Content marketers wondering how to put a fresh angle on familiar content would do well to turn their attentions to a blog following one of the oldest conspiracy theories in town
It’s Friday the 22nd of November, 1963.
The time is 12.30pm.
So begins the first instalment of RAM JFK Club, a blog dedicated to the JFK assassination. Or more specifically, to the mysteries surrounding the shooting. Or more accurately still, the stories and quirks of the characters gathered on that sunny lunchtime in Dealey Plaza, Dallas.
The blog has very little interest in solving the mystery of the killing, rather holding up a microscope to that moment in time.
With so much conjecture surrounding the apparently bizarre collection of events, the blog aims to continue the line of thought that began with John Updike in The New Yorker in 1967: “We wonder whether a genuine mystery is being concealed here or whether any similar scrutiny of a minute section of time and space would yield similar strangenesses.”
And so each week a new character is investigated. There’s the case of the Umbrella Man: standing a few feet from the president as he was shot holding an umbrella above his head. A benign image, until you consider it wasn’t raining, nor had it for three hours.
Or what about the so-called Babushka Lady – a stocky, seemingly middle-aged dark-haired lady with a headscarf, seen filming the whole event? After a seven-year hunt for the footage, she revealed herself to be a 17-year-old, slim blonde girl with a camera that hadn’t been invented yet – who gave up the footage to the FBI on the day because she had a load of marijuana in her bag.
In terms of intriguing content to unpack, there’s an embarrassment of riches.
The devil is in the detail
The issue here, of course, is what we as content marketers can learn from this engaging, and increasingly popular, endeavour.
Passion for the content seeps out of every sentence and the level of research on display each week betrays how the blog formed naturally over time – from an existing subject of fascination.
It may be easier said than done, but finding a truly motivated and passionate writer/photographer/videographer will elevate content far beyond the day-to-day. And if you don’t have an expert on hand, find one. (Our platform Content Cloud has almost 1,000 expert content creators, available for commission now.)
Find the angles
RAM JFK Club is all about the angles – the camera angles of the people filming; the motivation behind people’s confessions; a wider look at Dealey Plaza away from President Kennedy’s motorcade.
The success comes from the new angle taken on the story, away from JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald and on to less well-travelled paths. Your content is likely to be treading similar ground to content that other brands have covered, so scour the net to see if your blog post has already been written elsewhere – then choose a different approach.
Steer clear of clichéd stock imagery to illustrate your content. If the content is about mobile phones, avoid the ‘generic man/woman smiling and chatting’ photos and show a two-yoghurt-pots-and-a-piece-of-string image instead.
Images open doors
Talking of images, in the first week’s blog, the aforementioned Umbrella Man was the focus. Alongside compelling opening copy, the photo used at the beginning of the piece couldn’t help but drag in the audience.
A bright and sunny day, crowds cheering the president as he drives past – and a man in a black suit, standing bolt upright under a black umbrella.
Images form a strong part of the narrative in RAM JFK Club, showing the relative banality of the scene before zooming in on one apparently inexplicable detail. In content marketing, this dual purpose is the ideal: an image that both expands and encompasses.
You may need to bring in the services of a picture editor to help shine a light in a new direction, but considering the power that imagery possesses, it won’t be wasted energy.
Join the club
The final thing to learn from the blog is in the name. RAM JFK Club’s beginnings lie in the hit blog RAM Album Club – where well-known people, such as author J.K Rowling and comedian Chris Addison, listen to a classic album for the first time. Ruth and Martin (RAM) Fitzgerald tell the story of how the album was made before the guest gave their opinion.
By inviting others to buy in to their club, Ruth and Martin created a natural sense of community around following a serialised story from week to week.
Fostering a sense of continuity around your content, of club-like enthusiasm, can only increase engagement and interaction with your audience – helped along by an active social media presence.
RAM JFK Club shows the power of top-quality storytelling, creating a community and putting a fresh angle on an old tale.
