Finding the market in the gap: How VIDA’s brand connection sprint helps content-powered startups grow profit from passion
“Talent borrows, genius steals…”
A famous quote and an ironic one, given that it’s been attributed to more than one person (both Oscar Wilde and T.S. Eliot for instance) but it’s also demonstrably true.
It’s the principle that many Direct to Consumer (DTC) brands are built on; take an established market or product and reinvent it. Make it better, faster, cheaper, more convenient…by going direct. And it’s obviously working.
Last month the IAB launched their #BornOnline study of DTC brands in the UK, showcasing 50 of the most successful. Their research found that 97% of the UK population has bought a DTC brand with 10% of us being super users – buying from 5 or more. Speakers at the IAB event included Steph Douglas from thoughtful gifting disruptor Dontbuyherflowers and Kate Huang from femcare startup Callaly. Both talked about the importance of performance marketing, testing and learning from customer interactions when building a startup business from scratch, but just like the established businesses they are taking share from, there was also recognition of the value created by developing and nurturing a strong brand that the audience connects with.
The same is true of next generation media. Take the football sector alone where since launching in 2012 Copa90 has built a huge audience – over 650m people watched its 2018 world cup content, 31m of them on Snapchat - in a market where received wisdom says that audience and attention rely on access to premium content, expensive on-screen talent and live rights. Key to Copa90’s success was the understanding of the connections between fans.
These are what we call content-powered brands, built with an always-on and largely, if not exclusively, digital approach, finding the market in the gap by identifying and harnessing connections to power their growth.
Oh look, we found the GAP in the market…