As many of you know, Robert Rose and I have been recording the PNR (Pulizzi and Rose): This Old Marketing podcast every week for three years now. At the end of every episode, we cover a content marketing case study. Some of the case studies are just a few years old, while other examples are well over 100 years old.
A few weeks back, our amazing blog manager Lisa Dougherty told Robert and me that she’d been listening to the podcast as sort of a “stock screener” to find companies to invest in. And from that one email from Lisa, the PNR15 stock portfolio was created.
Now before I dig into what exactly this is, I need to detail a few important points.
First, I am not a certified stock professional and am not recommending that anyone purchase these stocks. If you happen to buy any of these investments, it’s on you.
Second, no one can prove a direct causal relationship between content marketing and stock prices. I hope to show, though, that delivering valuable, consistent communications to customers over time often corresponds to increases in the overall value of a brand.Delivering valuable, consistent communications often corresponds to increases in brand value @joepulizzi. Click To Tweet
Third, none of what you are about to look at is scientific in any way. These company examples (and now stocks) have been curated from CMI’s community, from the #ThisOldMarketing listenership, and from Robert and me.
Long story short, this is a first pass. I believe that the way a brand communicates does affect the value of the enterprise, often in ways we can’t measure. Looking at a public company’s stock price and market capitalization is one significant way to measure long-term value for shareholders. My hope is that, with further scrutiny at a later date, we can field a scientific study based on this simple concept.
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Hypothesis
Do public companies that consistently deliver valuable communication to customers perform better in stock markets than the average public company?
The PNR15 Stock Portfolio
The PNR15 is made up of 15 publicly traded companies listed on one of the major U.S. stock exchanges. After reviewing over 150 examples over three years, we limited the companies based on these criteria:
Must be a large enterprise with at least a $5 billion market cap
Must have at least two years of content marketing activity as defined by CMI
From there, we ended up with 15 fairly diverse companies, covering both B2B and B2C brands in a variety of industries including manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, financial, travel and tourism, technology, and health care. The companies included in the index are as follows:SymbolNameadbeAdobealleAllegionamtdTD AmeritradearwArrow ElectronicsaxpAmerican ExpressdeDeere & CompanygisGeneral MillsgoogAlphabetintcIntelintuIntuitjnjJohnson & JohnsonkoCoca-ColamarMarriott InternationalpgP&GshwSherwin-Williams
Performance
Overall, the PNR15 outperformed both the S&P 500 Index and Dow 30 in a one-year and a three-year period. One-year PNR15 returns (Oct. 26, 2015, to Oct. 20, 2016) were 5.1% (compared to 3.2% for the S&P and 2.9% for the Dow). Three-year PNR15 returns (Oct. 28, 2013, to Oct. 20, 2016) were 21.6% (compared with 17.7% for the S&P and 13.2% for the Dow).
Under the hood
Below we list each brand in the portfolio, its PNR15 performance, and when it was mentioned on the This Old Marketing podcast or on CMI.
Adobe (ADBE)
One-year performance: 18.5% Three-year performance: 49.9% Content marketing example: CMO.com First on This Old Marketing: October 17, 2015
Allegion (ALLE)
One-year performance – 4.8% Three-year performance – 34.6% Content marketing example: iDigHardware.com First on This Old Marketing: July 23, 2016
TD Ameritrade (AMTD)
One-year performance: 7.7% Three-year performance: 24.5% Content marketing example: thinkMoney Magazine First on This Old Marketing: November 22, 2014
Arrow Electronics (ARW)
One-year performance: 4.2% Three-year performance: 21% Content marketing example: Arrow Purchases UBM Electronics Properties First on This Old Marketing: June 29, 2016
American Express (AXP)
One-year performance: -11% Three-year performance: -23% Content marketing example: American Express OPEN Forum First on This Old Marketing: March 28, 2014
Deere & Company (DE)
One-year performance: 10% Three-year performance: 5.2% Content marketing example: John Deere’s The Furrow Magazine First on This Old Marketing: November 23, 2013
General Mills (GIS)
One-year performance: 4.4% Three-year performance: 17.5% Content marketing example: Tablespoon.com First on This Old Marketing: July 4, 2015
Alphabet/Google (GOOG)
One-year performance: 10.6% Three-year performance: 35.8% Content marketing example: Think with Google First on CMI: November 29, 2015
Intel (INTC)
One-year performance: 2.4% Three-year performance: 31.3% Content marketing example: IQ by Intel First on CMI: September 11, 2012
Intuit (INTU)
One-year performance: 9.3% Three-year performance: 33.9% Content marketing example: Mint.com (owned by Intuit) First on CMI: July 28, 2011
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
One-year performance: 13% Three-year performance: 18.7% Content marketing example: Modern Methods of Antiseptic Wound Treatment First on This Old Marketing: January 10, 2015
Coca-Cola (KO)
One-year performance: -1.6% Three-year performance: 5.5% Content marketing example: Coca-Cola Journey First on This Old Marketing: December 7, 2013
Marriott International (MAR)
One-year performance: -13.7% Three-year performance: 32.2% Content marketing example: Marriott Content Studio First on This Old Marketing: October 4, 2014
Procter & Gamble (PG)
One-year performance: 8.1% Three-year performance: 3.7% Content marketing example: Home Made Simple First on This Old Marketing: February 15, 2014
Sherwin-Williams (SHW)
One-year performance: 10.4% Three-year performance: 33% Content marketing example: Stir First on This Old Marketing: August 29, 2015
Should we expand the PNR15? What companies should we be talking about on the This Old Marketing podcast? Please let me know in the comments.
And again, invest at your own risk.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
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