Citi Partners with Zillow in Digital Marketing Push

In a move that proves that good old fashioned targeting and strategic marketing alliances are not old hat for digital marketers, Citi has partnered with Zillow. This new marketing move will push Citi ads to StreetEasy and Zillow users and will promote the Citi brand and deals to certified preapproved buyers. 

• This tidbit definitely made me wonder whether other similar partnerships between banks and vendors might arise in the near future. There is potential for valuable ad partnerships for banks with car companies, large retail chains with lay away programs, even with behemoth vendors such as Amazon or shopping aggregators like ShopStyle. All of these would provide the equivalent of qualified leads to the banks and would have many of the benefits of SEO, most importantly the value gleaned from knowing the site visitors' intent. These partnerships could be very valuable and boast much better conversion rates than ordinary banner advertising....

http://www.nationalmortgagenews.com/news/origination/citi-launches-digital-marketing-push-with-zillow-1044113-1.html

Brands Create Authenticity with New Content Partners

AdAge is reporting that brands have stepped up their efforts to create engaging content with two specific strategic partners; publishers and independent content creators.

For example, Victorinox is partnering with both Wired Magazine and the Instagram-celebrity couple @withhearts and @bethanymarieco to outfit the duo with Victorinox products while they trek among various mountain destinations throughout the world. While providing comp'd swag to influencers is nothing new for brands, Victorinox and Wired Magazine plan to repurpose the content from the pair's own social media channels to the publisher's various content platforms as well as the brand's.

This approach is somewhat novel given that brands are building up their own media properties by supplying them with premium content while relying on publishers, who continue to expand their footprint, to push branded content as well. However, both the brands and publishers realize they lack the all-important "authenticity" factor which makes partnerships with digital influencers so important in this new media equation. All of these efforts ladder back to the growing reality that consumers' eyeballs are increasingly fragmented and brands can't rely on just one channel to break through the clutter.

Publishers such as InStyle are also experimenting with emerging social media channels such as Snapchat to break through to consumers. InStyle has been building up its Snapchat following all year but releasing exclusive content in expectation of marketing a Holiday gift guide through the channel for 20 different advertisers. This tactic will probably prove successful since Snapchat is still a relatively innovative platform for brands and consumers are more open to following brands/publishers and consuming their content.

All of these tactics all boil down to the same marketing truth: Consumers are increasingly expecting the unexpected when it comes to advertising - innovative content and context is not only successful, it is becoming mandatory.