Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Content marketing costs less than advertising, and more people engage with it.It sounds like a revolution but actually there are some rather unkind hidden truths in all of this.

Much like the pigs at the end of Animal Farm, with the evil predecessor gone, what’s replaced it looks… very similar indeed.George Orwell, Animal Farm:

"Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which..."

Last year, Coca-Cola launched the Journey website as its own media outlet, using an editorial, image-heavy format.

Fuelled by the brand's Content 2020 plan, the redesign was described as 'the most ambitious rethink of Coca-Cola’s web properties' since it launched the first website in 1995.

The company has gone from being declared 'creatively bankrupt' by a chief exec in 2004 to being named Creative Marketer of the Year at Cannes in 2013.

But the brand hasn't stopped there. One of its goals is to 'kill the press release', reducing the number of press releases by half by the end of this year and wanting them gone entirely by 2015.Another recent development is the launch of its own blogger contributor network, similar to LinkedIn's Influencer programme, but focusing on new talent instead of 'big names', called 'The Opener'....