An infomercial is supposed to be information in the form of a television commercial. These tend to be hard sells where the goal is clearly to get someone to buy right now (or in the next 30 minutes to receive a bonus pack of whatever they’re selling.) The focus is clearly more on the promotion than the information…meaning the information is only important in conveying the sale.

Contrast that with edutainment which is not overtly commercial in nature, rather it’s teaching something in an entertaining way. I always like Bill Nye the Science Guy for this approach (though I actually grew up with Mr. Wizard and Mr. Rogers.)

And we can’t forget infotainment, which we’re quite accustomed to now. This is a most often a tv show where news is given but dressed up to entertain us simultaneously. I think that was what the whole Dateline NBC, To Catch A Predator thing was supposed to be…maybe.

Given all these portmanteaux (yes, I looked that up) I want to add another one to the mix: the contisement. A content advertisement. The contisment is a commercial or advertisement in the form of content that has value and interest to the target audience. I think Super Bowl ads go for this approach. Clearly they’re trying to entertain (that’s the value) but they’re equally advertising whatever the product or service is.

I go into all of this because even though I think the contisement may be a legitimate category of approaching advertising, it’s still a little different from a pure content promotion strategy. A pure content promotion strategy isn’t overtly commercial. It’s primarily focused on delivering valuable content and only very minimally focused on the promotion. The promotion isn’t any single blog post, podcast, or online video. The promotion is what comes in time after you have earned people’s time, trust, and attention. You don’t stop selling with a content approach. You don’t quit promoting either. You just take the time to build a relationship before you make that sell or give that pitch.

All that being said, if I have to choose a secondary approach after a pure content promotion, I’ll take a contisement any day.

Yesterday I referenced a 2008 iMedia Brand Summit video talking about the blurring lines between ads and content. There were some great stats provided on the video and here were some that really stood out to me.

• 62% of consumers feel “there are too many ads in media.” (source: Yankelovich)
• 65% of consumers feel “constantly bombarded by ads.” (source: Forrester)
• 65% of consumers feel “bombarded by too many ads.” (source: McKinsey & Company)
• 75% of consumers feel “overwhelmed by the amount of media.” (source: NBC)
• 18% of consumers say they dislike all forms of advertising. (source: Doubleclick, January 2007)
• 39% of consumers claim they avoid advertising as much as possible. (source: JWT/Adweek survey, 2007)

Regarding trust in advertisers:

• In 2005, 25% of consumers said they trusted “people in who work in the advertising industry”…which means 75% don’t trust people who work in the ad industry. (source: HarrisInteractive)
• In 2007, 17% of consumers had any confidence in advertisers or the advertising industry…which mean 83% don’t have confidence in ads or advertisers. (source: mediaVillage.com)
• Today, 6% of consumers say they believe marketers’ ad claims…which of course means 94% don’t. (source: Forrester)

Conclusion: Forget the big fish.

This post is a few weeks in coming but I was thinking about it again last night after watching this video (and Carol Kruse from Coca-Cola made the same point on the video) so I thought it was worth posting.

I’ve been talking a lot lately about content being the new (and I contend it’s the best) kind of promotion strategy. For instance, last week I wrote about creating compelling, valuable content using the Old McDonald method to jump start your thinking and previously wrote about the filters we all have to keep out those 3000 to 5000 ads hitting us every day. Interestingly enough, a traditional media event, the Super Bowl, supports all of this thinking.

Think about it. The Super Bowl is the one day of the year when people are as interested (if not more) in the advertising they will see as the event itself. It’s like the entire nation decides to collectively turn off its ad filter and sits back and says, “Advertise to me!” The funny thing about this is that these ads aren’t really ads, they’re content…heavily branded content. The advertisers know the mentality is different on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year so they think about how they’re going to entertain people. This shows that marketers can think as content creators when they choose to but that they simply choose not to do so the rest of the year.

If we follow this rationale further, Super Bowl Sunday shows us that content works when you get through or around people’s ad filters. I believe new media marketing tools like blogs, podcasts, online video, etc. get around people’s ad filters all the time because they are chosen for consumption. In other words, the consumer pulls this media to him or herself whereas regular advertising is pushed on him or her…and how many of us like to have anything pushed on us? Yeah, I don’t either. New media marketers try to put themselves in a position to be pulled as easily as possible and that’s all a content promotion is, something that people want to pull. Given all of this, my conclusion is that for new media marketers, every day is Super Bowl Sunday.

