You asked for custom content solutions for local advertisers and The Branded Content Project is delivering! The Branded Content Project's Custom 1 2 3 offers three types of custom content solutions for brands to be distributed on media channels and publications, giving brands greater awareness and bringing much needed additional revenue to local media companies.
We have the capacity to place an advertiser's own custom article within our content collections for our ten lifestyle series, write one on their behalf, or create an entire custom series with Custom 1 2 3.
"What we're seeing is people are leveraging these series as a way to create a connection with the target audience of a specific brand in your market and then they're adding in custom content specific to the brand," said Jared Merves, CRO at Distributed Media Lab, The Branded Content Project's technology partner.
We know that the value of custom branded content is in awareness and engagement, and advertisers need local media for their distribution capabilities. In addition to aligning their brand with our lifestyle series, they can get an even greater opportunity to share their story by incorporating custom content, or truly stand out with a perfectly suited custom series that is uniquely their own.
AL DÍA, a media company based in Philadelphia that documents the best of the U.S. Latino experience, understands the custom content concept well. According to Business Development Executive Alaitz Ruiz, AL DÍA secured a six-month branded content contract that includes custom articles, content from The Branded Content Project’s Active Aging series and a virtual event.
“We’re not selling content, we're selling our audience and that has been the biggest point we’ve been discussing,” Ruiz said. “The beauty of this is the content we're putting out is extremely varied, so it aligns with Active Aging, but we’re talking about a variety of topics like the vaccine rollout and general health disparities in the Latinx community.”
The combination of Active Aging articles and custom content focusing on their priorities was what really sold the package.
"These are things that we're seeing work from the partners, " said General Manager Julia Campbell. "First and foremost we know that value is in awareness and engagement. Our lifestyle series already offer so much value to local advertisers. With Custom 1 2 3, we're sweetening the pot by creating custom elements that will make that brand stand out even more, securing new and returning customers."
Custom 1 2 3 has three ways to incorporate custom content. Let's talk about three options!
Option 1: A client sponsors one of our lifestyle series and provides a piece of content they've written (perhaps from their company blog) that becomes incorporated into the digital content collection.
Option 2: A client wants to sponsor one of our lifestyle series and in addition asks us to write a custom article highlighting their brand or their business focus each month.
Option 3: A client is looking for an all-new series that isn't already offered on our storefront. We create four pieces of custom content monthly.
Custom Content Process -
Our process includes a dedicated content strategy call to determine the article or series theme and tone, an interview with a company expert to showcase their upcoming offerings, and a custom article or series that includes two rounds of revisions per article.
How does this work? Say you have a dispensary that wants to customize the Cannabis Weekly series. In addition to the weekly articles we already provide, we can create an article where they tell the world all about their unique product lines, monthly promotions, even introduce their staff. You can create a custom content request directly in The Branded Content Project storefront.
The Branded Content Project will be discussing Custom 1 2 3 and hearing from media companies that are successfully incorporating custom content into their branded content strategy on Wednesday, August 18th at 1 p.m. ET. Register here. Need more information on the call? Email liz@brandedcontentproject.com.
Have a custom content idea you'd like to pitch to a client now? Let's get you involved! Contact us at julia@brandedcontentproject.com.
The Branded Content Project is designed through a strategic partnership between the Local Media Association, the Local Media Consortium, and the Facebook Journalism Project to help facilitate additional growth, engagement, and revenue success for more publishers of all shapes and sizes.