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Perspectives | Research

Creating a Successful Content Marketing Strategy

July 28, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Ninety percent of B2C marketers are using some form of content
marketing. However, according to the Content Marketing Institute, less than half of those marketers have a documented content strategy—despite the fact the most effective content marketing is based upon one. That said, creating an effective content marketing strategy is no small undertaking. There are numerous challenges and things to think about and prepare for, even if you are well on your way on your content marketing. We plan to address many of these issues at our new Content All Stars Event (September 18^th in New York City) as we bring together best-in-class marketers and our members from leading digital content companies to share what works and explore what’s next.

Creating Powerful Content
Without a doubt the most important—and most challenging—aspect of any content strategy is building a content engine that will drive success. Few do this better than Red Bull, which not only takes its marketing message to the extreme in terms of its action-sports content, but also in terms of content creation, having founded Red Bull Media House in 2007. The company’s content-based marketing is second to none, as Managing Director Werner Brell put it, “We have been creating media assets from the beginning.”

“The mindset for launching Red Bull Media House was a natural progression of the company…For all of the athlete projects and events Red Bull created, which subsequently built this brand, cameras have been there. Everything has more or less been put on film. We have been creating media assets from the beginning,” said Brell. While his approach is largely to create original content to which Red Bull has exclusive license, the company also partners with media companies, ultimately maintaining “a laser focus on creating the best in action sports programming, centered around storytelling, high production value and overall progression in all aspects of sports event broadcasting,” said Brell. At Content All Stars, he’ll offer insights into the company’s trademark approach to content creation. “At the end of the day,” Brell pointed out, “it’s entertainment. You have to play by the rules of the audience, and they want to watch something engaging on an emotional level.”

Engaging Audiences
Undoubtedly, content creation – great ideas that tie your brand to your target audience or consumers — is the foundation of content marketing. And while Brell’s company has taken the proverbial bull by the horns, not every brand finds itself in the position to create its own media house. However one thing that all marketers can (and must) do is understand their audiences in order to create content experiences that attract and engage them.

As the company’s VP of Content and Global Creative, Ann Rubin said, “We strive for everything we do in marketing to have some utility, some purpose…for the [audience] beyond the brand message.” In its “Made with IBM series”, the company set out to tell its customers’ stories of transformation to offer actionable insights for others. Beyond creating compelling and popular content, the project brought the company closer than ever to its customers as the process of storytelling became a collaboration. At Content All Stars, Rubin will speak candidly about how IBM focuses on customers and content to transform its marketing into more than a one-way message.

Driving Results
Attracting and engaging audiences through content will take marketers a long way as they seek to build brand awareness and customer relationships that engender trust and lasting affinity.

An important and challenging area of marketing measurement is social media. Yet Claire Tavernier, Managing Director of the UK’s Channel Flip Media and founder of StoryTechLife, believes that social can help demonstrate high levels of engagement and that “these engaged viewers do have more value in the long run.” She will offer concrete examples of how social increases engagement that builds value at Content All Stars.

Yet the most effective strategic marketing plans must leverage these laudable goals to achieve measureable results. Data offers not only a way to know your customers beyond general demographics, but the ability to make highly-granular correlations such as “when the dew point is X, the temperature is Y, and the rainfall is Z…Here are the 15 products you should be selling right now,” according to the Weather Company GM, Vikram Somaya. At Content All Stars, he’ll team up with fellow data guru Bog Ivins, CDO of Mindshare, to show how data can not only provide consumer insights, but actually demonstratively drive consumer behavior.

Are you a Content All Star? If so, request an invitation to attend this first-of-its-kind event, September 18^th at NYC’s Conrad Hotel to develop a content strategy that delivers meaningful results.

Innovation | Perspectives

Content All Stars: Making the Most of the Media/Marketer Partnership

July 17, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

The most successful brands and media companies have one big thing in common: They know their customers and treasure the on-going relationship they have with them. They also both understand the power of content to connect with customers and offer them genuine value by engaging their passions, interests and concerns. Without doubt, the best content experiences arise when media and marketing teams work together to share knowledge about their audiences, insights about what’s worked and what hasn’t and are clear about goals and what’s achievable.

