Take a look at our 10 favourite pieces of custom content that brands and publishers partnered on in the month of March. Check out the February’s top 10 here.
1. Style By City – WhoWhatWear + Vans
This branded partnership truly has it all; influencers, a lookbook, a travel guide and custom playlists. It’s a great example of how brands and publishers can step outside of the typical written or video content formats and produce something valuable for readers.
2. The Cult of Jason Katims – Esquire + Hulu
This custom article by Esquire and Hulu is one of those rare pieces of branded content that ACTUALLY feels like editorial. This well written interview with screenwriter and executive producer Jason Katims is completely in line with a typical piece of editorial that Esquire would publish and promotes his new Hulu series, The Path, in a very organic way.
3. Wakayama – CNN + Wakayama Tourism Federation
If you don’t want to visit this magical city in Japan after checking this out, there might be something wrong with you. CNN does a great job enticing readers with custom video and galleries in an enhanced version of the listicle format.
4. The Last Minute Bride’s Adventurous Honeymoon Get Fit Plan – Explore Magazine + TELUS
We really liked this piece because it’s not often that branded content features a truly personal experience. Publishers have known for a long time that audiences connect with stories they can relate to and see themselves in, but many brands can have a hard time eliciting those same feelings. The author’s story about getting in shape and how TELUS played a part in that journey does a great job at humanizing the brand.
(Full Disclosure: This story was created through the Pressboard Story Marketplace)
5. New Heights – Fast Company + Adobe
Couldn’t convince your boss to send you to Adobe’s Summit Conference in Las Vegas? Don’t sweat it, because they’ve repackaged some of the best content and learnings from it into a custom series with Fast Company. This is another excellent example of how brands can use existing content and mold it to work on different platforms to reach new audiences.
6. The Dreamers – Great Big Story + Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Aligning your brand with dreamers and innovators isn’t a new idea, but it still makes for great content when done right. This custom video series highlights eight trailblazers that are using big data to change the world in unique ways.
7. 1983: The Most Dangerous Year – The Washington Post + FX
Given that they were creating content long before it became a buzzword, it should be no surprise that TV shows are responsible for some of the most entertaining branded content partnerships. Promoting a new season of FX’s The American’s, The Washington Post’s Brand Studio created this interactive timeline documenting the Cold War’s most tumultuous year by using newspaper clippings, archival video and scenes from the show itself.
8. I Came To Work Wearing Only Underwear – Buzzfeed + Aerie
The next time you assure a client that you’ll do whatever it takes to make them happy, ask yourself, “Would I spend an entire day at the office in only my underwear?” Clark McCaskill of Buzzfeed’s Ad Team did exactly that to help promote American Eagle’s new line of men’s underwear, which has its own ad campaign promoting body positivity for men. This hilarious piece connected with Buzzfeed’s audience, garnering over 15,000 social interactions.
9. What it’s really like to live in Vancouver – Vancouver Is Awesome + Vancity
Vancouver’s real estate market can be a touchy subject in the city, but that’s exactly what Vancity was counting on with this partnership. This piece really connected with audiences and was a huge success, generating over 1,500 social interactions on Facebook alone!
(Full Disclosure: This story was created through the Pressboard Story Marketplace)
10. Hacker Avenue – Politico + Leidos
Politico teamed up with American defense company Leidos to educate readers about the implications and financial costs that security threats pose in the near future by using a fun video game-like experience combined with an interactive article. This branded partnership takes the cake for packaging difficult to understand topics into a digestible medium.
What were your favourite custom content partnerships from the month of March? Let us know in the comments! For more content like this, check out our breakdown of the best branded content partnerships of 2015.
Take a look at our 10 favourite pieces of native content that brands and publishers partnered on in the month of February.