[HT to Eric Holter for saving the video mentioned above via his Del.icio.us account. It's a good (dare I say delicious?) feed to follow. Eric is also a huge New England Patriots fan so any resurfacing of old wounds he may experience as a result of the Super Bowl mentions above are purely coincidental.]

I’ve noticed that people who have opinions about blogs and bloggers see them in one of two ways: either as fish or rats.

Fish are:

• Beautiful
• Admired
• Valuable
• Prized

Rats are:

• Disruptive
• Sneaky
• Hated
• Pests

The reason I bring this up is because some of us who happen to think blogs and bloggers are fish work with, for, or around people who see them as rats. It’s a huge divide when you think about it. If someone thinks they’re rats how can you convince them otherwise? You could talk about blog growth and hope they’re convinced that 100 million bloggers worldwide can’t all be wrong. You could give anecdotes of stories where bloggers have made and changed news stories or rallied around causes to help people. You could tell them that generating content is the new promotional strategy (and I would insert personal stories here) but that may not be enough either.

If I know I’m talking to someone who sees blogs and bloggers as rats rather than fish I generally try to find out how they arrived at their conclusion. Many times this idea developed from an experience (either one they had or something they heard about) where a blog was used in a negative way. Perhaps it was an attack blog or some kind or the perceived lack of control with a blog that made them uncomfortable. Whatever the case I haven’t yet discovered a sure-fire method of changing someone’s mind and I don’t think there is one but the best thing to do is to deal with the issues that led to the conclusion they now hold before dealing with their perspective of blogs and bloggers. Forget that they think blogs are rats. Deal with the reasons they think that. Take the time necessary to reconcile those issues. Only then will you have a chance to turn that rat into a fish.

I contend that content is the new promotional strategy because it cuts through the clutter of the 4,000 (on average) promotions that are targeted at us every single day. Content takes the focus off the advertiser/promoter and provides something of value to the consumer/audience. New media tools like blogs, podcasts, and online video are phenomenal ways to create content (on the cheap even) with the added bonus of being easy to go viral if the content is good enough.

What I’ve realized, however, is that even if you agree with me on this you may not be sure how to begin. Case in point: I was talking to a friend the other day about his blog, one where he’s been blogging regularly for about nine months now but only provides updates about what he’s doing and where his travels take him. He wants to really use his blog to build a platform and brand for himself so I challenged him to be creating content that’s not about him as much but rather has something of value to his blog readers. Inevitably his personality comes through and in the end it is about him, but just not as directly. I broke it down into five categories for him to consider as he thinks about creating valuable content.

The best way to remember the five categories is to think about Old McDonald…you know…Old McDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-O…yeah, that one. Here are five categories of valuable content with Old McDonald in mind:

• E - Entertain: Entertainment is one of the easiest ways to create valuable content. We all know what it is to be entertained and hopefully we have an idea of what will entertain the people we’re trying to reach. This is one of the primary reasons I do a video of the week here. Humor is a great place to start when it comes to entertaining. Humor is valuable. Don’t underestimate the value you earn by making people laugh.
• I - Inspire: Inspiration seems to be in short supply these days so if you can do this successfully you’ll stand out. Thinking more generally here, consider this category the emotive or “touchy-feely” approach. The Free Hugs Campaign and Kleenex’s Let It Out campaign come to mind here.
• E - Educate: When you educate people you tell them how to do something or share some information that the will find useful or helpful in some way. LifeHacker falls into this category as does someone like Seth Godin who provides helpful ideas for marketers. Educational content can tell you how-to, when-to, why-to, where-to, and what-to do.
• I - Inform: When you inform you provide news or updates about something. TechCrunch is a blog that has done extremely well in this regard. They make news, break news, and report the news in the world of technology. The difference here from the educational approach is that when you inform you’re not telling, for instance, when-to do something but instead tell when-is something. Further, information says where-is, who-is, and what-is happening.
• O - Outrage: Controversy is actually a great form of content. Now, you have to be a little careful here because with controversy there are undoubtedly people who are for you and people who are against you (thus the controversy). Outraging your industry to help the consumers you want is a great way to use controversial content to your advantage. The Huffington Post and HotAir fall into this category in many cases.

