Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

At this morning’s American Association of Advertising Agencies’ public relations forum, the New York Times’ executive vice president of advertising Meredith Levien threw a cat in with the pigeons.

The Times’ sponsored content (or ‘native advertising’ depending on your preference for buzzwords) was performing roughly as well as its editorial content, Levien said. In some cases, much better. The newspaper’s interactive feature for the Winter Olympic games in Sochi, produced with United Airlines, was viewed nearly 200,000 times, far superseding a typical editorial piece. Its paid post program launched in January and it has signed on eight advertisers, with more set to join shortly.

Levien’s remarks will inevitably serve as proof for fans of sponsored content and those who consider it the intellectual apocalypse, that their side is in the right. There are two groups of people with nothing in common who have their arms in the air right now yelling “I told you so.”...

This is what leads me to conclude that 2014 will be the year of brand journalism....

As content marketers struggle to keep up with the demands of creating content all the time that’s high quality, increasingly they’ll look to professionals who can maintain that pace without breaking a sweat – journalists.

Brands are also realizing that they must capture their audiences’ attention, that they must take responsibility for the creation and maintenance of those audiences. Relying on the traditional media to do so at a time when traditional media is declining is folly at best....