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Advertising | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

Pathway to driving incremental branded content revenue

In a previous post, we predicted that there would be a rapid expansion of brand content with the adoption of generative AI and discussed how publishers can utilize this adoption to fuel growth. I wanted to expand on some strategies publishers can implement to start the conversations with brands and agencies about using the content they have already invested in to drive brand consideration.

Publishers can leverage a brand’s non-promotional content and powerful storytelling to drive new and incremental revenue. Consumers across different mediums are actively engaged with long-form content, increasing brand recognition. Here’s a pathway for publishers that want to help brands use content in order to optimize the revenue potential for their businesses.

Content: A vehicle for influence

Before we jump into the strategies, why should you care about prospecting with content? Here are some numbers to help convince you that consumers rely on content to make purchase decisions:

  • According to Content Science, 70% of consumers prefer to learn about products and services through content rather than traditional advertising.
  • According to Nielsen, the average time spent on sponsored content is two minutes and thirty seconds. That’s roughly the same as purely editorial content.

In today’s digital age, consumers are inundated with display and video advertisements. But when it comes to product and service information, branded and sponsored content takes a backseat to these traditional digital formats. The data suggests that consumers are looking for authentic and informative content they can engage with rather than being sold to. 

Long-form branded content allows brands to tell their story, provide helpful product and category information, and ultimately guide consumers to make an informed purchase decision on their terms. As a result, companies are changing their marketing strategies to focus on creating content that informs consumers throughout the purchase journey. And publishers are the ideal partner to repurpose, optimize, and scale a brand’s content to connect with a brand’s audience.

Content sells itself

Content marketing has proven to be a game-changer; according to HubSpot, 70% of marketers are actively investing in it. Still, only a few industry partners offer solutions to scale this content outside the brand’s owned channels. The increase in investment in content marketing reflects the fact that marketers not only build trust by providing valuable and informative content but that it also positions them – and the brands they represent – as industry leaders. 

Tested tactics to drive revenue 

Repurposing content opens up a unique opportunity to create impactful prospecting strategies. One tested method is to pull content from brand marketing channels and create proactive mocks that showcase their content on a publisher’s site. 

The best outreaches we have seen involve a multi-touch approach to showcase brands’ content within a publisher’s environment, utilizing content sourced from Facebook, Instagram, blogs, ebooks, whitepapers, transcribed videos, and podcasts. These mocks can be used for prospecting new business or encouraging existing clients to invest in incremental budgets. This outreach allows brands to see how their content can be repurposed for maximum engagement.

Pro tip: streamline the process

The most impactful way to showcase the power of a brand’s content presented in the context of your site is to show marketers what that would look like. Most methods require publishers to do that directly from their CMS requiring development and design resources to create a mockup without actually pushing it live. Alternatively, publishers can use native ad servers to do this work. This way, publishers can upload the creative and content, and generate a preview link. Some platforms include content ingestion tools, which will help streamline this process further. The link can then be shared directly with the client or included as a screenshot in slides.

An alternative method would be to build a mock template in PowerPoint or another design software and copy content into the template. The problem with this method is it requires the manual and time consuming process of finding the content, pasting it into your template, and making design adjustments.

In conclusion

Content is emerging as a critical driver of influence in today’s digital world. Writing content and promoting it on different platforms builds trust and creates an authentic relationship with consumers. But creating quality content is a major investment. Taking the time to repurpose that content and automate the process correctly can help publishers partner with brands so that they can more readily scale their content and drive brand consideration. 

Innovation | Marketing | Perspectives

Brand content will explode with AI. Are publishers ready to capitalize?

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to evolve, we see more and more examples of AI-generated content in our daily lives. It is only a matter of time before brands start to adopt these tools to scale their content creation and power their content marketing strategies. This trend will continue to accelerate as AI gets better at producing quality content.

For publishers, this presents a huge opportunity. Brands will need help distributing the influx of new content, and publishers are in a prime position to provide that assistance. But are we ready? Do we have the infrastructure in place to handle the increased demand?

Only time will tell. But one thing is for sure: the world of brand content is about to get a whole lot bigger, and publishers need to prepare by focusing on strategies to scale their sponsored content programs.

Content is about to get a whole lot bigger, thanks to AI creation

Companies will no longer be limited to having just a few people write their content. Instead, with automated content creation, brands can scale their content quickly and easily – and leverage their content resources to refine the messaging. This means less time spent creating individual pieces of quality content, allowing for more ideas and creativity to be explored on a grander scale. Companies may find themselves communicating with consumers in ways they never thought possible before.

This dynamic change in how brands approach content creation will undoubtedly open up new opportunities and heighten engagement between brands and customers. The content marketing problem will shift focus from resources required to generate impactful content to finding distribution partners that can prove a shift in brand consideration. We expect big changes on the horizon as AI-written content takes on an increasing presence in the market.

Brands will need help distributing all this new content to drive consumer consideration

With the ever-increasing influx of content, brands are truly facing a looming challenge. How can they keep up with the speed and quantity of new content while making sure it has an impact and drives consumer consideration? How will they know which content connects most with consumers?

The answer lies in strategic partnerships with publishers. For brands to be successful, they must find reliable partnerships that allow them to reach their target audiences quickly and efficiently.  Brands need experts and strategists who understand how to reach their customers and how to leverage optimization technologies to ensure the right brand content is served to ensure that readers are guided through the buyer’s journey. Reporting will shift from traditional advertising and attribution metrics to content and consideration insights such as lift studies, engagement, and audience insights.

Publishers are uniquely positioned to capitalize on this trend as they have a captive audience

This shift to AI-written content presents an opportunity for publishers to act as mediators between the content and its audience. Publishers have a captive audience and the expertise and experience necessary to ensure that all content reaches the right people in the most efficient manner possible. They can help brands successfully scale their content distribution quickly, efficiently, and accurately so that their message gets out loud and clear. Moreover, leveraging first-party data about their audience enables publishers to provide critical insights into how content is being consumed, as well as its impact on moving readers through their buyers’ journey.

