Marketing podcast: Sanity on social with Denise Keller

Podcasts are another avenue for consumers to enrich themselves while being cooped up at home amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. From health and fitness to lifestyle podcasts, consumers are finding ways to improve their lives and learn. The team at Marketing Magazine Group recognised this and decided to step out of our comfort zone with the recent launch of the "Connected" podcast series. 

The first series titled "Survival Instincts" features a range of inspiring individuals from different walks of life. One of the guests in the series is broadcast presenter Denise Keller (pictured right), who is also a speaker at Marketing's upcoming virtual Content 360 conference from 8 to 11 June.

Keller launched the content production house KellerMedia in March, focusing on content around lifestyle, hospitality, travel, luxury, beauty and wellness. The newly-established production house writes, directs and produces video content, and works directly with brands, marketing agencies, PR firms, and in-house social media departments. It also aims to create broadcast level video content starring Keller or other creative personalities, including key opinion leaders (KOLs).

In an excerpt from the podcast episode titled "Survival Instincts: Sanity on social", Keller shares with Marketing how creators can cope with content burnout and how she is ensuring the viability of KellerMedia in the current economy. You may listen to the full episode here. 

Marketing: Many creators having to always be on in the world of social. Do you feel this burnout happening to you as a creator during this period? How do you cope with it?

Keller: Not really. I am not feeling any burn out to be honest. I think I am feeling more balanced than I have ever felt. I think when everything was going when we were moving and traveling, I felt more pressure to be posting and being current on social media. But right now, I do not feel the necessity to keep posting or getting on Instagram Live. I do not feel that kind of pressure.

I am sure other influencers and KOLs feel the burn out and I salute them for doing their best during this time. I like this nice balance that I have, where I can focus on KellerMedia, strategising new ideas and teaching virtual yoga classes privately to my students. That has been really nice to connect with everyone, just having a really healthy outlook on life and being appreciative of what we have, you know. I just do not want to sell myself to a burnout. This is not going to happen. 

I just wanted to say, you should always do what you love, find a supportive community and just keep making your work. This has been mantra for me.

Marketing: Being a celebrity and influencer today requires you to cope with a lot of veiled naysayers and keyboard warriors. How do you deal with these pressures and ensure your mental health isn’t compromised?

Keller: Yes, there is always going to be people who worry about what is said, what is written or if people have opinions. I think people have a right to voice their views. I think we should just take it as feedback and move on. I think we also all need to find that distance for ourselves.

When it gets noisy, just take a step back, laugh it off and do not let those comments get into your head.

I have had a situation where maybe at the start when I was new to social media, I would look at all the comments and go, "Oh this person said this about me." If there was a nasty comment I would be "Oh my god!" I wanted to respond so often, but I just would not because everyone is entitled to their opinion. But, if you are going to curse and swear and do bad things on my social media feed then, you know, I will put my boundaries down because it is my channel, it is my audience and it is my page.   

Marketing: You launched KellerMedia earlier this year right before the COVID-19 mayhem hit. Could you tell us your journey to launching KellerMedia and how you are ensuring viability of the business in this current economy?

Keller: Yes, tell me about it, what a big launch! KellerMedia started with just a few pilot projects on my social media pages. It was one of those things where I just wanted to keep making content and I did not think that I would eventually launch KellerMedia. But these pilot projects performed really well. My clients wanted to take it to the next level and asked us to think a bit bigger. We came up with more of a testimonial or a documentary-style video content to tell their story.

A very good example was Genting Cruises. They wanted to have a travel series, but with a kind of broadcast storytelling. Every episode was about seven minutes and they were all thematically treated. It was very successful within one month, they had over 11 million hits on YouTube. Taking a few pages from the long form documentary is useful, because I have been in that format for a very long time and I produce so many travel shows and documentary-style formats for Discovery Channel. I think merging the two formats was quite unique and interesting and this was very focus-based. Like a lot of businesses and travel, lifestyle, F&B and luxury, we are in a holding pattern. It is not easy but we are optimistic that once it is safe to go out again, we can all work together again. 

Marketing's Content 360 conference is going virtual, and will bring together industry leaders to discuss challenges and share insights on future content marketing trends, as well as successful strategies to help tackle the complex marketing landscape. Sign up here!