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5 responses to “Brands should think like talent, not publishers”

1. 

   Graeme Wood

   June 7, 2012 at 9:01 am

   I’m not sure the two approaches are in opposition: the structural issues affecting the publishing industry are largely down to their revenue model, which is dependent on brands’ need to borrow the credibility of publishers’ creative talent to generate attention. As brands develop their own publishing models there is less requirement for monetisation to be linked directly to publishing (as brands monetise the attention generated by creating a margin at shelf vs commodity products). So the old requirement was for a scriptwriter/journalist/filmmaker to seek employment from an organisation with a sales force to generate income rom brands. Now creative talent can work directly with brands to gain attention – the intermediary is no longer so important, but the curation of talent is as vital as ever – the brand as commissioning editor rather than publisher

   Spot on about comedy though – compare the average branded Facebook or Twitter feed with the work that Big Carlos do for @Betfairpoker

2. 

   Adam Tinworth

   June 7, 2012 at 9:34 am

   Rather than bombing your comments section (again), I posted a response on my own blog: http://www.onemanandhisblog.com/archives/2012/06/brand_publishing_time_to_get_gonzo.html

3. 

   amayfield

   June 7, 2012 at 3:13 pm

    Great post, Adam – I’ll pull in one para here, if I may…

   “I’ve been poking the “content strategy” business with a virtual stick
   over the last few months, and while there’s some good thinking out
   there, there’s also a heck of a lot of what looks to me like traditional
   publisher mindset badly hybridised with SEO-driven strategy. That
   creates content with, uh, sub-optimal value.”

4. 

   amayfield

   June 7, 2012 at 3:15 pm

   Nice comment, Graeme – thanks. And will definitely check out the @Betfair:twitter ,work – thanks.

5. 

   Will Brown

   June 26, 2012 at 6:38 pm

   interesting, but think your metaphor is more relevant to individuals (authors, musicians, stand ups as you mention). big brands do act very successfully like publishers (forget the too slow for the web assumption) the smart ones derive value through injecting creative, ideas generation, marketing, legal, IP expertise etc (which is what you get from a good publisher, right?). talent agents do this for individuals but on a much smaller scale. i think start-up / challenger brands would benefit from acting like talent, but maybe too radical for the big boys. @wrjbrown