WE PRACTICE WHAT WE TEACH
FROM AGENCY TO ACADEMY
By Raj Kotecha, FOUNDER, CCA
CREATIVE CONTENT AGENCY &
The social media boom years
Things were going great in 2012. Social media had finally hit the mainstream. Dozens of new smartphones, hundreds of new apps and millions of new users scrolling away forced every business to rethink where their customers’ attention was. This helped our business, Creative Content Agency, earn it’s place as a trusted strategy and production partner to several market leading brands.
Our remit from clients was almost always the same. Come up with creative content to engage customers online, as social media’s rapid growth started to impact buying decisions in almost every industry. We were asked to figure out what the content should be, how to get it made, finding a home for it online and ensuring it gets seen by their target audience.
Our agency was often at capacity, regularly turning away new clients wishing to deploy our approach in their businesses. We worked 7 days a week, growing brands online for our clients and ourselves. Solving common problems eventually became second nature.
Solid advice from a billion dollar CEO
Then in 2012, I was invited to interview Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com, an e-commerce company that had recently been bought by Amazon for $1.2 billion dollars. The acquisition was rooted in Zappos ability to spread a culture of happiness that was so valuable, it produced almost fanatically loyal customers and employees. I asked Tony why they had chosen to create a new, dedicated, company to teach the importance of culture.
His response caused a huge shift for our agency.
“[Happiness] is something we’ve been doing for as long as we can remember and a separate company was formed to spread the idea of happiness as a business model to other companies.”
Tony Hseih, CEO, Zappos interviewed by CCA Founder Raj Kotecha
That day I realised that our agency had been using a very similar approach for as long as we could remember. If we could formalise it, and teach it, we could spread the idea to other companies, including the ones waiting to work with us. From that day, we started logging every aspect of every successful campaign we had ever launched. The search for a common pattern was well and truly underway.
CREATIVE CONTENT ACADEMY
& The birth of the 4Ps
It became clear within months that almost every solution stemmed from one of four variables. How do we approach and address the way we plan, produce, publish or promote creative content? We named it “The 4Ps of Content” and we used it as a common language within our organisation, teaching it to our clients and suppliers. The speed of our output went up and costs went down.
The Four Ps of Content is more than a framework; it’s a thought process around using a “content-first” approach to connect your business with opportunities in your market. It can be applied fluidly across your business or personal brand and is not tied into any type of content or social media platform.
Today, the 4Ps of Content is offered as a professional learning and development program to business leaders, entrepreneurs and creative professionals. Upon completion, participants are able to confidently produce unlimited content about almost any subject they wish to speak on, as well as easily teach the method inside their own organisations.
Our programs cover both the philosophical and practical aspects of navigating content creation, social media and driving top-line business results. The course is led by myself, with additional contributions by working professionals with practical experience.