Marketing content: the complete guide to marketing content (or sponsored/branded/promoted/in collaboration) - voila! Marketing and digital

Toblerone marketing content (Photo: Unsplash)

A preliminary explanation that the article will illustrate: as a leading academic body that is proud to place the worlds of marketing, advertising and digital in a central place in its activity categories, both in the research aspect and in the close connection to the field through selected lecturers who bring to the classrooms what is happening almost now in Israel and in the world - in the Ono Academic Library (who have extended their patronage on the "Knowledge Bank" section of our marketing and digital channel) we were asked to sort out

that has actually existed since at least the last century, but in the digital age intensified, became a significant part of marketing campaigns and growth plans of brands, and took on so many forms that, as happens more than once - We got confused, and forgot who is who.

This topic is called by the comprehensive name "

", and really?

Not sure that he is always right.

In this article we will try to map the different forms that this common concept may take, to distinguish between the three main ones, and to indicate rules according to which it is useful to examine or judge it.

Wait, where did the marketing content come from?

The blindness to advertisements, the trend according to which consumers look for recommendations, whether systemic or from people they trust - are some of the elements that "pushed" up the content in marketing, in digital platforms, or in what we generally call DEM, that is, in modern marketing.

The entry of Taboola and Outbrain, two giants that have been trying to challenge the market for a decade and a half, disrupted the herd effect of marketing content, according to which marketers follow the trend adopted by their predecessors, and in this context also assume that the audience is an equally disciplined herd, and will run in the desired direction without investigating too much.

Thus, you could find countless items that praise, glorify, and glorify the brand that commissioned them, without stopping and asking what is the point of producing an advertisement in a costume that, apart from being flaunted in the header of an article, had no essential difference between it and advertisements in "traditional clothing".

Oh yes.

It was longer, busier and more exhausting.

Such items were (and still are)

.

In free translation

and, as many call it -

.

When the giants of content recommendations arrived something changed.

Suddenly someone "forced" the brands or their couriers to think a little more about the customer, not to mention stop telling them how good, high quality or service they are - and provide them with value without submitting a bill immediately at the end of the meal.

Maybe more to offer him to keep in touch and come and visit.

Continue reading and in the section that talks about marketing

content - I will explain more.

.

But what is really important is the understanding that content in marketing can really make a difference, at a time when influencers and content creators are showing the production companies where the fish is coming from, and pouring tons of interest-generating content into the main streets of Tiktok, Releases and YouTube, and actually challenging the advertisements, which even then had trouble standing out - a lot more than before.

And if content in marketing can make a difference, and the ability to produce original, different, surprising content - exists in every corner, why do we continue to see "advertising articles" that even my students in the first lesson of the course explain to me how artificial,

and unattractive they are to read?

I would love for us to have a discussion about this in the Facebook group, but until then - we (we and the academic reading) will try to sort out the concepts and the rules of the marketing content as it appears, as of today.

Broadly speaking, we will divide what is included under the broad category of "marketing content" into 3 (plus appendices):

1. "Marketing content" in the common sense - Advertorials (or "advertising article"/"marketing article"/"content-like advertising")

When we say "marketing content" in our districts, there is not always a clear diagnosis as to the reference we are referring to, but in quite a few cases the reference is apparently to advertorial, a combination of two words -

(when referring to systemic content, on the face of it authentic and without interest, as much as possible) and

.

A seemingly unnatural connection and arouses curiosity about where the boundary line between the two will pass.

And since we are creatures that like to stretch boundaries - you can find examples of items defined as marketing content that are written like a proper piece of content, structured, developing and enriched with relevant information (hereafter the minority), alongside a great many items that often seem to have been written by someone who simply assigned the task to him, equip him In a brief brief about the brand, perhaps with a request to "produce an article that will be included" - and send him to complete the item until lunch is ordered (hereafter "the majority determines").

This is how the world of marketing found itself with an inexhaustible supply of "marketing content" that often does not serve the brand, does not generate significant sales (nor is it a significant stop on the way to them), does not add valuable information to the consumer skimming through it, and most likely will not win the prize its creators.

This can be called a sad waste of a tool that could be distinguished from the advertisements that are already transparent to the eyes of the users.

