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Media—everything from static images and printed copy to interactive web sites and video—exist to convey valuable information to targeted audiences. Whatever the form, media’s basic premise is the same: People will pay attention, get involved and take action when they find value in the content provided to them.
But where media was once limited to a few outlets that capitalized on having a captive audience, the proliferation of media today has forever changed the information landscape. Technological and societal evolution has radically altered the way people obtain and engage with information: Consumers are in control, and they now have countless media options from which to choose. This shift has profound implications for marketers, who must now confront the fact that savvy consumers are more likely to ignore traditional advertising messages. Armed with technologies such as digital video recorders (DVRs), iPods, RSS feeds and social networking sites that allow them to easily filter information, consumers often never see traditional ads or marketing messages.
As a result, to capture the attention of a target audience, marketers must find revolutionary methods of enticing customers and prospects to spend meaningful time with their brand. What better method than to become the media? People are more comfortable than ever before getting their news from multiple sources; in this environment there is room for a business to step in and become a trusted source of information.
When a company educates its current and prospective clients on its field of expertise instead of pitching them products or services, that company becomes a reliable source of information. Your company becomes the media, and you’re now in a position to provide thought leadership and build customer loyalty. You’ve established your company as a trusted resource, and your customer feels more confident buying from you.
It’s no surprise that more and more companies are creating their own private media channels with original content to speak directly to their customers. With content and private media channels, marketers can start to take prospects down the road of permission-based marketing, where marketers must first ask permission before sending content or advertisements to prospective customers. This method requires that people first “opt-in,” rather than allowing people to “opt-out” only after the marketing messages have been sent. It also helps to build trust and affinity between marketers and their potential customers. Eventually, you will get to the point where customers and prospects will welcome your content and messages because of the trust you have built with them. Trust and affinity lead to increased sales.
This tactic stands in contrast to traditional advertising and marketing methods, which rely on renting media channels from media companies at very high costs. In that model, prospects are seeing marketing messages such as ads in magazines, on web sites and television, and are likely spending little or no time absorbing them.
In addition, rented media relies on “interrupting” your prospect with your message, an inefficient way to get out your marketing messages that is more likely to build resentment than trust. When a company owns its own media channel, it is engaging in direct dialogue with customers.
Here’s a look at how my organization and I worked with several organizations to generate compelling original content.
Aramark: Wellness Every Day magazine
Aramark, a leading provider of food services, facilities management and career apparel made the strategic decision to create its own custom media channel, rather than to rent space—in the form of advertising—in other publications. Aramark’s objective was to align its various product lines with health, wellness and sustainability through thought-leadership initiatives. Launching its own publication, titled Wellness Every Day, was a logical way to do this. The publication also helps Aramark’s overall strategy to raise brand awareness while simultaneously providing a venue for vendor partners to advertise.
Our team assembled an editorial panel of experts to create an authoritative and thought-provoking editorial package for the target readership, which ranges from managerial and nonmanagerial hospital staff to patients and visitors. Aramark’s Wellness Every Day provides health, wellness, nutrition and lifestyle information in an upbeat, contemporary and straightforward style. The content offers practical advice on topics ranging from nutrition and fitness to work-life balance and stress reduction.
Compass Bank: Compass on Business
Compass Bank came to us with the goal of maintaining communication with top-tier business customers through custom media, while positioning the bank as a thought leader and an authority on business issues and the economy. We worked with Compass Bank to create a custom magazine, monthly e-mail newsletter and a companion web site—all with original content.
Compass Bank has now created content that applies to businesses in all vertical markets and integrated its message across other media platforms to ensure consistency in the company brand and its messaging. By combining custom publishing and interactive marketing and events, Compass Bank established a secondary brand (Compass on Business) among its bank constituents and in the business communities it serves.
Compass Bank recognized the value of communicating consistently with its constituency and firmly establishing its commitment to its customers. The company increased the frequency of its magazines to four times a year, and now updates the web site monthly with new, original content. In the year since launch, page views of, visitors to and time spent on the Compass on Business site have been consistently high.
Every day more companies are creating their own media channels with original content to bypass traditional media outlets. In so doing, marketers take control of their message and their audience. Not only can marketers speak directly to customer interests and concerns, but now they do not have to worry about marketing messages being surrounded by distracting—or even inappropriate—content that may conflict with their brand. In addition, the financial rewards of private media speak for themselves: For the price of a few ads in a national magazine, newspaper or broadcast network, a company can create its own custom magazine with original content for a targeted audience. We believe this trend will grow rapidly over the next few years as advances in technology and consumer behavior make it more feasible. There is no better way to drive marketing ROI than by surrounding your potential customers and prospects in a controlled environment that you own.
Gordon Plutsky is director of marketing and research for King Fish Media. With nearly two decades of experience in media, marketing and research, Plutsky writes on media and marketing trends at the King Fish Think Tank blog. |