But they’ll need to find innovative ways to scale their operations

We can expect content to explode around us, and for publishers to capitalize on this trend, they need to find effective ways to run their ad operations and make their sponsored content programs scaleable. That means if a publisher relies on manual processes, custom codes, and complex CMSes to run these premium programs they won’t be able to keep up with the sheer volume of sponsored content campaigns thrown at them. To meet the demands of our new digital landscape, organizations must figure out how best to automate their processes to scale sponsored content for brands.

How can publishers prepare for this explosion of content?

To meet the needs of brands adopting AI technology to scale the production of their content, publishers should focus on streamlining in a few key areas:

Campaign setup

Implement their own AI Content tools to suggest variations on existing content that can continually feed into optimization and reporting providing invaluable insight into content performance.

Also, with many publishers running sponsored content through their website CMS, we have found that programs run in this manner cannot meet high demands when sponsored content is sold at scale.

Campaign optimization

Machine learning optimization technology: AI will help draft the content, and publishers can provide content variation recommendations. When you feed this data into an optimization engine, campaign performance will inevitably see a lift and deliver valuable metrics into the type of content that resonates with a brand’s audience.

Opportunity awaits

Taking these steps now can give publishers a major edge in the rapidly changing landscape of brand content distribution. As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, publishers can capitalize on this trend by finding innovative ways to scale their operations and become strategic mediators between brands and audiences.

Disclaimer: This article was written in part by AI.
Perspectives

Editorial and sponsored: Has branded content blurred the divide?

With such a large appetite for content in the digital landscape, sponsored content has become a key source of revenue for the publishing industry. But with branded content leveraging the tone and style of a publication, should the editorial team exercise oversight, ensuring the sponsored pieces meet their high standards? Or should they focus on continuing to build trust with their readers in a space where paid and earned content look increasingly similar?

As sponsored content has transitioned into a common advertising practice, publishers can see the financial benefits of producing branded content for their audience. The more divisive question is how — if at all — should an editorial team be involved in its creation?

To better understand how the two sides of the digital publishing industry — sponsored and editorial — work together, Pressboard conducted a survey of 32 industry professionals. The results show that the industry is divided on whether the two teams should collaborate on sponsored content creation. More than half of the respondents reported that their editors are not involved. On the other hand, 46% reported some degree of editorial involvement in creating sponsored content.

Among the respondents who indicated that their editorial teams were involved in creating sponsored content, the level of involvement varied. Some divulged that they were very involved, while others only somewhat. The relationship is evidently a complicated one, especially as audiences grow more accepting of branded content.

“The more I see branded content online and in print the more accepting I find readers have been,” stated Joel Vosburg, Advertising Account Manager for Gripped Publishing. “The primary concern for their audience isn’t whether or not the content has paid sponsorship, it’s the transparency of the advertiser’s involvement.”

Does branded content influence editorial?

The question of whether editorial content should be free from influence is an important one. However, those in the industry understand that it is not always cut and dry. While 33% of respondents shared that the brands that they partner with have some effect on editorial content, 13% said their editorial is very affected. Publishers in the product review space were vocal about how the editorial content they can create depends on the brands they work with. Vosburg explained that it’s “tough to provide editorial coverage when the brands do not work with [you]”.

However, the separation between editorial and sponsored content teams is much more substantial when it comes to news coverage. In fact, some publishers have strict policies in place that forbid brands from influencing editorial content.

Striking a balance between sponsored and editorial

As we delve further into the data, it becomes more apparent what approach publishers are currently taking with sponsored content, as well as how the industry may evolve going forward.

A strong majority of respondents feel that editorial pieces should be at the forefront of a publication’s site, with only a small number indicating that they feel their site should be evenly split between editorial and branded content. However, respondents were somewhat less rigid when the question involved a lifestyle site as opposed to a news site.

“You need to be keenly aware of what your readership wants and does not want,” stated Nikki Csek, CEO at Csek Creative (which supports NowMedia). When asked exactly how much sponsored content is ideal for your site, Csek noted, “As much as your readership is interested in engaging with. Sponsored content can be as interesting and sometimes more interesting than day-to-day editorial content.”

The tone, look, and feel of your website should be cohesive including the sponsored content it hosts. This question garnered the strongest agreement amongst respondents, with 84% agreeing (strongly or somewhat) that sponsored content should look and read similarly to a site’s editorial content.

Mindy Claggett of COX Inc. said this concept had a key role in defining her position. Though she is the Associate Editor of Branded Content, her role reports directly to the editorial team.

“[They] decided that my role should report through editorial primarily because I would be creating content, so they felt I needed to be on the content team. Additionally, they wanted to ensure that even paid content was consistent with the brand standards for our publications and sites, and that the content would fit the brand voice.”

Half of all respondents affirmed that audiences do care whether content has been sponsored by a brand. Readers — especially millennials — generally don’t like ads. However, 58% of millennials will watch ads if their favorite digital personalities are involved. Therefore, presenting high quality information and entertaining content is still imperative.

Maintaining trust

When a brand is connected to a publication it benefits from the same level of trust and credibility, which is important to readers. The relevance and pairing of the brand and the publication must be believable for your audience to want to engage with the content produced. Partnering with brands your audience cares about has proven successful for several of the publishers who responded.

It is important to note that when it comes to branded content, audiences are sympathetic to the economics of the publishing industry. According to Vosburg, “Readers understand the troubles some publishers find themselves in these days and know that financial support through content is a way to help this.” 

