The Content Strategist
We've crossed the finish line in the tweet-a-thon and been swept up in the tweetnado, but last week, USA took social-media lingo to a new level with the "tweet-a-lanche," a call-to-action to promote their new comedy series, "Playing House," with user-generated excitement.
It's almost impossible to resist comparing the potential of a live-action Barbie movie to the runaway success of this year's The Lego Movie. They're both brands with rich histories woven into American culture, both fantasy play toys with an appeal that spans generations.
Brands create bold campaigns because they want to spark discussions and align themselves with causes they believe in. But for every strong opinion, there's an equally passionate opposing argument, meaning brands that stand on their soap-box are bound to deal with some backlash — no matter how engaging the speech.
Responsive design has helped publishers evolve and create much more engaging content experiences by doing something that sounds easy but is actually pretty hard — effectively displaying the same content differently across devices. Metro UK, for instance, cites responsive design as a major reason they were able to grow to 27 million monthly visitors. According to Marketing Experiments, responsive design strategies also helped major publishers increase conversions by 56 percent.
At Contently, we've been huge fans of Microsoft Stories, the site launched by the tech giant late last year to tell engrossing, beautiful, long-form narratives about the work going on inside the company. They're all written by one incredibly prolific writer — Jennifer Warnick. We asked Warnick to take us inside the world of Microsoft Stories. She did not disappoint.
It's no secret that online video is booming. According to a recent comScore report, more than 85 percent of Americans watch digital content, and more than 48 billion online videos were viewed by 183 million Americans in January alone. And right now, YouTube is launching a full-scale ad assault in hopes of becoming a mainstream rival to cable.
What happens when a minor TV character get major social attention? In the digital age, how do you take advantage of it and adjust? That was the challenge faced by Being Mary Jane.
News organizations have always used sensational headlines and yellow journalism to sell papers, so it's no surprise digital publishers now take a similar approaches.
This week's must-read stories, for while you're going over the river and through the woods to sit around with your family on Easter staring at your phone...