It’s important to note that there’s really no clear line between these categories nor should you feel compelled to stay in only one. I suggest you look at all five categories as options for you to consider as you create content. In fact, some of the best ideas would really mix several of these basic elements like a entertaining and informative or educational and inspirational. So, next time you think about creating valuable content, hum a little Old McDonald in your head and see if you don’t get a few ideas going.

By the way, this is part of a presentation I gave at Podcamp Nashville over the weekend. You can download the entire presentation here.

It struck me recently that I’ve assumed something about new media marketing that I had never really expressed. That realization was that I assume word of mouth marketing is the most effective form of promotion. Everything I advocate when it comes to new media marketing is based on the premise that word of mouth marketing works and is truly effective. The entire content as the new promotion strategy series I did had word of mouth marketing at its very foundation.

Here’s why I say this: word of mouth marketing is people telling others about something. That’s the core of new media marketing and a content promotion strategy. You want to use content (see here for definition) that people will find valuable and then pass along. The new media tools simply let this happen exponentially faster than the old word of mouth marketing. It’s still word of mouth…just at hyper speed.

Two weeks ago Ketchum released the findings of a new study that verifies this. Here are two interesting quotes from the study:

“Advice from family and friends is the No. 1 source that consumers turn to when making a variety of decisions – ranging from purchasing consumer electronics to planning a vacation.”

“Communicators rank their companies’ own Web sites as the most effective way to share corporate news or issue a response to a crisis, but consumers rank company Web sites sixth and seventh among places they turn to for corporate news and crisis response, respectively.”

What we see here is verification that people telling other people about things is the best promotional tool and that despite any company’s high regard for its own website, the people are looking many other places first (including search engines as the study later shows.) This isn’t really new news, it’s just the latest in a line of validating information along these lines. Kind of makes me glad I’m not doing traditional marketing anymore.

This is the third installment of the content as the promotional strategy series. Here are the first and second parts if you haven’t seen them already. In this post I’m going to answer the question:

“Why choose content as a promotional strategy?”

So, why look at content as the new promotion strategy? It’s simple actually. Content as a promotion strategy forces a marketer to think about the consumer. When a marketer thinks about the consumer, she thinks about what will be valuable to that consumer rather than what’s valuable to her (or her company or her client.) This shift may seem subtle but it’s huge.

There are somewhere between 3000 and 5000 marketing messages aimed at Americans every day and each of them is standing there saying “hey, look at me!” or “check this out” or “you need this really bad.” What none of these promotional messages says is, “here’s something for you” without a hook. They may give something away but they’re going to ask for something in return like buy one and then get one free. What’s understood but not spoken is that if you buy now, then you’ll get one free now. You may get the consumers attention with the deal but you also lose it as soon as the transaction is complete.

A content promotion strategy changes the model because you’re A) giving away something of value to the consumer without an immediate hook and B) extending the length of their attention for you. A content promotion strategy takes the long view of a consumer’s time and attention (two very valuable commodities) knowing that the valuable content you’re providing now earns their attention this time and likely their time and attention a next time with even more valuable content. The strategy is to give now so that you can get later.

Advertising is about the advertiser. Content is about the consumer. Promoting with content forces you to put yourself in the consumer’s shoes and therefore deliver something to them they will value. It’s not about you. It’s about them. They already know that. When you know that and when they know you know that, then you’re just beginning to connect with your best customers.

Earlier this week I started this series called “content is the new promotion strategy.” Today I’m going to begin with the first question some may have for understanding this promotional paradigm shift…

What is content?

The Wikipedia definition for content is: “information and experiences created by individuals, institutions and technology to benefit audiences in contexts that they value.”

For our purposes I expand on this definition a bit to say that online content for promotion is any information, idea, experience, or digital good that will have value to the consumer without the perceived primary objective being an advertisement, offer, proposition, or call to action.

