Sponsored Content Needs More Than Good Storytelling, It Needs a Good Story

Sponsored content doesn’t have to be an oxymoron. As publishers and marketers double down on their commitment to providing deeper branded experiences, instead of traditional advertising, the rules of the road are becoming clearer on both sides. And more so than just four or five years ago; conventions for doing it right have emerged. In talking to a range of publishers of various sizes and categories, we found that the practices ensuring sponsored content maintains a publisher’s voice and integrity take remarkably similar form. Getting it right, making sponsored content serve the interests of readers, publishers and their clients remains a complex process that starts with basic organization and goal setting but also lends itself to certain content formats, as well as execution and measurement regimen.    Think like editors In talking to sources, the consensus seems to be that creating authentic sponsored content starts with how the operation is organized and connected to the editorial team.  “We are a full-service, one-stop shop,” says Adam Ochman, senior VP, creative and strategy at Leaf Group, whose brand portfolio includes Hunker, LiveStrong.com and Well+Good. A full staff of writers focus solely on branded content, with little outsourcing, he says. That keeps the branded content team in day-to-day contact with the company's editors and processes to ensure its brand voices are ingrained. “We operate more like an editorial enterprise,” says Outside's Sam Moulton, who... Continue reading at 'Folio Magazine'

[ Folio Magazine | 2020-03-05 17:34:24 UTC ]
News tagged with: #social distribution #key metric #user experience

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Sponsored Content Needs More Than Good Storytelling, It Needs a Good Story'


New Aussie drama Bad Behaviour gives us a complex portrayal of girlhood and queer stories

Stan’s new series adapted Rebecca Starford’s memoir gives brutal and honest insight into the consequences of bullying. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2023-02-17 02:14:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #memoir


3 Super Bowl Advertisers Winning the Digital Content Game

Early this football season, the National Football League began shifting tactics to engage younger fans on social media as people reallocate their attention from TV to digital content that is fun, snackable and highly visual. With Super Bowl 57 quickly approaching, Big Game advertisers--who spent... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2023-02-08 19:41:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #football season #digital content


Bedtime Stories From Toni Morrison: Priscilla Gilman on Her Singular Literary Upbringing

Family memoirs are never about one thing. There’s always a compelling domestic story; in her new memoir, The Critic’s Daughter, Priscilla Gilman tells a fascinating story about her dynamic parents and the literary world that they inhabited. But good memoirs always involve a secondary subplot (or... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-06 09:54:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bedtime stories #toni morrison #priscilla gilman #fascinating story #literary world


Prince Harry told his story in his own words. But what happens now?

As much as Prince Harry's memoir Spare gives the 38-year-old the chance to tell his story in his own words, the book and the media swirl around it have spawned a host of questions — for the Duke of Sussex himself, the Royal Family and the... Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2023-01-15 09:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #prince harry #memoir spare #royal family #memoir


Catholic sex-ed textbooks discontinued following accusations of 'homophobic,' 'transphobic' content

The Fully Alive textbook series has been used by Catholic school boards across the province for years. Now, Pearson Canada says it has stopped printing physical copies of the book and will stop supporting digital versions by March. Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2023-01-11 10:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #pearson


PW’s Most-Read Comics Stories of 2022

Explosive growth in the popularity of manga; librarians organize to fight censorship; and the impact of the book format on comics publishing were among the most-read stories on comics and graphic novels published by 'PW' in 2022.  Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-04 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #comics publishing #explosive growth #fight censorship #most-read stories


12 Sci-Fi Stories to Help Make Sense of the Climate, Risk, and Our Digital Lives

Don’t miss these short stories featuring firefighting drones, lab-grown mammals, long-buried fan fiction, and much more. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2022-12-30 10:50:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #make sense #digital lives #short stories


10 of the Best Kate Chopin Stories Everyone Should Read

The short stories of the American writer Kate Chopin (1850-1904) are important precursors to twentieth-century modernism, and can be viewed as forerunners to the short fiction of Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, and other high modernists. Where other nineteenth-century writers tended to... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2022-12-28 15:00:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #short fiction #katherine mansfield #virginia woolf #short stories


“I Am Here to Mourn a Writer Who Has Become Part of My Personal Canon.” On the Short Stories of Naira Kuzmich

Naira Kuzmich died in 2017, at age 29 from lung cancer, but her posthumous short story collection, In Everything I See Your Hand, was only recently brought to fruition by University of New Orleans Press (June 2022). The included stories were widely published in literary journals and one was... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-22 09:53:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #personal canon #lung cancer #widely published #literary journals #short stories


How Do You Know If Your Short Story Should Be a Novel?

The list of novels that began their lives as short stories is long and well known. Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides, Eudory Welty’s The Optimist’s Daughter, Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake (which began as a short story titled “Gogol”), Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (expanded from her 1923... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-15 09:52:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #short story #jeffrey eugenides #jhumpa lahiri #virginia woolf #jonathan franzen #short stories


PW’s Top Religion Stories of 2022

A recap of the year in religion publishing news, plus the most-read religion stories of 2022. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-12-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #religion publishing


Protests won't stop Drag Queen Story Time, bookstore owner says

Independent book store Book Keeper will continue to hold Drag Queen Story Time after protests. Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2022-12-13 09:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bookstore owner #book store #bookstore


The Top 10 Library Stories of 2022

PW looks back at the library stories that captivated the publishing world this year, and what they portend for 2023 Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-12-09 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #library stories #publishing world


If You Want to Build a Story, Become an Architect

Mary-Alice Daniel has been on a journey, literally, across continents. She documents her experiences in A Coastline Is an Immeasurable Thing, which is a memoir about places, from which she has been uprooted, assimilated into, revisited, and settled, giving the reader a close look into the lives... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-12-05 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #electric literature #memoir


How a Good Book Became the ‘Richest’ of Holiday Gifts

As Christmas came to be celebrated in the home, choosing the right volume was a way to show intimate understanding of the person opening the package. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-12-02 15:52:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #holiday gifts #good book


Martin Sorrell-backed S4S Ventures, Bertelsmann invest $10M in data asset management outfit as it blends new content, analytics-based marketing for clients

The recent explosion in content has created the need not only for more sophisticated tools to manage it, but better ways to attach data and analytics to the content in order to better optimize it at the right time for the right opportunity. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2022-11-22 05:01:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #recent explosion #bertelsmann


Oh good, TikTok is breaking into bookselling.

We all know books have the power to move us to tears, and that those tears have the power to move books. Last year, with the sudden rise on popularity of certain titles, the publishing industry realized that BookTok might have the ability to shape the market. One reader cries on camera about... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-18 18:44:22 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #move books #sudden rise #madeline miller #publishing industry


Choosing to Bear Witness: Writing the Story of a Body

My clearest memory of my freshman year of college takes place in the emergency room of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where I was studying English Literature at Boston University and living on the eighteenth floor of Warren Towers, in Tower C, in a room with southern exposure. Despite... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-17 09:53:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #boston university #bear witness #freshman year #english literature


How brands are keeping audiences engaged in a competitive content world

Arthur Gerigk, senior director of product management, Google Ads Today, consumers navigate a widening variety of digital content from text to image to video — and they choose to spend their time in the experiences that feel most natural and intuitive for them. Ahead of the holiday season, Google... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2022-11-16 15:33:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #senior director #product management #holiday season #google partnered #digital content


Beneath Its Pink Cover, ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ Offers a Story About Power

The best-selling debut author Bonnie Garmus created Elizabeth Zott, a chemist battling a sexist 1950s establishment, as the role model she craved — and found that readers wanted the same. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-11-16 14:07:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #role model #readers wanted #debut author