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I vividly recall the very first ‘Star Wars’ movie. Not because I saw the film. I remember it because I never saw it (or at least it was years after its release, decades in fact, before I got to see it).
For on the day my year 7 class of 1977 travelled to the city on a day trip to watch the movie I was at home, sick in bed!
Imagine the disappointment of a 13-year-old kid and aspiring storyteller, having spent weeks anticipating the arrival of a George Lucas blockbuster, only to be felled by the dreaded curse of November flu.
Why do I retell this ancient tale of woe? Simply that – it’s a story. Okay, maybe not a great story but you have at least read this far.
And storytelling is the weapon of choice for marketers in our modern age – a sort of digital-age light-sabre. Everyone would like the skills to handle such a cool weapon, but not all of us are Jedi Knights possessed of the Force (or fork, as the punch-line goes to that classic dad joke about Luke Skywalker trying to balance peas on his cutlery. “Use the fork, Luke, use the fork!”). But I digress.
Read the self-expressed expert opinions of modern day content marketers and everyone, it seems, has it within them to summon the power and spread the viral good word about their brand through the wonders of storytelling.
I’m not convinced.
But then I have always been slow to make up my mind. Trends may come and go. And by the time I have decided to join in … the trend has usually left the building, returned briefly, and gone for good. Which leaves me and my unfashionably late clothing/car/mobile phone/footwear/gym gear/whatever looking like Mr Yesterday.
Don’t get me wrong. I have always taken a keen interest in social media. But to me that meant having a discussion with friends about what was in the Sunday newspapers or on the telly after ‘60 Minutes’.
So, despite a life lived without the benefit of having experienced ‘Star Wars’ in glorious Dolby surround sound, I went on in time to earn a humble but life-changing place in earned media. My first job in journalism was very much a traditional affair, and very much earned: we had an ashtray and typewriter on our desk and a chip on our shoulder. We journos bitched about the sales staff, their fancy pay (and cigarette) packets (does anybody still smoke those poncy Stirling brand ciggies?) and drowned the pain of our collective artistic sacrifice at the altar of the schooner glass down the pub every Wednesday (after deadline) complete with obligatory roll-your-own smokes.
A towering Irishman called Declan, a formidable editor and drinker, held court, regaling us with his international tales of adventure and learned comparisons between the language of the Bard versus the genius of James Joyce and his Gaelic mate CS Lewis.
Macbeth versus Narnia versus the Dubliners! Now those were cross pollinated story-lines!
Brand journalism
So fast forward about a hundred light years, and today we are pondering virtually unthinkable concepts like the rise of ‘brand journalism’. Say what? That is what Declan would declare an “oxymoronic conundrum hit by a paradox stick, Bruce” in a thick Irish brogue.
In 2013 the clear trend is for brands to become fully fledged self-publishing businesses.
Personally, I have reflected – slowly, and with some trepidation – on the sharp rise of digital disruption and its midnight incursions into old media territory. I then had a blinding flash.
And the flash was, not unlike the wisdom of Yoda, a thought that my old school knowledge and life experience was far from redundant. That possibly, just possibly the world may need an old but new construct to get its head around this confluence of content and marketing in the age of the internet.
Just as the Y2K bug brought back from retirement the old DOS-based software code writers, the rise of content marketing, brand journalism … call it what you will, is the new siren song to old scribes like me.
What if there was wisdom to pass down about the ways in which a traditional publishing business operates, with (potentially) similar rules, roles and hierarchy of actions that might guide the children of the digital age?
Surely, as brands go forth on the quest to be content kings, some buy-in across the organisation is needed, hence a model-based approach?
Warning: just as Chewbacca and Han Solo had a love hate relationship, the concepts drafted here may polarise you and your colleagues. But fear not. It is also a potentially powerful way for you and your internal stakeholders to understand and harness the ‘mind-shift’ from a sales-based marketing business to a content-based one. A new paradigm requires new roles. So here goes. (Content marketing ‘roles’ are in brackets.) Strap yourself in …
Publisher (CEO)
Responsible for the masthead (brand) and ultimate legal liability on published material. Has ultimate commercial decision making, and oversees the connection between content and commercial outcome. Has input to thought leadership position/USP.
Delegates day-to-day authority to create and disseminate content to editors and their subordinates, across set KPIs. Sets commercial targets (revenue), based on future projections of consumption, brand impact and sales targets, which are integrated to campaigns.
Editor-in-Chief (Head of Marketing, CMO)
Makes the final call on what’s in, what’s not. Sets editorial guidelines, and commissions section editors to organise production and quality control of all content. Liaises regularly with Sales Head to harmonise marketing and sales efforts (campaigns). Sets overall ‘look and feel’ of the masthead/brand, and acts as its ambassador to the outside world. Has a public face (Op/Ed pieces a.k.a. blogs) and overtly manages the public process. Becomes a secondary ‘brand’ for so long as he/she is in the role. Supports sales efforts by public appearances, explaining editorial policy, direction and thinking and so on.
Actively sources new ideas/fresh thinking/genuine thought leadership from internal team and external market.
Head of sales (Sales)
Has strategic input to content (features or ‘campaign’ lists) sourced from market/customer relationships. Understands the vital role of linking audience need with campaignable content, in support of direct sales efforts, especially in B2B (advisor) segment.
Section editors (portfolio managers, product managers [risk] and anyone else in charge of a line management product position)
Has reporting responsibility to Editor-in-Chief, ‘pitching’ content concepts upwards for consideration (e.g. fixed income, equities, etc.) rather than the traditional model of marketing developing ‘sales’ collateral. Section editors will assist in features lists (annual campaign creation) also in liaison with Sales. Section eds also contribute set pieces based on content tree, and must ensure their ‘sections’ are regularly refreshed with content. Can provide op/ed (blog) pieces.
Staff (Brand reporters)
Report to Section eds (news, features, etc.). They write, they blog, they bring case studies and live (profile) pieces to the table. And we rejoice!
May the Force (not fork) be with you.