The advertorial is actually an advertisement "disguised" as systemic content, and as much as we don't lift the glove and try to tilt the spoon towards the content more than the advertisement, it turns out that the item describes or talks about the product/brand, refers to it directly, but not necessarily in accordance with the degree of interest of the reader Expected to find out in 'Information'.

A content item, in an age where there is an inflation of content and creators and the threshold for entering Aliba d'Algorithm Tiktok entering our lives as a new reality is an especially high threshold - it must be an item that is not a communique or a list of words in which, at most, grammatical errors have been corrected.

And if you think this is excessive - go out and look for "marketing content" articles on the net, and see in real time how the level of intelligence that advertisers attribute to users is measured.

You can stop at the title.

It's not that there aren't marketing content articles that 'produce work', but when you do it many times just to mark a vee on a tool in the mix - that's what it looks like, or is called.

First: connect skilled content people to your marketing activity, those who will work with you over time, who will know the plans, the relationship with the customers, and will know how to reinvent you and the tools, with the help of content.

Second: connect the marketing content articles to your general strategy.

I wish I could post how many times I've been instructed to produce marketing content that no one stopped to ask what it was contributing to the overall marketing effort.

Third: try, how simple - ask yourself what the user will be interested in reading.

Just answering this question could eliminate and take down from the air a large part of the advertising articles that adorn your screen, many times without you realizing it, and rightly so.

In this context, by the way, I had conversations with quite a few public relations offices, about the fact that all the "press releases" are seen in a fixed stamp and a large part of them no longer receives reference in the email box, and that it is advisable, in order to refresh the activities of the communications and public relations offices - to think about New templates (or new functions that PR offices will activate) that may serve all parties.

I think that PR offices, which can be said to have survived the digital evolution - have learned how to reinvent channels and fields of care (influencers and content creators for example), and if they lift this gauntlet as well, maybe they will take the category into a new and promising era.

• When you want to reveal a product or features of a product/service/brand

• When you want to strengthen values ​​or perceptions about you

• When you want to announce your activity, new or old, and announce that you are around or when you want to penetrate: for the first time or again

• And also when you want to sell and drive to meeting points with customers

But the key factor will be how you do it.

And the tendency to put someone in charge of this niche does not give them a license to produce marketing content whose chance of standing out aspires to the chance of my single getting ahead of Nuno's new one.

And, please note, the ease with which almost anything can be written as long as we have decorated the item with the tag "in collaboration" or "promoted/sponsored content" is dangerous: as time passes, marketers feel that the devil is not terrible and sometimes allow themselves to write unsubstantiated things to the point of "flying" on themselves" without border control.

Trust is something that is easy to undermine, but much harder to rebuild.

By the way, one of my goals (and that of the Ono Academic Library's marketing department) in this article is to show that it is possible to produce an article "in collaboration" that dives into a professional topic, relevant to the platform on which it is presented, and at the same time not to smear it with fat dripping compliments about the brand, which would not serve Not the readers' trust in the (brilliant) message, nor what the brand wanted to show, but the fact that it understands, researches or controls its field of activity.

and foremost:

that provides information about the brand, its features, activities, etc.

The products range, as mentioned, over a very wide scale, from a product that serves the brand to one that causes damage to it.

(TV studio, radio, etc.) can be used for marketing, if (again) we have chosen the way in which we will convey the messages (and implemented it) in a smart way.

In programs where the interviewer smiles amusedly and marvels when the interviewee on behalf of the brand tells him about a feature that will at most delay a yawn in the watching consumer - this is only evidence that whoever managed the project simply did not bother to think too much.

Perhaps it is better not to discuss too much about recommendation series "on behalf of", in an age where users have long known better than us how to search for their recommendations.

She's not mistaken: as in other fields - when we take what we do seriously, even marketing content that deals directly with the brand can be interesting, refreshing, attractive, motivating.

Take for example this item that talks (and illustrates) about virtual houses, or this Gucci project.

Something worth understanding, again in the context of how much effort we are willing to put in (pay attention to the example of Apple later) in building content that will really work for us marketing-wise, and over time - is the fact that there are platforms that invest a lot in order to provide their advertisers with a truly worthwhile content production mechanism.