For instance, a series of videos on the website of a home improvement magazine with short “how-to” videos would be content. A banner ad on the same site that simply says, “Order now and save 30%!” is not. This is not to say, however, that at the end of the how-to video there couldn’t be an offer to order now to save 30%. The difference is that the content (in this case it’s a video) is primary and the offer is secondary. The content earns the attention for the offer. In essence you’ve given them something now so you can ask for something in return that benefits you (even if you ask it in such a way that you’re telling them it’s a good deal for them too…like 30% off.)

Content is only as good as its value to another person. High value content is therefore considered high quality content so the opposite is true as well. Low value content is low quality content. The correlation between value and quality is inescapable. The million dollar question then is this: “What is valuable content?”

Valuable content will mean different things to different audiences so an understanding of your target audience is paramount. I was recently talking with a photographer friend about this concept of content as a promotion strategy. At first he wasn’t sure it applied to him. He thought it meant he might start a blog about photography tips or something along those lines. Though that’s one route he could go (and it may very well be a good one) he could also look at creating digital goods or showcasing his photographs in a form that would be valuable to people who may later be interested in his services. For instance, he could use his pictures as a series of free custom desktop images or inspirational e-cards. Maybe he could take some pictures of children and put music to it to create a funny and touching video about kids. If the video is done well I can just think of all the moms and dads who will want to pass it along to friends/family/coworkers and all the while be promoting his photography in the process. Any of these ideas would be viewed as valuable to people who are potential customers for him and he’s promoting himself by giving away content. By giving any of these away, he’s not asking for anything in return yet. He just knows he’s credited with each photograph that goes out and for now he knows it is more valuable to gain people’s attention than to make a hard sell. After all, it’s a promotion strategy not a sales strategy.

There are three easy categories to remember for valuable content that can be remembered with this question: Is the content helpful, hopeful, or humorous? This is certainly not an exhaustive list of all the types of content that could be beneficial, but I’ve found it to be a quick reference to gauge whether something will be perceived as valuable.

• Helpful - Is the content you’re going to create going to help someone in any way. Maybe it’s going to help give them knowledge or perspective they didn’t have before. Maybe it will teach or train them to do something they want to learn. Helpful content helps people. It’s not a difficult concept to understand but it could be easily overlooked as a content option. It’s not an accident that Lifehacker is the sixth most popular blog in the world.
• Hopeful - Content that is encouraging, touching, or in some other way has an emotional appeal more easily lends itself to being appealing to your audience (assuming this is appropriate for your audience) and then being passed along as well. It’s the same thing Hallmark has done for years and more recently Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has been successful with this approach. Kleenex’s Let it Out campaign was all over this too.
• Humorous - Let’s face it, we’ve seen more than our fair share of funny online videos, stories, or pictures and we’ve probably recommended a bunch too. Whether it’s some guy dancing around or a baby laughing, humor is one of the easiest ways to create valuable content. Making people laugh is valuable. Last summer eMarketer studied this topic and showed that the most watched online videos are humorous. The band Ok Go got the break of a lifetime with this approach.

The next part of this series will talk in depth about why content is the new promotion strategy.

For a year and a half now I’ve been talking about web 2.0 to people with varying levels of understanding about the term and the technology that it represents. In August, 2006, I posted for the first time about the six categories of web 2.0. I’ve used the “massive Volkswagon” many times to help give a basis for understanding in personal meetings and in seminars to groups of people.

Several months ago, however, I began to see a flaw in what I was talking about. My focus was totally on the technology, and as a marketer talking mostly to marketers, I found that the technology discussion was really only one part of the true shift in new media/web 2.0 marketing. It’s one thing to start talking about fishing with nets, it’s something else entirely to talk about why fishing with nets is important and strategic. That was the piece I was missing and as a marketer focused on new media, I was only talking about the technology without taking an important step back to explain the strategy for using it. If the mindset shift comes in forgetting the big fish, then the strategy to accompany it is this: content is the new promotion strategy. The technology (the nets…to stay with that analogy) simply lets content spread faster and go further than ever before.

This week I’m going to dig further into the idea of content as the new promotion strategy. After all, what is content and what makes it so special anyway?