Recognizing the power of media and marketing teams is what we’re doing at our first ever Content All Stars event, which will be held in NYC’s Conrad Hotel September 18th. We are bringing together the best and the brightest from brands such as Red Bull, IBM and Goldman Sachs who will join media brands that include ESPN, Comedy Central, Vox Meda and The New York Times to explore this dynamic relationship by highlighting campaigns and partnerships that have pushed creativity and technologies, showcase novel perspectives from people outside our industry and tackle some current issues around trust and transparency that our industry is grappling with. Some of what we’ll cover:

Content and Customer Conversations

One-way messaging is so last-century. Today, content is a conversation with consumers and has the power to create meaningful and lasting connections. At Content All Stars, you’ll hear from Ann Rubin, VP of Branded Content and Global Creative, about how IBM transformed its ad campaigns into a collaboration with customers and truly transformed its marketing.

Data Drives Insights and Action

Data: Everybody’s doing it. But there are few who can elegantly illustrate how first-party data can actually move product off the shelves. Content All Stars features two of the smartest people in data—Vikram Somaya, GM of Weather FX and Bib Ivins, Chief Data officer of Mindshare—who will discuss their collaboration on turning customer insights into tangible marketing success.

Engaging Audiences: Essential, but not Easy

Attracting audiences is a challenge that media companies have faced since the Gutenberg press. Now that the digital media world is moving past a pure numbers game and wants not only audiences at scale, but truly-engaged audiences, it has never been more important. At Content All Stars, Bloomberg, ESPN and Refinery29 will reveal how they are not only attracting audiences, but interacting with them to create valuable audience-engagement.

Social Strategies that Deliver

Social Media has just got to be more than a mad scramble for friends and followers. At Content All Stars we’ll hear from Allison Kingsley, the VP of Digital Development at Comedy Central about how she takes a strategically social approach. And Channel Flip Media’s Managing Director Clare Tavernier will discuss how she factors social into her engagement strategy to drive quantifiable results.

… And we aren’t done lining up speakers yet. If you have a suggestion, email Michelle Manafy. Learn more about our keynotes or request an invitation. Check back for program updates.

We look forward to seeing you at Content All Stars!

Innovation | Perspectives

Meet the OPA Content All Stars Keynotes: Soledad O’Brien, Jason Silva & Sarah Lewis

July 10, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

It is an exciting time here at the Online Publishers Association. Under the leadership of our new CEO, Jason Kint, we’re feeling renewed energy and enthusiasm for the digital media industry and the power of compelling content experiences. We are so happy to have an opportunity to celebrate the powerful collaboration between savvy marketers and trusted media brands at our new Content All Stars event September 18th at the Conrad Hotel in NYC.

We’ll deliver an all-star lineup of speakers to energize and engage attendees with their stories about the power of content to create trusted relationships with audiences, drive consumers to action and communicate what’s personal about brands. Read on to hear about three keynote speakers who are guaranteed to deliver insight and inspiration:

Soledad O’Brien was recently described as “a one-woman media storm,” O’Brien is an award-winning journalist, documentarian, news anchor, and producer. In June 2013 she launched Starfish Media Group, a multiplatform media production and distribution company dedicated to uncovering and producing empowering stories that take a challenging look at the often divisive issues of race, class, wealth, poverty and opportunity, through personal stories. O’Brien’s critically-acclaimed documentary series, Black in America and its follow-up, Latino in America, are among CNN’s most successful domestic and international franchises and she continues to produce Black in America for CNN. In addition, O’Brien is a correspondent for HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, and a Special Correspondent for Al Jazeera America Tonight. She is co-founder of the O’Brien Raymond Starfish Foundation, which focuses on providing disadvantaged women with a higher education.

Watch Soledad O’Brien on the Daily Show with John Stewart

Jason Silva has been called an “Idea DJ” and a poet—“a revitalizer and remixer of optimism, and above all, a curator: of ideas, of inspiration, and of awe.” His non-commercial series of short videos, aptly named ‘shots of philosophical espresso,’ explore the co-evolution of humans and technology and have gone viral with more than nine million views and “play like movie trailers for ideas,” according to The Atlantic. Silva is the Emmy-nominated host of National Geographic Channel’s #1 rated series, Brain Games and the creator of the web series “Shots of Awe,” micro-documentaries exploring creativity, innovation, technology, futurism, metaphysics, existentialism and the human condition.

