By Cam Bishop, CEO

Custom publishing, custom content, content marketing. By any descriptive term one chooses, custom media is in style, growing and amazingly effective. Countless research studies in both consumer and B2B markets unquestionably confirm it.

And this high-quality, reader-friendly and engaging information is popping up in every imaginable medium. And yes, that includes plenty of print as well.

This custom content trend is so compelling, it warranted a full-page editorial in the Dec. 12, 2012, issue of The Wall Street Journal. The article features the amazing video work being done by a number of high-profile consumer companies including Proctor and Gamble, Budweiser and Red Bull, among others. Let’s take a look at some of these custom-content purveyors.

Red Bull
From my perspective, the most aggressive and innovative in the use of custom content as branding and customer engagement tools today is Red Bull. Who did not see at least once, if not a dozen times, the breathtaking 128,000-foot free-fall jump made by Felix Baumgartner? Most do not know that the custom-content buildup for the actual jump started months in advance through Red Bull’s slick print magazine and its completely interactive tablet version of the magazine. If you have a tablet and you have not downloaded The Red Bulletin, it’s time to do it. The company featured several stories — in print, photography, rich media and video — in issues leading up to the actual jump. The post-jump December tablet issue was arguably the best issue to date.

Then, of course, the actual jump was streamed live on their website. The epitome of fully integrated custom media.

Proctor and Gamble
With its decades-old tradition of sponsoring soap operas and even The People’s Choice Awards, Proctor and Gamble is another noted custom content creator. Talk about customer engagement. How many millions have been addicted to their soap operas throughout the years?

Victoria’s Secret
Probably one of the most spectacular custom content programs is one that surprisingly few people actually think of as what it is: the Victoria’s Secret live fashion show on network television every December. It is pure infotainment and quite literally a live catalog and one-hour blatant ad for the company and its products. And everybody loves it.

Hallmark
The granddaddy of all custom content is, again, one that few actually see as a purveyor of custom content: the phenomenally successful Hallmark Hall of Fame made-for-TV movies that have been running for more than 50 years. The Hallmark folks are masters at their craft. No one has the formula down better when it comes to endearing themselves to customers, building their brand and creating customer engagement through the use of relevant custom content.

Kansas City-based agencies
Here in the Kansas City market, several companies lead the way in custom content. Not surprisingly, they are executing their custom media initiatives through print. A high-end jeweler does an annual magalog that is gorgeous, high gloss, entertaining and a highly effective sales tool. All while reinforcing the elite image and brand of the store.

Similarly, a car dealer selling premium automobiles executes the same custom publishing concept through an entertaining and educational quarterly magazine.

A hip and trendy locally owned men’s and women’s clothing boutique creates spring and fall catalogues with beautiful covers that make them collectors’ items and coffee-table books. The contents mix a blend of fashion trends and items from its clothing line. Interestingly, its target market is 20-something millennials. Surprised? As the father of three millennials, I am not. This generation still loves and reads print. My daughter makes it a point to have this catalog out as a form of home decor all year long.

Examples in print, digital and mobile media on a national level and a local level are everywhere. Sometimes where we least expect it or where it is so obvious that we do not even notice that is company-generated content. The most amazing thing is, people accept it — and most often — love it.

What other types of unique custom content have you noticed? 

By Rhonda Wickham, Vice President, Content

Did you know that the word ketchup is thought to have been derived from the Cantonese word kechap. Kechap, like today’s ketchup, was a sauce, but one without tomatoes. It used to contain fish brine, herbs and spices. From China, sailors are thought to have taken kechap to Europe and sometime in the intervening years, tomatoes were added, as were a number of different spellings, including catsup. Great little nugget to have in your arsenal at the next slow cocktail party. It also is just one of the many nuggets of background you can glean from a dictionary.

This week, the newest edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language was released. In my humble opinion, it is the best dictionary out there. Besides thorough and current words and definitions, it also includes all sorts of terrific information about history, usage notes, synonyms and references. Plus as far as dictionaries go, it is well-designed and even beautiful.

According to the dictionary’s editor: “There is nothing quite like the experience of thumbing through a dictionary, exploring its pages, jumping from one entry to the next.”

I tend to agree. I know that some of my colleagues laugh when I pull out my print edition. They simply use their online references.

In keeping up with modern technology, the publisher is taking the extra step of adding a free download of the e-version for iPad, iPhone, iPod or Android smartphone platforms, included with the purchase of the print dictionary. Now you can access it all, including the 10,000 new words and definitions, in this 2,084-page, 7.5-pound compendium in print and on the go.

