Daily Buzz: The Evolving World of Content Marketing

In marketing eras of yore, celebrity print ads were the secret weapon to reach consumers and sell products. No more.

Instead, brands have embraced content marketing, a multibillion-dollar growth industry that helps organizations succeed in a fragmented media landscape. There’s a key strategic difference from old-school marketing techniques: Content marketing is about building relationships with audiences, rather than selling in the moment. The idea is that those audiences might use their purchasing power  to buy from the brand sometime in the future.

That’s a more complex promotional play and requires a lot of experimentation to find out what works. “It’s still the wild west. Nobody has the answers,” Kaaren Whitney-Vernon, senior vice president of branded entertainment at Shaftesbury and a featured speaker at this week’s Content Marketing World  (opens in a new tab), said in an interview with Cleveland.com  (opens in a new tab).

The annual event, held in Cleveland since 2011, brings together professionals in an industry that is constantly evolving. This year, nearly 4,000 attendees are choosing from sessions on topics ranging from visual storytelling to artificial intelligence to influencer marketing, today’s version of celebrity endorsement.

“On social media, [inflluencers] invite their audience behind the scenes,” Laura Johnston writes in the article. “They cross-promote their content, and get news sites to write stories. And they give their audience what they ask for.”

Employers Embrace Casual, Too

What’s really happening with workplace dress codes? (And how will they impact you?). https://t.co/XfX77mkjKv  (opens in a new tab)

— Inc. (@Inc) September 5, 2019  (opens in a new tab)

Casual dress is an increasingly popular perk that employees want in their workplace, and it seems that more employers are getting the message. A new study from Indeed  (opens in a new tab) found that half of U.S. companies now allow employees to dress casually every day—a big jump from 32 percent five years ago. And 62 percent of companies now allow casual clothing at least one day per week.

It’s not just hip startups, either. “Although tech companies are well known for leading the way with this casual dress trend—tech employees have had more outfit freedom than most since the 1980s—it is now no longer just tech companies that are adopting this casual dress code,” Inc.  (opens in a new tab)contributor Peter Economy writes  (opens in a new tab).

Other Links of Note

Does your association need more employees, or the support of a marketing agency? CMSWire explains when—and why—to hire each  (opens in a new tab).

Channel your inner photographer with Sprout Social’s tips on how to take the best Instagram photos  (opens in a new tab).

Leaders often have to be the bearers of bad news—sometimes when they disagree with a management decision. Quartz at Work shares how to navigate those conversations  (opens in a new tab).

(via Content Marketing World’s Facebook page)