Costa, YouTube and the future of content marketing – Content24

Welcome to Content24. Why is it different? Because it’s a digest of the stories that have made an impact over the past 24 hours, and not just a platform for recycled content marketing. Today we’re looking at what defines content marketing, BuzzFeed and YouTube

Content marketing and journalism

FirstWord has long advocated that content marketing should be proper journalism. So it was interesting to read this piece stating that journalism courses should also teach content marketing. The rationale being that there are no longer enough jobs on newsdesks to sustain new people coming into the sector.

Mediaupdate.za, which published the report, may be based in South Africa, but declining investment in editorial staff is a worldwide trend. The piece cites the University of Canberra as the first university in the world to offer a journalism degree with content marketing.

But is it helpful to distinguish between the two? If content marketing is journalism then need it be taught separately?

Still, it is a possible indication of where things are headed. It may well be that content marketing courses will in future include training in journalism.

Staying with the content marketing sector, and the southern hemisphere, we thought it would be worth referencing this comment piece looking at native advertising versus content marketing.

Essentially it questions whether the marketing sector properly understands the difference between the two – and whether there is a difference at all.

There are definite parallels, but what unites them is the need to be editorially robust.

Costa debuts BuzzFeed branded video content

BuzzFeed has announced it is launching branded video in the UK. The first work has been produced for Costa Coffee and is set to be released this week on the BuzzFeed site as well as Facebook and YouTube.

According to reports, the film is titled Little Things That Make People in Britain Happy and features pairs of people suggesting and drawing their favourites.

Costa says it is hoping for around 1 million views.

Speaking to BrandRepublic, Costa marketing director Caroline Harris said: “It’s really important for us to continue to lead social […] and speak to customers in a relevant way. We also want to seed [the message about] our British heritage.”

The video reflects Costa’s “moments of happiness” brand purpose, too.

The coffee chain said it worked directly with BuzzFeed on the content.

Interestingly, BuzzFeed remarked on the freedom enjoyed as a result of keeping the brand’s agency out of the production.

YouTube goes for a subscription model

YouTube has launched a paid-subscription model which allows people to watch content ad-free. The idea behind the move is to cater for consumers who watch lots of videos and don’t want to wait for the skip ad button to appear.

YouTube Red is launching on 28 October and will cost $9.99 per month. It will offer all existing content ad-free in addition to exclusive films and TV series.

There are a number of questions that arise from this. Firstly, will people want to pay for something that they are used to getting free? While the ads are annoying, they don’t last long enough to be much of a hindrance. This contrasts with something like Spotify – offering a similar model – where you have to listen to the whole ad.

In terms of content marketing there are a large number of brands that use YouTube as their main video channel. Will this work for them? And what if they want to run ads alongside their actual content?