Watch Jason Silva’s TEDGlobal talk on Radical Openness

Sarah Lewis is being hailed as a rising intellectual star and her book, The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery, has been widely praised by a who’s who of creative thinkers. Lewis appeared on Oprah’s “Power List,” served on President Obama’s Arts Policy Committee, was profiled as a “Brainiac Rising” in Vogue, was recently featured in Elle on “How to Fail Artfully” and is a faculty member at Yale’s School of Art. She has held positions at the Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, and her essays have been published in Artforum and The Smithsonian. According to Lewis: “The creative process is actually how we fashion our lives and follow other pursuits. Failure is not something that might be helpful; it actually is the process.”

Watch Sarah Lewis’ TED talk on Embracing the Near Win

If you’ve participated in an OPA event before, you know what to expect: A room filled with the brightest and most creative minds in digital media and marketing enjoying a day filled with conversations, presentations and debate about the tools and tactics that will drive the continued growth and success of the digital content industry. If this is your first opportunity to join an OPA event, request an invite now. Space is limited.

Innovation

Collab/Space New York Tackles Real World Challenges to Foster Industry-wide Collaboration

July 10, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Collaboration is the key to the future of digital media and it is essential for survival, according to Mark Glaser, Executive Editor of PBS MediaShift and host of the brand’s new series of Collab/Space events. This week, PBS and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute held Collab/Space New York at the Ford Foundation. While the day featured a few traditional presentations, the majority of the format took an innovative problem-solving approach that focused on building actual collaboration within the media industry rather than simply highlighting examples of innovation.

Collab/Space New York kicked off with some ice breaking exercises to set an off-beat and interactive tone for the day, followed by a talk by Atlantic Media VP and GM Kimberly Lau who offered candid insights into how she is trying to increase the pace innovation. While she pointed to Quartz as “a great example of building something from scratch and giving the team the resources they need…without a legacy business to reinvent,” her focus has been on increasing innovation from within that “legacy business.” Though she said that priorities come from the top, Lau emphasized the effectiveness of fostering greater collaboration between editorial and development sides of the business.

This set the tone nicely for a series of five minute presentations from a range of organizations who had an innovative product, development or initiative underway that they wanted to take to the next level. Among the many mini-presentations:

NPR Producer, blogs and social media, Wright Bryan discussed the challenges expanding the functionality and adoption of its analytics dashboard.
New York Times Data Scientist Mike Dewar showcased the work it the R&D Labs team is doing with its Streamtools toolkit for dealing with live streaming data that isn’t yet capturing the imagination of a wide range of staff so that it can be fully leveraged..
Quartz reporter David Yanofsky showed off his Open Source Chartbuilder tool, which he would like to see broader market adoption and mobile-centric development. .
Newsroom Development Editor David Biderman from The Wall Street Journal (which was celebrating its 125th anniversary) discussed its progress in creating a fast and easy-to-use Web CMS interface that it hopes will find adoption among the multitude of parent News Corp.’s sites..
Daily News’ Managing Director Cyna Alderman looked at the challenges faced as her organization launches an ambitious project to support media startups—not just financially, but by bringing them into the newsroom to closely collaborate on innovation. .
Vox Media Designer Scott Kellum looked at the company’s Cardstacks, which underpin its explanatory journalism efforts and expressed the need to improve their discoverability, shareability and scope.

While it included an excellent presentation from News Corp.’s VP of Product Kareem Amin on how he “questioned everything” (and circumvented a fair amount as well) to kick start innovation, the afternoon was primarily devoted to breakout groups that worked on honing their collaboration skills before setting to work tackling the challenges and objectives of the morning’s presenters. As Daily News’ Alderman tweeted, the biggest takeaway was “strengthen your projects through collaboration.” That theme was not only apparent in the enthusiasm the breakout groups exhibited in helping solve the presented problems, but also in the over-arching goal of the day: to strengthen the digital media industry through collaboration among organizations and the passionate people working in them.

Photo credit: Anika Anand

Innovation

Customer Understanding Drives “Cultish” Devotion to the Content People Love

January 29, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Perspective matters. Be it a writer with a point of view or a brand inspiring cultish loyalty, delivering an engaging experience rather than information on its own is what will drive digital consumption and profitability. As Strauss Zelnick, founder of Zelnick Media put it, “what you do has to be compelling; it cannot be generic.” This experience, he believes, will deliver much more than those dreaded digital dimes. “We ought to get to digital dollars as we create engagement,” Zelnick confidently stated at the 12th Annual OPA Summit held January 22-24 in Miami.

