Content Marketing

Social Media Philanthropy, Ads Fight Ads, Branded Content Narratives

By Ritika Puri

The Strategist picks the day’s most interesting stories for the content aficionados who love the backstory and reading between the lines. Here are the gems you need to kickstart your Friday.

Nelson Mandela’s Grandson to Launch Social Network to Mark Mandela Day (Pandodaily)
Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Ndaba Mandela, will be bringing together two important virtues (philanthropy and technology) into a new social network: Mandela.Is.

The platform will celebrate the idea of community service while drawing attention to Mandela Day. Mandela will be pursuing his initiative with Backplane CEO and founder, Matthew Michaelsen.

Ad Blasts Nickelodeon for Airing Junk Food Spots (Adweek)
The Center for Science in the Public Interest will be releasing a full-page ‘wanted’ ad today in The Hollywood Reporter.

The culprit? Nickelodeon, embodied by an outlaw version of SpongeBob SquarePants. His crime is that he’s potentially armed with dangerous foods. This initiative is an example of an interesting trend — the power of fighting ads with, well, ads.

The Content Revolution: Emerging Forms of Online Video (Forbes)

Plain and simple — branded video done right is all about the story. These content marketing tools can fall anywhere on a spectrum from instructional to entertaining.

Look to BMW’s recent web series ‘Alter Egos‘ as an example. The narrative’s celebrity personas are geared to target a niche, upscale market (aka, the folks who want to buy a luxury car). The best branded content is able to strike a balance between consumers’ and advertisers’ needs.

A Yelp-Like Service for CMOs to Rate Agencies Is Here (AdAge)
You read that right. A group of 700 marketing heads have launched what they’re calling a private ‘vendor rating program’ to help marketers exchange information.

Some critics are skeptical, however — CMOs are super busy. How will they have time to write reviews? The reality is that the list of vendors is growing slowly and steadily. Agencies — make sure to bring your A-game.