Content Catchup: Get Ready For Seth Godin to School You, and More Must-Reads

Here’s what you missed while wondering how to integrate GIFs into your #bae’s #Vday gift…

‘You Need Editors, Not Brand Managers’: Marketing Legend Seth Godin on the Future of Branded Content

I spoke with Seth Godin, the godfather of content marketing, and he taught me more in 45 minutes than I’d learned in the previous 45 days—including how brands should build effective newsrooms:

TCS: If you were trying to build a brand media property—if you were Gillette—how would you build it? Would you just give some really smart people the resources and creative freedom to go out and make great content?

SG: I think the most important thing is to have an office that’s not in your building. I think what kills brands who try to be interesting is to have meetings where they’re not saying to senior management, “How can we be more interesting?” Instead, they’re saying, “How can we play this more safely?” That’s not what happens when you want to make a hit TV show or a website that people care about. You need editors, not brand managers, who will push the envelope to make the thing go forward.

So one easy way to do that is to set people up in an office down the street, only visit them once a month, and give them really significant metrics—not about pageviews, but about mattering. And give them the resources—not too much, just enough—to go do work that matters. Read it.

Data: Real-Time Marketing Is a Giant Waste of Money

With the Super Bowl having just passed and the Oscars coming up soon, real-time marketing is on everyone’s minds. But few are asking a critical question: Is it worth it? Contently Co-Founder Shane Snow crunched the numbers and came to a surprising conclusion:

Under generous circumstances, the best real-time marketing ad at the Oscars was nine times the cost of the most expensive other kind of advertising, and the #10 real-time marketing ad at the Oscars is 200 times more expensive than the most expensive type of ad you can typically buy… and 1,200 times more expensive than just paying for ad impressions on the same social networks for which you’re building war rooms. Read it.

Are You Ready For Some X-Treme Content Marketing?! [Contently Comic]

And we end the week with your weekly content marketing comic. No need to click unless you want to read the crazy hot-take rant I wrote to accompany it.

Have a great Valentine’s Day weekend. Go ride that love train. We’ll see you on Monday.