Where Content is Headed

"Content surrounds us like Los Angeles smog, so thick and heavy that at times it’s all we can see," writes Jacob Gallagher in a Wall Street Journal story published in January 2019 titled, "The New Branding Strategy: Churn Out 'Content.'"

Gallagher points out that many brands—Starbucks, Brooks Brothers, Range Rover, and many others—"have redefined themselves as content-creating machines." He calls the content of late, "a less promotional, gussied up alternative to say 'advertising,'" noting that "as traditional content—a.k.a. journalism—is faltering, 'content' is thriving...and while image branding is hardly new…the content revolution has given it a whole new set of tentacles."

The "tentacles" Gallagher references are the multitude of channels through which content reaches us today, and it is the proliferation of these channels that has put "content" in its many forms on the map like never before. And what of the content itself? Regardless of where it resides or of its author—be it a brand, an online influencer, or an individual author—the preferred aesthetic used to communicate this content has never been more raw, unfiltered, and real.

"Brands are no longer merely peddling products; they’re producing, unearthing, and distributing information"

"We are, at present, in the midst of a historic transformation for brands and companies everywhere—and it centers on content," notes Alexander Jutkowitz in a Harvard Business Review piece. "Today, large corporations are becoming their own media companies, news bureaus, research universities, and social networks...Brands are no longer merely peddling products; they’re producing, unearthing, and distributing information. And because they do, the corporation becomes not just economically important to society, but intellectually essential as well."

Credibility becomes paramount as part of this new reality for brands. The message matters, and the clarity of the author matters, and the accuracy of the content matters, but so too does the tenor of that message, which appears to be what Gallagher is getting at when he refers to content that is "a less promotional, gussied up alternative to say 'advertising.'"

"There will be no excuse for brands, marketers and influencers to rely solely on canned content"

In an Adweek piece from last year, author TJ Leonard writes that "consumers have flat-out become fatigued with the standard fare historically represented in brand marketing. While the influx of influencers has offset some of this, utilizing more content from the social feeds of creators offers a stronger opportunity to connect with audiences. Not quite the UGC [user generated content] associated with the original social web, not quite the professional aesthetic we expect from Fortune 500 brands, but instead, consumers that want to be able to connect...on a more personal and intimate level. There will be no excuse for brands, marketers and influencers to rely solely on canned content with no personality."

Channels Can't Be the Only Arbiters of Content

The proliferation of communications channels (TikTok, et al.) leads to many more opportunities to create content, and the desire of many to rush towards these channels with great fervor can be palpable. The channels themselves, of course, lend themselves to different kinds of communication, and cross-promotion opportunities if they link to content on other channels, and the content can be optimized based on target audience found more heavily on certain channels. But what Leonard calls "canned content" is canned content, regardless of where it lives. Taking this point even further, it matters less whether or not content being generated is for a paid advertisement, found within a traditional news article, or an ephemeral "story" on an owned social media channel. It has more to do with how you are speaking with the audience you are trying to reach—and even, more broadly speaking, what you should be expecting in return.

"canned content" is canned content, regardless of where it lives.

It's the difference between a highly produced television ad with paid actors and a gritty video clip with real people, the difference between a stodgy corporate brochure espousing company values and an editorial piece that "shows rather than tells" what a company is about through the voices of its own people, the difference between the use of cheesy stock photography and the use real people in real settings, the difference between oblique and empty corporate statements about an industry issue and a welcoming voiceover that accompanies an accessible explainer video, the difference between being singularly focused on telling an audience what you want to say rather than gifting that audience with content that is of value to them in a transparent manner.

Less Commercial. More Editorial.

A documentary-style approach to video content is increasingly being employed as one alternative to the traditional television commercial. Nick Gardner covers this trend in an article in Adweek. He points to the Tribeca X Award, now in its fourth year, bestowed to makers of branded storytelling content, which expanded this category in 2019 to include different lengths of storytelling content. As he alludes to in his piece, HP stole the show in 2019 with this lovely content series titled The History of Memory, which is focused on the deeply meaningful role that photographs play in people's lives. These videos barely mention HP or the item they are trying to sell, which is photo printers; instead, they evoke an emotional feeling associated with a brand (HP is only mentioned at the beginning and end of these videos).

"The 30-second spot just doesn’t cut it anymore."

"Emotional appeals are especially important when it comes to keeping a viewer engaged for a long-form piece of content, which is a common concern among marketers hoping to dip their toes into telling these types of stories," writes Gardner. "At a time when attention spans and therefore ads are continually getting shorter, the idea of foraying into feature-length content can seem daunting and counterintuitive. However, many stories demand additional depth." The subtitle of the article? "The 30-second spot just doesn’t cut it anymore."

