Line Bound to Blur Between Advertising and Editorial | MarketingProfs

matt grant is a thinker. it shows in everything he writes, including this piece on the use of long-form "advertorial" content. it seems to me (and to matt) that as the trend continues toward content marketing, sponsored content will risk convergence with "real" content. this excerpt is from an interview matt did with the atlantic's digital editor shortly before they ran a poorly received ad from the church of scientology.

“The reader needs to know what is an ad and what is not an ad,” he told me. “We are not trying to confuse the reader into reading advertising products and thinking they are reading editorial products.”

As far as interfering with the reading experience goes, he added, “I should say, ‘Don’t unduly interfere’ because some people believe that any ads interfere with the reader’s experience.”

I've seen studies indicating that magazine readers consider advertisements an integral part of media consumption. I expect this is more true for dedicated readers of vogue, but I've enjoyed my share of clever ads in the new yorker. 

I agree with matt's belief that there is nothing inherently wrong with pushing the line with content marketing. the key to success is what every content guru has been graciously displaying in his or her storefront for a while - be clever or go home.

via mpdailyfix.com click through for full article

(note: I am testing diigo.com's annotation features. please click through on the 'magazine readers link above and let me know if the yellow highlighting shows up about halfway down the page. thanks!)

Don't Just Punch The Share Button | eMarketer

it's worth the extra time!

For users, copying and pasting to share content holds obvious appeal: It’s almost frictionless, and it allows the sharer to choose exactly what to pass on to a friend or social network.

“You probably have a lot of friends sharing the same article,” Tynt general manager Greg Levitt said. “But when you can specifically call out a personalized, relevant aspect, it makes the story your own.”

via emarketer.com click through for full post

 

Marketers as Content Instigators | othersidegroup.com blog

As marketers, this has become an interesting new challenge. We used to play the role of content creator ourselves. But with blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube established as important communications channels, we’ve taken on a larger role of content aggregator and distributor, and even more important, content instigator.

I may be going down the road of coining yet another term for something someone has already named, but I think this is an important distinction to make. In order to get the right content in the right place with the right voice at the right time, we’ve got to have authenticity. And authenticity comes from having the actual person write, record, perform etc. Or as close to that as possible. We spend a lot of time worrying about what we’re going to create (a video, a podcast, a blog post, a newsletter article??)  and where we’re going to put it (on the website, on the blog, on youtube, on twitter, on facebook, everywhere??)

via othersidegroup.com

great post from Kate Brodock that highlights a new role for marketers - that of noodge (sp, trudy?. "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on tv" won't fly in the age of content marketing - to pull in and retain a target audience means establishing a system to create and deliver useful content, not spin. the marketing person can serve as reporter, but the copy has to come from somewhere...