There’s a new buzzword doing the rounds in the marketing circle off late – Content Marketing. Marketers and Brand Custodians constantly seek to deepen engagement with current + potential consumers. And given the fact that there is so much direct interaction between consumers and brands today, content marketing is an absolute no-brainer.
It’s not like content marketing is a new beast. Its early beginnings are found in print advertorials, advertiser funded programs on TV, specialized events etc. – but digital was still all about ‘the click.’ What, however, was happening in the digital world was that the infrastructure for content to ride on was being built? Search engines, community databases through the newsletter routes, social platforms, the mobile browser, mobile apps etc. were all part of the big infrastructure build up. Once the search and discovery platforms were set, marketers suddenly found that loads of content were now being shared by consumers. These consumers were also very open to directly interacting with the brand by signing up for newsletters, liking / following brands pages, visiting brand websites / blogs etc. Essentially, they were saying – “We’re happy to engage with the brand – now bring on the content.” The other disruption was the “paid media” monopoly was now giving way to a threefold path i.e. “paid, owned and earned media.” The tipping point for content marketing was there…in the marketer and content creator’s face.
Like many other things in the digital marketing and media realm, the US was the first off the block with #contentmarketing. Once marketers embraced this new realm of engagement, a brand new ecosystem of sorts began to emerge. Publishers were creating “storytelling” units, content marketing agencies mushroomed, newer technologies emerged to make content accessible etc. Marketers like Pepsi, Adobe, Colgate and many more embraced content marketing and invested much time to set the new engagement foundations right.
So much for the new and emerging content marketing industry. Now let’s look at what typically happens when industries and businesses are still nascent? You find visionaries and champions of these nascent industries who propel the environment positively towards it true business and usage potential. The content marketing arena too has a champion in Joe Pulizzi. He has authored several books, set up the Content Marketing Institute and runs the coolest and biggest marketing trade show “Content Marketing World” in several cities world over – the magnum opus being in Ohio.
Scatter, India’s first content marketplace, asked Joe if he could spend some time on Skype and tell us a thing or two about his experiences with content marketing and what we can come to expect in the near future. Joe promptly responded saying he’d be glad to do so and we fixed a time and date for the Skype interview. We also thought that it may be a great idea if we could get a few marketers, content creators and other players in the content marketing industry to contribute to the list of questions we have for Joe. So, here goes: If you have a question on #ContentMarketing please send an email with your question/s to askjoe@spiral-digital.com
Our view, at Scatter, was that we should get this interview out to as many marketers, digital publishers + content creators as possible.And we were fortunate that Mediavataar.com decided to partner with us on this Power Talk with Joe. Go ahead! Ask that question. And stay tuned for the interview next week.
Written by Mahip Singh,COO & Co-Founder,Scatter.