Consumers want content, not ads

6 experts and 6 takeaways on the future of brand advertising

This is a nice piece from Contently. They're asking what exactly does it mean to be a brand publisher today?  They polled a number of thought leaders from some of the world’s biggest brands, agencies and publishers about the future of content marketing and social sharing. Here’s what they had to say.

The 6 take-aways…

1. Sponsored content - this is interesting from Mashable, a big publisher collaborating with brands on creating sponsored content. Relevance is the success factor from the consumer's perspective. Is this something your brand could look to do for easy outreach wins? The longevity, credibility and scalability of your sponsored content featuring on publisher websites is a paid tactic worth considering over advertising spend?
2. Why content, why now? We’ve written much on this and Contently’s CEO suggests it’s driven by a brand’s need to ‘say something’ and the opportunity created by social media. The reality is that marketing, not advertising or especially ‘digital’, has always anchored to content. Though there’s no question it’s never been this important on the marketing agenda
3. Customer first - It’s encouraging eBay recognise that this is the start point. It’s sounds all holier than thou, doesn’t it. But, if you’re serious about gaining, holding and inspiring a consumer’s attention, the reality is it’s plain stupid to trumpet what you want to say over what a consumer will find valuable, interesting or just entertaining.
4. Content facilitates conversation - FMCG brands, such as Degree (US deodorant brand known as Sure in the UK), only now recognise that content is the conversation driver. Content is the social object, it’s important to not put the cart before the horse when it comes to social media marketing and first think about how you will start the conversation.
5. Content excellence - Build a quality content marketing machine, where excellence in creation is married with excellence in distribution, analytics and ROI. This does not happen overnight, it does take time, and you should expect to see an ROI. You  don't necessarily need an agency, though you do need talent and specialist partners.