Here's the edited recap of my in-class presentation for the 7th session for the (2009) "Future of Advertising" course at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). For March 9, we focused on the evolving practice and philosophy of Content Strategy. In many ways, content strategy is the future of marketing. Big thanks to Kristina Halvorson from Brain Traffic for speaking to the class and at our Conversations About The Future of Advertising event. Her presentation is available here: http://www.slideshare.net/khalvorson/content-strategy-the-care-and-feeding-of-your-biggest-brand-asset-1127908 Please note the Creative Commons license. Thanks.

1. TakashiMurakamicharactersfrom“Planet66:SummerV on.”Imageviahttp://hypebeast.com/2008/01/new-takashi-murakami-prints/
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The Future of Advertising
Class #ADV 3041-01 | Spring 2009 | Mondays 1-6pm | Rm 416
Instructor: Tim Brunelle
SESSION #07: MARCH 9
CONTENT STRATEGY
Creative Commons Attribution & Non-Commercial License

2. Today:
1. Assignment #2 due in class
BREAK
2. Content Strategy overview
BREAK
3. Guest speaker: Kristina Halvorson
Brain Traffic
4. Next steps

3. Assignment #2
“Start a blog or microblog for your personal
brand.”
10 minutes per person
1. Describe your brand. What makes you
distinct? (One, brief paragraph.)
2. Analyze your “competition.” (List at least
three URLs.)
3. Show us what you’ve got. (One post if new
blog; two if existing. 10 posts if microblog or
20 if existing.)

4. Today:
1. Assignment #2 due in class
BREAK
2. Content Strategy overview

5. “Email, blogs, wikis, Web, voice mail, faxes,
newsletters, advertising, PR. No wonder it
is so hard for organizations to speak with
the consistent voice that is so critical for
branding. An organizational content strategy
can ensure consistency, vibrancy and value
for employees, customers, suppliers and
others.”
—Nick Wreden
Author

6. “Content strategy addresses the specific
purpose, form, and development of the
content assets that we have at hand, or
those that circumstances (and our analysis)
require us to produce. The analysis of
content and assessment of its value lies at
the core of our labors.”
—Jeffrey Macintyre
Principal of Predicate, LLC

7. “An effective online content strategy, artfully
executed, drives action. Organizations that
use online content well have a clearly defined
goal—to sell products, generate leads, or
get people to join a community, vote, or
donate money—and they deploy a content
strategy that directly contributes to
reaching that goal.”
—David Meerman Scott
Author

8. “The main goal of content strategy is to use
words and data to create unambiguous
content that supports meaningful,
interactive experiences. We have to be
experts in all aspects of communication in
order to do this effectively.”
—Rachel Lovinger
Senior Content Strategist, Razorfish

9. “Not only has content expanded to include
video and audio, but the content format
itself has also evolved—personal Web sites,
basic brochure-ware company sites, and
simple ecommerce have been joined by
forums, blogs, review sites, social media,
and more. Diversifying your content
strategy is not only a defensive move but
also an offensive one: The more content
you have that may fit into the different
search verticals, the more you increase
your chances for ranking.”
—Brian R. Brown
Search Consultant & Blogger

10. Image ©Cell105 (Creative Commons some rights reserved) via Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/cell105/3337633474/

11. Video
Images
Text
Tags
Keywords
Links
Strategy
Architecture
Editorial policy
Design
Maintenance+Optimization
Image ©Cell105 (Creative Commons some rights reserved) via Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/cell105/3337633474/

12. Video Websites
Images Search (paid)
Text SEO
Tags Online banner ads
Keywords Blogs
Links Microblogs
Strategy Wikis
Architecture Email
Editorial policy eNewsletters
Design CRM
Maintenance+Optimization
Image ©Cell105 (Creative Commons some rights reserved) via Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/cell105/3337633474/

13. Content Strategy
Video Websites
Images Search (paid)
Text SEO
Tags Online banner ads
Keywords Blogs
Links Microblogs
Strategy Wikis
Architecture Email
Editorial policy eNewsletters
Design CRM
Maintenance+Optimization
Image ©Cell105 (Creative Commons some rights reserved) via Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/cell105/3337633474/

14. Content Strategy
Image ©Cell105 (Creative Commons some rights reserved) via Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/cell105/3337633474/

15. Content Strategy
Corporate benefits:
Greater clarity of messaging
Organizational efficiency
Better brand integration
Image ©Cell105 (Creative Commons some rights reserved) via Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/cell105/3337633474/

16. Content Strategy
Corporate benefits: Audience benefits:
Greater clarity of messaging Clarity of message
Organizational efficiency Less clutter
Better brand integration Increased relevance
Quicker access to information
Makes brands, products and
services “easier to use”
Image ©Cell105 (Creative Commons some rights reserved) via Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/cell105/3337633474/

17. “Content Strategist”
How would you define this role? What does
this person do?

18. A definition of “Content Strategist” by
Rachel Lovinger
Job 1. “To make content that’s relevant to
people, we choose the words and sentence
structures that will best contribute to
achieving our communication goals. The
voice should be based on a deep
understanding of the intentions of the
content creators, as well as the needs of
the content consumers. This approach can
be captured in an editorial styleguide
providing guidelines and examples that will
help others craft content and messages in a
similar voice.”

19. A definition of “Content Strategist” by
Rachel Lovinger
Job 2. “To make content more useful to
machines, we structure it and define standard
elements so that the content can be used
and reused dynamically. We write taxonomies
and add metadata so that the content can
be identified more easily. We create
relationships between content so that it has
more context and can support a variety of
complex functions.”

20. A definition of “Content Strategist” by
Rachel Lovinger
Job 3. “To make content more efficient to
produce, we evaluate and recommend
solutions for creating, enhancing, organizing,
and using content, including content
management systems, metadata tools,
search engines, and faceted navigation
applications. We establish business rules
and workflows that will optimize the use of
these tools and systems.”

21. A definition of “Content Strategist” by
Rachel Lovinger
Job 4. “To make content comprehensive,
we determine content requirements for a
site, inventory existing content, identify
gaps, evaluate possible sources for
additional material, and manage the process
of getting that content into production.
Given the right background or source
material, we can write labels, overviews, or
even longer content if needed.”

22. “Who among us is asking the scary,
important questions about content, such as
‘What’s the point?’ or ‘Who cares?’ Who’s
talking about the time-intensive,
complicated, messy content development
process? Who’s overseeing the care and
feeding of content once it’s out there,
clogging up the tubes and dragging down
our search engines?”
—Kristina Halvorson
“The Discipline of Content Strategy”

23. Today:
1. Assignment #2 due in class
BREAK
2. Content Strategy overview
BREAK
3. Guest speaker: Kristina Halvorson
Brain Traffic
4. Next steps

24. Guest speaker: Kristina Halvorson
President, Brain Traffic
http://braintraffic.com

25. Monday, March 16:
“Utility: Widgets, Gadgets, Bubbles and
Badges, Oh my!” (Marketing as Utility)
1. Guest speaker: Adrian Ho
Zeus Jones
usefullunacy.typepad.com
tim_brunelle@mcad.edu

26. Thank you.
Creative Commons Attribution & Non-Commercial License