Content Drives Revenue: The Art of Brand Integration

Now more than ever it holds true that content drives revenue. Well executed expertly produced content by experienced creators is extremely valuable and measurable. As a panelist and speaker at the 2018 Digital Hollywood Media Summit in New York City and long-time content creator across all platforms, I was engaged in conversations with leading brands, publishers and platform executives who all agree that premium compelling content can be the leading driver to revenue growth–when executed correctly.

All brands and products have a story to tell. Organizations that recognize the value of premium content created by experts for specific platforms, devices, screens and delivery systems rather than a “one size fits all” general distribution model; and, recognize that creators working in tandem with marketers to identify and segment audience will excel at engagement to drive transactions while increasing the ability to identify and build multiple and recurring revenue streams.

Organizations that mitigate risk by protecting their intellectual property; practice high acuity audience segmentation vs. fragmentation; and, create business models with distribution platform diversity will thrive in this exciting, yet, rapidly changing business and social environment.

The production cycle of content creation has not changed much from past decades. What has changed for creators–whether editorial or commercial–is the publishing process and platforms; the ability to laser focus to identify the desired audience; the plethora of digital marketing tools to promote the content to encourage engagement; and, the ability to measure results. Understanding and leveraging the current process and tools available can be a marketer’s dream scenario.

The key for marketers to seamlessly integrate brands into content is to begin by engaging talented creators who have the experience and breadth of knowledge to create and deploy brand integration content via great storytelling. Identifying the right firm or individual to manage and direct the full cycle of each project from ideation to conception to publishing to movement down the marketing funnel and finally measurement, is tantamount in acknowledging that content drives revenue.

Editorial content creators, marketers and audience are all stakeholders in consuming content and driving the desired result. A passionate and engaged audience that becomes evangelists for the creator and/or publisher’s content then becomes the marketer and publisher themselves via social media sharing and online “re” publishing not to mention the all powerful face-to-face endorsement and referrals.

There is a convergence happening and it all begins with compelling content published on the right platforms for the right audience then doing more of what is yielding results and having the swiftness to stop doing what doesn’t work. Organizations that are nimble and data driven and respect the art of storytelling and engage in constant R&D as their culture will lead in transactional growth.

Marshall McLuhan’s 1964 statement that “the medium is the message” has evolved not as a slight to content being second place to the delivery system, rather, as a recognition that brands who embrace and respect the three-legged stool relationship between the creator, the marketer, and the audience as separate yet interdependent entities will build value and market impact.

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Ceslie Armstrong is the executive content producer for Noisy Trumpet, and, Quarter Moon Productions.

Published by Noisy Trumpet in The Rivard Report.