See for example the Brand Studio that the New York Times sets up for clients.

respect.

And the truth is that last week Nitzan Evron, the manager of Meta Israel's business activities, invited me to visit the Creative Season activity, a whole initiative of Meta's Israeli branch, which aims to put the Creative Shop team (Meta's in-house creative professionals who help customers improve and focus creative more effective for platforms like Reels) available to customers,

In any case, the advertorials are not exactly the more 'open' category in terms of a space of options and tools that will fit into the brand's content strategy.

Let's proceed to the next categories.

2. "Branded Content" - Branded Content

It can be said that branded content is an intermediate work, perhaps the fruit of the understanding that content should be interesting, and if it revolves mainly around the brand or the product, it someday stops being news.

Branded content, by and large, means that we don't echo our brand in the content, not directly at least, but rather allow readers to "access" the item by making available to them other content that we assume is of interest to them (for example, because they are already consuming it elsewhere) Either it reminds them of something, or it evokes identification in them, and our brand is integrated into it or in close proximity to it, but the difference is that the content does not necessarily tell our story.

It can have a plot or a life of its own, and we can integrate into it as Enablers, as those who maybe "bring it into print", who finance it, who enable the pan (and want to derive sympathy, interest or attention from it).

The concept that brands use branded content in order to emphasize their values, not necessarily the products or services - does not always hold water.

As in "marketing/advertising articles/on behalf of/in collaboration" that sometimes the wrong hands hold them (initiate or produce them) and as they went up in the air so they went down, without changing anything for too many people - so you can also find content from a brand that between it and a contribution to the brand will be separated by an abyss As between the frustrated New York geek and the plans of the self-absorbed chic who abuses him, in the example we gave here:

To the credit of the Keystone beer brand, the video is part of a relatively consistent series about guys who usually go out saxing at the moment of truth in front of a balanced female character, but I don't remember when anyone remembered the name of the brand at the end of the first viewing, when I showed the video.

That means a lot.

In fact, branded content stands out as something that should dress the brand on a story that stands on its own merits.

Storytelling, a developed and important subject in itself - is mentioned as a necessary option in the marketing toolbox when it comes to generating interest, certainly around the features of our product there is a limit to how far we can describe them or sail gracefully.

The skill of producing a good story according to different requirements or activities is something you don't buy at the grocery store, and probably not in a creative writing course either (which can direct and guide this ability, if you came with it or part of it).

Some of those who know how to do this have long since become following magnet content creators.

Marketing managers who wish to promote branded content should also use those with such capabilities.

And the truth?

It is precisely under branded content products that you can find quite a few interesting examples that arouse curiosity and appreciation.

Will even such good examples reach a wide consciousness or deliver the goods?

Not always, but the alternative is absent sophistication is certainly not preferable.

What am I talking about?

See for example what a brand that makes an effort from a product that is supposed to be boring and 'soulless' does:

And also the Outtake that Old Space did according to Marvel's THOR.

Oldspace gets a central role in the plot.

Smell like a god.

Or the next best thing, an actor playing a god.

Smell like Actor Thor with Old Spice Dry Spray.

#SmellWorthy @MarvelStudios' #ThorLoveAndThunder Now Playing Only in Theaters.

— Old Spice (@OldSpice) July 14, 2022

When will you use branded content:

• As mentioned, when you want to refine messages that through "regular" advertising it will be difficult to sharpen attention around them, and the story you will dress for will serve as a key.

• When you want to convey emotional messages, to fight, to generate identification, sympathetic perceptions towards the brand.

• When you want to create a sense that your brand is part of cultural "food ancestors", not to mention hitching a ride on the fame of an entertainment icon/other.

• When you want to maintain marketing maintenance, announce that you are still "kicking".

• And also when you look for sharper ways to introduce a new product or category.

Forms/Patterns of Branded Content:

A less conducive example to me, despite being a custom rider, is the film Harley Davidson and the Marlborough Man starring Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson (1991).

And indeed, according to the statement at the beginning of the film, the brand neither requested nor financed its inclusion.

The film is a kind of "sticker" of typical American action films, which is not artistically renewed and certainly does not communicate encouraging values ​​of the brand.

