Why Content Eats Advertising’s Lunch

There’s a decades old saying in advertising that bears repeating:

“People don’t read ads – they read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.”

The man behind those words – Howard Gossage – was right. Sometimes it is an ad. Sometimes.

Every other time, it’s content. 

(Sure, we all fell in love with the Old Spice guy, and the Most Interesting Man in the World campaign has played on giddy repeat for years. We dig the Visa ads telling heroic stories of athletes overcoming great odds to succeed. Great ads do still exist and they do still work. But that’s because they’ve actually become content.)

For the purpose of this argument, I’m defining content as a bit of data that presents an idea beyond a direct product promotion. It serves a purpose beyond promoting a company. It useful and/or entertaining. It may be a story. It qualifies as a social object. Traditional advertising is less so.

Content is more effective than traditional advertising, because:

People seek out content. They tolerate ads.

Content is the “there, there” (h/t Mike and Kim) and advertising is the “it happens to be there.” Recent data quantifies the intuition: 61% of people prefer learning about companies via articles instead of ads.

Content is an incubator for prospective customers.

Content bridges the gap between “brand awareness” and “purchase” on the by being helpful, relevant and to people as they navigate the buying cycle. Brands that are missing this layer are making it harder for the chicken to hatch.

Content has long-lasting value.

An article posted to a website has an average lifespan of relevance that dwarfs the estimated 2 hour lifespan of the average Tweet. Good content can get organic search traffic and social pickup traffic for years. And an article posted in a magazine has great coffee-table and travel potential, and tremendous pass-along value. Not bad for a one-time investment.

Content nurtures business relationships.

People are more loyal to companies that have invested in content. They appreciate good information and entertainment, but what they really love is a great story – regardless of the format. Good content keeps people engaged and organizations top of mind.

Content isn’t king because kings are mortal. Content is Zeus.

It could be the best investment your brand makes in terms of strengthening relationships with customers and earning new ones.

And as the landscape shifts and ads continue to face challenges (in format and in message) we’ve got to answer some questions for our organizations:

Will we have a voice? Will we have a say? Will we have credibility in the social context when the time comes when we really need to be heard?

Or will we just hope that our customers are saying something nice behind our back?