The Branded Content Project Series
Q: What’s in a series?
A: Each series includes weekly topical, authentic and engaging articles written by The Branded Content’s team of experts. The weekly articles fall into four content pillars within each series designed to meet the needs of advertisers while also engaging audiences. Each article includes accompanying licensed stock photos or visual elements to help tell the story and increase audience engagement. In addition to articles series, we’ve recently rolled out video products tied up to the existing series.
All materials needed to start presenting ideas to clients are available at no cost. Sales decks, product explainers, scripts, sizzle reels, promotional elements and content examples are ready when you are! Every product launches with a training seminar designed to walk account executives through best practices in packaging, common objections and talking points with advertisers.
Q: How often is content updated?
A: At all times, two months worth of content is available to be viewed, with the current month’s content available for download. One month’s worth of articles are uploaded on the 15th of each month.
Q: Is there a cost to use the Branded Content Series?
A: Four of the ten series (Active Aging, Home Sweet Home, Women’s Wellness and The Entertainer) are available at no cost through 2021. This discounted pricing is made possible through generous support from the Local Media Consortium, Local Media Association, and The Facebook Journalism Project. The other six series’ monthly fee is $500 each. Note that there is no cost for The Branded Content Project products until you make a sale.
Distribution Method & Reporting
Q: What methods can we use to distribute and monetize the series?
A: The Branded Content Project provides you with “The Branded Content Collection” managed service, a turn-key sponsored content solution. The solution provides a unique sponsorship and reader experience. It is easy, quick and free to embed. We want you to focus on selling while we manage the rest. See an example of a Branded Content Collection here. You can also use our Self Service distribution options. Articles can be downloaded and published via a CMS or Native Ad Server.
Q: Is there a cost for “The Branded Content Collection” distribution option?
A: If you decide to use The Branded Content Collection Managed Service distristribution method, there is a small $0.25 CPM ad serving fee. This fee includes: content curation, campaign set up and management, performance reporting, ongoing training, and support.
Q: Where do you recommend embedding “The Branded Content Collections”?
A: We highly recommend you include the Branded Content Collections on the pages that have the highest traffic in order to meet impressions goals, but also to provide your sponsors with the best exposure. These pages are generally your home page and your articles’ pages. If you’d like to receive specific recommendations for your site, feel free to contact us.
Q: Are there any reports tied to campaigns launched with “The Branded Content Collections”?
A: Yes! We provide monthly performance reports that include awareness, engagement and consideration KPIs. Reports are delivered by the 2nd Monday of every month. Click here for an example report and see below for a KPI overview.
Awareness - the main value of a content sponsored content series: we sell a connection between the sponsor and our unique, local, engaged audience (Viewable Impressions, Frequency)
Engagement: we validate that the content is valuable to our readers and to our sponsor (CTR % , Avg Time On Content Articles Per Session)
Consideration: we show at what rate readers of the sponsored content clicked on the sponsor ads integrated into and around the sponsored content. We like to report on this metric to provide the sponsor with a full view of our reader journey KPIs - however, this is always going to be a very small number as the goal of the sponsored content series is to get the readers aware of the series and series sponsor and deliver value to readers in the form of unique, informative content. (CTA %)
Customization Options
Q: Can we customize “The Branded Content Collections”?
A: The Branded Content Collection comes with various layout options for you to choose from and decide what fits best to your site. Contact us for more details.
Q: What are the options for customizing a collection?
A: There are a couple of ways you can customize the series. You can incorporate the sponsor into the content by adding the sponsors’ banner ads and logos within the articles. We also recommend including a branded article that is about the sponsor.
If you need help developing the branded article, we offer custom content production. Contact us for details.
Q: Can the series be integrated with an already existing product - or does this have to stand alone?
A: Absolutely! You have the complete ability to integrate these programs into your existing products. One of the opportunities we see with these series is to extend revenue for existing programs.
Q: Do products contain market exclusivity?
A: Because we’re offering The Branded Content series at a free or reduced price to LMC/LMA members, unfortunately we cannot guarantee market exclusivity. Just as news outlets post the same breaking news stories successfully, we believe all markets can sell these series by leveraging their own unique audiences offering high engagement and value to their sponsors. We will be launching market exclusive products and can work with media outlets to customize.
Sales / Marketing Training & Tips
Q: What kind of training and education do you provide to sales teams?
A: In addition to the specific product training seminars, we have the Branded Badge Certificate Program. This platform educates and positions sellers for success through an online video training curriculum. Participants will earn their Branded Badge Sales Certificate upon completion of the training. We also host monthly group training sessions focused on the latest trends in branded content sales and provide quarterly workshops built to empower and educate content, marketing and sales teams. We’re ready to schedule one-on-one calls and team meetings at your convenience. Finally, immersive branded content education experiences bring the biggest names in branded content to your teams.
Q: Are there marketing materials available?
A: Yes! In addition to the content articles, sales tools, education and training, we have sizzle reels and social media graphics available for you to customize for your sponsors. They can be accessed and downloaded here.
Q: How should we price the series to sponsors?
A: These products are considered premium and high value for clients so the pricing should reflect that. We recommend and feel confident pricing the series at a $15CPM rate. If you need to scale the price up or down, this is something you can do easily. It all depends on the size of your market and the sponsorship opportunity. We are here to support you throughout the entire sales cycle. Let us know if you’d like us to join a call or schedule sometime to help you prepare a call with a potential sponsor.
Q: I have a successful branded content series already, and am interested in scaling it across other markets. What options can you provide?
A: In addition to the products we have created, The Branded Content Project storefront is the perfect platform for our publishing partners to share their content so it can be made available throughout the industry. Contact us for details.
Copyright
Q: What are the credentials of the content writers?
A: Each series is assigned to a specialized writer with knowledge and background of the series topic. Health stories are assigned to health writing teams, finance to financial writers, and travel stories to travel experts. Each article is reviewed by a dedicated editor for grammar, readability, clarity and conciseness. Final review is conducted by our sales and audience expert for sellability and advertiser alignment.
Contact the Branded Content Project’s team
Q: Who do I contact with questions?
A: We are here to help and encourage you to reach out with questions and concerns. Your success is our success. General Manager Julia Campbell can be reached at: Julia@brandedcontentproject.com. Director of Strategy Liz Hayes can be reached at: Liz@brandedcontentproject.com. For any questions related to Managed Service distribution, Jessica Dalle can be reached at: jessica@distributedmedialab.com.