It’s clear that publishers and brands will continue to collaborate in creating content. But for now, the question of whether editorial teams should be involved remains unanswered. On one hand, the emphasis placed on maintaining the impartiality of editorial content suggests that there should be a strict divide between editorial and sponsored teams. On the other hand, the need for sponsored content to look and feel similar to editorial suggests that there needs to be some degree of editorial involvement. And it’s likely this relationship will remain complicated in the near future as sponsored content becomes an increasing source of revenue for publishers. It appears that only one thing is certain: Sponsored content is here to stay.

Perspectives | Revenue

The future of content is sponsored – but maybe not in the ways you think

Brands have long supported the creation of content, whether through traditional advertising or by more direct means such as brand tie-ins, product placements, and brought-to-you-by sponsorships.

But moving forward, their support may be more critical than ever.

With Facebook and Google cannibalizing publishers’ ad dollars over the last 10 years, myriad new revenue streams have emerged to help publishers sustain their businesses. Among them we find banner ads, e-commerce, and sponsored content.

Sponsored by

Sponsored content is defined as any material in an online publication (written, video, etc.) that resembles the site’s editorial content but is paid for by an advertiser. The content is often intended to promote the advertiser’s product or values. In contrast, editorial is independently created by a publication and posted on their site, with the goal of educating, informing, or entertaining their audience.

Letting brands fund the creation of sponsored content is an arrangement that benefits both parties. This kind of content allows brands to leverage the reach and influence of publishers. At the same time, publishers earn the revenue necessary to continue both their editorial and advertising programs.

Marrying the two can produce outstanding (and better funded) results, but many worry about the slippery slope. While editorial and sponsored stories often exist in their own worlds, opportunities for overlap are everywhere. Beyond simply producing thinly-veiled content that ties into a brand message, these days brands are working with premium publishers to create quality content that might not otherwise make it to the market. In fact, the success of sponsored content has supported the growth of a new model: brand-supported editorial.

Devil and angel, church and state

Let’s step back for a second.

Although sponsored content as we understand it is a relatively new phenomenon, journalists and content creators have been disagreeing about the ethics behind it for decades. As far back as 1975, American essayist E.B. White expressed outrage when the Xerox Corporation announced that they had commissioned Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Harrison Salisbury to write a piece for Esquire Magazine.

He remarked, “Sponsorship in the press is an invitation to corruption and abuse. Wherever money changes hands, something goes along with it — an intangible something that varies with circumstances.”

There have been other problematic instances of sponsored content in the past. In 2013, The Atlantic published (and quickly removed) a piece of sponsored content titled “David Miscavige Leads Scientology to Milestone Year.” The article extolled the virtues and accomplishments of Scientology’s venerable leader. Blowback was immediate, with industry leaders criticizing the publication for publishing content antithetical to its journalistic principles.

The problems aren’t siloed to sponsored, either. We’ve seen how the relationship between advertisers and publishers can affect editorial content, too. Some sites will promise advertisers an editorial story promoting their business if they buy a real ad; others will refuse to cover stories if they don’t. While the pervasiveness of this practice is still up for debate, it raises real questions about the durability of the line between church and state, sponsored and editorial.

Sent from above

It’s not all bad news, however. There’s also been a lot of social good brought about by sponsored content.

One of the best examples comes from Variety’s campaign “Abilities Unlimited,” made in partnership with Easterseals. The collaboration provided illuminating research on just how underrepresented people with disabilities are in the entertainment industry. Featuring interviews with high profile actors, directors, and writers, the pieces offered tangible advice to members of the industry for how to ensure their projects are more inclusive.

Original journalism like this can be incredibly expensive. For example, ProPublica’s 2013 to 2015 “Overdose” series, which exposed the FDA’s inaction regarding a dangerous ingredient in Tylenol, cost an estimated $750,000 to produce. This is content that could save lives. But with shrinking budgets and newsrooms, publishers may lose the ability to create it.

Sponsored content can also give the public access to information they otherwise would never have seen. Last year, Siemens brought their full technological capabilities to the table in a campaign with The Economist, which visualized the relationship between fan enthusiasm and team performance.

There’s no doubt these programs have helped people, whether through information or entertainment. So how do we make sure we can have our cake and eat it too?

The future of editorial and sponsored

Even as publishers investigate subscription models and e-commerce solutions, it’s clear that branded content remains one of the most critical sources of revenue for publishers. Our research suggests that branded content will continue to grow over the next years, with 90% of publisher survey respondents saying that they expect branded content revenue to increase moving into 2020. But if this is the future, how can we ensure that it’s ethical and sustainable?

First, if we want to retain the value of sponsored content, editorial content must be prioritized. Sponsored content works due to its association with a publisher’s journalistic standards and high-quality content. It’s a matter of pattern recognition. When we see a brand partnering with a reputable publisher, our brains take that as a signal that the company shares the same values and reputation. Keeping a ratio of content that prioritizes editorial over sponsored content, not just on-site but also on social feeds, will help maintain that authority, benefiting both advertiser and publisher in the long term.

Second, we need to embrace brand support in the newsroom. This doesn’t mean letting Coca Cola write your next feature or interviewing BP as an expert on oil spill mitigation. It also doesn’t mean deciding what stories to pursue based on an external party’s agenda (or conversely, ad budget). But it does involve partnering with companies to fund important stories — including those couldn’t be told otherwise.

Third, publishers need to say no — as frustrating as that is for advertisers. Say no to partners that don’t share your values, no to ad dollars tied up with editorial promises and no to content that doesn’t benefit your readers. Otherwise, you risk losing your readers’ respect, which translates to less traffic and fewer ad dollars.

And fourth, we need to constantly question what stories we’re telling, why we’re telling them, and who we’re telling them for. The line between sponsored and editorial is such a polarizing and emotional topic, so it’s important to unravel it — no matter how many knots we find along the way.

