Co-creation will be the content game of the future: Khushboo Benani of Diageo India

Bringing together and leveraging the country’s two biggest passion points, music and friendship, Diageo through its content is trying to engage with the audience through its various content that include McDowell's No. 1 Yaari Jam. The brand has been co-creating content on various levels, stating how partnering with content creators is going to be the content game of the future.

In an interaction with BuzzInContent.com, Khushboo Benani, Content, Influencer Marketing and Brand Advocacy Head at Diageo India, shared how the brand has been strategising content for various consumer sets focusing on the three big KPIs — talkability, reach and engagement.

For any brand, how to measure the return on investment (ROI) effectively after putting forth the content for the audience is a big question. For Diageo, social listening and impressions have been two big tools to measure its three big KPIs. 

Benani said digital plays an important role to check and map how engaging content is for the audience. While talkability is measured through social listening, the reach of a brand is measured through BARC or on digital through impressions.

“We put social listening tool like hashtag (#) to know how people are feeling with the content we are serving to them. That gives you the sentiment of consumers as in what they are feeling,” said Benani.

“Digital has become as prominent as TV was at one time. This doesn’t mean print or TV in any way diminishing. Traditional medium is still critical through which consumers can be reached. We want to do content that is more relevant to the platform on which the content is exhibited. It also has to be relevant to the audience on the platform,” she said.

Alcobev major Diageo has been exhibiting content for its audience through events, concerts, videos, music and shows, partnering with various platforms and co-creators.

Various concerts in metros and non-metros include artists ranging from Vishal Shekhar to Badshah to engage with consumers. Through No. 1 Yaari Jam, the brand picks the local artists and pairs them up with the mainstream to connect with maximum people.

With an increase in pressure to create content that engages the audience, brands today are focusing more on co-creation. Collaborating with different creators has become a need for the brands. Diageo co-created No.1 Yaari Jam with Mindhsare and partnered with Star India and Viu for telecast.

There was a time when brands used to look at content creators as the reach medium but that is not the way of the future, said Benani. "Content creators are going to be the creative minds which help you bring a digital tone to some of the content you are doing. If brands need to engage with the audiences, then it is necessary to co-create content with them instead of asking them to create."

“We have certain expertise at our end but we also believe in getting right partners on board to help us to scale up a few of our initiatives. Partnering with content creators is going to be the content game of the future. Co-creating content with creators is going to be definitely a strategy for us and we will explore more into this,” she added.

A good content strategy aims at creating a connection between the brand and consumers. For brands to create content, it becomes important to stick with its ideology, purpose or objective. Diageo, in its last few campaigns like ‘The Next Step’ or ‘Mission Mars’, has been keeping up with the Johnnie Walker’s purpose of progress. Similarly, withMcDowell's No.1’s trademark, which is to celebrate friendship and brotherhood, and Royal Challenge for bringing out the bold, the brand has maintained the purpose with the content.

Commenting on it, she said, “We ensure all our communication goes back and talks the logic of the brand. Diageo believes in building brands with purpose. And for every brand, there is a purpose in our portfolio which has a role to play in a consumer’s life.”

Benani also feels that video as content will keep growing, along with vernacular approach, setting up trends in the market since there is an explosion of the audience on digital.