You might have noticed that something is brewing in the advertising and marketing world. Terms such as content, branded content, and content marketing are circulating around. If you realize that 63% of purchase decisions start with an online search, you can appreciate the importance of offering content at the right time, at the right place, and to the right person. Content is therefore a hot topic, but at the same time a term that is used too often. It is therefore good to give meaning to (branded) content and content marketing. A definition is in order:
Content marketing is the publishing of information (content) by organizations as a marketing tool that is relevant, credible, and valuable to their target audience and meets their information needs with the goal of, for example, purchasing a product or service.
Simply put: marketing through content. Nevertheless, content remains a generic term despite this definition. The form of content marketing is very broad. This is because it is not tied to a specific medium. Content can therefore be anything: from online, print, broadcasting to face-to-face communication.
Robert Rose, Chief Strategy Officer of the Content Marketing Institute explains it as follows:
‘Traditional marketing and advertising is telling the world you're a rock star. Content Marketing is showing the world that you are one.’
It becomes interesting when you place content next to advertising. Advertising is a form of communication that aims to promote or advertise something or someone to others. Of course, it is important that the advertising message is relevant to the target audience. It is not for nothing that advertising creatives place their concepts along the Relevant, Original, and Impactful measurement. However, other pillars such as "credible" and "valuable" are often given less attention in advertising. This is where the difference may lie.
Good content is something that the consumer voluntarily and actively wants to take in. And advertising is often not. Or another step further: good content is something that the consumer is willing to pay for. But perhaps that is still too far. There are brands, such as the Swedish fashion house Acne, that dare to ask for ten euros for their branded magazine. Would there be consumers who are willing to pay for Red Bull TV?