4 Reasons Why Content Marketing is Scaring the Pants Off Media Companies

CMI reporting:
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“When will B2B marketers take their content programs to Pulitzer, NMA, Oscar level?”
It’s an interesting question, and one for which I don’t have a very good answer. Traditionalists will say that because brands always have an ulterior motive for their content (to attract and/or retain customers in some way), that type of content quality will never be possible.
With that, I strongly disagree. All content has a point of view; some is just more obvious about it than others (think Fox News).
I have more to add to this. But first, a few stories…
---This is not a post about how publishing is dead. Far from it; in fact, publishing has never been stronger. What is dying is the business model of ad-supported content. The dozen-plus amazing examples shared at the IAB event provided ample evidence of brand-supported content (like the example to the right, from Cisco Systems), rather than ad-supported content (as in traditional models).
There is nothing to fix here, and no toolkit for marketers or publishers. This is just the truth and, as such, it presents opportunities and challenges for both sides. But from my perspective as a publisher, here are the new paradigms that I see content marketing being driven by:

Brand publishers and media companies have the same goal

Big goal = audience that leads to subscription. Brand publishers are challenged with trying to get found in Google, drive leads, and figure out social media. At the center of making all this happen is storytelling. It’s all about brands creating helpful, valuable, and compelling stories that position them as trusted experts in their fields. That content, if worthy, will convert casual, passerby readers into loyal ones. In turn, those loyal readers may then be converted into loyal customers.
Media companies are trying to do the same thing. Exactly the same thing. The only difference in this business model is that media companies are supported by different revenue streams (paid content or sponsored content).

Brand publishers have almost unlimited resources

A lot has been made of Coca-Cola’s content strategy. The company is investing millions, but let’s put that into perspective:
Coke’s content marketing is a needle in a traditional advertising haystack. It’s simply a rounding area. If Coke ever decided to really get serious, it has more money and resources than any media entity in the world to develop world-class content...
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