Perspectives

Reduce, reuse, refocus: How to scale your branded content operation

We’re living in the age of “banner blindness,” where internet users are either subconsciously or consciously (read: grumpily) ignoring display ads.

This means that of the small number of readers that are seeing these ads, a truly dismal percentage — 0.05%, to be exact — are clicking on them. But this wasn’t always the case. If you ask some old guard advertisers about the golden age of display ads, they might speak reverently about the pixelated 1994 banner ad (purchased by AT&T on HotWired.com) that inspired 44% of viewers to click on it. What brilliantly crafted message garnered this level of engagement, you ask? “Have you ever clicked your mouse right HERE? YOU WILL.”

Needless to say, times have changed. People increasingly seek out companies with a human face behind them, and the best way to show your humanity as a brand or publisher is through storytelling.

However, story-driven content has a major problem: scalability.

Fifteen percent of publishers cite scaling content production as a stumbling block. Yet 90% expect their company’s revenue from branded content to increase over the next year. With most publishers creating content for multiple different brands and clients, it can feel like an insurmountable task to give each one the attention they deserve.

The 3 Rs of Scale

If you’re looking to scale your branded content production, there are three words you need to keep in mind: reduce, reuse, and refocus.

Reduce

Rather than over-saturating your readers’ feeds with branded content, consider focusing your efforts on a smaller number of pieces that do more heavy lifting when it comes to engaging your audience and building your client’s brand.

Instead of putting all your time and energy into creating a wealth of broad, generic content, try homing in on a few key topics or issues that align with your client’s goals and your audience’s interests — and be honest with yourself about what those interests are. A quality piece of content is one that tells a story. Stories — especially ones with a compelling character or cause behind them — engage our entire brain, which is why we remember them and forget every banner ad we’ve ever seen.

For example, if you’re working with a travel and hospitality client, hunt for a compelling story about the destination that you’re promoting and then tell it in an inspiring way. The New York Times’ T Brand Studio knew this when they teamed up with the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel in Vancouver. Rather than discussing room service options or bedsheet thread count, their article introduced readers to the quarter of a million honeybees that call the Fairmont home, and shared what its staff are doing to protect them.

Reuse

There’s a great deal of pressure placed on publishers and content creators to consistently produce new, original content. While staying on top of industry trends and addressing topical audience concerns is certainly important, you should also be taking stock of pieces that you’ve produced in the past and coming up with ways to repurpose them.

To effectively reuse (and by extension, scale) your content, start thinking “modular.” Focus on writing foundational pieces that you can then add building blocks onto, like videos, photo galleries, or infographics. If your client has hosted a brand activation or event (or even has just a few evergreen pieces of content under their belt), you could easily turn that into a string of modular content.

Another tactic is to take stock of what kind of content you already have on your site that the client could lend their support to. Maybe you have an exceptionally popular series that their brand could be integrated into. This is a great way to lend your publication’s authority to their company and allow for a more seamless content creation process.

Refocus

The key to refocusing your content efforts is to keep revenue top of mind. Think about what you’re selling and why. Then, consider how you can make the content more profitable for you and your brand partner. The right decision will help you maximize revenue while also giving your sales team room to negotiate with clients.

When it comes to branded content, not all business models are created equal. However, depending on your and your brand partner’s goals (i.e. impressions versus engagement), one model may be much better suited for your needs than another.

Model Behavior

For instance, the Flat Fee model ensures all costs are fixed, from creation to distribution. It’s advantageous for partners who have strictly defined expectations for their content. If you prefer to adapt your strategy on the fly, this isn’t the model for you. Another option is to split the costs of production from distribution. This makes it easier to charge incrementally based on client expectations, while still making sure your creation costs are covered. You can also use this method to turn a single content piece into a significant revenue-earner by selling the client extra promotional assets, like reads and impressions.

Choosing between these two is important, too. The Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM) model measures cursory views, not engagements. Therefore, it’s not the best choice for those seeking to build a connection with readers. It is, however, perfectly suited to a campaign that includes a large number of assets like banners and other display ads. In contrast, the Cost Per Engagement (CPE) or Cost Per Read (CPR) model is well-suited to branded content, as it bundles the content with a number of high-quality reads so advertisers know exactly what to expect.

As you’re scaling your content, keep in mind that even a small amount of high-quality content can go a long way if you’re smart about what you’re creating and how you’re packaging it. The overarching goal is to communicate your brand partner’s unique selling features to your customers, so keep your target audience in mind. Set yourself up for success by finding new and unique ways to scale your content, from production through to distribution.

Industry-Research | Perspectives

The real measure of native success is higher renewal rates

The sale of sponsored editorial is up significantly, across almost all big name publishers. BI Intelligence predicts that the native spend will hit $21 billion next year and account for nearly three-quarters of all digital ad revenue by 2021. Similarly, according to our own MediaRadar analysis, native adoption and demand are extremely high. An average of 610 new advertisers use custom content each month. Demand is exploding as native’s impact among consumers – providing a unique ad experience compared to traditional display – has also grown considerably.

Despite this success, there are visible cracks in the foundation. Competition and unsuccessful campaigns are driving unusually low renewal rates. The average advertiser renews only 33% of the time.

Real Results

We analyzed the native ad success of a prominent publisher which doubled their sponsored editorial sales in one year. This represents a major success. However, if we look a bit deeper, the results are sobering. In a year over year analysis, while 71% of advertisers did buy sponsored editorial again, only 43% returned to the original publisher, and 29% stopped buying the format entirely.

The takeaway: As the market matures and becomes more saturated, emphasis must be placed on winning the renewal. The best publishers today enjoy 90% renewal rates, creating a cash machine. There are several reasons for their success.

