Five Content Marketing Trends to Watch in 2017. Trend 1: Buying influencers As Robert Rose and I covered in a recent This Old Marketing podcast, CNN bought the social media app Beme owned by YouTube celebrity Casey Neistat who amassed 6 million followers through his video blog. Basically, CNN is looking to target a new audience, one that it believes Neistat holds the keys to. Whether you agree with its site or not, there is power in its audience and growth. How does any company combat a situation when an organization with a large audience comes after them? On Dec. 2, in one of his videos PewDiePie said he’s so frustrated about the matter, that when he hit 50 million subscribers he was going to shut down his account. More and more social media influencers, as well as brands leveraging social media, are frustrated with YouTube, Facebook, and more, and their ongoing algorithm changes. In 2017, I believe two things will happen — there will be more advertising on social media platforms and less organic publishing. First, more brands will launch targeted and relevant e-newsletters, which will become the key method to grow their audiences. Takeaway: I expect a number of big brands to launch print magazines in 2017.
In what usually is a rather uneventful month for news, December proved us all wrong in 2016. A number of newsworthy activities related to the content marketing industry appeared on the radar this month, and I believe they could work as a crystal ball for content marketers as we move into 2017.
Trend 1: Buying influencers
As Robert Rose and I covered in a recent This Old Marketing podcast, CNN bought the social media app Beme owned by YouTube celebrity Casey Neistat who amassed 6 million followers through his video blog. CNN is shutting down the app and asking Casey and his team to start a new media platform.
Basically, CNN is looking to target a new audience, one that it believes Neistat holds the keys to. Instead of organically growing a platform or finding a leader within its ranks, CNN just went out and purchased Neistat and his team for $25 million.
Takeaway: Influencer marketing was hot in 2016. Look for influencer marketing to shift a bit from partnering with content creators and distributors to flat-out purchasing them.
Trend 2: Content marketing as defensive mechanism
Earlier this month, Kellogg’s pulled its advertising from Breitbart.com, which has been in the news a lot since President-elect Donald Trump named Steve Bannon, Breitbart’s former chairman, as a top adviser. Breitbart, which Bannon proclaimed is the “platform for the alt-right,” has a very particular point of view, and one that Kellogg’s doesn’t agree with.
Hence, the removal of Kellogg’s advertising from Breitbart’s site.
To combat this, Breitbart aggressively came after Kellogg’s with a #DumpKelloggs campaign, where Alexander Marlow, Breitbart News editor-in-chief stated, “Boycotting Breitbart News for presenting mainstream American ideas is an act of discrimination and intense prejudice.” The campaign trended on Twitter and was picked up by all the major news outlets.
According to FiveThirtyEight, Breitbart.com’s traffic increased at a faster rate than almost every other media site during the election process. Whether you agree with its site or not, there is power in its audience and growth.
Kellogg’s simply has no power to combat this. Sure, it can send out a news release and talk with the press. It can do an ad in The Wall Street Journal or some other outlet, but Breitbart has a huge audience of followers and can basically attack anyone it wants without repercussion.
In the future, how does Kellogg’s combat this? How does any company combat a situation when an organization with a large audience comes after them?
Takeaway: This type of action from Breitbart and other media companies against brands will only multiply in 2017. The only way for…
COMMENTS