LA Times writer Wendy Lee also covered the trend, pointing to the need for a different way to reach today's commercial adverse audiences, those who vote with their thumbs to miss this form of content altogether. "Brands like HP and Apple try film to reach young consumers who skip commercials," she writes. She also quotes Angela Matusik, HP’s head of brand journalism as saying, “the key to standing out from the noise is to tell stories that are genuine and connect with people.” She also snagged a quote from Alison Levin, Roku’s vice president of ad sales and strategy. “The fact that we saw consumers pick to watch it and almost watch it to completion shows how much they value that content,” noted Levin in the story.

Though not quite documentary-style in nature, another type of video content being leveraged by brands leans more heavily on pure narrative. Grab a tissue before you click on the video story by Google called Reunion about a daughter reuniting her father with a childhood friend (while they use actors and prominently show their search product, it's not your typical ad); another moving example is a video short by Gillette about a compassionate son shaving his elderly father.

Instagram's Altered Aesthetic: Real Life as it Happens

On Instagram there is clear evidence to suggest that content that is more "come as you are" just might supplant the channel's far more "posed and staged" tradition of visual content, a trend relevant to brands, influencers, and average users. Taylor Lorenz captures this zeitgeist in her Atlantic story published in April titled "The Instagram Aesthetic is Over." "While Millennial influencers hauled DSLR cameras to the beach and mastered photo editing to get the perfect shot, the generation younger than they are largely posting directly from their mobile phones. 'Previously influencers used to say, ‘Oh, that’s not on brand,’ or only post things shot in a certain light or with a commonality,' says Lynsey Eaton, a co-founder of the influencer-marketing agency Estate Five. 'For the younger generation, those rules don’t apply at all.'"

"aspirational photos did better a few years ago, but now users crave posts that seem to be behind-the-scenes"

The same basic deal is articulated by social media influencer Tavi Gevinson in her article in The Cut. She visited Instagram offices to learn more about how its algorithm may be adjusting for a grittier more realistic look based on user preference. "Celebrities, models, and influencers had recently been coming to them wanting to know why their casual selfies outperform their posed red-carpet photos and editorial shots...aspirational photos did better a few years ago, but now users crave posts what seem to be behind-the-scenes, candid: 'People want to see you letting your hair down.'" (This also comes at a time when Instagram is testing the hiding of their "likes" globally to, as the Financial Times reports, "combat the adverse mental health effects of competitive popularity.") 

It has been widely reported that, by 2020, 82 percent of online content will be video; it stands to reason that a good portion of this content will fall into this more unfiltered category.

Influencers Unfettered in Storytelling

How does this work when companies partner with social media influencers? Rather than force feeding this group a set of highly scripted pieces of content, a more open-ended approach is being employed by some. Author Kristina Monllos chronicled just this scenario in a piece in Digiday about SeatGeek that involved allowing social media influencer David Dobrik the creative freedom to try a different type of story telling than originally imagined: filming moments where he was able to surprise a friend with free tickets to a major sporting event. This led to more than 20 similar campaigns and more than 150 million views. "Instead of one-off deals with a myriad of influencers, all using the same copy to pitch a brand to their followers, marketers and agencies are now...giving influencers more creative control," she writes.

Stock Photography: Less Corporate, More Raw

Need more evidence as to the movement towards more editorial and authentic content? Take a look at what creatives are searching for when it comes to stock imagery. According to a Storyblocks 2020 Creative Trends report, which conducted an analysis of over 105 million image searches of its stock library, a clear theme emerged toward the desire for "raw and real" visual content versus the contrived stock images that have long persisted. As noted in the report, "this trend is sort of the next generation of 'authentic' imagery. We see it moving one step further into images and video that are unpolished and seemingly effortless, appearing much more like user generated content than professional imagery. Think muted colors, handheld cameras, real life 'sets.' Though the style may feel raw, the look is very much intentional." 

Content Strategy Refined—or Reimagined

In a Forbes article published this year, Jessica Weber of Russell Reynolds Associates touches on the more central role that content is playing for many corporate brands. She notes that "consumers are tired of being 'sold' to…brands need to be authentic, offer a point of view or share similar values. They should represent a community to which consumers want to belong."

"brands need to be authentic, offer a point of view or share similar values. They should represent a community to which consumers want to belong."

