I’m not sure that I understand your question, but I do think conflicts are tough issues with a lot of gray areas. For instance if Toyota is sponsoring a section that reviews their cars, the editorial probably wouldn’t be very credible. If their banners are placed in a car section and those banners randomly appear on a page where a Toyota review appears, it’s less damaging.

The main point is that credibility issues are all to often ignored, which is why strong branded content demands much higher ad rates than contextual ads.

- Greg

The company I work for is at the heart of this issue, so I have to ask this question. Why couldn’t a magazine publisher who also has a web presence that repurposes their assets benefit from editorial content that’s designed for online reading experiences (comparable quality to their printed word), and at the same time utilize an online publishing platform and service provider that places contextually related content in their “vertical box” along with other content partners and contextually relevant adverts? Is that not a win-win-win for the content providers, their consumers and advertisers? If you’re not convinced, we’d love to send you a private beta invitation. Very thought-provoking read, though, and very supportive of an industry appearing to be suffering like so many others, but like the auto industry must adjust to the times.

Thanks. Good luck with http://www.btobbloggers.com

- Greg

This is very thought provoking..as I am about to launch a new site, http://www.btobbloggers.com, tomorrow, it is definitely a mindset I’ll work to adopt in my thinking.

“Creating an experience” it is exactly the reason I am asking my readers to contribute to what I am calling a, Crowdsourced FRD. I want the readers to define the experience. You can find the page here: http://www.btobbloggers.com/crowdsourcedfrd/

Hopefully tomorrow you will check out the site and let me know what you think.

Jeremy

I can only say for sure about sites that I worked with, and we built functional models for each site and service. We had all functionality designed and tested before we programmed and then did usability ongoing usability testing to continuously improve. We also had strong editorial policies and never sold content.

I also think that it’s safe to assume that most top branded content sites do as well. I very much doubt that CNN or New York Times sells content and it’s clear from the results that they take usability seriously. I would also put Yahoo in this category as well. Most large scale enterprises have people with offline experience involved so expertise transfers over.

However, many start-ups and in-bound marketers rush into content without taking heed of lessons learned long ago in offline media.

- Greg

- Greg