- 4/17/2025
Branded Content pt.1
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00:00Hi, welcome to Branded Content Training. Today, we will cover our unique value proposition,
00:15what branded content is and the power of content, our current offering, and the packages we have
00:22today to sell. Attached in this academy course, you will also find all of our sales collateral
00:28divided up by category and size of market. Now, let's jump into everything. First, our value
00:36proposition. Keep this in mind as we go through all aspects of our offering. We create premium
00:43branded content solutions designed to build deep connections between brands and their target
00:49audience. We tell the brand story by harnessing the power of our extensive, brand-safe, fraud-free,
00:56engaged audiences. Branded content. Okay, before we get into a detailed definition of branded content,
01:04let's take a look at some parting words from Craig Davis, former Chief Creative Officer at J. Walter
01:09Thompson, arguably one of the most well-known and innovative marketing communication brands out
01:15there. We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested
01:21in. That's exactly what we're doing with our branded content efforts. Our goal is to have audiences
01:27engaged in the content they are reading and by doing so, bring awareness to the brand associated
01:34with the content. What is branded content? Branded content is a content creation tactic that encourages
01:42audiences to engage with the brand based on its entertainment, information, and or educational value.
01:49It doesn't interrupt the user experience because it engages the reader with the content of the
01:55article. When produced as native advertising, it fits the form and function of the site it lives on,
02:03making the content less pushy and less like a typical advertisement. It is a marketing technique
02:10that does not involve traditional advertising. Its purpose is to drive engagement through content.
02:17Stage of the buying journey. Branded content is a top-of-the-funnel marketing strategy.
02:24When looking at the buying journey, also known as the path to purchase, branded content falls in the
02:30awareness stage. It increases exposure and brand awareness. It sheds a positive light on the advertiser
02:38by being an authority in the industry. And it has the ability to drive new traffic to the website.
02:45The importance. It's important to have engaging content. Why? The more consumers enjoy a piece
02:52of content, the more open they are to a brand's messaging. This doesn't mean a consumer likes the
02:57brand more. It means they are more willing to engage. Engaging content has a much higher probability
03:03of being shared socially, which expands the content's reach and potentially the audience.
03:08It's also important to have a trusted partner. Partnering with an influential publisher lowers
03:15the barriers to capturing consumers' attention because the content is delivered to them from a
03:20trusted source and isn't packaged to look like an advertisement. The power of content. According to
03:27eMarketer, MDG Advertising, IPG Media Lab, and Adweek, content marketing is extremely effective and can
03:35significantly enhance overall marketing efforts. 82% of brand lift is attributed to branded content.
03:44There is 53% increase of consumer intent to purchase with native advertising. And 70% of consumers
03:53prefer to learn about a product through content. Content is powerful and we now have a branded content
04:01solution to deliver to our advertisers. Continuing with the power of content, according to Nativo,
04:09branded content paired with display advertising has a 60% impact on ad recall. Now spending on branded
04:17content is soaring as marketers and digital media publishers realize the benefits. According to
04:25Press Board Media, branded content is 22% more engaging than display ads. And according to Borel Associates,
04:33native advertising is predicted to exceed 63 billion by 2025. What this is saying is we have a huge
04:42opportunity in front of us. Now let's go through our branded content offering. First, let's take a look at
04:50what our branded content articles look like. Here you'll see two examples, one on the left and one on
04:55the right. Our content is written to be compelling and informative. In this case, the headline is top
05:03tips for staying fit in mind, body, and lifestyle. On the left example, you'll see on the top right corner
05:10presented by senior lifestyle. That is the advertiser that is associated with the content in this case.
05:17Below you'll also see additional display ads. Who does the content get in front of? Well first,
05:23our loyal audience. The content will live on our station sites, the station sites that are most relevant
05:31to the article and to the series. And then second, syndicated targeted audience. We are deploying
05:39targeted display ads to reach a relevant demographic based on the category and the content of the article.
05:47So now let's go through each one individually. On our station sites, there will be two ways our
05:53audiences can find, engage, and read the article. First, they can find the article by clicking the
06:00In Your Neighborhood link from the navigation bar on the left. And the second way is finding it in the
06:07Don't Miss Ribbon third spot down. Now within this third spot, advertisers will rotate within each category.