Perhaps my enthusiasm for the English language stems from my chosen profession. But I also believe that as Americans, we owe it to ourselves to be good stewards of our chosen language. And that involves using it properly. Admittedly, everyone isn’t going to flock to the local Barnes and Noble and purchase this heavyweight reference. But now you can enjoy the entire dictionary at your fingertips anywhere, in any place.

Hmm, I wonder where the hamburger came from …

By Barbara Kay, President

In many ways I am an old-fashioned girl. I still adore print — reading a good book by the lake, making notes in the margins. However, by day, I am in the convention publishing business, and my world is about content in print and so much more. I am always tracking and monitoring reader behavior.

I was pleased to discover recent research findings from GfK MRI about print consumption. GfK MRI is the country’s leading provider of magazine audience ratings and multimedia research and the company reports that adult owners of tablets and e-readers also are big consumers of print magazines and newspapers.

In fact, American tablet owners are 66 percent more likely than the average adult to be avid readers of printed magazines, while those who own e-readers are 23 percent more likely to be avid magazine-readers. The study also reports that digital-device owners are more likely than the average adult to be avid newspaper readers — tablet owners 54 percent more likely and e-reader owners 63 percent more likely.

So when people ask me — and they frequently do — if print is dead, these stats certainly say it is not. There is too much focus on what is “dead,” rather than what is being added in terms of technology and delivery channels that really enhance our lives.

While print is still very much alive and appropriate, it is clear to me that we have entered the age of the incredible content wonderland where nearly any content consumption experience can be developed and delivered. Imagine that. I’ll always have affection for print, but I cannot deny the delight with some of these technologically enhanced digital content consumption tools that have added so much richness. This old-fashioned girl is in awe.

For example, recently I had the opportunity to review a new product being introduced at an upcoming convention whereby the classic meeting notebook has been enhanced. (Gotta love those old standby meeting guides.) Well, this one has been transformed into an interactive social notebook that will be used on-site at a conference to connect with colleagues and exchange ideas throughout and following the meeting.

This neat notebook — whether in print or digital form — provides for note-taking capability, gives twitter tips to facilitate using hashtags to follow convention conversations as well as a quick how-to-follow colleagues after the conference is over. QR codes allow quick entry into various communities. A YouTube feature allows attendees to view photos, upload convention videos or watch videos of new products/innovations being showcased at the meeting. Other features on the digital version make it easy to stay connected to the event, colleagues and thought leaders, even after the convention is over. So much can be offered in the digital version — it seems limitless. Print has its place, but as I see more and more, it needs — and benefits from ¬— these complementary digital channels.

How do we maintain a positive and meaningful reader experience? Well as I see it, it boils down to knowing how to effectively integrate print, digital and mobile. In my mind it takes a sort of technological and content-creation genius. One who understands your market and what enhancements will make content dynamic, appealing and valuable to your consumer. There are more wonderful options on our content-delivery menu than ever before.

So, how do you pick and combine the right options effectively? It was and still is all about asking the right questions:
• Do you understand the differences in developing and presenting content in print, digital and mobile models?
• Do you have access to stats that illustrate the best path to do this?
• What are the most effective bells and whistles available to you and how will you measure them?

If you do not have this capability in-house, find a vendor who can answer these questions. Take it from an old-fashioned girl — the time to do this is now.

How will you maximize and synchronize all the fabulous content channels and enter this new era of incredible, engaging custom content?
 

By Rhonda Wickham, Vice President of Content

Infotainment and churnalism are on a collision course that will annihilate and forever change the face of true journalistic endeavors.

A category of news information presented in a manner intended to be entertaining, infotainment possibly originated as documentaries that tried to cover a subject in a fully engaging and educational manner. However, if you watch the Academy Awards, rarely do any percentage of people recognize the nominees for documentaries. 



Hence, with more entertainment values, documentaries evolved into docu-dramas and virtual re-enactments. And these days, it seems that any hard news has been replaced by the softest of news angles about the inadequacies and private habits of big names and movie stars. 



How many times in the last two years has Hollywood bawdiness masqueraded as true news and even trumped important news developments as the lead? 



Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson and most recently Charlie Sheen have all scored front-page headlines, trumping truly worthwhile U.S. and world events.



