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IAB Content Marketing Programmatic

Who will lead the future of content? AOL's Jim Norton reports back from the IAB Leadership Meeting

By Jim Norton, global head of media sales

February 12, 2015 | 4 min read

Earlier this week, thought leaders from the digital advertising industry, brand leaders and storytellers converged in Phoenix, Arizona for the Annual IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) Leadership Meeting to discuss major trends and topics that are gripping the industry this year, and beyond.

Jim Norton

Throughout the course of the three-day confab, one major theme continued to resonate – content is still king … despite programmatic advertising dominating industry headlines. In fact, just so that there was no confusion, the entire event was underpinned by the headline 'Content and the Kingmakers'.

Industry leaders from global brands like GE and powerhouse media companies like Buzzfeed took to the stage to weigh in on the ongoing evolution of content, from the creative process all the way through to distribution and the technology behind the platforms on which it lives.

In an industry where we are admittedly often not in agreement, this week everyone seemed to agree that superior content and meaningful storytelling will always be paramount to the success of a campaign and of a brand’s overall message. AOL, a huge partner to both content companies and brands, understands distinctly the importance of storytelling.

While there was a major focus on storytelling this week, it is also important to note that there is a true renaissance happening at the brand level where CMOs have realized that in order to succeed and stay ahead of their competition, they need to move into the direction of programmatic, while also continuing to focus on daily storytelling. For brands, they no longer have to make a choice between technology and content, they can have the best of both worlds.

This interaction of content and technology, the culture and the code, provides brands and agencies with best in class content and programmatic solutions across all platforms. For brands this provides them with the ability to reach consumers at the right place, at the right time, with the right message and for content companies, it gives them limitless opportunities to inform, entertain and delight their users.

The ongoing conversation around content and who does it best manifested itself in a conversation on the last day of the event called 'The Great Debate'. Leaders from both the publishing and agency side took the stage to discuss who will lead the future of content in advertising, and panelists from each side had valid and well though out points.

From the publishers' perspective, they know what their audiences like and dislike when it comes to content and they view the audience as the boss, spending hours a day obsessing over how to best engage with them and better yet, what is keeping them engaged. On the agency side, the argument is that while publishers may know their audiences, they also must first and foremost understand the brand that they are creating content for and be able to translate the mission of the brand into a narrative of a story in an authentic way.

In my opinion, great content and storytelling can come from both agencies and publishers either working together or separately and the strategy should depend solely on the brand involved, the messaging and of course the platform.

To quote IAB President and CEO Randall Rothenberg: “Great content draws in consumers, and without it we wouldn’t be able to deliver the audiences that marketers want to reach.”

I am certainly looking forward to what 2015 has in store for content and for the industry overall and as a member of the IAB Board of Directors, will be keeping a close eye on trends in digital advertising as brands continue to embrace and adapt to the new world order of technology wrapped in storytelling.

Jim Norton is global head of media sales at AOL and a member of the IAB board of directors

IAB Content Marketing Programmatic

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