  • Clear Objectives: Publishers that see higher renewal rates establish and demand partner campaign objectives in advance. They also test that the objectives are met.
  • Campaign Duration: Additionally, we observe that those publishers with the longest campaign flights (more than 6 months) have much higher renewal rates. This enables for better testing and adapting, as well as provides a greater sample size of data.
  • Native Investment: Those winning renewals have also invested in technology and additional personnel for their solutions. They typically see a 49% renewal rate.

Native is a massive opportunity for publishers. However, a lot of work still needs to be done to optimize success and strengthen results. Without the expansion of successful native offerings, demand will outweigh supply, and the bubble could burst.

Innovation | Video

The full picture: What’s driving USA Today Network’s Get Creative immersive video strategy?

Immersive video—powered by 360° cameras and 3D platforms—is poised to make a significant impact with audiences across devices. Indeed, the advance of and Virtual Reality (VR) changes all the rules, shifting the focus from reach as the measure of effective content and storytelling to depth. More and more companies are embracing VR to connect with people on a deeper level. A new video gold rush is on, as companies race to understand and integrate some form of mixed reality into their content and marketing strategies to move and monetize their audiences.

USA Today Network, which has become one of the most prominent VR content creators in the news business, is one company that doesn’t have to play catch up. Last year it claimed the pole position, launching the first-ever weekly VR news show. “VRtually There” is a collaboration between its editorial team and in-house agency, Get Creative. The intent is to create awareness for brands such as Toyota through content aimed to educate and inspire consumers.

Kelly Andresen, SVP, Head of GET Creative, USA TODAY NETWORK

Peggy Anne Salz—mobile analyst and Content Marketing Strategist at MobileGroove—caught up with Kelly Andresen, SVP and Head of USA Today Network’s Get Creative, to talk about the rules of immersive storytelling and the impact of VR on content, context and the consumer.

At one level, content has to be crafted to appeal to audiences, which means it has to valuable and relevant. But the advance of mobile and apps means content also needs to be more contextual. How do you manage both?

We see a range. At one end, it’s all about a 100% fully custom and bespoke approach. In those cases, we work with clients and their agencies to make recommendations on the best content to reach their audiences and their KPIs. But on the other end of the spectrum, we also see local clients who don’t just want to tell a compelling story to their customers and potential customers. They also need to drive immediate results like in-store traffic or ecommerce. In those cases, it’s about creating a context—and the right environment—for them to showcase their content and advertising message. So, in that case, it’s really about creating custom content, not branded content. It needs to provide an environment and a context where there the advertiser can showcase their specific advertising message or their unique proposition that will raise awareness of their brand and drive immediate action.

Contextual content for a local audience sounds like a good opportunity for local advertisers, which might not have the budget for content marketing,. They can piggyback” on the content you create and distribute….

Yes, but it is also a challenge for the industry as no one has really cracked local branded content at scale. Getting it right is expensive for these advertisers, and long approval processes don’t match what local advertisers need if they want to engage customers in the right time and place. It’s doesn’t fit the content of the individual. That’s where we have a unique opportunity because we are a network of 110 sites with actual physical locations, real journalists, and real connections to our communities across the U.S. This gives the infrastructure and the team to be able to create really unique solutions at an affordable price that will still drive results in the local markets. It’s an area I am going to be very focused on in 2017 as we work to build out a local branded content solution at scale.

We’re also focused on how can we revolutionize the model to help retailers tell great stories with content that also allow them to bring customers in-store. I’m particularly excited about our partnership with Walgreens, one of the nation’s largest pharmacies that also offers beauty products. They are pursuing a strategy to brand themselves as a destination for beauty products. This makeover extends to creating an entire content strategy. That’s where we’ve partnered to create original content in the form of photo galleries and 2D videos showing customers how they can “get the look” with products. Distribution of this content across all channels, including social, drives awareness of the brand. It also changes brand perception and drives calls to action including signups for the beauty program. It shows us how branded content and custom content can work for both local and national advertisers, in the right context, to move customers across all steps of the marketing funnel.

You have a multi-dimensional view of content, customers and context. You have also added virtual reality to the mix. How are you using it to tell stories that engage your audience – over a 115 million unique every month – and serve your advertisers?

The USA Today Network has taken a leadership position in the creation of high-quality premium virtual reality content, and we’ve been doing it for three years. That doesn’t sound like very long but that’s light years in the VR world. When I joined the company in 2015, the company had already made significant investments in the virtual reality space. For one, it requires a team of people who know coding and how to capture the content. It requires people who are familiar with the specialized 360° cameras, and more importantly: how to tell stories in this medium because it’s very different from any other medium.

I was fortunate to step in and build out a brand-new content studio, which has expanded to a full service in-house agency. It takes advantage of the learnings and expertise that existed in order to cultivate those same capabilities within our branded content studio. I hired people who had produced the award-winning VR and 360° video from our newsrooms to join our branded content team. Our value proposition going out to advertisers was about leveraging our knowledge to help them leapfrog and try out VR at an effective price. They also benefit from our ability to produce that content quickly and consistently.

The VR shows with Toyota are a milestone. What other VR content have you produced since?

We’ve produced original content for the 2017 Toyota Camry as well as original VR work with Google Nest. We’ve seen a lot of excitement and engagement around it. But what is unique about our offering is that we can not only create the content, we can also distribute it to an audience that is actively consuming it and looking for it because they have come to associate VR with our brand.

In theory, because VR is immersive, people can watch it for hours. How do you keep people engaged?

Number one is the storytelling. Number two is the tech. It may sound silly, but it comes down to small details, like where to put the camera, that make a big difference. For example, Honda has created the fastest two-seater in IndyCar racing. When we did the first shoot we fixed the 360° camera to the helmet. But then, when we saw this footage afterwards, it felt like you are floating above the race track instead of actually driving on the race track. It’s small things like where you place the camera make a huge difference in how the viewer experiences the content.