I am not sure how infotainment got its foot in the door — although like reality shows, its infamy wouldn’t be as entrenched if we, the adoring public, weren’t clamoring for it, or at least secretly soaking up every last episode.  



Are we a public weary of the litany of insanity, bad behavior, lies and half-truths from purported world leaders? Is our response to cling to bad behavior coming from Hollywood rather than from real people? Or has infotainment gained its notoriety due to the sorry state of the world — we’ve just begun sucking in the lives of the rich and famous, if only to reassure ourselves that wealth and fame doesn’t guarantee a better life.



Churnalism is a form of journalism in which press releases, wire stories and other forms of pre-packaged material are used to create articles in newspapers and other news media in order to meet increasing pressures of time and cost without undertaking further research or checking. 



The culture of churnalism has escalated dangerously since its first reference back in the 1920s. Unlike then, daily newspapers are dropping like flies, due in large part to a beleaguered economy and an underperforming print advertising market. The few journalistic newspapers that remain standing are woefully understaffed (down nearly 30 percent in personnel) who are expected to churn out tomes of content while only earning a few cents a word.



This situation is fueling a cut-and-paste use of press releases and other forms of PR to create and publish what now qualifies as news. And hence hard news is beginning to fade from view, except perhaps from purely academic endeavors.



I try to support what few vestiges remain of true, thinking-person’s news in the form of my local city paper and the New York Times. Over a recent Sunday breakfast, I was savoring an in-depth feature outlining how President Obama’s U.S. and world strategy was composed of few words, to the point of providing nothing to report on. The story in essence suggested it was part of his strategy not to get caught up in partisan games. Really? I thought it was because those stories got bumped to page 5 in favor of the breaking news story about Rush Limbaugh’s caloric critique of Michelle Obama’s barbecue dinner.

How do you think news has changed over the years?

By: Rhonda Wickham, Director of Content

To the many tasked with communicating their company’s message, the act of writing — and in turn creating compelling content — must seem like conjuring witchcraft spells where the right combination of words and phrases will produce the desired effect. Some communicators believe stacking up adjectives is as good as adding an extra bay leaf and lizard eyelashes to the prose potion. Unfortunately, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

I recently ran across a Wall Street Journal column addressing this same issue, titled “Block That Adjective.” Alexander McCall Smith, author of some 60 books including the “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” series, bemoaned the adjective crutch that many writers lean too heavily upon.   

“For some people, being able to use all these words is rather like being faced with a chocolate box with multiple layers; the temptation to overindulge is just too great. The result is the use of too many adjectives, adverbs and subsidiary clauses. Such writing then becomes contrived.”

He blames Roget “and his wretched thesaurus.”

Likewise, novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafon, tells the story of a writer’s first newspaper gig in The Angel’s Game. In the novel, he describes the main character’s encounter with his first editor … “a forbidding man with a bushy mustache who did not suffer fools and who subscribed to the theory that the liberal use of adverbs and adjectives was the mark of a pervert or someone with a vitamin deficiency.”

Creating content that results in a desired action or engagement by the audience demands that you effectively communicate your thoughts and ideas. Concisely expressing your message to ensure it is received and understood demands limited usage of extraneous adjectives and phrases.

Good content requires good writing. Good writing is actually the judicious use of all words, including adjectives, to gain maximum impact. Good writers know when to use or avoid certain words. Many communicators working to create content think the longer the sentence, the smarter their message sounds. In fact, they would be better off consulting a copy of Strunk & White’s Elements of Style.

A friend of mine recently was terrorized by the thought of going through an English composition class when she returned to college for a new degree. Her first assignment — to write about something that happened the previous week — nearly undid her. She stressed in front of her computer screen for so long her writer’s block was even gathering dust.

Finally, she begged me for help. I asked about her intended subject, a bland topic she obviously had zero passion for, let alone interest in. It showed in the few lines she had strung together with a healthy dose of adjectives as the glue.

I knew the previous week she had undergone a series of doctors’ appointments after an unusual mammogram finding. I suggested that she write about that experience. Thirty minutes later, she had finished her composition and emailed me her first draft. It communicated an idea. It was genuine. And she clearly cared about the subject. Her copy was original, clever and concise. In fact, it was nearly perfect.

Adjectives? Sure, she used a few, but only when describing the coldness of the machinery and the diagnostic technician.

Creating content that communicates effectively is not an easy task. But, it’s important to remember that adding unnecessary adjectives takes you farther from your goal, not closer.

What other hurdles are causing you trouble in effectively communicating to your audience?