As OPA President Pam Horan pointed out in her opening remarks, “It’s not content that people kinda like. Or content that people occasionally pay attention to. It’s about content that people genuinely love. And use.” That love, as several speakers pointed out, is driven by genuine enthusiasm about a given subject, be it business or celebrity gossip. As John Najarian, EVP/GM of Digital and Business Development at E! Entertainment put it, during the “Creating Content People Love” panel, “When you read a sports story or a business story, you can tell that there are people behind that category that are really passionate.” Fellow panelist Forbes Editor Randall Lane agreed that point of view has been integral to his brands’ success, but to it he adds credibility as the other key component in creating content that drives engagement.

Vox Media COO and Group Publisher Marty Moe said success “all starts with great content and an emphasis on social.” And to translate that into revenue, “it takes a combination of talent and technology.” However Moe did quip that, at Vox—which is known for such digitally native brands as the Verge and SBNation—“we have magazine envy” to which Forbes’ Lane replied, “You know… we’re for sale.”

Though as Zelnick pointed out, during his interview by Krishan Bhatia, EVP, Digital Strategy and Operations of NBCUniversal, his business (like that of Vox Media) does not “have to focus on a legacy business, so we can focus solely on the future.” This notion of the peril of protecting legacy businesses at the expense of preparing for the future was at the core of Digital First Media CEO John Patton’s talk, “Past Can’t Buy the Future.” Patton emphasized the need for media organizations to invest heavily in digital “because the profound changes in digital revenue streams will require huge investments in digital products and people.”

At Vox, according to Moe, “There’s no part of our business that owning and developing a very tailored, powerful technology platform doesn’t enable and improve — from how editors and writers publish the content, how we manage it, how we distribute it and how we advertise brands. Like the printing press was key to driving newspapers, our technology is as important to the way we are doing business.”

Even talent acquisition should take a turn for the technological according to speaker Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, who believes that “Technology will bridge the gap between the physical and digital world.” He points out that currently organizations lack effective mechanisms to find talent and the most popular tools and techniques are “notoriously biased”. He asserts that using gamification and profiling tools may “inject some order and accuracy into an area where the bar has been historically low.” He also echoed a point made earlier in the summit saying that “consumers, customers and readers are potentially your best employees as well.”

Having an intimate understanding of those passionate consumers was one of the most recurrent themes in the 12th Annual OPA Summit. For media companies, this customer knowledge drives content creation, product development and helps deliver optimized marketing opportunities. Day Three keynote speaker, Tony Tjan, CEO, Managing Partner and Founder of venture capital firm Cue Ball and Vice Chairman of the advisory firm Parthenon encouraged everyone in attendance to begin with a “front-end customer strategy rather than a go-to-market strategy.”

Closing speaker Wharton School marketing professor Peter Fader, also emphasized the need to put customer knowledge at the forefront of business strategy. He pointed out that there is no “the customer” and that generalizing in that way can be dangerous. It is essential, Fader asserts, to understand who our most valuable customers are and to not only be responsive to them, but to anticipate their future needs.” Fadar’s advice to media companies planning for current and future success: “Create a cult brand.” To do so, understand your audience with the intimacy of a trusted confidant to create genuine engagement that inspires devotion, trust — and a successful long-term relationship.

Innovation

Picture Perfect: Inspiration in Storytelling from Bill Marr’s OPA Summit Keynote

January 23, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

There is perhaps no more vivid depiction of the OPA slogan “Content People Love” than National Geographic’s iconic photography. So National Geographic creative director Bill Marr’s keynote set the tone at the 12th annual OPA Summit not only by showcasing the publication’s widely-lauded imagery, but also through a demonstration of the brands’ commitment to leveraging digital to embark on a new adventure in storytelling.

The iPad, according to Marr, offered the publication new life and provided a catalyst that is driving National Geographic’s entire team to reconceive of its content creation process and to rethink the ways in which its already visual stories could be told. To do so, Marr says, they had to recognize that “short form video is not television.” For them, “it is an extension of print; it is an extension of storytelling.” While National Geographic has always embraced and supported the work of photographers, now the publication is working with them to evolve their craft using video and a wide range of technologies. The brand is also physically reorganizing its content creation team—down to the office space in which they work—to create a more “open, collaborative environment.”

