This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to uncover actionable insights… If you want to learn more, keep an eye out on our site for more interviews. Today’s Three on Three interview is with Daniele Kohen, Media Director, Neo@Ogilvy on Content Marketing.

Q: How are you selecting partners to work with on content marketing? What is the ideal number of partners and way to purchase content marketing programs?

A: Content marketing is about providing valuable and meaningful information that makes your prospect or user more knowledgeable. Content partners should be selected following the same criteria. If your audience relies on these sources to learn and educate themselves about a specific topic, chances are that a brand could be successful in engaging with their audience in a similar fashion.

Consumers have become much more receptive to the content they consume and are much smarter in recognizing genuine content from ‘branded salesy advertorials.’ As a brand, it is important to stay authentic and objective. This same principle applies when selecting the right content partner. You have to make sure you and your content partners are keeping a clear line between church and state. Don’t be fooled by those that promise to leverage their editorial teams to praise about your brand — even if it’s tempting, stay away from them. Content marketing is about communicating with your audience without selling.

Once you figure out which partner can provide you with the most compelling content, a few other variables will have to be considered including their distribution platform, how they leverage their social channels, the types of distribution and ownership rights you could negotiate, etc.

Q: What has been the most effective use case for content marketing and how did you prove success?

A: If content marketing started with the notion of having a brand position itself as a publisher to convey trusted and editorial content, then that philosophy has not really changed. What have changed are the end goals and the metrics behind it. Most of the B2B clients we manage at Neo@Ogilvy have used content marketing as a way to generate qualified leads. If the user has shown an interest in engaging with the brand by engaging with a specific piece of content, why not try to establish a longer-term relationship between both brand and user? That could easily be a win-win situation.

Measuring a successful content marketing program is no easy task. Each content program is different from the previous one and, generally, there is a lack of industry benchmarks. Some of the most common metrics tend to be socially driven—shares, likes, comments, etc. These metrics may please digital agency and client teams, but are rarely embraced by the management teams on the client side. However, when you are using content to generate leads and you are then able to drive revenue and attribute that revenue to the source of where that lead was originally generated, then it becomes a very powerful story. At Neo@Ogilvy, we’ve been successful at doing so and results have been outstanding.

Q: What is the future of content marketing?

A: Content on the Internet quadrupled over the past three years and social media sharing has tripled over the past two years. Every person and brand are now considering themselves content experts and we think we are all great at creating and sharing new stories. At the same time, people are getting bored and have less patience than before.

Future success will rely on an even greater level of personalization: laser-focused messages on the individual, not some fictional persona. Content will continue to shift more and more towards video. By 2017, eMarketer reports that 90% of all Internet traffic will be video and more than half of the video content will be consumed through mobile. This is not much different from what we are starting to see right now, it will just be a much more dramatic progression.

As Media Director at Neo@Ogilvy, Daniele brings more than 10 years of high-level global digital media experience, overseeing media strategy, planning and execution across both B2B and B2C businesses. His clients have included some of the most recognizable global thought leaders including IBM, Qualcomm, UPS, Kodak, Avis, American Express and Lenovo. Daniele has been with Neo since the agency’s creation and has worked in four of its offices around the world including London, Milan, New York and most recently Los Angeles, where he relocated in 2013 to help set up and grow Neo@Ogilvy’s West Coast operation.

Note: This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to gain perspective and uncover actionable insights.

Also in this series:

Q&A: Jason Deal, Managing Director Social Media Services Initiative US on Content Marketing