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Huffington Post to Manage Content Sites for Brands

huffington post logoThe Huffington Post is known for its relentless pursuit of mastering search engine optimization techniques and creating content that people want to read. Now, The Huffington Post wants to give extend that expertise into a new revenue opportunity by creating content sites for brands. Ad Age reports that the new content sites will likely be white-labeled versions of the Huffington Post publishing platform, and brands could either manage the sites themselves once they’re up and running or The Huffington Post can manage the sites on an ongoing basis by helping with content creation, curation (including content from The Huffington Post), and distribution.

The reason for this new push is simple. Brands are realizing they need to be in the content publishing business. Content marketing is powerful, but few brands have the in-house talent and expertise to instantly be great publishers. The Huffington Post has been perfecting its publishing strategy for several years, and brands could surely benefit from that experience.

For media companies, giving brands an opportunity to own a space on a media website has been a marketing strategy for years, but bringing the media company to the brand is a new twist that has a really good chance of working — assuming the price is right. Rumor has it that The Huffington Post will urge participating brands to use parent company AOL’s Devil ads or other AOL proprietary ads on their white-labeled sites. However, the AOL advertising team claims this won’t be a requirement (at least not yet).

Participating brands will also get access to the same analytics and content performance reports that The Huffington Post uses to manage its own content strategy. Of course, it can be assumed that much of the behind-the-scenes performance analysis that The Huffington Post does is coveted intellectual property. It remains to be seen if the reports brands will get truly are the same ones that The Huffington Post uses. Even a confidentiality agreement could be risky for The Huffington Post in this area.

According to Ad Age, a major consumer goods advertiser is already in discussions with The Huffington Post (through Razorfish) to create a branded website with lifestyle content. We’ll have to wait to see the rest of this story play out. What do you think?

CEOs Cite Social Media as Number 2 in Hierarchy of Customer Interaction Methods

ibm ceo study bookletTraditional marketing practice for years has placed face-to-face as the number one method of interacting with consumers with websites coming in second place. However, new research by IBM, which surveyed over 1,700 CEOs across 18 industries and 64 countries, reveals that CEOs expect social media to steal the second spot within three to five years. Traditional media will plummet to the bottom of the hierarchy of customer interaction methods during that time.

At the heart of social media is transparency, and CEOs are catching on that people expect honesty and forthrightness from brands and companies just as they expect those traits in other people. Many CEOs who responded to the IBM in-person interview research study indicated that they’re prioritizing internal openness through a more social workplace. Of the top 20% of companies included in the study (based on revenue and growth) nearly one out of two reported that they promote social workplaces and openness in an effort to increase collaboration.

However, the social media learning curve is still huge, particularly where performance measurement is concerned. The majority of CEOs indicate that they don’t have access to the data they need to make decisions. For those companies that have found ways to measure social media efforts and turn that data into strategic decision-making, there is a new understanding that engaging consumers, lengthening conversations, and listening to people can mean the difference between brand success and failure in the future.

The hierarchy of customer interaction methods looks like this today according to the IBM report:

  1. Face-to-face
  2. Websites
  3. Channel partners
  4. Call centers
  5. Traditional media
  6. Advisory groups
  7. Social media

CEOs don’t expect that hierarchy to stay the same for long. Is your brand ready for the shift? There’s no turning back now. Leave a comment and share your thoughts on the future of the hierarchy of customer interaction methods.

Image: IBM

Feed Your Branding Addiction with Logo Game Apps

Time to have some fun with branding. After all, branding is a creative process, and we need ways to keep our creative juices flowing! For most of us who work in the world of branding, it’s a bit of an addiction, and we feel more for logos than people who don’t share our addiction. Fortunately, there are ways to feed our branding addictions, even when we’re on the go.

Thanks to some really cool logo game apps for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, you can quiz yourself anytime you want. Put your logo knowledge to the test with any of these free and affordable games. But I warn you, once you start, it’s hard to stop guessing logos!

iPhone and iPad Apps

Logo Quiz: There are two versions of this app. Logo Quiz Free and Logo Quiz which costs $0.99. The paid version offers a few more features, but give the free version a try first.

logo quiz free

Logos Quiz Game: This is another great option for a logo game. It’s free and offers fun features like challenging friends.

logos quiz iphone

Android Apps

Logo Quiz: The free Logo Quiz app is one of the most popular free games downloaded from Google Play.

logo quiz android

Logos Quiz: This is another very popular free Android app that you can use to test your logo knowledge.

logos quiz android
All of these apps are fun, and they’re sure to feed your branding and logo addiction for many hours. Take a look at your mobile device display when a variety of logos are shown together. Which stand out? Which colors jump out at you, and which shapes are most eye-catching? Your customers are moving more and more to becoming completely mobile. Is your brand ready for mobile consumers? Not only can these apps be fun, but they can jump start your thinking about how your brand identity will transition to the mobile space.

