Latest / Content Marketing with Fexingo: Blogs, Videos, and Long-Form Content That Converts / How Semiconductor Companies Use Content Marketing
Transcript
- Lucas: So last week I was reading through ASML’s investor day transcript — not exactly light bedtime reading — and I realized something. Their whole investor presentation reads like a masterclass in content marketing for an incredibly complex product. Luna: Interesting. Because when most people think of content marketing, they think of blog posts about email automation or a video series on social media tips. Not a Dutch company that builds machines that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Lucas: Exactly. And that’s the gap. ASML makes extreme ultraviolet lithography machines — essentially giant lasers that print tiny circuits onto silicon wafers. The engineering is so dense that most journalists can’t explain it without getting something wrong. So ASML decided to explain it themselves. Luna: They started their own educational engine. What did that look like in practice? Lucas: They built a content hub called 'The Future of Lithography' — white papers, short explainer videos, even a podcast. The key move was they didn't try to sell the machine. They taught the physics behind it. One of their most popular pieces is a blog post titled 'How Light Travels Through a Vacuum' — it sounds like a physics textbook, but it's really about why their system needs to be in a vacuum to avoid absorbing the EUV light. Luna: And that post probably gets shared by engineers at chip fabs who have to justify the purchase to their own management. It makes the buyer smarter. Lucas: Exactly. That's the playbook. Make your customer look like the smartest person in the room when they explain your product to their boss. ASML's content doesn't have flashy headlines or listicles. It's just solid, accurate, analogized education. They use metaphors — comparing a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers to the size of a DNA helix — which gives a reader a mental hook. Luna: And they measure success differently too. For them, it's not page views. It's how many times a white paper gets cited in a fab's internal presentation. Lucas: Right. They track 'share of voice' inside the customer's decision-making process. That's a whole different metric from the typical content marketer's dashboard. Now, let's compare that with TSMC — the world's largest contract chipmaker. Their content strategy is less about explaining the technology and more about positioning themselves as an innovation partner. Luna: They have this series called 'Technology Leadership' — a mix of blog posts, videos, and technical briefs that show how TSMC's process nodes enable specific end products. Like, they'll do a deep dive on how their N5 process made a particular AI chip possible. Lucas: And the interesting thing is TSMC doesn't sell to consumers. They sell to companies like Apple, NVIDIA, AMD. So their content has to serve two audiences: the engineers who need technical specs, and the executives who need to know the business case. That's a tough balance. They solve it by layering. The blog post gives the executive summary — three paragraphs with a big number — and then there's a link to a 40-page PDF for the engineers. Luna: That's smart because you're not forcing either audience to wade through what they don't need. But it's a lot of production effort. Not every company can afford a full content studio for a single product line. Lucas: True. But the lesson scales. Even a small B2B company can ask: what is the single most complex thing about our product that our customers struggle to explain? Then create one piece of content that demystifies it. That's what ASML did with the vacuum explainer. They didn't need a 50-person content team for that one post. Luna: And if today's conversation gave you a practical idea for your own marketing, that's exactly the kind of utility this show tries to deliver. The way we keep these episodes ad-free is listener support — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small way to say this content matters enough to you that you want it to stay independent. And we genuinely appreciate it. Now, back to TSMC — there's another angle I want to hit. Luna: Which is? Lucas: They also use their content for talent acquisition. TSMC has a video series called 'A Day in the Fab' — following real engineers in bunny suits through the clean room. The production value is high, but it's not glossy corporate fluff. It shows the actual work: calibrating machines, analyzing defect maps, discussing yield improvements. That content gets shared at universities and career fairs. Luna: So the same content serves three purposes: sales enablement, customer education, and recruitment. That's a pretty efficient model. Lucas: Exactly. And the key takeaway for any marketer is this: complexity is not a barrier to content marketing. It's actually an advantage. If your product is hard to understand, you have a built-in audience of people who need to understand it — and they'll reward you with their attention and trust. Luna: What about the video side? ASML also produces short films that explain EUV using animated characters. I think they have a series called 'EUV: The Movie'? Lucas: They do. And it's surprisingly charming. They use a cartoon photon character named 'EUVie' — not kidding — to walk through the physics. It sounds silly, but it works because it's the most accessible version of a very hard topic. Engineers share it with their kids, and their kids get excited about what Mom or Dad does at work. That builds brand affinity in a totally unexpected way. Luna: And the video itself is only about six minutes long. That's a low ask for someone who might otherwise bounce off a 30-minute technical lecture. Lucas: Right. So the sequencing matters: start with the fun animated explainer to get them interested, then offer the deep-dive blog post, then the white paper for the engineers who need formulas. That's a content funnel built around the learning curve. Luna: I think there's a lesson here for any company with a technically complex product: don't try to simplify everything to a single slogan. Instead, create content at multiple levels of depth and let your audience choose their entry point. Lucas: That's exactly it. And to close the loop, both ASML and TSMC measure content success not by vanity metrics but by whether the content gets referenced during a sales cycle. ASML actually surveys its sales team quarterly: 'Which pieces of content did you use in the last three months?' That's the ultimate test. Luna: That's a practice any marketing team can adopt, regardless of industry. Send a quick survey to sales: 'What content helped you close a deal this month?' You'll learn more from three answers to that question than from a thousand dashboard metrics. Lucas: Exactly. So if you're marketing a complex product, don't hide the complexity. Teach it. Your customers will thank you by buying — and by sharing your content with their own teams.