00:24:46] Why there is a huge opportunity here for brands to create, maintain and grow relationships through publishing information and content to audiences.
[00:25:17] How well have B2B brands embraced the opportunities of becoming a publisher by forming an