Here are 3 creative branded content ideas for publishers

The best branded content is always the most creative stuff.

Those are the stories that the audience wasn’t expecting but were happily surprised with and the angles that never crossed an advertiser’s mind.

I like to call these stories the “what if” ones.

There are lots of things that have to align to make a creative branded content story happen:

• You need the right content writer/strategist on board who is creative.

• There has to be an openness from the advertiser to take a chance and experiment a bit.

• You need to be able to show that your idea worked (maybe that’s page views or it’s engagement, like comments made on the post).

• The advertiser has to love it!

Here are a few examples that illustrate this idea:

1. An advertiser’s local recommendations

Not all branded content has to be about an advertiser sharing their expertise or promoting a service.

When it’s natural, having an advertiser sharing their community recommendations can not only be useful for the audience, but can position the advertiser in a totally different light.

Here’s the example: We were working with a Relator during the holidays and did a story on her Top 10 favorite places to see Christmas lights in the town she was selling the most homes in.

This worked, because it was something she frequently shared with those new to town. Sure, it didn’t have anything to do with market conditions or showing off a house, but it positioned her as an incredibly helpful and knowledgeable resource.

And the story was a huge hit with the audience.

2. Create mini brands with your advertisers

If there is an expertise that an advertiser really wants to show off and you are doing an ongoing campaign, developing a mini brand can be really effective.

We did that for a series with a realtor who wanted to offer lots of tips to readers around things to know about selling or prepping your home.

It was called Tiff’s Tips (her name is Tiffany) and covered everything from mortgage tips to home maintenance tips.

It took a normal branded content campaign and branded her quite effectively.

You could do this with really any campaign in really an industry.

3. Make an advertiser’s idea even better

We were involved in a branded content story about a collaboration that a restaurant wanted to promote with a bar. It was a pretty typical story that probably many have written before.

After learning more about the advertiser’s history, we discovered that it was their 15th anniversary and this seemed like a great opportunity to highlight 15 things to know about the business, with one of them being the collaboration.

The advertiser loved the idea and so did the audience.

Let’s create a great branded content strategy

We’d love to help you develop a great branded content strategy, with ideas like the ones noted above. Contact me today at David@davidarkinconsulting.com.