Everyone Wants In on Content, But What's the Best Approach?

In a story last year, Ad Age detailed how two marketers collaborated to create long-form vignettes that ran during commercial breaks of a network TV show. But once the piece was posted online, the advertisers raised an objection to our characterization of the spots as "commercials." Instead, they argued, they were content. In reality, they were both—and the concept is hotter than ever.

Everyone from agencies to former custom publishers, production studios and media owners seem to be rethinking their strategies (or even restructuring) to capitalize on content by carefully fitting their marketing message into a new framework of the medium surrounding the ad. According to an Ad Age survey, content marketing attracted 12% of marketers' budgets in 2012 and more than half of marketers plan to spend even more on it this year. As demand grows for talented directors and feature-film-like content (marketer-funded and -branded webisodes or documentaries, for example) studios are gaining direct access to brands and bringing in more freelance creative strategists. "Clients welcome [producers] and they know how to sell ideas," said Mike Wiese, director-original and branded content at WPP's JWT. It's clear content marketing is only going to continue growing; producing and contributing to quality content, whether in the form of a 30-second TV ad, product placement or an original series, isn't going away. And marketers increasingly will be forced to zero in on the model that best suits their short-term and long-term marketing goals.