5 Questions – Aiden Sookdin, Content Strategist, Vodacom Financial Services

Pleiades has had the privilege of working with Vodacom Financial Services’ Content Strategist Aiden Sookdin for most of 2020. Due to CoVID-19 restrictions all our meetings and briefings were held remotely.  Yet under Aiden’s unswerving eye and immaculate attention to detail, as a team were were able to pull off the launch of the Alipay ‘super app’ into the South African market as well as the roll out of Vodacom’s Financial Services’ * content strategy.  We approached him with our five questions.

Pleiades: You are the Content Strategist for arguably one of South Africa’s fastest growing fintech companies, briefly describe your journey to get here.

AS: I first cut my teeth on content when I worked for the biggest direct mail businesses in the world, Fleet Street Publications in 2005. I started out in the call centre and quickly worked my way to the desk I wanted, Assistant Finance Editor, where I curated newsletters and articles for a variety of financial publications aimed at high net worth South African investors. At that time 90% of the information was sent by snail mail and only 10% by email and digital.

Writing long- and short-form editorial and marketing copy for a direct response really tests your resolve as a content writer. In direct mail, the response from your target market is direct and immediate. All the copy you write is directed by statistics. A precise Rand value can be placed on the success of your copy. However, when the content fails, your work is dissected carefully to ensure that the same mistakes are never repeated.

Then email marketing became the buzzword. Suddenly, the transition from paper-based publishing to digital publishing became a core focus in my career. The technology brought richer performance reporting in real time. After clicking send on an email campaign, I would spend hours refreshing reports and scanning open rates, click throughs and sales. I knew that there was still more to learn.

I entered the world of corporate public relations where I worked with influential brands like Mutual & Federal, SASRIA and PwC. I spent hours interviewing executives, crafting business narratives and establishing key communications messages for news and media outlets.  However, straight PR wasn’t really for me , so I took the only logical next step and became a business journalist. Now instead of doing everything executives were telling me to do, I had to challenge everything they were saying. I learnt to write and scratch beneath the surface of carefully crafted press releases. The confidence I gained in fiercely questioning some of the most influential business leaders is a skill that I still value today.

There was one piece of the puzzle still missing for me, so I took a job as a senior writer in a large corporate institution in the heart of Sandton City – Africa’s richest square mile. Now, I was in the belly of the beast. Finally, I had a seat at the board room table at a respected financial services provider. Asking too many questions and all creativity was discouraged. I soon found myself uninspired, depressed and unhappy.   I became a freelance writer, where my time was my own and I could work only on what I cared for and for people I wanted to work with.

After nearly 18 months, I was ready for the corporate world again. I joined one of the largest insurers in the country and made a significant impact on the quality of communications. Still, I felt stifled by the slow-moving corporate ship.

This is when I discovered that Vodacom Financial Services was looking for a content strategist. I was encouraged by the interview process and conversations that included words like “financial inclusion”, “entrepreneurial” and “innovative”. When I arrived at Vodacom, I was inspired by the teams of young innovative UX designers, web developers and continuous improvement specialists.

Finally, after years in the industry I found a group of like-minded individuals who understand the importance of crafting excellent communications that are based on statistics and customer needs.  I am once again inspired, doing what I love with the best experts in their respective fields.

 Pleiades: What exactly does a content strategist do?

AS: We live in a world filled with noise. Every business with a marketing and public relations budget is scrambling for a just a few seconds of your attention. Billboards on highways, radio ads, mobile phones, tablets, TVs, newspapers, computers – It’s everywhere, it’s unavoidable and sometimes overwhelming.

A great content strategist looks at statistics to understand this noise, empathy to identify real people listening to the noise and creative storytelling to inspire and motivate specific individuals. A great content strategy doesn’t simply fight for a few seconds of your time, it engages you on a deeper level, so that you never want to look away, so that you participate in the story using multiple devices.

I believe that content strategy is like writing a symphony. You harmonise a variety of carefully selected instruments and find a rhythm to the delivery of the content so that captivates and inspires people into action.

Pleiades: How is content shaping the marketing landscape today?

AS: Today you can measure the return on investment of every banner, headline, video or social media post. We know where consumers click, what they’re clicking on and how long they spend reading your content.

Content is no longer just king – content is the ruler of the universe. The content you deliver to your target market today can be crafted so precisely that a 350-word investment newsletter, sent to a list of less than 1,000 carefully targeted individuals, at a specific moment in time can generate a return of R50 million in a matter of minutes.

The shift from traditional media like television, print and radio into a digital world is happening right now. Being at the forefront of this shift is truly exciting. With multiple communications platforms crossing the globe, content has become more sophisticated and when you find a way to merge traditional content with the exciting world of digital, that’s when you know your words really matter!

Pleiades: What defines good content?

AS: Quality, creativity and truly believing the value of the message you’re delivering. Good content makes a positive difference in the lives of the people who are creating it, the people who are publishing it and most importantly, the people who consume it. Good content fills a specific need, it engages and spurs people into positive action. Whether it’s a video of cat that brings a smile or a mother clicking buy on a personal finance solution to improve her life, good content delivers on the expectations of everyone in the content value chain. Most importantly, good content doesn’t lie.

Pleiades: What needs to be in place in order for content to shine?

AS: When I started out in my writing career, one of my mentors said, “Write as though you’re telling a story to a person sitting in front of you in a bar.” You can see the individual, respond to their expressions and tone your language so that the story has maximum impact.

In my career, I’ve always found that the most successful marketing, public relations and digital campaigns we’ve run were based on an understanding of the people we were speaking to. The copy is written in a specific tone and language, the images are carefully selected to appeal to the audience and finally, the story is told on platforms where individuals in the target market can respond.

It doesn’t matter how big your budget is, how many fancy creatives you have in a room, if you don’t know who is reading your story, the results of your campaign will almost always miss the mark. So understanding the person to whom you are telling your story is critical to success.