I have a confession to make.
I love Kris Jenner.
Yes, some of you will judge me. Others will find this amusing.
And those who know me well, will likely roll their eyes, and say to themselves with a sigh, “Oh, Will…Kris Jenner?!?
Really?
And this is a blog post for your work?!?”
Whatever haters.
You have Neil Patel.
I have Kris.
Kris Jenner is my favourite in the Kardashian-Jenner empire. She’s also been called the world’s most successful MOMager. Ever!
She can smell a money making deal a mile away. And she knows just the daughter that’s perfect for that deal.
When you see her on an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardasians, she doesn’t always come across as the evil genius she truly is. Those are my favourite type of people. You underestimate them. While they slowly take over EVERYTHING.
But just think of what she’s done for the careers of her daughters, Kim, Kourtney, and Khloe. And then, the next gen’s Kendall and Kylie. I can’t even imagine what’s in store for the grandkids. But it will no doubt clog up social media feeds for years to come.
An aside:
If you need a quick 101 on Kris and the fam, you should watch this clip from Rupaul’s Drag Race – it’s a musical telling of their rise to fame.
Oh, BTW, I do have a point to make. That relates to marketing.
So bear with me.
Let’s now talk about the long-running E television reality TV hit, Keeping Up with the Kardashians (KUWTK), and how this one property has resulted in a ton of Kardashian-Jenner content. (There’s so much, we really can’t ‘keep up’ with it all).
The show started in 2007, during that first wave of celebrity reality shows. Its premise was simple – let’s follow the personal and professional lives of the blended Kardashian-Jenner family.
Every season, we’d learn what the girls were up to. Who they were dating. And salivated over what they were wearing.
But more importantly, we’d learn what they were each working on separately. Yes, KUWTK became a launching pad for 1001 ventures.
Khloe and Kourtney had a few spin-off shows about their adventures in Miami or the Hamptons.
Kim was launching some product or line each and every season (when she’s not regularly ‘breaking’ the internet).
Kylie has her lip kits.
Kendall hit the cat walks of Paris and Milan.
And then there’s the projects of the various boyfriends and husbands, who for the most part, were lucky enough to have their businesses birthed in the house of Kardashian.
I mean, even Rob had a sock line.
It was neverending.
And all of these business moves were always introduced on KUWTK.
When social media started to take off, the girls were quick to take the lead and further extend the show and their business acumen to those platforms.
And who masterminded it all? You know the answer — Kristen Mary Jenner aka Kris.
They say the devil works hard.
Well, Kris Jenner works harder.
Their show remained the anchor of all things Kardashian. And everything else spun off from there. No need to reinvent the wheel. No need to start from scratch. No need to find a new audience. Build on, and pull from, what you already have.
Another aside:
Ok, thank you for sticking with me. This is where I make the segue from my self-indulgent Kris Jenner love letter to something you can apply to filling up your own content calendar.
ENTER THE ANCHOR THEORY OF CONTENT MARKETING
At c+p digital, we live and die by our Anchor Theory of Content Marketing.
And while this is not a new concept, the idea behind it is this:
Stop with the ‘one and done’.
That is no way to work efficiently. And if you only use a piece of content once, no one is really going to see it. Or remember it.
Focus your energy on creating one impressive ‘anchor’ piece of content.
In Kris’ world, that one anchor piece is the show.
For you, it could be a podcast (like our podcast, The 4am Report).
Or maybe it’s a video series.
It could be an ebook or ‘how-to’ guide.
Anyway, spend the time. Make it good. And be proud of that anchor.
Ok now I’m going to mix in a fishing/maritime type analogy. (I know, I know. Kris Jenner and now fish?! Sorry)
When you’re ready to launch that anchor, throw it over the side, and let it do its thing and anchor you in place.
Your work is out there and you’ve found the space for it to land.
Now, how do you get all the fish to bite? To consume your content.
Each type of fish might like different food.
This is where you start pulling smaller bit sized pieces of content from that major anchor piece to feed to the fish. Pull different bits in a variety of different formats.
Here’s a visual:
If your anchor is a podcast, then pull the transcript of the episode.
Turn that into a blog. Or a two-part blog. Or if you have a few other podcast episodes on a similar topic, turn it into a whitepaper or ebook.
There’s software tools that can rip a line or two from the podcast. Use those to create little soundbites to promote your podcast on social media.
Hop on video (DIY is king these days) and record a little two-minute summary of what the podcast episode is all about.
You catching my drift?
One piece of solid content (your anchor), spins off into several smaller bite-sized formats.
And remember to think about which kind of media is best for which distribution channel.
By investing in that one anchor, and then following this system of content creation, you’ve basically ended up with several pieces of rich media.
And in time those anchor spin offs, can easily become anchors of their own.
Maybe that two-minute DIY video you do every week, talking about your podcast, is so well-received you decide to start investing more time and budget. You take it to the next level.
And then start spinning off content from that.
Under Kris’ direction, each and every Kardashian-Jenner girl is now acting as their own anchor.
c+p founder, Susan Diaz would definitely call this kind of anchor evolution, a flywheel of sorts.
(And because my piece is running long, if you want to read about the flywheel model for thought leadership, grab a copy of her report here)
I do hope you’ve all found this mashup of trivial Kardashian talk and marketing theories just the right amount of weird for a morning read.
I’ll leave you with you with one final thought.
When it comes to your marketing, be like Kris. And momager the shit out of your content!
