As part of our Ask the Experts series, we learn from the world’s leaders in content marketing on how to create epic content. In this Q & A Pressboard’s Jerrid Grimm chats with Trevor Fellows, Head of Global Media Sales at The Wall Street Journal. This interview contains excerpts from The Epic Guide To Content Marketing – over 50 pages of advice from the experts at The New York Times, Forbes, Mashable, The Huffington Post and many more!
Pressboard: Can you tell us about your role and background? What first attracted you to the branded content space?
Trevor: I’ve been in media and advertising for what sometimes seems like a very long time – but even at the outset of my career, I was excited by the fact that media owners could bring deep understanding of their audience and the way that they consumed content to help marketers with their messaging. Prior to working at the WSJ, I spent 14 years at a financial news channel during which time we pioneered both programmatic TV advertising with Google TV and native TV advertising. I just wish we’d had the wit to call it programmatic and native TV!
What’s the main reason brands come to The Wall Street Journal to partner on branded content, instead of creating and distributing the content themselves?
Well, there are two main reasons – firstly, we do enjoy that deep understanding of how our subscribers consume and share our content and that helps us create content that really engages our audience. Secondly, of course, we have an incredibly talented group of writers, videographers, illustrators and engineers creating this content. And I think that many brands and agencies really enjoy brainstorming and creating with our team as we help introduce new ideas and approaches
WSJ uses an incredible amount of data and research in editorial news content. How can unique data and statistics be used to augment branded content?
We’re really intrigued by the match of data and content – done well, it has the ability to dramatically amplify the engagement and utility of any content program. It’s not so clear though that the normal data sets and methods used are accurate or granular enough for this purpose though, which is why we build interactivity into many of our executions. A great case in point is the work we’ve just released for Intel, which, by surfacing intelligent and relevant questions allows users to find precisely tailored insight and tools around the IoT – Internet of Things
Source: Pew Research
What is WSJ’s most powerful distribution channel for branded content?
Our home page – without a doubt. Obviously, we, like every other publisher, are enjoying massive growth in sideways traffic but our home page remains incredibly important; it’s the water cooler moment, if you will, for millions of the world’s opinion leaders every day. So when we launch a native campaign, it gets immediate attention and buzz that’s quite unlike anything else.
Which will have the most profound effect (either negative or positive) on native/branded content in the next 12 months?
- Facebook’s Instant Articles
- The growth of Ad Blocking
- The FTC’s guidelines on native content disclosure
FTC guidelines for sure as they are going to force many publishers to stop disguising mediocre content and force everyone to build intelligent, compelling content that stands on its own merits. It’s a win-win for everyone – readers will not longer get tricked, brands will enjoy the advantages of being properly associated with content, which in turn will lead to better and more innovative ways of telling stories.
Pressboard would like to thank Trevor Fellows for speaking with us and contributing to our latest e-book. You can find him on Twitter at @Tfellows1