The State of Content: Highlighting Brands with Passion - Tom O'Regan-Martini Media

As we settle into Q4 and get a little closer to the holiday season we39ve taken a moment to pause and look back at what39s been accomplished over the course of the year At Martini Media we noticed a lot of exciting things happening with respect to digital content Several established content brands got smarter about their digital presence At the same time many new brands have innovated very creatively and gained tractionSo although it39s a little early in the season we now bring you The Martini Awards for Passionate Content 2012Atlantic Media Company Providing Branded Content While Upholding Editorial IntegrityThe Atlantic Media Company parent of Atlantic Journal Atlantic Wire National Journal Government Executive and the newly launched Quartz went native with their advertising solutions this year The 125 year old publisher introduced Native Solutions this year which allows advertisers to create contentbased ads These ads look like they39re part of The Atlantic39s own editorial content and give readers the opportunity to engage with unique branded experiences A Native Solutions unit created by Porsche on the site showcased quotWhere Designs Meets Technologyquot through energetic copy and dynamic images While the page looked like a typical Atlantic page it was clearly labeled as quotA Sponsored Presented by Porschequot The piece was shared 139 times on Facebook and tweeted 80 timesAdditionally the Atlantic is running IAB portraits one of the new Rising Star units on several of its pages The portraits integrate content into interactive ad units A current ad for Prudential Retirement features HD videos links to relevant content and brand imageryHonorable mention in this category goes to Forbes whose AdVoice program also creates native advertising units In Forbes39 own words it39s quota new approach to integrating editorial content user content and marketers39 contentamp8212allowing more organic presentation of advertiser content than ever beforequotMother Jones Exemplifying the Raw Power of Online VideoMother Jones gained a ton of notoriety this year for breaking the Mitt Romney quot47quot story After months of negotiations a Mother Jones reporter managed to get his hands on political hot potato amp8211 a video of Republican candidate Mitt Romney insulting nearly half the country at a dinner for wealthy constituents in Boca Raton Florida As expected in a particularly contentious election year the undercover video went viral and drew traffic from both the public and other media outlets including leading The New York Times The Washington Post NPR and CNN to the story Mother Jones has always been a liberal media favorite but with that one video it became one of the hottest online properties this yearThought Catalog Capturing Relevant and Relatable NonFiction and Thought in a Uniquely Hilarious MannerHave you discovered Thought Catalog yet You39ll thank us when you do Chief blogger Ryan O39Connell has been featured in BetaBeat HuffingtonPost and Gawker on numerous occasions and clearly has a talent for curating His daily collection of 20 or so posts is consistently witty clever and just a lot of fun Featuring random topics and irreverent humor the site has become a daily visit for millennials Today39s quotThoughtsquot ranged from quotIt Doesn39t Matter Who Won the Debatequot quotYou are watching wellrehearsed technical and political stagecraftquot to quotReasons to be Wearing Uggs in 2012quot quotYou want something that says 39I have a spare 150 dollars to spend on boots but absolutely no taste39quotIn the site39s About Us Thought Catalog defines itself as quota place for relevant and relatable nonfiction and thoughtquot and suggests that by visiting you are supporting the future of journalism Let39s hope so If this is what the future of journalism looks like there39s good reason to be optimisticDigital Journal Demonstrating Outstanding Commitment to UserGenerated Content and Sharing the Love Digital Journal has since 2006 been a hub for citizen journalism But by citizen journalism we mean actual journalism Not just anyone can report for Digital Journal amp8211 writing samples must be submitted beats assigned facts checked This site is run like a genuine newsroom only virtually and with bloggers as reporters Digital Journal commits to high standards to maintain reader trust You could almost say that Digital Journal is to the New York Times what Wikipedia is to Britannica There is one critical difference however Digital Journal shares its ad revenue with its contributorsIn early October the publisher launched newsrooms a new content marketing offer for brands enabling them to leverage Digital Journal39s platform and stable of writers to reach a few of their millions of monthly visitors quotBrands and companies have become publishers with little choice but to address what it means to engage 247 with their audiencesquot says Sabaa Quao Digital Journal39s Chief Marketing Officer and head of newsrooms quotAt the same time companies are guardedly watching to see if their core business will be dramatically altered damaged or destroyed Now with newsrooms brands can scale up their interaction and collaboration with influencers who are engaging with their products in realtimequotWhat39s 2013 hold for the content world As advertisers continually prioritize the need to be aligned with premium relevant content I expect to find a number of new awardworthy publishers to highlightTom Oamp8217Regan is a seasoned advertising executive with an expertise in vertical publishing and sales strategy As CRO of Martini Media he is responsible for companywide advertising revenue and operations Tom can be reached at tomoreganmartinicorpcomRead all Toms MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Through the Martini GlassCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not 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The State of Content: Highlighting Brands with Passion - Tom O'Regan-Martini Media

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