Top Campaigns of 2012, Content Spending Up, Local Marketing

The 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:

Campaigns That Rocked 2012

Contently’s Shane Snow names the seven brands who used content well in 2012 in a post for AdAge.

“There have certainly been flops (which by definition, most of us didn’t hear about), but some branded content campaigns stood out as models for an industry that’s largely on board with content marketing, but still spreading its wings,” he says.

Snow praises the campaigns of Expedia, Facebook, Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Jay-Z, Qualcomm, Intel and Toshiba.

Branded Content Spending Increases

In the last two years, branded content spending has risen by more than $1.6 million, or about 13 percent across the board, according to Research Brief.

The results came out of a survey by ContentWise and Custom Content Council. Seventy-nine percent of marketers say that their companies are creating branded content at a moderate or aggressive pace, and 52 percent of companies say that they outsourced at least one type of branded content this year.

Developing Local Marketing Strategies

ClickZ’s Jason Burby says that when going local, a business needs to develop a website that is mobile and local friendly. 

Loyalty programs go a long way with local consumers, as do rewards like freebies, and offers that are shareable. Demographics need to be extensively studied in order to understand the local market, just like in any marketing situation.

“You should still deploy all of the analytics tools at your disposal to deepen your understanding of your consumer and target messages more effectively,” he says. “In particular, try to look through the lenses of location history, past locations, demographics, peak usage time, time spent, mode of travel, and other data gathered over time.”

BBC World Service Now on Time Warner Cable

According to the New York Times, the BBC World News channel is now available in 25 million homes in the United States. 

The biggest areas of service are in New York City and Los Angeles. Jim Egan, the chief operating office of the BBC unit that handles the distribution of the channel, says, ““BBC World News is about serious news; with on-the-ground reporting and analysis from different parts of the world and a mandate to inform and provide a balanced view. We know that audiences around the world value the channel’s distinctive worldview and we are pleased that more United States viewers now have access to it.”

When Blogs Don’t Generating Leads

Marcus Sheridan of Content Marketing Institute writes about why blogs sometimes don’t generate leads.

He says that everyone is writing about the same thing (content marketing and social media, for example) and using the same keywords, so the market is saturated.

Titles need to be catchy and include keywords that stand out, and blogs need to be targeted to specific industries. Blogs without opinions, personal voice, and little thought provocation are never going to do well, either.

E-Reading Grows on Tablets

GigaOm reports that more people are reading e-books on tablets rather than dedicated e-readers.

A Pew study has found that in the last year, ebook reading increased by 23 percent among Americans ages 16 years and older. Tablets are predicted to grow to 203 million shipments by next year.

Content Marketing that Makes Companies Unique

Matthew Royse of Business2Community writes that for content to be effective it must be created by a team of people from different areas of a company. 

Marketers should take a hint from journalists and create compelling content. The content is, essentially, the product.

Content should be reviewed and marketers need to have “the ability to slice, dice, separate, and recombine content in new ways is why you may want to consider conducting a content audit, which will show you what stories have been developed, what stories you may need to refresh, and what stories still need to be told on behalf of your brand,” he says.

The Future of Twitter

Chris Taylor of Mashable writes about what may happen to Twitter in 2013.

He predicts that the company may generate $1 billion in revenue at the end of next year and go public, although it’s unlikely. Still, it’s going to do well financially in the future because its ads are doing well. He says that it makes sense for Twitter to sell itself to a large company, like Apple.