As two deeply respected heroes with their own bold heritage come of age, we look at how both the Bond franchise and Microsoft are evolving, and ask whether your business is keeping ahead of the curve.
Last week marked the release of Skyfall, James Bond’s 23rd outing (handily coinciding with the franchise’s 50th anniversary), and it seems he’s come a long way.
As well as excelling at all those things that Bond does best, critics have praised Skyfall for its intelligent dialogue and darker, more sinister themes. It’s a far cry from the days of driving underwater cars and tackling uniformed henchmen with one eyebrow permanently raised.
After a half century of gripping action, fast cars and beautiful women, the Bond formula seems fairly well established, but that hasn’t stopped director Sam Mendes from taking the British man of mystery to spectacular new heights.
Windows 8 also came to laptop screens across the world last week. The new system presents a stark reimagining of the most common interface in the world, with files, folders and social elements displayed as a series of large coloured tiles, many of which gather information from the internet in real time.
When you look at how these two have evolved and developed to meet the needs of their loyal customers, does it get you thinking about your own approach to staying on top of an ever-changing world?
Never stand still
If we can learn anything from last week’s releases, it’s that no matter how established your product is, there’s no time to stand still.
The way businesses won new contracts and grew at the time of the first Bond film’s release is very different to how it is done today. Just as the more sinister themes excite audiences today in Bond, it’s email marketing, social media, content production and sharing that leads to business success today.
How have you coped with this shift?
For us, one of the biggest changes in the past ten years (or three Bond films ago!) has been around the growth in importance of content marketing. Who would have thought that writing blogs, articles and news for your website would be critical to business success? Then, when you scratch beneath the surface and delve deeper into what the really current and exciting businesses are doing you begin to see these multi-format, content leverage systems being generated that essentially make businesses online publishers. Now we’re talking about something that’s really current and exciting.
A Bond film has its own enduring charm, but last year’s critically panned Quantum of Solace showed us that a winning formula can become tired without a constantly adapting approach, and the changes seen in Windows 8 may be radical, but in the first predicted year for a decline in desktop computer sales, fresh thinking was essential.
How will your approach adapt to meet the changing needs of customers in the future?
Here at GoldSand Digital we devise digital strategies that centre around great content, helping businesses stay current and to grow their profile in the right places. From downloading sharp and valuable whitepaper reports to reading blogs or articles shared across social media, speak to us today about how you can build a marketing strategy that is versatile enough to meet the demands of an ever-changing business world.
What do you think?
Do you believe a content marketing strategy is vital for your business? Leave a comment or let us know on Twitter! We like talking!
To discuss how we might help you just call the team on 020 7269 9885 or email info@goldsanddigital.com.
Pic: JJSlash04