Jan 31, 20153 min read

This Week in Content Marketing: The Battle for Super Bowl Halftime Attention Is On

PNR: This Old Marketing with Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose can be found on both iTunes and Stitcher.

In this episode, Robert and I discuss YouTube’s Super Bowl halftime play, why it represents a defensive maneuver by Google, and what the implications are for brands. In addition, we take a closer look at an excellent new primer on native advertising, and explore whether or not LinkedIn’s plans to launch corporate communication tools make sense for enterprises. Our rants and raves this week center on a comparison of CMS and ad management systems and Jon Favreau’s insights into storytelling and content marketing. We wrap up with a #ThisOldMarketing example of the week from Jaeger’s clothing.

This week’s show

(Recorded live on January 26, 2015; Length: 53:50)

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1. Content Marketing in the News

YouTube Sponsoring Its Own Halftime Show (3:18): YouTube is hosting its own live alternative to the traditional Super Bowl halftime show, with more than 20 of its homegrown “creators and musicians” performing music, stunts, and fake Super Bowl ads, The Verge reports. Robert and I think it’s a great way for the Google-owned video channel to hold onto its best content creators, as competitors get more aggressive in courting them. We also talk about how any brand can follow in YouTube’s footsteps by creating a special event to promote its best content.
Everything You Need to Know About Sponsored Content (15:00): The Moz Blog recently published a comprehensive guide to sponsored content, which walks readers through its history and its pros and cons, and presents an in-depth analysis of publisher pricing. It has also derived a fair-market pricing formula that marketers can use to determine whether or not they’re getting a fair deal from a publisher. Robert and I both feel it’s an excellent resource for any marketer who is researching sponsored content strategies.
LinkedIn Looks to Unify the Workplace With New Tools (23:05): LinkedIn is rumored to be launching a suite of tools and apps geared to boost communication and shared knowledge within organizations, according to Marketing Land. One new tool that’s reportedly in the works would enable users to send InMail to anyone within their company; another would enable organizations to use InMail to send updates to specific small groups based on their location. Robert and I discuss how this move might potentially represent a new form of communication, which paradoxically is part of what Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt calls “the end of the internet.”

2. Our Sponsor (32:34)

This Old Marketing is sponsored by Acrolinx. The Acrolinx platform helps the world’s most recognized brands create more engaging, more readable, and more enjoyable content. (Most people don’t even know software like this exists.) Their new eBook, called Speak with One Voice, answers critical questions about how you can make your content stand out and how to create a unique advantage in the content economy. You can register for it at http://bit.ly/pnr-acrolinx2.

3. Rants and Raves (34:58)

Robert’s Rant: This week, a recent article from Digiday that describes the workarounds publishers must use to get their sponsored content to play well with their content management systems is the target of Robert’s ire. The article implies that long-form native content is like an ad — an assertion that Robert strongly disagrees with. He also asserts that if someone develops a tool that automatically contextualizes native content within a website, it will probably “hide” the sponsored content too much — exactly the opposite of what marketers want.
Joe’s Rant: I love this YouTube video of an interview between Kevin Pollack (actor and host of the Kevin Pollack Chat Show) and Jon Favreau (the actor/writer/director/producer, whose credits include Ironman and Elf). It contains some valuable lessons for content marketers, as well as for storytellers, in general. In particular, it highlights the growing importance of the generalist, who can quickly adapt to changing tools, technologies, and strategies. This point of view was also reflected in an excellent CMI article, The New Era of the Hybrid Marketer, written by LinkedIn’s Jason Miller.

4. This Old Marketing Example of the Week (45:48)

Jaeger Clothing: Jaeger is a 130-year old British fashion label that has succeeded in infusing all aspects of the customer experience with an authentically vintage look and feel. Throughout the 20th century, Jaeger clothing has been worn by famous people like Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant, Kate Moss, and Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton. As part of a recent brand update, Jaeger started sharing its history via a growing collection of stories, vintage images, and informative videos. One excellent example is a video documentary on the high-quality Gostwyck wool that is used to make many of its clothes, another story describes how Jaeger is re-creating Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition on its 100th anniversary. You can read a detailed storytelling profile about Jaeger on the eConsultancy Blog.