Images: App Store, Google Play

Coca-Cola Takes Content Marketing to a New Level with the Content 2020 Project

coca-cola company content 2020 projectThe Coca-Cola Company is prioritizing content more than ever in its marketing strategy as part of a new mission to move from “creative excellence to content excellence” through its Content 2020 Project in the U.K.  The company defines content as “the creation of stories that are to be expressed through every possible connection.” For the Coca-Cola Company, “each story must have value and significance to people’s lives.”

The Coca-Cola Company views content as an opportunity to “create ideas that are so contagious, they cannot be controlled.” The company calls these ideas “liquid” and explains them as follows:

“[Liquid ideas] are so innately relevant to our business objectives, our brand, and consumer interests, we call this ‘linked’ and through the stories we tell, we will provoke conversations and earn a disproportionate share of popular culture.”

Using a Conversation Model, the Content 2020 Project starts with brand stories that become liquid ideas to which the company reacts. Leveraging technology, the Project is built on what the Coca-Cola Company refers to as a “demand culture where consumers can turn their demands on 24 hours a day.”

You can learn more about the Content 2020 Project in the two-part videos below.



Already, the Coca-Cola Company has launched a variety of content initiatives on Twitter, Facebook, videos, live online events, and blogs as part of the Content 2020 Project. With a goal to increase reliance on listening to consumers and engaging with them to gain deeper insights than traditional market research can provide, the Coca-Cola Company expects that the Project will enable it to create content that can be flexible and evolve with consumers’ demands.

What do you think of the Content 2020 Project? Leave a comment and share your thoughts on the Coca-Cola Company’s new strategic focus on content marketing.

The Advertising vs. Social Media Debate

nike appIn a recent speech, Nike vice president of digital sport, Stefan Olander, urged brands to stop focusing on “old metrics” like clicks and likes. As Nicola Clark of Brand Republic reports, Olander stated, “A whole industry is stuck on trying to force old metrics on to new channels. Advertising is a new model that is being squeezed into the new framework of social media, when the fact is that people don’t want to be interrupted.”

There is definitely truth to what Olander says. The power of social media marketing for brands comes from leaving the old-school interruption marketing tactics behind and leveraging opportunities to enhance the online experience instead. However, that doesn’t mean there is no place for advertising within social media.

Olander says, “Nike has moved away from investing in advertising to the creation of digital services such as Nike+. Once you have established a direct relationship with a consumer, you don’t need to advertise to them.” However, that only tells part of the story to brand managers.

The key term in his statement is “once you have established a direct relationship with a consumer.” If you don’t have a relationship with a consumer, advertising plays an important role as part of an integrated marketing plan to increase awareness, recall, trial, and ultimately loyalty. Social media helps to increase the value and depth of those relationships. Furthermore, advertising plays an important role in reaching beyond an existing customer audience.

With that said, social media is a space where brands can deliver meaningful content, conversations, and experiences that enhance people’s online activities, and it’s incredibly effective for pull marketing. Advertising is an example of push marketing. There is still room for both in a marketing plan.

The next step is to create social media experiences that not only add value to consumers’ lives but also add value to the brand’s bottom-line. That’s the piece of the puzzle that most brands haven’t found yet. However, brands like Nike that have had great success with digital services like Nike+ are perfect for benchmarking and learning how to deliver consumer value and revenue value.

What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Evan Wander

South Korea Rebranding the DMZ

korea dmzSixty years ago when the Korean War ended, a four kilometer zone (2 kilometers on either side of the cease fire line) and spanning 248 kilometers was identified as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) where no military equipment or personnel could enter. Of course, that didn’t stop both North and South Korea from lining up millions of soldiers and landmines to guard either side of the DMZ.

Fast forward to 2012 and the DMZ still exists, and has become a popular tourist attraction (complete with lines of observation binoculars, gift shops, and T-shirts for sale) where BBC News reports that 6.5 million people visit every year. The DMZ and approximately 8 kilometers next to the DMZ on the South Korea side has been virtually untouched for six decades because public access to the area has been highly restricted.

As BBC News explains, “Environmentalists say that has created a pristine nature reserve, with thousands of species including rare cranes and Korean flying squirrels.” South Korea plans to turn the area into an eco-tourism zone where instead of visiting “the world’s last divided country,” they can experience wildlife.

With its new plan for the area adjacent to the DMZ ready, the next step for South Korea’s Environment Ministry is changing the perceptions people have of that area and turning a negative into a positive. With that in mind, the government plans to rebrand the area around the DMZ as the PLZ, which stands for the “Peace and Life Zone.”

Overall, this rebranding seems like a good idea. If 6.5 million people visit the DMZ each year, it’s safe to assume that the number will increase with the addition of the new brand positioning of the “Peace and Life Zone” which will include nature trails and more.

What do you think? Will this rebranding be successful? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Justin De La Ornellas