media update’s Nikita Geldenhuys asked content marketing agencies with publishing capabilities why publishing should be part of every content marketer’s arsenal. 

How brand publications have evolved

“Content marketing has its origins in branded publications. When I started in content marketing a decade ago, it was mostly called custom publishing,” says Robyn Daly, content director at Narrative.

“Mostly, this was big-budget print publishing for brands with big print budgets. By the time we launched Narrative in 2013, there was a growing need for digital content marketing, which gives smaller brands the opportunity to own media and to connect with customers in their most relevant space, including online and social.”

What started out as print publications produced on behalf of brands has become a multi-platform, data-driven marketing practice known as content marketing.

In the early days of global content marketing agency Cedar Communications’ 43 year existence, it produced mainly printed content in the form of magazines for progressive brands that understood the need to engage with their customers.

The concept of using content to engage with customers evolved into content marketing across platforms, as Cedar SA MD Helena Gavera explains: “As content marketers, we have to connect brands with their audiences, create awareness, and encourage action on whatever platform the brand’s audience is found – whether that is a print, digital, or social platform, television, radio or a billboard.”

For John Brown Media, what started out as editorialised, branded content, has now become data-driven branded journalism. According to Justine Drake, content director at John Brown Media, the agency recently trademarked the term “Intelligent Content”.

“To unpack that phrase, we use the extensive data we have access to through our holding company, Dentsu Aegis Network, to understand our client’s customers and create a multi-platform content strategy that puts the client, not the brand, at the heart of all communication.”

Opportunities in printed brand magazines

The amount of online publications and digital platforms disseminating content is staggering. Yet, it doesn’t mean branded print publications have lost their place as a channel for content.

Daly believes print still has a significant role to play, especially because the audience’s content experience and brand connection generally lasts longer than it does with digital storytelling.

Gavera is of the same opinion: “I firmly believe that printed publications still play a quality role in the content marketing mix. This is especially true in the South African context where broadband and data costs are still expensive, and where mass audiences that are less technology-savvy can still be reached via print.”

“There is a big opportunity to surprise, delight, educate, and engage the many and not only the few with print.

Digital and print publications work together

Content marketing doesn’t have to be exclusively print or digital. Gone are the days where one channel, whether print, digital or social, had to take the lead. “Content does not have to be created in print or digital first,” says Gavera. “It is all about understanding the customer journey and how content marketers use content to engage each touchpoint on the journey.”

Cedar SA’s ‘#12rings12designers12dresses’ campaign for Sterns (part of TFG Group) is an example. The campaign started as a bridal event at the annual Mercedes-Benz AFI Fashion Week in 2016. This event formed the basis of a year-long content and video strategy for Sterns’ website and its social media platforms.

Printed content followed as booklets were inserted into newspapers and magazines, and PR articles covering the event rounded off the multi-channel content distribution and amplification initiative.

That said, Drake points out that while digital can live without print, print can no longer live without digital. “Print is at its most powerful when supported and amplified by digital media – from something as simple as a tweet or Instagram post alerting folk to the latest issue of a magazine, to podcasts and videos that enrich and bring the print content to life.”

“In 2017, no print campaign should leave digital communications out.”

Fresh Living magazine by John Brown Media is an example of how a magazine translates into a 360-degree content marketing campaign, Drake tells media update.

“The customer, in this case the PnP smart shopper, is at the heart of everything we do,” she explains. The recipes and photographs that appear in the print publication are reused on social media, in newsletters, and in bespoke emailers. Many of these recipes also find their way onto Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram in the form of videos.

Every brand can leverage publishing for content marketing

Mark Beare, director at The Publishing Partnership, explains that the Internet allows all brands to harness publishing as a form of content marketing. “The barriers to entry are significantly lower. What content marketing offers is the chance to build on the essence of the brand by telling its story. Content allows you to position yourself as a source of authoritative information.”

He notes digital platforms also allow brands to create highly targeted content, which has not always been possible with print publications. “Digital is much more responsive and you’ve also got fabulous tools to track behaviour and engagement levels.”

Beare says South African brands are increasingly using publications as content marketing. “I also think that we’re in a very fast-moving environment and people are recalibrating all the time. What digital has done is it has put content front and centre as a piece of the business strategy.”

“How that articulates, will change over time.”

Traditional branded publications have evolved to become part of a multi-channel content marketing strategy for businesses. This role will continue to transform as content-dissemination platforms develop, which means branded publishing is in for an exciting ride.

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