What is going to keep a viewer engaged? You have to give them the freedom to enjoy the content but the direction to get the most out of the experience. With 2D video you can direct viewers to look by where you put the camera. In 360 and VR, a viewer can look wherever they want. They can look up, they can look down, they can look around. So we’ve experimented with audio cues to help them look where they need to look in order to help the story along and make sure the viewer has an awesome experience.

That is about the technology, but the attraction of VR is also how it can create a sense of empathy…

We’ve seen that VR does that, which is why we believe it’s perfect for two main types of storytelling. One is transporting people. In this scenario, the content transports people to places they may never otherwise be able to experience, like the inside of a volcano or to the top of a high wire. They can experience the thrill of doing something they may never do in real life. The second is triggering emotion, empathy in particular. In this scenario, the content help tell a human story that enables people to  literally experience what life is like in someone else’s shoes. Those two storylines are what drives our VR production, because both on the editorial side as well as on our branded content advertising side.

It sounds as if VR – done well – is also a way to beat ad blocking. 

Ad blocking is a challenge for the content industry. But, at its core, it’s a call from consumers. They’re saying, “We want a better experience.” And I think this is a call to action for all of us to really deliver better experiences. So, yes, we are focused on creating better experiences for our audience, and our advertisers, and VR allows us to do this.

VR is in its infancy; it’s early days. What do you see as it matures?

We’ve all only scratched the surface of how we can use virtual reality as a storytelling medium. I can definitely see a future where, instead of sharing text or sharing photos like we do on social channels or even on our phones, we share whole virtual reality experiences. People can capture entire experiences and share them as content. We’re not there yet from a technical standpoint, but I do think I can see adoption and technology going in that direction. I also think we will see new kinds of interactivity. Experiences with brands and content companies will move beyond contests and quizzes. The next wave is all about enabling and empowering people to interact with brands and the content they produce to build deeper connections for both.-

Peggy Anne Salz is the Content Marketing Strategist and Chief Analyst of Mobile Groove, a top 50 influential technology site providing custom research to the global mobile industry and consulting to tech startups. Full disclosure: She is a frequent contributor to Forbes on the topic of mobile marketing, engagement and apps. Her work also regularly appears in a range of publications from Venture Beat to Harvard Business Review. Peggy is a top 30 Mobile Marketing influencer and a nine-time author based in Europe. Follow her @peggyanne.

Innovation | Revenue

Can brand content help solve a murder?

Sponsored content is not a new thing; paid advertorials have been around for more than a century. But there’s no denying that branded content has become a significant part of the marketing mix and media revenue generation in recent years. Certainly, the deftness with which deep contextual connections can be made in digital has been a driver of demand. Even more interesting is that this desire for context is also driving experimentation and creativity when it comes to branded content storytelling.

Guardian Labs US, the branded content studio of Guardian News and Media, recently launched a brand journalism campaign for Amazon’s Bosch series that colors way outside the lines of the traditional advertorial template. With a nod to the popular cold-case crime genre (notably the stunningly successful podcast series, Serial), the branded content team at Guardian Labs created the series How to Solve a Murder.

Branded content strategist Jill Hilbrenner says that—sponsored or not—this is the type of story The Guardian likes to tell. She cites its coverage of The Grim Sleeper case—which also examined a cold case from the 1980s. “Something we often hear at Guardian Labs is that consumers are looking for authenticity of content and storytelling.” So, when she created How to Solve a Murder (with the financial support of Amazon), she sought to deliver compelling journalism that aligns with The Guardian’s editorial standards.

According to Rachael Post, director of branded content at Guardian Labs, Amazon came to them with clear conceptual guidelines that relate to the premise of its Bosch series, which is about an LAPD homicide detective: They wanted the story to be based upon a cold case that involved Los Angeles or Las Vegas and included a detective. Then they set the Guardian Labs team loose to uncover and deliver a compelling tale.

The series—clearly labeled “Paid for by Bosch-Amazon”—explores the murder of teenaged Kari Lenander through the lens of a LAPD detective who spent years searching for her killer. According to Veronika Cernadas, who handles media and public affairs, The Guardian “is very serious about wanting to be transparent because we stand for open, transparent journalism.” This applies to all aspects of the company’s endeavors. So while How to Solve a Murder was written with a high degree of editorial autonomy, clear labeling was essential.

Hilbrenner points out there are likely to be those who are skeptical of any content that is sponsored, though she is confident that, given the quality of reporting and storytelling, readers will come away satisfied. In fact, she says that reaction to the series thus far has been highly positive, with significant discussion on social media around the forensic techniques used in the investigation, crowdsourcing of clues and tweets by author Michael Connelly, who wrote the books on which the Bosch series is based.

“We were pleased that we were trusted to do what we do best: Tell stories worth telling,” says Hilbrenner. She also says that it is possible that this model of sponsorship could afford coverage opportunities for stories that might not otherwise receive attention.” As Post points out, “we live in a very reactive news climate and investigative doesn’t always get the attention it needs even on the news side.”

While The Guardian Labs may be testing out a means of sponsoring stories worth telling, Post says that they are definitely focused on helping brands tell good stories that align with their marketing objectives “but push the envelope a little bit.”

Innovation

With Lifestyle Studios launch, Scripps makes its multi-platform plans clear

Well known for its stable of popular lifestyle television media channels such as HGTV, Food Network, and Travel Channel, Scripps Network Interactive has been hard at work bolstering its digital presence with ongoing investments in its menu of original programming for Ulive. Now, after what Scripps Lifestyle Studios SVP and GM Vikki Neil describes as a year of intensive reorganization, resourcing and future-centric thinking, the company has debuted Scripps Lifestyle Studios, a new business division designed to drive digital content innovation and advertising solutions.

