When it comes to industry leaders, Vice Media has positioned itself quite nicely, alongside BuzzFeed, as one of the pre-eminent media sources for millennials.
Brands have much to thank both Vice and BuzzFeed for when it comes to content and innovation. In large part because of the digital paths the pair blazed, brand news feeds swarm with listicles, GIFs, quizzes, hard-hitting minidocumentaries and niche investigative journalism that become trending social topics engaging millennials.
But content marketers shouldn’t limit their creative gaze to the English-speaking world.
In Colombia, a group of enterprising newspaper reporters at El Espectador have carved out their own trail with the Vice equivalent in their country. Spend some time perusing their potent YouTube channel, La Pulla (or The Taunt).
“There’s great value in fostering small experiments that can operate somewhat independently from the main brand.”
Nieman Lab has a great in-depth look at the channel that explains the backstory on how it came to be. It’s a fascinating engagement strategy that the media sub-brand has developed to revitalize a 130-year-old newspaper company.
Small Tests Can Pay Big Dividends
The lesson here? There’s great value in fostering small experiments that can operate somewhat independently from the main brand, with a slightly different look and feel. It allows for innovation and experimentation to flourish without the legacy baggage that a historic brand might carry.
You’ve seen it with Tasty and BuzzFeed’s other sub-brands, and you can see it with El Espectador’s La Pulla.
Information is power. When you pair it with art and tap into the new media at our disposal, it can empower content creators and help brands build audiences in exciting and invigorating ways.
