NY Times Sets New Standard For Branded Content

It's been making quite a splash over the past few days, so I thought I'd add my two cents: This new interactive feature from The New York Times's Brand Studio, now running as a "paid post" from Netflix to support the release of "Orange Is The New Black," is a simply phenomenal example of branded content done right. An insightful article, high-quality video, informative graphics, and beautiful artwork—it's a rich, highly engaging feature that does a superb job of illuminating the real stories that inform a series like OITNB.

Much is being made of its "snowfall"-like packaging, and indeed the feature is a nice use of that presentation style, but for me its success is all about the content itself. This is one of the finest examples I've seen of content that meets what I always say are the two fundamental principles of best-in-class branded content for native: 1) It tells a genuine story, using journalistic techniques, and is absolutely not a sales pitch in editorial clothes, and 2) in the native placement on the Times's site, it 100 percent delivers on the same value proposition as the paper's own editorial content. A user who clicks on and consumes that content is not going to feel she was given something lesser, or something that's been compromised, simply because it supports a Netflix product. If you never watch the show, you've still come away with a deeper understanding of an important issue.

That's breakthrough content—and it should be the level to which all brands aspire in their content marketing. Kudos to Netflix for really getting it (we did a similarly immersive piece of branded content for them recently at Condé Nast, for Wired) and to the Times Brand Studio team for showing how it's done.