When It Comes To Branded Content It's All About Trust

When It Comes To Branded Content It's All About Trust
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”Branded content is a growing and evolving part of the media landscape,” so says Facebook who define it on their platform as “as content that features a third party product, brand, or sponsor (marketer).”

A few years back Forrester released a paper entitled How To Build Your Brand With Branded Content in which the author proclaimed that “branded content has the ability to create brand differentiation by bridging the gap between TV’s emotive power and digital media’s efficient reach” and adding that “branded content offers brands the opportunity to differentiate themselves.”

Kevin Gentzel, Chief Revenue Officer of the USA TODAY NETWORK says it absolutely is all about trust.

“Our goal across the network is to be the most trusted source for news and information in every market we serve,” he said. “We believe that when the relationship is trust based, then we have the ability to inform, educate, entertain, excite and engage our readers across print and digital, video and mobile, infographics and branded content and much more.”

Trust Is Not An Option

Establishing and maintaining the highest level of trust is absolutely vital for any brand doing business today. It is not an option that you can check off or not check off when it comes the keys to success.

Make no mistake about it the lack of trust has a resounding and potentially deadly effect.

The chart below, courtesy of MarketingCharts.com, shows a clear and present danger for brands when it comes to trust among consumers. The first two bars - one red, on green, say it all.

Marketing Charts

Nearly 50% literally stop buying from a brand they do not trust whereas nearly 70% will choose to buy from a brand they do trust.

Does it get any plainer than that?

Four Is the Score

In the same aforementioned Forrester report they identified four ways branded content can help build a true brand:

  1. Educate and inform to build a trusted brand.
  2. Create topical, shareable content to build a remarkable brand.
  3. Develop stand-out content to build an unmistakable brand.
  4. Become part of your customers’ daily routine to build an essential brand.

And among their recommendations Forrester says marketers need to shift from random acts of content to purposeful storytelling.

Gentzel adds “brands are realizing that they can deepen a conversation with a consumer through storytelling, and partnering with media companies to reach specific audiences with their stories.”

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