Category: Content marketing

Another new content paradigm: the meta-site

Burt's Bees Content Ad
Burt’s Bees Content Ad

You could think of TotallyHer.com as one giant, in-house version of Outbrain. The newly launched site pulls the top content from a network of owned and partner sites, then mixes in native ad content. Other sites in the network act as farm teams for TotallyHer, which is what gets promoted by site owner Evolve Media. Hmmmm.

TotallyHer Launches as Native-Only Site for Brands.

How to Make Your Brand Content Work Extra Hard like Subway Does

cimorelliSubway hasn’t connected the dots between its two web series and in-store sales, but it does an excellent job of creating an ecosystem of content assets for each one while forging complex ad/distribution deals. Read all about it in Summer with Cimorelli: Inside Subway’s Hit Web Series.

Brand Journalism

What is it? The lines can be blurry, but I’d define brand journalism — as opposed to brand content — as work that has a raison d’etre beyond plugging a company. While all good branded content provides valuable information or insights to the reader, I think what separates brand journalism is that you might not even realize that it was produced by a company, because it adheres to the same standards and follows the same form as regular ol’ journalism.

Some recent examples of my work in this area:

Big Data for the Little Guy

M-Commerce: What Metrics Matter?

How Socially Devoted Brands Handle Negative Tweets

See all my SAP blog posts here.

 

 

 

Are We Having a Content Bubble?

The emphasis on brand content and content marketing is great for us writers, and I’m heartened by how many companies are talking about the importance of quality in that content. But I have to wonder: How do companies know that their brand content is producing results for them?

In the first part of a two-part series, I looked at how — or whether — companies are measuring the effects of branded content, and whether things like page views or engagement are valid ways to asses them.

Content Bubble: Does Anyone Know Whether Content Marketing Works?