Take a taste:

TV series

vs. the previous example - here is an example that involves a crazy investment, but one that was done right.

The brand is, well, Apple.

Apple created an actual TV series, with a cast that includes, mind you, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon among others.

The series was called The Morning Show, and dealt with the struggles that can be found in modern workplaces, above and below the desk.

The donation to Apple?

Combining its various products in a series to illustrate how they are an integral (and valuable) part of our daily lives.

UGC (User Generated Content)

You will find a valuable example in the company that perseveres with a content strategy that creates great interest and appreciation when it arrives (not least thanks to their consistency in shattering the "common" ideal of beauty), DOVE.

In the case below DOVE (the people. It's always the people) initiated a campaign under the hashtag "showus", in which they invited women who feel they are different but are proud of it - to share their story.

The products were videos and over 600,000 (!) Instagram posts.

What is more important here is that the brand, without a shadow of a doubt - has been enough to make millions of women happy in the world.

He profited from it big time, but also did something not only for himself, and beat even the cynicism.

Food for thought.

DOVE Showus (Photo: screenshot, Instagram)

Using a popular trend (such as memes)

Another example that will probably bring a smile to the face of the female audience among us is Tinder's campaign, #MenProvement (yes, 'fix' men with an inappropriate attitude) that did the right thing and directly addressed the desired audience (women) with what is interesting to hear them (from amplifiers, and because

Tinder collaborated with creators and the result was posts, memes and humorous videos (some of which received millions of views) in which women are seen taking the initiative and using futuristic technology to "enhance" men.

Here is an example:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Shitheadsteve (@shitheadsteve)

Of course it doesn't end here.

If you understood the principle, which says that the brand will be integrated into the content in one way or another, but the content can stand on its own and does not necessarily deal with the brand directly, you can define for yourself what branded content is according to the items you come across, including video, branded podcast studies, and more.

3. "Marketing through (/by) content" - Content Marketing

As we mentioned at the beginning of the discussion - Outbrain and Tabula asked the brands to upload content

to the reader, at an adequate level, and one that does not "push" sales in the nostrils but provides information, sometimes in-depth, interesting, professional, fresh - that the consumer can read and say to himself something like "Guys They understand what they're talking about, and they don't approach me with shekel manipulations, and it seems to me that there's reason to believe that they understand what they're dealing with, at least according to the article, so maybe it's worth checking out their service/product."

When the content is good, relevant, worthy and not just based on trends or "what's hot" - the audience is not a layman as we tend to label it too often.

This trend used a name slightly different from "content marketing", although close enough to confuse: "

(or "marketing by content") and in English, simply

.

The name existed even before them, and the trend was expressed earlier in non-digital content, but digital released a bottleneck.

In my opinion, a lot of water has passed since then, and content recommendation platforms have been swarmed by the flies that come to every meal, i.e. everyone who holds a keyboard and wants to market something because "everyone is doing it" - and since then, unfortunately, they too have succumbed somewhere to mediocrity and so you can find clickbait representatives at the level of riflemen in their feed 2 that is absent from ranges.

This is how (in a random example) it could look:

Content recommendations (photo: screenshot, Yaron Other)

Ask yourself how the power of the content is used here to differentiate the text from a simple advertisement or casual Hard-Sale ad.

The answer will help you understand how much we have loosened our grip on what we thought we had learned.

Maybe it's time to call for a refresh of the threshold conditions for entering an Outbrain or Tabula feed, but that's already a topic for another item.

At the moment, what is important is to explain that Outbrain and Tabula contributed to the industry more strongly at the beginning (today they are trying to contribute more things) the demand from marketing people to stop asking them to enlarge the logo and start asking themselves how to make a great impression without telling how good you are.

To provide the consumer with something without ringing the cash register the second he finished reading.

This contribution did good for the field called marketing content (as mentioned until the boundaries were blurred again), and in my opinion both Outbrain and Tabula should promote tools and trends that will encourage marketers to create better content that will make a difference and highlight their unique place (instead of concentrating on headlines like "This is the savings plan that will forever change the financial security of your children").