06:15And we'll discuss categories in a little while. Now let's talk extending further than our O&O
06:22audiences. We will target via audience extension and social ads. Creative will be based off the
06:29content of the article and have the advertiser's logo included. Below you'll see two examples of display
06:36creative and social creative. Now talking about targeting the audience demographic. Each
06:42category will have its own primary audience demographic to target. The audience demographic
06:48for each category is listed in the sales deck attached. Now finally, the branded content categories.
06:54The four categories that we are launching as of right now are active living, the entertainer,
07:02home sweet home, and women's wellness. For each category, there will be 52 articles produced.
07:08This is truly an exclusive sponsorship that will be one advertiser per category per market. Now let's
07:17talk packages. All exclusive sponsorships start this coming January through December of 2021.
07:24The series runs all year. There is a minimum of a 12-month commitment for the package. There are two
07:31different packages. One exclusive to large market and one exclusive for the small market.
07:39For the large market, the total investment per month is $7,500. Let's talk about what it includes.
07:46First, 300,000 placement impressions per month across BMG station sites, social media, and audience
07:55extension. It includes custom presented by quote-unquote sponsor branding and logo exclusivity. Ads will be
08:04directed back to the article. We will also have 80 on-air vignettes to air per month on relevant stations.
08:14Presented by quote-unquote sponsor branding and 10-word CTA incorporated in each vignette.
08:21We will also have article page takeover. We'll have companion banner ads, custom-sponsored bio,
08:29custom call to action, and opportunity to provide four advertorial articles for inclusion.
08:36Now for the small market package, the package is very similar to the large package we had just
08:42looked at. There are two differences. The first is the investment. The investment is $5,000 per month,
08:49still with a minimum commitment of 12 months, and the number of impressions drops from 300,000
08:57to 200,000. That's it. For more detail on package information, categories, demographic information,
09:08relevant stations, please reach out to your DSM or reach out to me and we will get you all the
09:15information you need. Okay, we've talked about the power of branded content, our offering and
09:21packages. Now the big question, why choose us? Well, let's first talk about how our branded content
09:29offering is helping brands tell their stories. First, telling stories and creating content that
09:36matters is what we do. We use strategic insight to connect with consumers and we make sense of
09:42everything and connect the dots with analytics. So why partner with us? Well, we have a triple threat.
09:49We have engaging content, powerful brand with a very loyal audience, and then we're syndicating to
09:56desired target demographic. All of that together equals an unparalleled reach and engagement. Next up,
10:06we have a very special guest with us, Jared Mervis, founder of A Wonder View. He has extensive experience
10:12working with advertisers on their branded content strategy. He is going to share with us tips for outreach,
10:18positioning branded content in our sales calls, and the best prospects to focus on.
10:24Hey, good morning, good afternoon, depending on where you are. Nice to connect with everyone. As a quick
10:28background, I have a digital marketing and advertising background. I've been on the national publisher and
10:34client side, and in the last 12 years or so, I've been driving digital product strategy and revenue
10:39across local media companies. Director of Digital Sales at Tegna, B-Lo Corp for our TV stations there,
10:45then most recently General Manager of Digital at the Dallas Morning News, and then Chief Digital Officer
10:50for B-Lo & Co., which was our 80-person marketing services agency. Today, I'm at Wonder View. We develop
10:56turnkey branded content solutions for publisher partners to help connect their clients with their
11:02engaged audiences. I'm super excited to be on the call with you guys today.
11:07This is something I say consistently. When I talk about branded content with our publisher partners,
11:13but also, frankly, when I'm in front of a client, we sell audience, we're not selling content.
11:19Content is an incredibly important component of the overall strategy, but it's simply the vehicle to
11:24connect brand partners with engaged audiences. When you're looking at who is a good fit for branded
11:31content from your current list or from your new business efforts, here's my criteria. You know,
11:37the client must believe or be willing to believe that their target audience is already on your
11:42platforms. So, I'll say that again. For them to be a good fit, from my perspective, the brand must
11:47already believe or be able to believe that their target audience is already on your platforms.
11:52Secondly, their marketing goals for this campaign or program need to be awareness as the primary and then
11:58engagement. If you've spent years working with them on bottom of the funnel, lead gen, cost per lead,
12:04cost per acquisition, I would tell you to continue to focus on the marketing services that are working
12:08for them in those areas and then see how you can expand yourself into other foundational campaigns
12:13where the goal is awareness or engagement. And then lastly, align value and rate by pricing your
12:18program based on awareness. There are a lot of people have a lot of different methodologies in terms
12:22of pricing and rate structure for branded content. This isn't to say it's the only way. I'll just tell you my
12:27perspective is that when you price your branded content in terms of awareness and impression based,
12:32you're aligning it with your traditional O&O pricing methodology and you're able to harness the power
12:37and scale of your media property and of your audiences while delivering maximum value to the client.
