In 1996, Bill Gates famously said that “Content is King,” which changed how businesses viewed content during the internet’s early days.
The message chimed with our founder, Rob Hunter, who agreed that businesses would need high-quality content to stand out online. Three decades later, Hunterlodge maintains a dedicated content department. Here’s a glimpse into our world.
What is Hunterlodge’s content philosophy?
The first thing to know: we believe that effective content stems from a well-crafted strategy, never from just happy accident. Each content journey begins with a meticulous plan, understanding that it’s not only about meeting objectives but about staying true to a brand’s essence, vision, mission, and values. To achieve this, we dive deep into audience insights, conduct competitor analysis, and meticulously plan what to say, when to say it, and how to say it.
Next is a focus on distribution. As BuzzFeed’s Jonathan Perelman once said, echoing Gates, “Content is king, but distribution is queen… and she wears the pants.” While our content team has a clear vision for how to make your content available, we’re supported by our Media team, who ensure it reaches the right audience at the right time.
Audience is the other cornerstone of our strategy. To best tailor content, we need to ask the right questions: How do they typically interact with it? Which platforms do they prefer? What challenges or aspirations can our content address? For us, good content has purpose, it imparts a message, and to get there, you must know everything about who you’re talking to.
How does our content stand out?
Hunterlodge’s approach is to “start at the end” with the results in mind. For example, our recent Winchester University campaign focused on boosting Open Day interactions by leveraging TikTok’s “edu-tainment” platform. By leaning into user-generated content and trending memes, we created one of their most successful campaigns to date. When all strategy elements align, the results can be outstanding. Here, Open Day registrations surpassed expectations with 753 sign-ups, and the online campaign profile received hundreds of thousands of impressions.
Also, we’re also not afraid to seek external expertise, when necessary, which is why we’ll defer to this quote from Richard Cable, Head of Mediabrand’s Content Studio that we think reflects our approach to good content: “Advertising interrupts what you’re doing. Content is something you choose to spend time with.” Our goal is to create materials that audiences appreciate, seek out, and share.
Content creation: a strategic process
Larger content projects undergo a three-pronged creation process, but we keep these practices in mind for any job. First, we conduct a content audit to identify strengths, gaps, and assess performance, followed by a competitor review to understand industry trends and benchmarks. Armed with these insights, we dive into collaborative workshops, aligning on target audiences, key messaging, and themes.
Recognising that great content rarely happens in isolation, Hunterlodge has created an environment where copywriters, designers, and stakeholders collaborate, taking a multi-disciplinary approach to address all audience touch points.
It’s also important to remember that content is a rapidly evolving landscape and it’s best not to rest on your laurels. We embrace change to drive results. Current trends include a significant shift towards video and user-generated content propelled by platforms like TikTok and YouTube.
“User-generated content is particularly effective in building trust,” says Aaron Garside, Head of Content at Hunterlodge. “It’s all about social proof, that stamp of approval from someone who looks like you. It cuts through the noise and offers authenticity far beyond curated marketing videos. Audiences are tired. They want the truth.”
Daring to do content differently
We hope this has been a useful look into content at Hunterlodge. Our goal is to challenge the status quo, put people at the forefront, and create content that resonates. We always try to put real people at the centre of our campaigns, whether it’s featuring real customers in ads (like our ASUS ad below), your experts in articles, or simply thinking about the audience when creating assets.
If you’d like us to help your content stand out, don’t hesitate to reach out and schedule a meeting. nick.friend@hunterlodge.co.uk
