Branded Content? Bah Humbug!

Boys & girls…here’s a holiday secret…

Great storytelling is nothing new!

And yet, the media is now all buzzing about “branded content” and “content marketing” as if digital natives and big brand companies just invented the idea of saying something interesting and compelling.

The good news is this…we have stopped focusing exclusively on the MEDIA and have started focusing on the MESSAGE and the COMMUNITY. Our appetite for apps is dwindling, and perhaps the concepts of storytelling and socializing are making a comeback.

Telling a timeless tale and then spreading it virally is nothing new. We used to do it face-to-face. Then printing…radio…TV…digital media…all turned our stories into “media” that began to travel globally, faster and faster (and faster). And then the messages got shorter and shorter (and shorter). And, frankly, less memorable.

Then, brands started attaching their name to content. If they had nothing interesting to say, they could at least pay for someone to create it.

So, in the spirit of the season, let’s pay homage to A Christmas Carol and to Charles Dickens, one of the greatest storytellers in history — and perhaps one of the pioneers of social media (of his time). He may have been a racist, or a drunk, or a philanderer, but you must admit, he was a damned good writer.

Yup…I’m attaching my company’s brand to a bunch of stuff about Charles Dickens, so I guess you could say that I’m one of those branded content marketers too. Or maybe I’m just a blogger who likes sharing a good story. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and…

#toallagoodnight!