The Onion’s Dodge Parody Videos, New BuzzFeed Editor, Be Jimi Hendrix

The Content Strategist picks the day’s most relevant and interesting stories about the world of content from around the web. Here’s what you should be reading today:

Dodge and Onion Producing Parody Videos

Dodge is putting out a parody video it created with the Onion on the satirical paper’s YouTube channel, reports New York Times’ Tanzina Vega.

“It features the car in a series of mock programs featured during a fictitious upfront presentation by Onion Digital Studios, the company’s real digital entertainment arm,” she writes.

Since the subject of the ad, the Dodge Dart, is a car is aimed at millennials, the company chose YouTube as the platform.

BuzzFeed Signs on Former Editor of Spin

Former Editor of Spin, Steven Kandell, has joined BuzzFeed to assist the company with its long-form journalism coverage, according to the New York Times.

Recently, BuzzFeed has been picking up editors from all kinds of publications including Politico and Rolling Stone.

In a statement, Kandell said, “Even though print itself is becoming less prevalent, the conversation-provoking long-form journalism and profiles that have long been a staple of magazines are as vital as they’ve ever been, and I’m thrilled to help make this kind of writing a working part of the social web at BuzzFeed.”

Mark Hermann’s Content Lessons from Jimi Hendrix

Mark Hermann of CopyBlogger has created a list of content marketing lessons that companies can learn from Jimi Hendrix. He says that Hendrix created songs that never existed before, and that marketers should do the same when it comes to content.

They should be as passionate as the guitar player about their work, be a confident leader, keep creating even if nobody is digesting the content, and electrify the audience with strong content.

Ford’s Funny Web Series

According to a release from Ford, the company has released a comedy web series titled “Escape My Life,” which advertises the 2013 Ford Escape.

Comedians Natasha Leggero and Joe Lo Truglio star in the videos, and Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer was signed on as well.

It’s running for eight episodes on YouTube, Hulu, MSN, AOL, and GlamMedia.

Advice for Video Marketing

Content strategies need to include video, argues Lou Bortone of Future of Ink. A video campaign needs to start with a strategy, whether that includes making a company known on YouTube, posting video blogs, or sending out video emails.

Marketers should be looking for ways to receive the ROI for videos, whether that means selling webinars or producing other video products.

He also says that marketers shouldn’t fret too much over technology: “Your message is far more important than whether you shot your video with your webcam versus your iPhone. Find a repeatable process that works for you, and keep it as simple and streamlined as possible.”

Making Content From Social Stats

Content Marketing Institute’s Jonathan Crossfield argues that it’s not the quantity of followers that a brand has, but the quality of those followers.

Followers should be used for lead acquisition. This means that content marketers need to be leading them to follow the brand on additional channels, read the company blog, sign up for email newsletters, and download eBooks, among others.

“Create a path for others to follow,” he says. “It can require a lot more effort to design a strategy and create the content, particularly for those still harboring the belief that it’s possible to reap benefits from social media with a couple of automation tools and a few button pushes once in a while.”

Paywalls Dropped for Elections

According to Mashable, on Tuesday, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal will take down their paywalls to provide free election coverage to website visitors.

From 6 p.m. Tuesday (EST) to the next day at the same time, the New York Times will allow full access, and the Wall Street Journal is dropping it from 5 p.m. Tuesday (EST) to 5 p.m. Wednesday.