In this pre-Christmas episode, Robert and I discuss the phone number list meteoric growth of T Brand Studio, the content studio of The phone number list New York Times, and predict what will happen to Madison Avenue agencies if they ignore it. Next, we reflect on Shafqat Islam's 2016 content marketing predictions and highlight where our opinions align and diverge from his predictions. Finally, we question the wisdom of Basecamp by moving their blog phone number list to Medium. They do this on the assumption that Medium will not attempt to monetize the Basecamp blog without its permission. We think Basecamp executives could end up with coal in their stocking stuffers. Moments and accolades include revival in scripted phone number list content and a review of Joe's 2016 predictions.
1. Content Marketing in the News
Industrial Strength Branded Content (5:20): Last year, The phone number list New York Times created an entire division devoted to producing and marketing content for its advertisers, T Brand Studio. In less than 12 months, it has a staff of 50 and revenue in the range of $30-40 million - 15-20% of the $200 million the NYT will earn this year in digital advertising. . Robert warns what will happen phone number list to Madison Avenue agencies if they continue to ignore the growing threat posed by major media content studios. He and I agree that there are a lot of risks in simply outsourcing content creation and distribution to an ad agency or phone number list content studio, and we explain why.
2. Sponsor (36:25)
Visual storytelling takes a village: In most businesses, creating rich media content isn't an evolutionary process. Whether your organization uses internal teams, agencies, or freelancers to phone number list create these assets, creative efforts seem more disparate, ad hoc, and siled than ever. Simply put, good visual storytelling takes a village - but that village seems to be getting bigger and bigger. This new white paper from Widen explains how to turn it into an effective community that can work together phone number list to streamline critical creative processes. You can download this white paper at http://bit.ly/widen-visual-storytelling.
3. Rants and raves (39:23)
Robert's rant: A new Wall Street Journal article has raised Robert's ire this week. According to research by FX Networks, there are a record 409 scripted TV shows on broadcast, cable and streaming services this year. It attempts to demonstrate that a glut of scripted shows is to blame for the phone number list network's depressed ratings. Robert calls bullshit on that claim and explains why new distribution models are driving an unprecedented creative renaissance in television content. The key to success in the phone number list Brave New World of TV content is remarkably similar to the challenge content marketers face today.
4. This former marketing example of the week (53:52)
Rudolph the phone number list Red-Nosed Reindeer: During the first part of the 20thcentury, the Montgomery Ward department store chain produced Christmas-themed coloring books, which were given to children phone number list as Christmas gifts to entice parents to visit and shop in its stores. In 1939, Montgomery Ward chose Robert May, an editor employed by the company, to write the coloring book.
Inspired by the phone number list story of the ugly duckling, May wrote a wonderful story of a misfit reindeer named Rudolph. During this project, May's wife died of a long cancer, leaving him with a mountain of medical bills. During the 1939 Christmas season, 2.4 million copies of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer were distributed. In 1947, as interest in this wonderful Christmas story grew, May convinced the phone number list president of the company to assign the copyright to her. Soon after, he was able to turn that gift into a hit song performed by Gene Autry, two stop motion animated TV shows, games, toys, clothes and more.