12:44So, another kind of example and tip here, you know, brands have major, major dollars against
12:49sponsoring events and activations where they believe their customers will likely be. With that being said,
12:55you can already see we're going away from that bottom of the funnel lead gen. Of course,
12:58they still have investments against leads. But, you know, brands in any market USA are spending
13:03dollars to sponsor events and activations. With COVID, as you guys probably know in every community,
13:09you know, we just had our 4th of July parade canceled here in the little town I live in in Colorado.
13:15You know, been going to the Texas State Fair where I lived most recently for a number of years with
13:18my family and that was just canceled. You know, events and activations are being drastically scaled
13:23back or canceled altogether. I would highly recommend that you're out talking to your
13:27clients and your prospects and asking them, you know, what are their sponsorship goals?
13:31How have they been impacted for the back half of the year? As a tip, you know, if they're engaged and
13:37they're committed to sponsoring where they believe their audience will be, if that physical event is
13:42canceled, a sponsorship with your media property could be a really, really great way for them to
13:47re-spread or reallocate those dollars and for you to gain back half of the year revenue.
13:55All right. Grow share by targeting the entire marketing budget. Peter called this out. I'll
13:59just tell you, Julia and the photos, you know, phenomenal. So thanks, Julia. On the last two
14:05slides, we talked about going after sponsorship budgets and marketing budgets, but there are a ton
14:09of other budgets or categories that teams may be interested in your branded content solutions. A great
14:15example is an incremental budget opportunity is cause marketing. And I'll tell you, this is not
14:21something that I growing up in the business necessarily had a ton of experience with, but
14:25we're seeing a ton of success from markets big and small across the country in selling branded content
14:31solutions to cause marketing teams at brands. You know, this could be community programs like a
14:36shelter or a program for disadvantaged youth, or it could be strategic partnerships with a large
14:40nonprofit like Habitat for Humanity or Meals on Wheels.
14:46No matter what market size, clients have budgets against driving awareness and community engagement
14:52for the causes they're committed to. And I'll give you a good example. And it's relevant for any
14:56market size and media format. One of our publisher partners has a large home services brand that they
15:01work with here in Denver. This is a big digital advertising spender. This is a big traditional media
15:07spender, TV, radio, etc. They separately also have a cause marketing budget to promote a program for
15:15children with special needs and their caregivers. And they partnered with the media property here on a
15:19branded content program to create awareness for the charity's annual fundraiser event and then, you know,
15:25drive engagement with that. So I think the, you know, question here at the top, ask your clients, you know,
15:31what community programs or causes do your company support? A lot of times you're aware of them, but
15:35sometimes you may not be aware. And it's a great way to uncover an incremental opportunity. And then
15:39the follow-up question, of course, is who manages those? Because it may not be the advertising or
15:45marketing director that you are most used to working with. You know, I won't read the whole sales tip.
15:49You guys have already read it. I would just say, you know, when you're talking about branded content,
15:53talk to all the right decision makers because there are different buckets and budgets that you can go after.
15:57All right. Create a defensible, unique value proposition. I mentioned earlier, focus on
16:07clients that already believe your audience is on your site. An equally important strategy is
16:12developing branded content programs that align with content readers are already engaging with on
16:16your site. I'll say that again because it kind of sounds like I just said the same thing. It's
16:21important to develop branded content programs that align with content that readers are already engaging with
16:26on your site. The reason that a consumer or a visitor comes to your platform is because they're looking
16:33for unique, informative information to inform their life. And when we develop branded content programs,
16:38we want to deliver on the reason they're on your platform to begin with, because that's how we then
16:42connect them with our brand sponsor or partner and drive that engagement. I will say that when we talk
16:49about developing, a big thing for me, and this is a call to help sellers, is that you don't have to
16:55have a fully baked program with all the assets. You can very easily go out, you know, and of course
17:00you're going to work with your content studio team, your operations group, whoever's in charge of kind
17:04of fulfillment. But at the end of the day, you know, it's incredibly an incredibly unique opportunity
17:11because you can go pitch ideas on spec and you can go, you know, pitch something to a client and if
17:16there's engagement with it, you can develop that program behind the scenes and then launch it on time.
