Technology

Why Innovative Content Marketing Is About to Explode in Denmark (and Why You Should Care)

I’ve just returned from an 8-day trip to Europe, the last few days of which I spent in Denmark, where I spoke at the country’s first-ever content marketing conference. I felt warmly welcomed there—in part because I spent time with some truly warm and wonderful people. (That’s always the key to a great trip, isn’t it?) But I also felt welcomed for business reasons: The business culture seems so ideally suited to embracing content as a cornerstone of marketing, and I came away from both the event and the country feeling like there was a kind of perfect content marketing storm brewing there. Why should you care, if you aren’t Danish or don’t do business there? Because there’s a lot that modern marketers can learn from the Danish mindset. Sometime very soon, I think, this small Northern European country of 5.5 million will be creating and leading some truly innovative […]

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This Is Why B2B Companies Need to Hire Brand Journalists

The key to being a thought leader is to… well, lead. The news broke at about 8 AM Eastern today that the world’s third-largest software company, Oracle, had acquired Compendium, a content management company. At the time, I was part of a panel for a UK audience with Brightcove—in other words, I was pretty much sealed off from social media and news headlines. So I first heard the news when Jesse Noyes of Kapost emailed me at 9 AM for commentary on the acquisition, for a piece Kapost was putting together. Jesse also took the opportunity to let me know that his boss, Kapost CEO Toby Murdock, had already formulated and published his early thoughts on the move. Jesse‘s email read as follows: “Don’t know if you already saw the news, but Oracle announced today it’s buying Compendium. Toby has already shared his view on what this means for the

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A Simple Content Marketing Org Chart

I’m allergic to complexity, at least when it comes to content. So when I tried to find a simple org chart to help organizations visualize their own content team, I couldn’t find anything quite simple enough. I didn’t major in PowerPoint, so I drew one with a Sharpie instead. (Also, my artistic “skills” reinforce my need to keep my day job. Ha.) Here it is: A Simple Content Marketing Org Chart from Ann Handley   Right now, you are probably thinking two things:  Ann should stick to writing;  There are six heads in this org chart… Holy Toldeo! Does that mean we need to add six people to payroll? NOPE. Rather, these are roles not staff positions. Each role might be filled by one person or perhaps by a dozen, depending on the size and complexity of your own organization. That chart is based on a conversation I had with

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What’s NOT In Your LinkedIn Profile?

What’s one thing that’s NOT in your LinkedIn profile? One thing that’s NOT in my profile is this truth: I can’t tolerate watching myself on video. But in this case I made an exception. Because, well, this video is exceptional (for a few simple reasons). Check it out: Because I can’t help but dissect a good content idea, I’m compelled to say why Jason Miller outdid himself with this short, fun video and its execution: coaxing great and light-hearted responses from me as well as well-known content marketers like Joe Chernov, Michael Brenner, Jay Baer, Aaron Kahlow, Joe Pulizzi, Jeffrey Cohen, Carmen Hill and (my personal favorite) Michael Stelzner. When it comes to animal sounds, I thought I was talented — I can do a seagull screech so authentic that beachgoers protect their fries and scan the sky — but Michael’s creature repertoire steals the show here. What makes this

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The Best Political Ad Ever

I know that’s a strong statement, but I’d only amend “best political ad ever” with a “so far.” Because that’s how good this video is. It blurs the line between traditional political advertising and content marketing, because it tells an incredible story in a little over a minute. And in doing so, it breaks the mold in political campaigning: I’m certain that every politician in America directed his or her campaign manager over the past few days to figure out how they can replicate some of this magic, too. Take a look: Carl Sciortino is running for a Massachusetts Congressional seat in the 5th District, which includes several communities outside of Boston (but not mine). He is one of seven Democrats running for the seat in a special election this December that is part of a sequence of events set off when John Kerry became secretary of state. The 5th

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Airbnb: When Content Marketing Looks a Lot Like Art

We’re used to seeing companies producing content marketing that sometimes looks too much like advertising. (Like this. Ick.) But, increasingly, I’m noticing another trend: Content marketing that looks a lot like art. Yesterday, I wrote about Chipotle’s creepy but awesome new marketing program, “The Scarecrow,” which hauntingly depicts a dystopian world that makes a heart-wrenching statement about the sorry state of industrial food production. (You can read my write-up on it over at LinkedIn.) Then, last Friday, Airbnb released another bit of awesome, a first: An innovative short film directed via Twitter and shot entirely on Vine. Written by writer/filmmaker Ben York Jones and crowdsourced via Twitter, the story centers on the transformative journey of a white sheet of paper. (Stay with me on this one.) The resulting 4 ½-minute film was released Friday on Airbnb’s blog, on its Hollywood and Vines website and on the Sundance Channel. It’s beautiful.

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SXSW 2014 PanelPicker: This Election, Cast A Vote for Simple

Every fall, the SXSW PanelPicker process turns prospective speakers into something akin to politicians in election years. I’m allergic to asking for votes for anything, but in this case my friend Tim Washer and I had a little fun with the idea. Here is our smear campaign to promote our SXSW 2014 Interactive Festival proposal this year — which (incidentally!) is how to create compelling content. It’s called Hollywood Stories on a Boring Brand’s Budget. (See what we did there?) Please consider a vote for our 2014 SXSW panel here: http://bit.ly/sx2014story. (Note: You’ll have to register. Sorry about that.) I’m also participating… err, hopefully participating… in two other awesome sessions at SXSW Interactive: Beyond Social Media: Marketing in the Post-Ad Era with organizer Mark Schaefer and SXSW virgin Mitch Joel. Please cast a vote for us here: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/25837 and Influence Marketing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly with organizer

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JetBlue: When a Marketing Slogan Is More Than Marketing Slogan

Most commercial air travel experiences are exercises in endurance, not anticipation: “I suppose vacation will be fun, but I really can’t wait to spend 6 hours bouncing around in a cramped tin tube getting there!” said no one ever. I would feel this way even if I didn’t hate to fly with a passion, which I do. There’s simply too much out of a passenger’s control to make flying most commercial carriers anything to celebrate: Tightly packed with strangers who may (or may not) be a pleasure to sit close to; mechanical delays; weather issues… It was the latter that caused my flight from Chicago’s O’Hare to Boston to be delayed by two hours on a recent Friday night. Severe thunderstorms in the originating city had delayed our JetBlue plane, so it was late getting to O’Hare, which meant that it wasn’t where I expected it to be when I

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#ContentTools: Effortless Storytelling from Disney’s New Story App

I love content creation tools that put wizard wands into the hands of Muggles. Instagram did this for photos, allowing mere mortals like me to create and share photos that were beautiful and expressive. Vine allows us to elegantly create short, 6-second videos through an intuitive interface. Takes is another neat mobile tool I particularly love for the way it effortlessly creates video by capturing the context around still photos. And now Disney has created a branded tool called Story that allows any of us (well, anyone with an iPhone) to effortlessly tell and share annotated narratives. Think of it like creating a mini scrapbook with a pulse. What it does: Story allows you to organize new or existing photos and videos from your iPhone into sharable digital flip books. You can also add captions, text, and play with various themes and layouts. (But no filters. Guessing that’ll come later.)

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