I know that they have already touched on this before, but I still believe that we should push much more towards what brought about the revolution at the time instead of succumbing to the virality of the mediocrity and the pressure of the "merchants", those for whom 'making progress' means exceeding the monthly target even by a single percent, because "it What's important".

Content marketing, if it wasn't obvious by now - is a great way to generate differentiation, trust and preference, when done right.

And it is an excellent way to build a long-term relationship with consumers, which is not actually based on benefits or baits.

Want examples that illustrate how this category can be incredibly simple and smart at the same time?

Please: take a look at Canva's 'Design School', H&M's fashion magazine, Spotify Wrapped (which allows users to express their musical taste in a creative way), or Digital Olympus' 'Expert Round' (which brought together photography experts who shared their techniques ), and be sure there are countless other mind-opening examples.

When you want to reach new audiences, when you need to explain in depth why and how your value proposition is better, when you want to impress relevant audiences without "pushing", when you want to create a preference when you find that it is more difficult for you to present something different compared to the competitors in other tools for reasons such as limited space for the message or a different approach, less Patient, for regular ads versus content tools.

Professional article, professional event, webinar, newsletter, blog, test cases, studies, analyses, infographics, professional social accounts, communities, guides, and more.

All that is required of us is, simply, not to treat these tools as ready-made templates that can be entered into the content of anything, but to ask ourselves how interesting and beneficial it is to the user, at the same time that it serves the strategic goals we have set for ourselves.

What else will you see on the field?

Marketing content has come a long way since media people discovered the "secret" to mention products or brands 'in passing' within a content object (film, article, broadcast) that does not directly discuss the brand or the product itself.

This category (or part of it) is also called

, and sometimes you will also hear the words "covert advertising".

The claim that covert advertising contaminates the "real" content comes up from time to time, but to be fair one should ask

content (and isn't the content on the net contaminated anyway in the absence of clear rules for what constitutes proper marketing content and what constitutes proper content in general, in an era where the item titles indicate that the yellow dominates, and not only in Bloomfield).

And if the advertising is "hidden" - how can the brand stand "in the face of all", declare its advantages and praise its products?

I prefer to leave this type of discussion for another discussion, and talk about

which is produced by or with the involvement of the brand, and on the ways to make it more convincing, relevant, not banal.

And finally, it seems that the most significant category worth mentioning as part of the field where content and marketing are involved is the category

.

These recently received a series of 3 articles about influencers and content creators in which we surveyed the field and the position of the professionals, the offices, the media representatives and the creators themselves - regarding the trends and phenomena accompanying the category.

The term Creators Economy came up and continues to receive mentions, and it seems that the power of the "creator crowd", which is used as media, as a mouthpiece, as a marketing channel, as a conduit and as a different way (not always) to convey messages - is something that cannot be treated as a side channel.

Giant entities treat it with the utmost respect, manage relationships, sign creative contracts and invest a lot of thought in planning the way to the hearts of consumers through their idols.

Even in this project, consisting of 3 articles, quite a few "reflections" arose about the authenticity associated with a content creator who promotes and recommends a product that he might not have shown interest in if a contract had not been involved;

about the contribution to the brand from an influencer who may soon recommend a direct competitor;

and about the involvement (or the desire to reduce the involvement) of the advertisers in the content, when the talents ask for creative freedom and the brand wants to convey the message that was conveyed through other channels, even if sometimes it will not fit the new medium.

If the issues are similar, it seems that the central essence of the entire discussion is how to make the content in marketing correct, authentic, relevant, and above all one that can really reach consumers, and not be used as a decoration on the systemic content pages, which will only be looked at in the absence of other worthy news, and the main value it will create will be The satisfaction of the content person who put it on the air and finished the duties for the working day.

The time has come for us to define rules for integrating content in marketing in a proper way, beyond the type of label accompanying the item.

And this matter is worth discussing in the group, along with promoting the willingness to make better content, for marketing's sake or for heaven's sake.

(As mentioned, the Academic Library is a partner in this item, and deserves sincere thanks for "keeping what is written", did not interfere in the content, but stood by its statement and promise to promote knowledge in the worlds of marketing, advertising and digital, as a body that is one of the fields of study that it puts at the forefront of the stage. Thanks).

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