Modern Brands and Publishers Figure Out what Readers Want

While attending ThinkLA’s Automotive Breakfast on the topic of Branded Content, a panelist shared Tom Fishburn’s marketing cartoon featuring a little girl being tucked into bed by her father. The caption read, “Daddy, instead of a story, can you read me some Branded Content.” While the audience chuckled at the absurdity of anyone actually WANTING to read a brand sponsored story, I was struck by how outdated the perspective of the cartoon was since it was originally published in September 2013.

Today, many brands and publishers have discovered ways to tell compelling stories that their intended audience actually WANTS to spend time with. From Red Bull to Marriott, brands are realizing it can be much more effective to engage their audience in a compelling story versus targeting at them with disruptive advertising they want to avoid.

At ThinkLA, another buzz topic was “Native”. It’s clear that many agencies, publishers and platforms mistakenly think “Native” means to have placement in the center of the news/edit “feed” or “stream”. From Nativo to Sharethrough, brands are being sold programmatic distribution of “native” branded content. However, if the branded story isn’t truly endemic to the editorial environment it’s as if the brand party crashed the audience’s newsfeed. This is as “native” as a good ole banner. To be sure, placement alone doesn’t make branded content “native”.

Branded content, with native placement, works best when context and content are working together to bring something of value to the audience. That value can be in the shape of something entertaining, useful or informative.

A recent example of a brand and publisher doing it right is the AARP and AVIS “America’s Favorite Road Trip” branded content initiative. This program was powered by AARP’s recently launched BrandAmp multi-media experience content platform. With a membership of over 37 million people and a dedicated travel center on its site (which experiences over 13MM monthly uniques), AARP set the right context for members to vote on their favorite road trip. The Avis branded content entertained and engaged the audience in a story and inspired them to take action. The high levels of engagement earned by the content indicated this was exactly the kind of story the audience wanted to see.

Once the AARP community selected the Pacific Coast Highway as America’s favorite road trip, new content inspired a road trip from Santa Cruz, through Carmel, Monterrey, Big Sur and ending up in Santa Barbara.

The branded content hub provided members informative and inspiring videos accompanied by a list of things to do along the way. How valuable!

With content and context in harmony, this AARP BrandAmp program set the bar for how to deliver a content experience the customer actually wants to spend time with (on average members spend 15 minutes on the site).

After the ThinkLA event wrapped up in Beverly Hills, inspired by the AARP and AVIS program, I took my rental car out on a drive along the PCH. When I arrived back home in Michigan, I tucked my daughter into bed and told her a story all about America’s Favorite Road Trip.

This story was sponsored by AARP. Opinions are my own.