If content marketing is king, who should attend the coronation?

Content marketing is trending as the fastest growing marketing discipline of recent years; likely a direct result of the fact that traditional marketing and advertising just don't work very well anymore. 

Successful content marketers are taking a similar process-driven approach today. From innovative product and brand marketers to traditional and emerging publishers, they are proving themselves members of "content marketing royalty" using the following formula:

• Start with a strategic road map: A clear sense of their brand in terms of a benefit-based “value proposition,” and well defined targets.
•  Employ the art of high quality and engaging story-telling.
•  Use the science of data analytics to help determine what content proves to be attractive and engaging, and what doesn’t work.
• Embrace a test, learn and apply approach that make their content marketing programs a “permanent beta” exercise.

Marketers:

The look before the epic leap.

A shining example is Red Bull energy drink. From the start, Red Bull sought out people who actively participated in extreme sports and adventures. They exemplified that "high energy" is what it takes to get to the top level of their pursuits. These extreme athletes and adventure seekers had amazing stories to tell, and their stories became the fabric of the Red Bull brand. 

The Red Bull brand was created “By giving wings to people and ideas,” according to Werner Brell,  Managing Director of Red Bull Media House. 

As an example, Brell cites the Red Bull Stratos space parachute jump, that has garnered 5.7 million You Tube views since it occurred in October of 2012 . “It was a scientific venture – delivering relevant content connected to an authentic brand” according to Brell.  

Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner reached a speed of Mach 1.25 during his 23.4 mile drop to earth, becoming the first human to break the sound barrier without any form of engine power.

GE leads the way in the corporate branding space. GE has mastered social story telling through visual channels. Its Twitter campaign #3DPrint My Gift helped the firm shed its reputation as a household appliance company, and reposition itself as an innovative and leaser in science and technology.

Beth Comstock

"We've done some research on our content marketing." said GE CMO Beth Comstock, last year at the ANA Masters of Marketing conference. "And we get 30 percent extra value for every dollar spent." She continued "I think social media has been a big part of it because it makes us relevant in a lot of new ways."

For brands trying to catch up in content marketing, Ms. Comstock offered these tips:  

"It starts by knowing who you are and what you stand for—without that, you are all over the place. And try a lot of things.You need to experiment. It doesn't cost a lot of money."  

Just look at GE’s content marketing site, GE Reports. It is all about innovation, science and technology and lives at the intersection of GE's purpose and what their audience is interested in. Over 28K people follow it on Twitter.

Kurt Vonnegut 

Yet perhaps what is old is new again. Ad Age recently reported  that famed author Kurt Vonnegut was hired to interview GE scientists back in 1947-50. He took their most exciting developments and pitched them to the media. Even more remarkable, what he saw at GE reportedly served as inspiration for his first novel “Player Piano” and helped inspire the central character in his 1963 classic novel  “Cat’s Cradle.”

Publishing Companies:

Perhaps the most logical members of the content marketing royal court are publishing companies. Many have been producing high quality content for years. Take for example The Economist, which just published a great special report called "Little Brother" on the changing business of advertising and technology, and their “Lean Back” blog. Lean Back is The Economist Group’s forum for top marketing thinkers and practitioners, to share ideas for engaging with consumers in new ways, and discussing the evolution of multi-platform marketing.

NY Times Branded Content Example.

A growing number of major newspapers and magazines now sell sponsored content or native advertising, a good example is Forbes Brand Voice.  The New York Times has created their own in-house content creation operation called T Brand Studio. Chicago based Tribune Publishing recently took a stake in content marketing firm Contend. 

This reflects a broader trend for publishing companies who are creating content for brands independently of their editorial operations. This approach adheres to the age-old church-state divide between journalism and advertising. Operations like these create new revenue sources, that are attempting to offset the precipitous drop in print advertising revenues caused by declining audiences. And branded content is the main money-maker for new media players like Vice and Buzzfeed. 

Audience growth metrics tell the success story.