Marr illustrated the result of these ongoing efforts with a range of stunning examples that had a room full of seasoned media executives mesmerized. One example in particular, the National Geographic’s most popular story of 2013 “The Serengeti Lion,” features the brand’s iconic photography enhanced with audio and video and reveals the technology it used to capture these intimate images, which included infrared photography, micro-drones and a robot.
Now that National Geographic has begun to offer these deep wells of content that go far beyond what it had previously been able to deliver in the pages of its magazine, Marr says they are approaching many other aspects of their content delivery with a new perspective, such as its “The Power of Photography” exhibit on display at the Annenberg Space for Photography. Instead of limiting the exhibit to what could fit on the gallery walls, they created a digital exhibit that uses video walls to showcase 500 photographs and accompanying information from the brand’s 125 year history.

National Geographic, says Marr, has moved away from the notion that a story is “one thing.” Instead, they are working to “envision how any story can come to life in myriad ways.” This approach is generating more powerful storytelling than ever before. It has also created an opportunity to better monetize via digital subscription offerings including iPad and Kindle editions. However National Geographic’s exploration of the frontiers of digital storytelling also demonstrates how delivering these deeper offerings creates a level of engagement—web visitors spent an average of 12 minutes with “The Serengeti Lion”—that the brand believes it can leverage to generate revenue via its site as well. Marr says they are currently beta testing a new iPad-inspired site experience that will offer a premium experience for subscribers and in turn, drive its visual storytelling even further in its next 125 years.

Innovation | Perspectives

A Good Look: Inside the Media and Marketing Opportunities of Wearable Tech

January 17, 2014 DCN

Much of the buzz at CES last week surrounded wearable technology—clothing and accessories that incorporate computer and electronic technologies. Yet given that the C in CES stands for consumer, it isn’t a great surprise that much of the coverage took the form of breathless accounts of the latest toy or snarky critiques of wearable tech aesthetics. CNET.com editor at large Brian Cooley was in attendance and turned a keen eye to the wearable tech on display as he gears up for his New Content Platforms session at next week’s OPA Summit (January 22-24 in Miami, Fl.) – the 12th annual meeting for members of the Online Publishers Association.

Right now, Cooley says there are three main classes of wearable devices that marketers and content companies need to be keeping an eye on: Fitness bands, watches and glasses. To date, Google Glass has been the poster child for this emerging group of products. However Cooley says the most mature area is Fitness Bands and one that presents some very interesting opportunities for marketers. Given that on mobile devices, consumers expect increasingly personalized experiences, wearable tech offers great promise in improving data quality. “In a way,” says Cooley, “the fitness band is the other shoe we’ve been waiting to drop since mobile started.”

As he points out, “Marketers could do a lot with the data these devices gather about users’ lifestyle and behaviors.” The data gathered, says Cooley, would be almost “100 percent pure” as opposed to other forms of information gathering. “Most of the data we have now is somewhere between a good estimation and a lie. Remember that buying athletic shoes doesn’t mean someone is active.”

The opportunity for this level of granular and accurate data would allow for unrivaled content targeting. “Think about it: you could message Nyquil only to those who are sick,” he says. There are, however, still significant hurdles to overcome in tapping into this “tantalizing data,” not the least of which is the fact that device makers he has spoken to “don’t plan to give away their customer information and risk that relationship.”

Cooley also cautions those thinking about tying their messages to wearable devices to approach this highly-personalized experience carefully, noting that “the concern is intrusion, which resonates around all of these products.” While you might be able to access a photo someone took via their Glasses while out drinking with friends—and be tempted to use it to send the wearer an advertisement about their beverage of choice—marketers must balance this with consumers’ privacy concerns.

Cooley encourages content makers that are eying wearable devices to “attack consumers’ needs and keep the products at an arms distance.” While he realizes that this may not sound ideal for marketers, he says that you have to be “even more sensitive to users’ ‘personal space’ than even smartphones. Deliver information, not ‘messages’ and you’ll connect with them.”

There may also be an opportunity for content companies and marketers to work with device makers to take these products mainstream. “Wearables in general are waiting for a killer app,” says Cooley. “The fitness bands and watches aren’t doing anything too unheard of. The trick is to put it together so that there is a compelling reason to use them. While device makers are good at building the devices, helping them to that next level of relevance is an opportunity for media companies and marketers.”

At the OPA Summit, Cooley will focus on the reality, challenges and genuine opportunities presented by wearable technology. He’ll also provide attendees with users-eye-view videos to help media executives envision the best possible experiences. And following his session, attendees will have an opportunity to get their hands on several wearable devices including the Samsung Gear Smartwatch, Atiz Innovation’s Wellograph Watch and Avegant’s Glyph Headgear.