The full-service editorial unit will spearhead the development of compelling lifestyle experiences across multiple platforms including social media, apps, websites and third-party digital media outlets. According to Neil, television programming is about creating content for a 24-hour day, usually for lean-back experiences. Scripps Lifestyle Studios will do that while also creating content suited for social channels and for audience’s lean-in needs, such as how to make a birthday cake or a holiday cocktail. The formation of the new division “not only increases our capabilities, but emphasizes our dedication to creating the right content for the right platform, delivered at the right time,” says Neil. The goal is to create relevant, shareable content that instantly connects with digital-first consumers.

Upcoming launches from Scripps Lifestyle Studios will feature both linear and digital talent across multiple platforms and include HGTV Happy’s short videos on simple ways to brighten lives; a Facebook Live day-long cookie party; an Alton Brown takeover of the Snapchat channel, with a behind-the-scenes look at his favorite eats; and revealing sabotage secrets from hit Food Network show Cutthroat Kitchen.

With the new division comes “deeper integration of advertisers into storytelling.” As Neil points out, Scripps Networks Interactive has created branded content for many years. However, she says the formation of the new division comes with a philosophical shift: “We are asking our editorial team to think differently. I truly believe that if you do it right, the advertiser enhances the audience experience. What we’ve learned through experimentation is your structure doesn’t need to be church and state; our entire staff can be thinking about when, where and how to best bring a product in.”

It is significant to note that within Scripps Lifestyle Studios, the editorial side has the lead on branded content and product integrations. Neil says that advertisers trust its editors to know their audiences and best create content that will resonate with them.

In fact, Neil believes that Scripps’ editorial strength will be key driver of its digital success. “We hire very creative people across the board, but interestingly most of them are millennials and a huge percentage are women.” The result is that Scripps Lifestyle Studios is creatively fueled by its target audience. She says you can “feel the vibe when you walk our floors…these people are here because they are passionate about food, travel, home.” And this, combined with elements such as The Food Network Test Kitchen—an important hub of the new division—brings with it credibility and trust.

Neil says the formation of Scripps Lifestyle Studios makes it clear that “digital isn’t a side business;” it’s an expression of Scripps’ plan to build a brand that extends well beyond T.V.

Perspectives

What’s the Big IDEA: At About.com, Data Drives Content Marketing Strategy

More than 80% of marketers, advertisers, and publishers worldwide say that data is important to the deployment of their advertising and marketing efforts and a full 92.2% believe that it’s likely to play an increasingly important role in the future. Topping the list of the ways in which data is being used to tune marketing efforts is the targeting of offers, messages and creative content. And that makes a lot of sense given that 63% of marketers say they’re increasing their spending on native advertising this year.

IDEAAbout.com is aiming squarely at the intersection of data and content marketing with the launch of its IDEA Studio, the company’s custom content studio. IDEA stands for Intent, Data, Expertise, and About. In keeping with the company’s clearly defined content strategy, About.com’s content studio will focus on creating how-to and expert-written content that helps people answer questions, solve problems, learn something new or find inspiration. As About.com CRO Brian Colbert puts it, “When you look at how native is done in the marketplace, every publisher does it a bit differently. Since most of our traffic is intent driven, coming from search, we look at content marketing, native advertising and branded content as a great opportunity for an advertiser to be in front of the user in a very specific mindset.” That mindset, according to Colbert, is lean-in and intent driven.

While About.com clearly knows where its traffic is coming from and why, during the past year the company has made a significant investment in upping its data game. Last summer, About.com assembled a five-person data team that includes a linguist, a neuroscientist and is led by former astrophysicist Jon Roberts. Roberts, About.com’s VP of Data Sciences says that when he joined the company it had a wealth of information about how users consumed its nearly four million pieces of expert-created content. Unfortunately, the vast majority of that data was in the form of Excel spreadsheets. Roberts says his team has built a system, which he refers to as a “knowledge extraction tool”, that provides deep linguistic analysis of the site.

Initially, the tool was deployed to assist content creation teams by surfacing what users were looking for and how they were searching for it. “We’ve spent a lot of time working on problems for our content team,” says Roberts. The depth of About.com’s data archive—now assembled in a more queryable way—lets them “take a deep-dive into what the world is interested in…and it also provides a strong tool for predicting what they will be interested in at any given time across any or all of our topics.”

This data-driven tool has since been rolled out across the entire organization. Roberts says that discussions about how to better use data to support sales functions within the organization began early on in his tenure, but the launch of IDEA has accelerated and intensified his interactions with sales, including attending his first sales content, which he describes as “an education…understanding the requirements of a specific sales market is fascinating.”

While Roberts’ team is able to provide a fine-grained analysis about what people are interested in at any given time, Colbert says that it is the combined strength of the sales team and content-creation expertise that can put that data to work in the market effectively. For example, from a content-search perspective, flu season starts in the fall with a focus on prevention methods such as vaccines, but also has other distinct phases such as an interest in how it is transmitted and how long one is contagious, through treatment during the winter. These searches might well be on the Health channel of the site, but also arise on Travel or Parenting verticals, for example. Armed with granular detail on when people are searching for very specific information, their IDEA Content Studio can help an advertiser understand what content customers seek, precisely when it is being searched for.

Colbert says that then the company’s subject matter experts will create the type of content that resonates best with About.com readers, also noting the opportunity for brands to provide complementary content that will be clearly labeled and integrated into the flow of informational content on the site. While the content studio will leverage writers who create content for the editorial side of the house, Colbert says that “we have to stay true to our users. While brands can help inform, editorial will remain in our control.” The important thing, says Colbert is that the content be of sufficient quality so that readers find it useful, whether or not it comes from a brand. And to that, Roberts adds that About.com’s unique data set “allows us to know exactly what the user will be interested in. We don’t have to guess.”