Buzzfeed has become a growth phenomenon in the media businesses, successfully evolving from a widely derided content aggregator (packed with pet memes) to a profitable content marketer with rocketing audience numbers. Its growth is being driven by high quality editorial content that is worth sharing on social media. Their approach to content creation is informed by constant measurement, testing and web analytics.

As Buzzfeed founder Johan Peretti stated in an interview with Wired magazine:

Johan Peretti

“You can make a crap article that’s perfectly SEO’d and generates a lot of traffic, but you can’t call that a win if it gives people a bad experience. In the SEO era, getting readers was about smart tricks. We think differently. 

What need does a story play in someone’s life? When you’re having a rough day at work and see ’13 Simple Steps To Get You Through A Rough Day’, that’s servicing an emotional need: look at this hedgehog wearing a tiny hat — you feel better, you share it with your friends.”

No wonder publishing companies are aggressively moving into content marketing with the likes of Meredith’s MXM content agency and Time Inc. Content Solutions. But will this be too little, too late for these venerable firms?

Next in Part II: Ad agencies enter the content marketing arena.

Marketing in 2014: Mad Men or Math Men?

Economist SVP Nick Blunden.

The Economist Leadership Roundtable took the stage at the Hard Rock Café in NYC last week as part of Advertising Week events and galvanized the audience by asking some really hard questions. Then they sat back and listened.

The panel, led by Economist SVP Digital Nick Blunden, and featured a diverse group of entrepreneurs and big media company executives. 

Nick established the theme by referencing an excellent special report on advertising and technology from The Economist published in early September. It was entitled "Little Brother" and it focused on the ways technology is radically changing the advertising business and its profound consequences for both consumers and companies.

Nick asked one particularly provocative and hard question: In today’s disruptive technology driven world, is advertising more or less powerful than in bygone era of advertising? (As exemplified by AMC’s Mad Men series).

Tim Spengler, President of Content Marketing & Revenue Strategy at iHearMedia (formerly Clear Channel) answered first. He commented that advertising ”… is becoming more powerful…” as it evolves with the complexity that technology has created. He added “Data will be used more and more…with mobile infrastructure creating more of a one-to-one relationship with the audience.”

Greg Mason

Greg Mason, CEO of Purch Interactive (a digital content and services company) offered a qualified response “… that advertising could eventually become more powerful…as more down-funnel and performance-driven data becomes evident.” Greg observed that “intent-based data” is key, alluding to better attribution, or cause-and-effect measures of media exposure and eventual commercial transactions that might result.

The real Mack McKelvey.

Erin “Mack” McKelvey, CEO of 

Salient MG (a marketing consultancy specializing in digital / mobile and political sectors), offered “…advertising is becoming more powerful as marketers become more engaged with consumers via smartphones.” However, she offer evidence that sometimes data-driven marketers can do a poor job of profiling their intended targets. She cited the marketing profile she found for herself online that got her demographic, professional and behavioral data completely wrong.

Elizabeth Harz, President, Media of Adara (a travel data and analytics platform) said, “…advertising is becoming more powerful as it enhances consumers experiences.” She went on to say “...creativity is more important than ever. Teams need to be formed that are analytic and creative – leaning into data to help create content that consumers can relate to.”

Krishan Bhatia - NBC Universal

Finally Krishan Bhatia, EVP, Digital Strategy & Operations at NBC Universal observed “advertising is becoming more powerful as it becomes more interesting.” He went on to comment “content consumption is occurring
in a non-linear  way on an accelerated basis in digital venues.” and “a key media buying issue is seeking appropriate content delivery in the right context versus simply buying audience demos.”

Panel participants seemed to be more focused on asking the right questions about the highly disruptive and fast changing media / marketing / technology landscape rather than offering answers. The Economist did a good job of drawing the discussion out of traditional silos and providing insights on the combined power of compelling content and technology.

So it looks like marketing and advertising will continue to be part art and part science for the foreseeable future. As a result,

meeting the challenge of redefining and evolving business models for the ad agency, publishing, tech start-up and media sectors will most likely be in the journey, not the destination.