Danger: risk of content overload

Everyone thinks they can create content. Only a few years ago, the idea that every individual can be a publisher and broadcaster, that every company is a media company, seemed radical. Now, as digital and social media have become ubiquitous, such thinking is commonplace and we are being deluged by content.

It could be an online film or a six-second Vine video, a website or app, a free glossy print magazine or a live event. One advertising agency boss offers a simple answer when asked what clients want: “Content, content, content.”

Companies are waking up to what individuals and bloggers have known for years. Traditional media owners no longer have sole control as TV stations and film studios, publishers and music labels are getting “disintermediated” by technology that allows instant, free distribution — to go “direct to the consumer”.

This is a big opportunity for marketers, so long as the content is interesting or entertaining. Unique content is a way to differentiate oneself in a crowded marketplace and engage an audience, rather than just advertising next to someone else’s content.

The buzzphrase is content marketing, but it might be more accurate to describe it as marketers commissioning their own editorial.

By this logic, every company should appoint its own head of content or editor-in-chief. Some chief marketing officers are already becoming chief brand and content officers.

“I basically look at brands as commissioning editors,” said chef Jamie Oliver, speaking at Channel 4’s Upfronts, its preview of next year’s programming, as he talked about brands making their own TV shows, films, websites and apps — without even having to use a traditional broadcaster.

He has put this into practice, by creating his own YouTube channel, FoodTube, with 500,000 fans, and by working on commercial partnerships with brands such as Sainsbury’s and Uncle Ben’s Rice. Importantly, he said, brands want to put the video content he creates for them on their own websites. Oliver remains a Channel 4 broadcaster but, in a sign of how power is shifting, he can broadcast a show himself.

If cheap technology means it is easy to make content, the danger is it lacks quality as ever-increasing amounts of rubbish get spewed out — especially as some “always-on” brands feel they should be constantly communicating.

“Most content created by brands is s***,” said Mark Eaves, founder of content agency Gravity Road, speaking at the Channel 4 event. “I think most content is created because the brand has the money.” Or as Tyler Brule, who runs style magazine Moncole and sister branding agency Winkreative, put it to me earlier this year: “Content — don’t you hate it? It’s the new c-word. Once upon a time, content would have been shorthand for editorial. Now it’s just filler.”