Branded Content

4 Tips for Developing a Blog Comment Policy

If you’ve spent much in social media, you’ve probably been warned not to “feed the trolls.” Trolls, as Wikipedia will tell you, are defined as “someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into […]

Is Your Content Worth Stealing?

I hope you steal this blog post. There won’t be an alarm that goes off. The Feds won’t come to get you, and no one will probably ever know that you did. It’s not a trick, it’s not a trap, and it’s not a lure. I actually want you to. Because that means I’ve done […]

Kenny Powers, K-Swiss, and the Ramifications of Viral Success

By now, you’ve probably seen the radical campaign from K-Swiss where Kenny Powers (a fictional character played by Danny McBride) takes over as CEO (ahem, mother***king CEO) of the company and reinvents their image via profanity-laced one-liners and no shortage of comic gold. (If you haven’t, scroll down for the video. Make sure you’re wearing […]

The Joe Paterno Guide to Branding

Whether you bleed blue and white or boo when you see it, it’s hard to deny that Penn State football has a strong brand. And most of the credit for that is probably due to the life work of Joe Paterno – the de facto face of Penn State football and the winningest coach in […]

Are You a Real Expert or Do You Just Play One on the Internet?

There’s a lot of advice being given out these days. People are publishing pointers, tips, and suggestions on every topic under the sun. But how valid are the viewpoints expressed therein? Is the everyman author as credible as we seem to be giving him credit for? Data suggests that what our “friends” are saying online […]

4 Boardroom-Approved Reasons for Content Marketing

The CEO of your organization doesn’t give a damn about your Klout score. She’s not interested in the achievements you’ve unlocked or what your social media “style” is. It’s not that she’s cold-hearted or mean-spirited. It’s just that none of that contributes to the bottom line. And that’s what she’s got her eye on. So, […]

Free Your Content, and the Rest Will Follow

A social media presence is a good start, but a presence alone is a lot like having a storefront on a quiet street and waiting for people to come in your door. Sure, they may find out about you eventually – if you’ve invested in advertising, have great word of mouth, dominate search engine rankings, […]

The Importance of Branding

Branding has come a long way from its cattle-marking origins. What used to be a way for ranchers to label what belonged to them (in case it wandered away) now means so much more. Brands are the reason caffeine fanatics pay more for coffee. Brands are the reason hungry road-trippers get excited when they see […]

The Difference Between a Crowd and an Audience

In a former life, I was the lead singer of a band. Believe it or not, I used to get on stage, play guitar and sing, and not everyone booed. We had a demo CD, T-shirts, and a handful of people who would show up to our gigs who weren’t blood-related.

The Truth About Branding (And Nothing But The Truth)

AMC’s hit television drama Mad Men is famous for its depiction of the hard-drinking, hard-working Madison Avenue ad man—the Don Drapers and Roger Sterlings of the world who churned out corporate slogans over pre-noon cocktails and pulls on their Lucky Strikes. The daughter of an ad man who grew up in the late sixties and […]

Battle of the Brands: How Nothing Sells Itself

From the CEO running a global corporation to the preteen hustling for loose change with a lemonade stand, anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes in the business world knows one thing for sure: nothing sells itself. It takes hustle. It takes guts. And it takes persistence. But as competition for shelf space in the minds […]

Content Curation: If You Can’t Be the Source, Be the Resource

People used to come into my sandwich shop craving pizza. I could see it in their eyes. They wanted melted mozzarella on a bed of tomato sauce with black olives, pepperoni and maybe just a touch of roasted red pepper. They wouldn’t be satisfied with a sandwich – not this time anyway. Their craving knew […]

4 Secrets to Building a Good Website

Eureka moments can happen anywhere. Mark Zuckerberg first tinkered with the code that would spark the social media revolution in his Harvard dorm room. Harry Potter came to J.K. Rowling in a dream. Howard Schultz envisioned a coffee empire while standing in line at a café in Milan. In the case of Schultz, the Brooklyn-bred […]

Branded Content: Examples of Getting it Right

There’s no question that there’s been an upswing in the trend of brands publishing content to win over consumers. Bypassing traditional avenues of promotion, smart organizations are tapping their internal expertise to create content that entertains, educates, and engages their current and potential customers. Consider the following data from the Veronis Suhler Stevenson Communications Industry […]

Good Clean Fun

Sometimes you see marketing done so well that it makes you want to give a high-five to everyone in sight. Marketing like Wrigley’s smart branded content initiative for their Orbits chewing gum brand (starring Jason Bateman and Will Arnett – the comic geniuses perhaps most famous for their work on Arrested Development). The premise?