Water Cooler Talk: What’s the Future of Content Marketing?

Members of The Advertising Club of New York’s Board of Directors weigh in with their perspectives on the significance and future of content marketing

Editor's Note: Once again, we gather some ad agency friends around the virtual water cooler to get their answers to a burning industry question. Today some leading members of the Advertising Club of New York’s Board of Directors share their views on the next steps in the evolution of content marketing.

Paul Reilly, Senior Director, BBDO
There is a story behind every brand. Whether we’re talking about its name, how it was made, where it came from, or how it’s used, every aspect of a brand’s being is part of a broader story. Content marketing is simply another way to tell that story. And more often than not, it tells the story from the point of view of how that brand fits into a consumer’s life.

True content marketing is about brands engaging consumers, not just as advertisers, but also as publishers, writers, and directors. It’s not about brands talking only about themselves, but about the things that make consumers’ lives better. In an environment where consumers do everything they can to avoid interruption, content marketing is a way to add value and get the consumer’s willing attention and engagement.

To be truly successful, content marketing requires not just great creative storytelling, but access to a meaningful audience. This can be achieved through:

• Integration: delivering content through a publisher that provides the right audience

• Curation: receiving content from others and publishing it; or

• Creation: publishing original content in a way that will build your audience.

In the future, content marketing will become more customized, more visual, more collaborative, and more real time. Just like everything else.

Gina Grillo, President and CEO, The Advertising Club of New York

Compared to 15-20 years ago before digital really exploded, we have more opportunities than ever to engage with audiences through the delivery of original online content. It's widely believed that content is the future of marketing, but exactly how content marketing will impact the industry in the next five years is impossible to predict because it’s evolving at such a rapid pace.

One thing is certain: Growth and new opportunities are definitely in the forecast. According to a recent Econsultancy/Responsys survey, 71% of brands plan to increase their content marketing budgets in 2013. And as budgets grow over the next few years, we’ll see more brands introduce their own content platforms and leverage content to connect with their audiences.

No matter what the future holds, content marketing will always come down to consumers and what’s important to them. The most successful marketers will be those who put the consumer at the center of their decisions at all times.

Laurel Rossi, President, Havas Worldwide Strategy Farm

Today’s consumers are demanding more information to help them make their buying decisions, which is a big departure for a marketing industry that has been dictated by short messages and pithy headlines.

The ability to instantly access expertise via technology has made content the most powerful commodity a brand can offer today. Content is the new value-add for brands. It trumps price in defining the value equation between a brand and customers because it offers an ongoing promise that a brand can keep delivering. For marketers, content offers the ability to keep customers engaged in their brand indefinitely, as long as it’s built on the same authentic and unique tenets as their brands. No brand can escape the customer’s expectation that its content should come with the same information, expertise, and insider knowledge on which the brand was built.

The industry now measures every step along the decision journey, and there’s nothing as powerful as expert content in moving customers from decision point to decision point. When done authentically, content is produced more efficiently, readily measurable, and delivered in more intimate channels.

Heide Gardner, Senior Vice President, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Interpublic Group
More and more, we’re seeing brands act like publishers to win people’s attention through compelling content. For example, one of the newest units within our PR firm Weber Shandwick is called MediaCo. Its very creation was based on the idea that all our clients are now media owners and publishers.

This change brings shifts in key business roles and new roles that marketers must fill now, such as Chief Content Officer, Chief Listening Officer, Managing Editor, and Director of Audience. This means that today’s marketers must be storytellers, project managers, “air traffic controllers” ---the list goes on. With all that’s happening in the marketplace, I think the industry sometimes loses sight of other important issues related to meeting today’s marketing challenges , such as ensuring that we have the benefit of true diversity in the most influential roles and ensuring that the content we produce speaks to the needs of diverse groups.

I see content marketing as a huge opportunity. The way we’re selling products and services is changing at a rapid pace. There’s no legacy way of doing things, so let’s open the doors wide as our role as marketers evolves. Today, we’re filling a variety of different shoes and wearing many hats, and these new roles can spur even greater creativity.