The Future for Marketers: 
Creativity, Technology & 
Strategy 
Paddy Moogan
Strategy 
Creativity Technology
The Future
The Past
Strategy 
Creativity Technology
Strategy 
Creativity Technology
My job back then was straightforward 
@paddymoogan
A few hundred words of content
Job done
Strategy 
Creativity Technology
@paddymoogan
This was my first infographic 
@paddymoogan
[Removed!]
@paddymoogan 
It was shit
All I cared about was links 
@paddymoogan
Things were starting to change 
@paddymoogan
@paddymoogan 
2010 – Caffeine Update
Caffeine was a clue of what would be 
@paddymoogan 
coming
@paddymoogan 
2011
Panda worked very, very well 
@paddymoogan
Organic traffic
Revenue from organic search
There was collateral damage
But Google were fine with that
These didn’t matter as much
What did we do?
We started to invest more in 
@paddymoogan 
understanding content
We invested in outreach & PR
We learned more about creativity 
@paddymoogan
@paddymoogan 
We built this
750 Linking Domains, 12,000 Tweets, 150,000 Likes
Our competitors were often beating us 
@paddymoogan
Buying links
Focusing on manipulation of search 
@paddymoogan 
signals
Honestly, we were laughed at 
@paddymoogan
We lost business because of this
We continued to build the creative 
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team
We realised that scalable link building 
@paddymoogan 
was at risk
@paddymoogan 
Google had shown us…
I think we will see a "Panda for 
links" 
Will Critchlow, Distilled a few 
months before Penguin
@paddymoogan 
2012
Most SEOs 
Google
…we’d built around 20 “big” content 
pieces and got some good links 
@paddymoogan
Some good, some not so good 
@paddymoogan
But links are only one part of this 
@paddymoogan 
content thing
Strategy 
Creativity Technology
We started to think more about strategy 
@paddymoogan
We were reporting on the wrong things
We were reporting on the wrong things
Measure people, not sessions
The Future
3 Big Trends 
1. Robots are filtering everything we see 
2. Robots are predicting what we want to see 
3. Content marketing is mobile marketing
3 Big Trends 
1. Robots are filtering everything we see 
2. Robots are predicting what we want to see 
3. Content marketing is mobile marketing
Source
Your content needs to break 
through filter bubbles
This is good, but not enough
You need a wide range of 
traffic sources to break 
through filter bubbles
Loyalty is your goal
We have a common framework to use 
@paddymoogan
6 principles made an idea “sticky” 
Simple 
Unexpected 
Concrete 
Credible 
Emotional 
Story
Simple 
Unexpected 
Concrete 
Credible 
Emotional 
Story 
The core message is simple
Simple 
Unexpected 
Concrete 
Credible 
Emotional 
Story 
It’s a novel execution
Simple 
Unexpected 
Concrete 
Credible 
Emotional 
Story 
It takes something abstract & makes it visible
Simple 
Unexpected 
Concrete 
Credible 
Emotional 
Story 
It’s based on sound data
Simple 
Unexpected 
Concrete 
Credible 
Emotional 
Story 
Interest in routines of creative people
Simple 
Unexpected 
Concrete 
Credible 
Emotional 
Story 
It tells the story of these creative people
We use this framework to evaluate all 
@paddymoogan 
our content ideas
The key here isn’t the framework 
@paddymoogan
It’s the ability to give each other useful 
@paddymoogan 
feedback
Hey Phil, I have this 
awesome content 
idea, it’s amazing.
Hey Phil, I have this 
awesome content 
idea, it’s amazing. 
No Paddy, it’s shit
We bring our outreach and PR team 
@paddymoogan 
into the process early
What websites do you think would 
cover this content or story? 
@paddymoogan
Would you be happy to promote this 
@paddymoogan 
piece of content?
3 Big Trends 
1. Robots are filtering everything we see 
2. Robots are predicting what we want to see 
3. Content marketing is mobile marketing
@paddymoogan
Ray Kurzweil Joins Google In Full-Time 
Engineering Director Role; Will Focus On 
Machine Learning, Language Processing 
@paddymoogan
@paddymoogan 
2013 - Hummingbird
@paddymoogan
@paddymoogan
…inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil talked 
confidently about making Google’s current 
@paddymoogan 
search technology obsolete. 
Source
…inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil talked 
confidently about making Google’s current 
@paddymoogan 
search technology obsolete. 
Source
@paddymoogan 
He said this in June 2014
@paddymoogan
Indexing Understanding 
@paddymoogan
@paddymoogan 
Predicting
Source
“My vision when we started Google 15 
years ago was that eventually you 
wouldn't have to have a search query at all. 
You'd just have information come to you as 
you needed it.” 
Source
They are predicting what adverts we 
@paddymoogan 
want to see too
“We want to get you out of Google and to 
the right place as fast as possible.” - 2004 
@paddymoogan
@paddymoogan
@paddymoogan
@paddymoogan 
This also happened in 2004…
It’s never going to slow down 
@paddymoogan
@paddymoogan
@paddymoogan
@paddymoogan
@paddymoogan 
TOTAL SIGNAL INFORMATION implicit signal explicit signal 
TIME
@paddymoogan 
TOTAL SIGNAL INFORMATION implicit signal explicit signal 
TIME
@paddymoogan 
TOTAL SIGNAL INFORMATION implicit signal explicit signal 
TIME
@paddymoogan 
TOTAL SIGNAL INFORMATION implicit signal explicit signal 
TIME
@paddymoogan 
TOTAL SIGNAL INFORMATION implicit signal explicit signal 
TIME
Context
Context is more important than 
@paddymoogan 
keywords
We need to move beyond keywords 
@paddymoogan 
and towards context
We need to understand our customers 
and meet their expectations
3 Big Trends 
1. Robots are filtering everything we see 
2. Robots are predicting what we want to see 
3. Content marketing is mobile marketing
Source 
Mobile search overtaking desktop
77% of mobile searches are in a location 
where people have a PC available to them 
Source
Technical setup of 100 US Online Retailers 
Source
Traffic to our client website by device 
Source: Recent B2B Distilled campaign
Traffic to a piece of content 
Source: Recent B2B Distilled campaign
Towards the end of last year we 
launched some pretty big 
design improvements for Search 
on mobile and tablet devices 
Jon Wiley 
Lead Designer for Google Search - Source
Today we've carried over 
several of those changes to the 
desktop experience. 
Jon Wiley 
Lead Designer for Google Search - Source
Source 
Dr. Pete predicted this
Source 
Mobile vs. Desktop Facebook users
Source 
Mobile vs. Desktop Facebook users 
Desktop Only
Source 
Mobile vs. Desktop Facebook users 
Mobile Only 
Desktop Only
How do people find your content? 
@paddymoogan
So we just need to make our 
Some members of the audience 
Right now 
websites responsive?
400,000 visits from m.huffpost.com
Traffic from Facebook
Traffic from Facebook
Just knowing technology 
@paddymoogan 
is NOT enough
Your content needs to be mobile first
Last touch attribution doesn’t work well for mobile
Apple Pay is still very new
Source
https://qualaroo.com/products/mobile/
https://qualaroo.com/products/mobile/
Strategy 
Creativity Technology
Thank you! 
Paddy Moogan 
VP Operations London, Distilled 
@paddymoogan

The Future for Marketers - Strategy, Creativity and Technology