17:21So let me give you an example of that. Let's say you have a large audience segment engaging with
17:25sports content on your site, and this could be relevant for any media property across the country.
17:30A concept is Tailgate Legends, and it's a series that offers weekly recipes and tips for the aspiring
17:36backyard grill master. So Tailgate Legends, weekly recipes and tips for the aspiring backyard grill master,
17:43you know, it's going to provide your sports audience with ideas for meal tips and entertaining while
17:48they're enjoying and watching sports. Example articles would be things like, you know,
17:52five stadium dogs you can make at home or guarantee a win this Sunday with these ultimate barbecue
17:57brisket nachos. I will tell you that the theme and the pitch and the audience engagement is going to
18:02resonate with some key categories in any market USA, local grocery, local liquor brands that are trying
18:08to reach the same target audience. And then, you know, I'd also tell you don't pigeonhole yourself by
18:13staying too linear, meaning you don't just need to sell a recipe series to a food or to a drink brand. You
18:21can consider sporting goods or even large automotive or home service groups that might already have advertising
18:26or sponsorship in local stadium or sporting events.
18:32I guess I will comment and Julie, that's great that we're going to the next slide. You know, one thing I will tell you that is,
18:37even if sports don't return, frankly, that's even more reason that that type of series could be a great
18:43opportunity for you guys, because those brands that are already trying to target that engaged sports
18:48audience, they're now going to have dollars and a lack of distribution for engaging that audience. So it
18:54wasn't with a lack of awareness. We're all optimistic that football is going to come back. But if it doesn't,
19:00those brands are committed to advertising to sports audiences are going to be looking for new ways to
19:04engage that audience in the back half of the year. All right, my favorite graphic on the whole deck
19:10certainly reminds me of my six-year-old daughter who loves these pink sprinkled donuts, but the
19:15importance of scarcity. You know, if we're talking about sales tips here, I will tell you that my
19:20recommendation, my best practice is don't schedule a meeting to talk to your clients or prospects about
19:25content marketing or even branded content. Remember you're selling audience.
19:34And one of the best ways to sell audience is to create sponsor scarcity with a strong CTA.
19:39You know, I'm not going to read the script here. I'll tell you that this is a script that we use this exact
19:44script or a variation of this to schedule meetings and close business. The best practice is to announce that
19:49branded content series. Again, it could be a spec one that you don't even have built. And you're going to say, hey,
19:55we're launching Tailgate Legends. It's launching with the start of football, you know, in the beginning of September.
20:00It's going to run through the Super Bowl. We're looking for one exclusive sponsor. I thought you
20:05might be a great fit. I'd love to get 30 minutes with you to schedule a quick walkthrough of this
20:11branded content series and of the sponsorship. How about Monday or Tuesday? And you're going to send
20:15this exact same email to every one of your prospects or clients that could be a good fit for that
20:20audience category. And you're going to be able to very, very quickly move them through the sales process.
20:25Just a quick touch, knowing we have, you know, a broad array of experience and account executives
20:36from across different media platforms. I've talked a lot about kind of long-form article series.
20:40That's what we focus on. And we develop these branded content series that run with long-form articles,
20:49but it's across any publisher partner. And I guess I'd tell you the recommendation here,
20:53or the tip here is that you really want to leverage the full breadth of your owned and operated
20:58audiences to promote and drive engagement, sponsor value, and frankly, incremental revenue for any
21:04branded content series. So that long-form article can run on tvstation.com site, on radiostation.com site,
21:11on newspaper.com site. But you're going to want to have a component of your linear or of your
21:15traditional channel to drive overall value. So if you're a TV partner and you're running tailgate
21:20legends, well, you're going to include in that branded content program X number of, you know,
21:25tagged weekly promo spots that are going to drive people to the article or to the series on your
21:31site. Same goes for radio, right? Or if you're a newspaper, you're going to print it both online,
21:35published online, then also, you know, in your traditional newspaper. So make sure you're taking
21:40advantage of all owned and operated audiences to increase the audience engagement, the value,
21:45and frankly, revenue for you. Lastly, while it might not be technically, technically owned and operated,
21:50your Facebook audiences, your TV station, you're the newspaper in town, you typically have one of
21:55the largest Facebook followers, Twitter followers, leverage those audiences. It's an absolute best
22:00practice to leverage those audiences to do two things, drive additional engagement for the content,
22:04but you're also going to charge your advertiser for it. So it's another way to upsell
22:07and drive incremental revenue for you.
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