While content marketing as an overall marketing strategy in both B2B and B2C has more momentum now than ever before, there is still some ambiguity among those in the industry about what “branded content” actually means. Further, there is a subjective element to branded content that is at odds with many marketing objectives, according to anextensive report by Branded Content Marketing Association research. While many marketers simply believe that it is an extension of their brand others see it as a manifestation associated with a particular brand in the eye of the beholder.
The report stresses that conflicting views on what branded content is and how best to define it is crucial because a misunderstanding of branded content can feed into haphazard executions, misaligned aims and outcomes or an ignorance of crucial questions about distribution and campaign planning.
In a recent article, the CMO of marketing at General Electric was quoted as saying “There is a lot of talk about native content, branded advertising and the like and I don’t like to speak in those terms. Is it native or is it branded? I don’t know but it is just great content.”
The report states that the concept of content can be divided into a managerial type of content or a more holistic perspective. A holistic or all-encompassing perspective is, for example, a video on YouTube created by somebody outside the organization but for whatever reason it is associated with your brand. Meanwhile, branded content is defined as ‘any manifestation associated with a particular brand in the eye of the beholder.’ In this scenario, branded content is not necessarily the legal trademark of the brand owner nor is it distributed by the brand. Branded content from a holistic perspective is created and distributed broadly but is not necessarily proprietary.
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