Risk and Reward of Content Marketing

We are in the era of content marketing, and when done well, the exposure could yield extremely high returns. GE's recent campaign featuring Jeff Goldblum went viral on Youtube and Home Depot sold out of the featured light bulb product in just 3 days. Sometimes, the content itself becomes incredibly popular like Subway's "4-9", a reality mini-series about high school aged kids working at Subway restaurants, which just got picked up for its 3rd season. 

The beauty of content marketing is that most of the investment happens upfront and less is typically spent on paid media afterwards. However, the hope of content catching fire presents somewhat of a risk. Both the actual content as well as the distribution channel are early concerns, as a recent article in Ad Age suggests. The idea is to create both valuable content and distribute on the right channels off the bat, igniting a flame that will eventually fan itself. This may require creating different versions on different platforms, which is all fine unless the content ends up being a dud. Before creating materials for several different outlets, companies should test their content first. That way, they can avoid making an unnecessarily large initial investment on something that misses the mark. Pick the channel that targets your main demographic, and if it does well, there is always room for additional versions later, like in the Subway example.