branded content

CANNES, France — Advertising is no longer the only game in town for brands who want to reach audiences, says a media planning agency exec. “The reason content is now so topical is, brands are increasingly looking for much more ROI,” MediaCom’s global MBA head James Morris tells Beet.TV. “Content elevates itself over and above […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Ad group WPP is already making video and TV shows on behalf of advertisers, through its GroupM Entertainment division. But it wants to bring distribution platforms together to take its content to larger audiences. “The big aggregators have advantages, whether they’re Yahoo, AOL, Google or YouTube,” says the division’s CEO Peter Tortocici. “They […]

LONDON — High quality and plenty of integrity are important for brands and publishers working together on commercial editorial, says the executive who launched The Guardian’s branded content division this spring. “The most critical thing is to ensure that the caliber of the content, if it is branded, is of such a high standard that […]

LONDON — BuzzFeed’s commercial stock in trade is offering sponsored editorial articles to brand marketers. Now it is extending the offering to digital videos. “We’ve done roughly 1,300 videos, 20% of them have over a million views.” says the publisher’s agency strategy VP Jonathan Perelman, who also recently took on its video GM role. BuzzFeed […]

LOS ANGELES — Agencies have to find new ways of connecting brands to consumers, now that viewers are paying for video that doesn’t have ad support, says one exec. “People are paying for that content. Advertisers have, all along, been supplementing the cost of that for the consumer,” agency MEC‘s North America CEO Marla Kaplowitz tells Beet.TV. […]

New York-based video journalism outfit Beet.TV, this article’s publisher, has been creating events and videos that tell the story of the digital business for the last eight years. Now executive producer Andy Plesser says the industry is about to take off, as attitudes toward branded content converge. “It’s a video-first B2B publishing platform that’s driven […]

VIEQUES, PR — The New York Times’ recent website redesign introduced sponsored articles from brands like Dell. Next up, the paper plans to let marketers reach viewers of its video content. “A brand could sponsor one of our bigger editorial offerings – Dealbook or Bits, 36 Hours, Corner Office,” says NYT video GM Rebecca Howard. “Those […]

One month ago, music streamer Spotify made a change which lets mobile and tablet users listen to more music for free. Previously, off-PC usage required a premium subscription. But Spotify’s change is not just a goodwill gift to users – it points to the growing part advertisers play in a business that has always relied […]

LAS VEGAS — Branded content is hot in marketing land. Now Starcom Mediavest Group (SMG’s) is saving brands the trouble of creating their own content – by obtaining publishers’ permission to re-publish theirs. SMG’s new Content@Scale CMS, launched this week, ingests text articles and images from Ahalogy, Demand Media, Glam Media, Forbes, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, Parade, […]

LAS VEGAS – Content@Scale, the new content marketing platform launched by Starcom Mediavest Group, will soon add video capability to its text article re-distribution offering. The service lets marketers licence “evergreen” articles from 15 US publishers to re-use as content in display ad units. Flite CEO Will Price, whose technology powers the service, says he […]

CANNES – Marketers should be on the lookout for new ways to blend storytelling into branded content, says Bob Lord, Global CEO of Razorfish in an interview with Beet.TV. As an example, he points to a recent effort by Razorfish client Citibank in which the marketer helped to curate the AOL Business channel. “We bought […]

CANNES – Time was, New York-based Outbrain mostly helped news site readers find interesting stories to read on other news sites. Now that any brand can be a news outlet, however, Outbrain is finding a growing content customer base amongst marketers, too. “We are just enjoying this huge uptake in content marketing that brands are getting […]