CONTENT MARKETING COMES OF AGE
IS TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING GIVING WAY TO A DIFFERENT, MORE AUTHENTIC FORM OF BRAND COMMUNICATION?
With an explosion of channels, audience attention has splintered, and people are bombarded by brand messages. Hence the rise of content marketing. Marketers have realised people are demanding something valuable in return for their attention and time, whether that’s a well-researched answer to a search query or an inspiring video story.
While there is undeniably still a place for great culture-defining creative, even if you’re now more likely to see that ad on your mobile than a TV screen, it’s getting harder and harder for marketers to reach consumers.
Content marketing has been incredibly successful for brands as diverse as GE and Red Bull, and it’s now very much an established part of the marketing mix. There are good and bad examples, of course, but it’s generally a long way from the old days of advertorial in newspapers and magazines. The generally dreary content, focused on the benefits of a product that paid no attention to what the audience wanted, are long gone.
It’s critical to understand the difference between native sponsored content, which is generally something made by media companies for brands – essentially renting their audience – and content marketing where brands build their own audience on their own channels such as their website and social media, and with their own magazines.
Storyation, an award-winning Australian content marketing agency that works with premium brands, has a strategic partnership with the US content marketing platform NewsCred. They talk about the “content marketing maturity curve”, the idea that there are five stages:
Storyation works with about 40 brands across Australia and New Zealand who believe that brand journalism is an essential part of their marketing mix including, Tourism Australia, Blackmores, and IAG. While these clients are at the upper level,