And while Colbert readily admits that content marketing is not a new tactic for the industry or About.com, he believes that the launch of the IDEA Content Studio will formalize the structure and provide a better opportunity to work closely with advertisers to deliver effective marketing messages. He is enthusiastic about the opportunity to take content marketing to a new level at About.com: “what I’m most excited about is this team, our data scientists, our new integrated marketing team: We now have the arsenal to do content marketing right.”

Perspectives

A Look Inside the Courageous Mindset of Turner’s Branded Content Studio

In an age where everybody’s a content creator, being the most trusted news brand is no small accomplishment. So when Turner Broadcasting announced the launch of Courageous, its branded content studio, it didn’t simply hype the reach of its news brands CNN and HLN. The company placed almost equal emphasis on maintaining the trustworthiness on which that reach is built. “Year after year, Pew says we’re the most trusted name in news, which gives us incredible reach” says Vice President and Group Creative Director Otto Bell. And Bell makes it clear that this trust must extend into the work coming out of the branded content studio because “We cannot afford to undermine the very reason people come to us in the first place.”

That reason, according to Bell, is because Turner brands deliver quality information that is both timely and meaningful. So while real-time marketing might seem the obvious intersection between branded content and CNN, Bell says the real differentiator will be the application of journalistic acumen to the development and execution of branded content strategies.

“The opportunities for a news organization are clear: It gives us a chance to draft off of our journalistic pedigree and to understand what our audiences want.” These audiences, according to Bell, crave news and want to be among the best informed. For brands, though, the best content opportunities may not be associated with the latest thing, but rather in identifying great stories lying dormant, which a brand may not even realize they are sitting on. “We bring a fresh perspective and clean pair of eyes along with the journalistic training and ability to identify narrative hooks…instincts trained over the years to identify something of interest to an audience.”

Another key differentiator in Turner’s content studio, says Bell, will be its structured process. Based upon the nine years he spent as creative director of Ogilvy Entertainment at Ogilvy & Mather, Bell says that Courageous’ branded content programs will be developed using a “robust process with multiple steps that brings a real professional client services process to custom content.” The process starts with brand objectives, fact-finding to gain deep knowledge of the brand and layering in an editorial process—while maintaining consistent communication throughout. His team is comprised of storytellers, editors, producers, videographers and data scientists who will apply Turner’s “RED” methodology to brand partnerships: Relevancy, Execution and Distribution. Courageous content can then be distributed across CNN’s global portfolio of linear and digital properties as well as optimized for social platforms.

While Bell admits that “the ways to measure success are as varied as the objectives clients walk in with,” he is very enthusiastic about his team’s ability to measure and iterate based upon CNNMoney’s “war room.” With these real-time analytic tools (which are used my multiple divisions of the company), Bell says they’ll not only be able to monitor emerging trends to create timely content, but also reach and engagement so that content can be optimized for longevity and impact.

As Bell points out, “there are a lot of publishers and even brands opening content studios so we spent a long time working on our approach and thinking about our point of view.” The RED methodology is a result of that process and the name of the studio—Courageous—is indicative of how his team will distinguish their brand of branded content. “We wanted something that spoke to a brave mindset, one where brands would set out with us on a bit of a journey.” And given that that CNN is credited with having invented the 24/7 news cycle and the company’s ongoing commitment to trust, transparency and innovation, Bell believes that his Courageous team is building the future of branded content on a solid foundation.

Perspectives | Uncategorized

Lessons Learned from Verizon’s Branded Content Fumble

Over the past week or so, several good pieces have been published about the Verizon-sponsored technology news site SugarString, each offering some excellent insights for organizations seeking to create their own content-centric site or to create sponsored content distributed elsewhere:

Verizon is launching a tech news site that bans stories on U.S. spying
(The Daily Dot, October 28, 2014)

The Daily Dot article focuses on the inherent dilemma created by a purported “news site” that expressly forbids its reporters “from writing about American spying or net neutrality around the world, two of the biggest issues in tech and politics today.”

Verizon fired back at The Daily Dot saying “SugarString is open to all topics that fit its mission and elevate the conversation around technology.”

Takeaway: Brands venturing into developing their own content sites – particularly news-focused ones – must work doubly hard to convince readers they are providing a fair and transparent view.

Is a news site a news site if it’s published by Verizon?
(Washington Post, October 31, 2014)

Washington Post blogger Nancy Scola takes a close look at the “thoughtful, tech-focused stories that track humanity’s climb toward what’s next.” She finds that, “to date, the site’s articles have been focused on simply affirming the mobile tech lifestyle.”

Scola also wisely raises the issue of labeling the content as branded content, pointing out that if this content appeared on a traditional media outlet, it would be labeled something along the lines of “sponsored advertising.” She also finds the small “Presented by Verizon tags” to be of questionable value in terms of transparency.

Takeaway: Clear labeling is unequivocally a best practice for any branded content, but it doesn’t solve the issues around value and transparency. In addition, given the variety of places content is consumed (social, mobile, etc.), creating labeling that works in any context remains a challenge.

Journalism, Independent and Not
(New York Times, November 2, 2014)

In his The Media Equation Column, David Carr writes that he stumbled across SugarString and found its coverage of privacy somewhat baffling…until he noticed some “teeny type that said ‘This article was written by an author contracted by Verizon.’”

Carr calls out a slew of other branded content sites in a variety of subject areas, some better than others, wisely noting that “publishing looks easy, but is filled with peril.” For Carr, the Verizon foray into brand-underwritten news is a cautionary tale about what we may have to do to fund the creation of content now and in the future.

Takeaway: Creating engaging, credible and trustworthy content, particularly news, is challenging even for mature media companies; brands diving in for the first time should check the water’s depth and err on the cautious side

Undoubtedly, others will continue to pick apart Verizon’s foray into creating its own tech news site to drive awareness and build its brand through content. Certainly, experimentation is important, but transparency and delivering valuable information that users can trust must be at the top of the list for any content initiative.

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