Matt Allison is the outgoing head of global content strategy at healthcare provider and insurer, Bupa.

You may we have heard of their fantastic brand newsroom, The Blue Room. It’s one of content marketing’s best case studies, so we wanted to pick his brain about that and about winning executive buy-in for content marketing.

But Matt is also heading off for new challenges, so James and Sarah get the exclusive on where one of Australia’s most successful content marketers is off to next.

Brand Newsroom is a marketing podcast for anyone who has a say in how companies are communicating — covering marketing, content marketing, public relations, media, branding and advertising.

Here are some key take-outs:

• Bupa wanted to change the conversation with their customers and the community because people “could not love a health insurer”. So, they went about winning hearts and minds
• The Blue Room strategy was developed over six months. Now a quarter of all Australians have engaged with the platform and sentiment around the company has lifted greatly
• Executive buy-in came with the strategy – connecting the customer engagement strategy to business outcomes and goals
• If you want to get executive buy-in, talk in a language the C-suite understands – commercial outcomes, profit and customers
• Bupa considered that the competitors for their brand newsroom were traditional media companies, not their competitors in their own industry
• If you provide content that is helpful to people, they’re more likely to come back
• The content has to be as high-quality as that of a traditional publisher
• The Blue Room has become a very cost-effective channel for Bupa to drive brand love and customer acquisition and retention.

On My Desk

• Sarah recommended “Lost in Translation? An 11-Step Checklist for Localizing Content”
• James suggested the Pocket Casts podcast app
• Matt recommended The Definitive Guide to Strategic Content Marketing.

Links you might need

• You can find Matt Allison here
• His new business, Ubiquity Lab, can be found here and here
• And here’s Bupa’s The Blue Room.

Have you heard the one about…

Recently James and Sarah quizzed Nic about how to become an expert source in the media.

And in this episode the team discusses the trouble with proving ROI from marketing spend.

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For more information about the show, visit the Brand Newsroom website, where you can join the Brand Newsroom Community and receive exclusive content and opportunities to meet James, Nic and Sarah.