Tomas Kellner, Chief Storyteller at General Electric, makes a similar point in an article that praises the venerable content work this company has done. He alludes to a content approach that is really about "a transaction where the reader or viewer is paying us with their time, and we are rewarding them for the time spent with a piece of information they can use in their lives."

The takeaway from Weber and Kellner? It is not only the particular style in which the content is being delivered, or even the subject matter of that content, but it is rather the underlying content strategy associated with brands that is being examined. In some cases, the objective of content creation in and of itself may not be immediate sales growth, but rather longer-term brand and reputation building--or, as Weber notes, creating content that amplifies a shared connection to the communities, and even ideologies, "to which consumers want to belong."

"Content creation can no longer be construed as amateur hour. Put another way: just because you can cook food doesn't mean you are a chef."

However, getting to the place where the content being created hits the mark from a "shared values" standpoint involves deep knowledge of what a company is about, insights into how that matches with the core beliefs of their stakeholders, not to mention some pretty solid storytelling chops. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that a good deal of this work is being done by seasoned content creators, former journalists, videographers, and designers in-house. Content creation can no longer be construed as amateur hour. Put another way: just because you can cook food doesn't mean you are a chef.

The Content Team: A New Bolt-on

In an article published in Axios this year, Nicholas Johnston writes that "companies are realizing they need a new weapon in the war for attention: an editor in chief...The proportion of people on LinkedIn who report they work in content/editor roles at non-media companies has grown by 32% in the past decade."

"more than 60 executives leading content strategy at non-media companies...50 percent of them were recruited in the last two years"

This is also backed by research published by Russell Reynold Associates titled The Rise of the Chief Content Officer in Non-Media Companies. The consultancy identified more than 60 executives leading content strategy at non-media companies. One of every four were at Fortune 500 companies. Fifty percent of them were recruited in the last two years. Perhaps not surprisingly, nearly all of them are former journalists—those who have logged a proverbial 10,000 hours in the act of content development and storytelling.

The Content Revolution (or Evolution)

The American speculative fiction writer William Gibson once stated that "the future is already here—it's just not very evenly distributed." The same can be said of where content is headed. In some respects, we've already been there. Gallagher, in his Wall Street Journal piece, refers to the era we are in now as a "content revolution" but is also quick to note that this is only the latest chapter in this story, further engendered by the "tentacles" of social media and other digital channels.

Perhaps not surprisingly, those well-versed in the world of content marketing (the age old practice of using content to educate about a brand versus straight sales collateral content) have done justice to telling the story of how the use of more editorial content has evolved over time.

Content marketers will attest that it was way back in 1904 when a less commercial form of content, known as a free recipe book, was used to sell Jello rather than a straight advertisement. Or they might mention that it was back in 1900 when tire manufacturer Michelin published a series of travel guides as a way show its customers where they could go with the tires they were selling. Of course, more recent examples abound, from alumni magazines, inflight magazines, and other custom published journals revolving around corporate brands.

"The line in the sand was drawn—advertising sells products, content marketing sells solutions—and advertising won."

Interestingly, as Rebecca Lee White writes in her chronicling of this content journey, there was also what she refers to as the Mad Men era of the 1940s and 50s that effectively squelched any meaningful content marketing effort. "The line in the sand was drawn—advertising sells products, content marketing sells solutions—and advertising won." That said, there are scores of brands that have been leveraging narrative storytelling and the development of more editorial-style content for years; Patagonia, Nike, Coca-Cola, and Red Bull to name a few.

"These days, content is a catch-all. It accounts for messages coming at us in various shapes and forms in rapid fire and interchangeably"

For today's end user, of course, these distinctions between a formal ad and other types of content have become increasingly blurred and meaningless. These days, content is a catch-all. It accounts for messages coming at us in various shapes and forms in rapid fire and interchangeably—from traditional news media, from social media influencers, from friends and family, from consumer brands, from work colleagues, and from entertainment outlets.

Putting aside how marketing dollars are spent today—be it for traditional television commercials, sponsored content spots, social influencer amplification, or storytelling content on owned social media channels—it's arguable that the tone of the successful content of tomorrow will be decidedly less Madison Avenue slick and more grassroots authentic. Less commercial. More editorial.

How effective content is in achieving its intended goals will largely be determined by its ability to actually reach its audience and then connect with that audience in a way that is meaningful—all based on a long-term strategy with the values of stakeholders in mind. It just might the way out of that thick and heavy Los Angeles smog of content to a nearby zip code where the sky is blue, but not too blue—and not because of an Instagram filter.