Take a look at our 10 favourite pieces of native content that brands and publishers partnered on in the month of February.
1. Scotch Stories – Travel+Leisure + Bacardi Limited
This beautifully designed hub showcases the origin stories of five of Bacardi’s scotches through custom written and video content. It also includes practical educational guides for readers such as Which Single Malt is Right For You.
2. The 5 Products You Need To Pull Off Any Spring Look – Refinery29 + COVERGIRL
We enjoyed this piece because of the value it provided readers in its simplicity. The title is perfectly clear and the content delivers with detailed instructions. Pair that with great visuals in the form of stills transformed into GIFs and you have a winning piece.
3. ClickHole’s Guide To The Animal Kingdom – Clickhole + Disney’s Zootopia
Major props to Disney for understanding that funny, lighthearted content is a great way to promote a movie about a bustling metropolis of talking animals. This series is a great reminder to brands that it’s acceptable, even encouraged, to not take yourself too seriously when appropriate.
4. Vancouver is the next city of the future – Vancouver Is Awesome + TELUS
We really liked this story because the brand message was highly relevant to the publisher’s local audience and was communicated through a hot topic – the internet of things. The inclusion of custom video resulted in a story that generated an above average engagement time.
(Full Disclosure: This story was created through the Pressboard Story Marketplace)
5. Cars 2025 – Mashable + Goldman Sachs
This stunning interactive hub is a great example of how brands can create new pieces out of existing content. Goldman Sachs originally published this information at their Global Automotive Conference in London and did a great job working with Mashable to repurpose it for a new audience.
6. Should You Break Up With Your S.O.? – Buzzfeed + Virgin Mobile
In an industry where a lot of content marketers play it safe, it’s refreshing to see a brand take a risk like this. This piece is also smart in that it is seasonally relevant for Valentine’s Day, but takes advantage of a “holiday” not being talked about by everyone else, National Breakup Day.
7. Nashville Hot Chicken Is Crispy, Fiery, and Perhaps Addictive – EATER + KFC
In an effort to promote KFC’s new Nashville Hot Chicken menu items, the team at Vox Media did a great job showcasing the food’s unique local significance. An authentic backstory paired with great original illustrations resulted in highly shared story.
8. Dinner Time – TIME + Netflix
This piece by TIME is another example of custom content aligning perfectly with the partnering brand. Netflix’s new documentary series Cooked dives deep into the history of cooking and TIME does the same using their own old cover stories.
9. Sneak in Some World Travel While Getting Your Study On – Canadian Traveller + University of British Columbia
How can a university promote their graduate program on a travel site? By highlighting the fact that it’s the only one in the country to have a mandatory travel program! This partnership is a great example of how brands can tailor their unique selling point to a particular publisher’s audiences, resulting in content that strikes a chord with audiences.
(Full Disclosure: This story was created through the Pressboard Story Marketplace)
10. What Does It Take To Be A Tea Sommelier? – Huffington Post Canada + Lipton
We really liked this because it put a new spin on the term sommelier and was very informative in the process. It’s a shining example of custom content that doesn’t beat you over the head with the brand’s message, resulting in an easily digestible piece that feels organic.
What were your favourite custom content partnerships from the month of February? Let us know in the comments!
