Aug 5, 20173 min read

This Week in Content Marketing: Brands & Billionaires Continue to Buy Up Media

PNR: This Old Marketing with Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose can be found on both iTunes and Stitcher. If you enjoy our show, we would love it if you would rate it or post a review on iTunes.

In this week’s episode

Robert ponders how to invest in personal reflection. In our new-look episode, we cover Laurene Jobs and her purchase of The Atlantic, Facebook’s earnings release, and what P&G did with $140 million dollars in marketing. We also do a deep dive on how Hearst is experimenting with e-commerce and why BuzzFeed is selling skillets. Our rants and raves include media buying and a content marketing swindle; then we wrap up with an old-school example of the week from General Electric.

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Show details

(00:01): An advertising blast from the past: “Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock”
(00:56): Robert muses on this week’s theme: Are you taking the time you need to reflect?
(06:12): Welcome to Episode 194: Recorded live on July 31, 2017 (Running time: 1:03:59)
(09:48): Content Marketing World 2017 – The largest content marketing event in the world returns to Cleveland on September 5–8. Register today, and don’t forget to use coupon code PNR100 to save $100 on the cost of registration.

The quick hits – Notable news and trends

(11:08): Steve Jobs’ widow takes over The Atlantic. (Source: AdAge)
(17:19): Marketing takeaways from Facebook’s Q2 earnings report. (Source: The Wall Street Journal)
(22:38): What’s really behind P&G’s $140M cut in ad spending? (Source: AdAge)

The deep dive – Industry analysis

(27:00): Hearst tests the waters of affiliate commerce with content. (Source: Digiday)
(35:52): BuzzFeed goes from hot media property to hot meal prep. (Source: Mashable)

Rants and raves

(43:20): Robert’s rant: While the author of this article from The Drum presents the same tiresome argument used by countless content marketing critics who have come before him, Robert did find a delicious irony in the promotion of The Drum’s own content marketing awards program in the call to action at the end of the post.
(47:06): Robert’s commentary: Min online brings us this wonderful article on the threatening forces that may be changing the face of journalism forever. For Robert, it brings to mind his recent CMI blog post on the democratization of distrust, which aligns strongly with the assertions of this piece – especially in its discussion of the business value of trust.
(51:43): Joe’s rant-y commentary: Upon reading this Wall Street Journal article about Gawker.com being put up for sale, not only has my faith in the idea of brands acquiring media companies been strengthened, but I’ve also come to recognize that there’s an urgent need to redefine the role of the media buying and shift its focus from renting to ownership. This evolution will be the only way for businesses to take full advantage of the future opportunities these media acquisitions will open up.

This Old Marketing example of the week

(58:03): General Electric’s Fifties Fun: This week, Robert revisits an interesting General Electric content effort that harkens back to the 1950s. At that time, GE Research Labs was developing many of the scientific innovations and technologies that it is still known for today. To promote its expertise, the company produced a series of comics, called Adventures in Science, aimed at encouraging kids to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). GE hired well-known comic artists to illustrate the books, lending “street cred” to its program and attracting a strong audience of comic fans. The last page of every book featured basic tips on how its young readers could become engineers, like their comic book heroes. It’s a perfect This Old Marketing example of how to teach your marketing targets to become your loyal, engaged customers.