Advertisers are starting to push creative boundaries in an attempt to engage, using the latest innovations, from gaming strategies to social media to branded video and Web TV content. But with all of the clutter we are surrounded by in this digital age, getting someone to pay attention to a company’s brand message seems to be getting trickier. From annoying pop-up ads to often completely irrelevant video pre-rolls, the clutter is causing consumers’ “BS meters,” as digital rock star Gary…

No matter how you define it, brand journalism has a number of key principles: It provides customers with true value. It’s not a sales pitch and is without a hidden agenda. It’s transparent. Like traditional journalism, brand journalism is built upon a commitment to factual, unbiased information. It provides an opportunity for you to provide comment on important industry issues and trends, and helps to establish your brand as a leader. It’s relevant. Good journalists know what kind of content…

Brand journalism has become the buzzword in the marketing and PR profession. As the digital space takes over and marketing and PR campaigns gear themselves towards “engaging” with their customers, brand journalism is two words on everyone’s lips. But what is it? For starters, it’s nothing new. Smart entrepreneurs have, for many years before the rise of social media, realized the importance of sharing knowledge, weighing in on industry ideas and giving themselves a voice that potential customers are interested…

Larry Light, chief marketing officer at McDonald’s, said in 2004 that mass marketing no longer worked and that “no single ad tells the whole story.” McDonald’s, he said, had adopted a new marketing technique: “brand journalism”. Light defined brand journalism, brand narrative or brand chronicle, as a way to record “what happens to a brand in the world,” and create ad communications that, over time, can tell a whole story of a brand. One definition that encompasses how different this…

Here’s the question of the day: Instead of struggling with media gatekeepers to win coverage and attract wandering eyes to your brand, should you simply become the media? Instead of providing access to key personalities and emailing quotes for a big story, why not just tell the story yourself? According to Blue Fountain Media strategist Tim Gray, the best way to promote your brand through content is to create it—he sees the PR industry moving quickly in that direction, and…