Andrew Boer

Articles by Andrew All articles by Andrew

• Put Down The Microphone: A Case for Resonance, Not Shouting in Content Marketing Insider on 06/06/2014
  

  Amplification works two ways: It magnifies your talent; it magnifies your flaws. The volume of "American Idol" hopefuls every year proves the seductive ease of amplification: Many are willing to be "not good" if promised a reach of millions. A quick review of most branded content on amplification networks reinforces this as the current state of content marketing, where loud seems better than good. The amplification of content, even when it might turn out to be counterproductive for the marketer, is a much easier spending decision than spending on quality. After all, it seems to answer the core question of content marketers: How do I build and attract an audience? But there is an alternative to amplification: resonance.

• We All Owe Federated Media Debt Of Gratitude in Content Marketing Insider on 02/04/2014
  

  Last week Federated Media split its legacy content marketing business from its programmatic, ad-buying business, which is now called sovrn. Whether this move spells an end for Federated Media or whether the content marketing arm will bloom again at LIN Media is unclear. But surely it marks the end of an era, so I thought we could reflect on the intellectual legacy that Federated Media left behind.

• The Rise Of The Content Amplification Agency in Content Marketing Insider on 01/10/2014
  

  History sometimes repeats itself. So those with longer memories may start to see parallels between the rapidly growing content amplification space, led by content marketing distribution platforms like Outbrain and Taboola, and the rise of the search engine marketing industry in the early 2000's. Will the CAA (content amplification agency) be the new SEM agency?

• Paradise Lost: The Three Great Sins Of Online Publishing in Publishing Insider on 02/24/2012
  

  By my count, there have been only three great sins by online publishers.The original sin occurred at online publishing's genesis in the HotWired offices almost two decades ago: the concept of the banner ad.

• Performance-Based Pay For Content Has Gone Mainstream -- Which Is Probably Good For Authors in Publishing Insider on 01/27/2012
  

  This week Forbes magazine again touted its success with the business model it calls Entrepreneurial Journalism, without so much as a titter (or a twitter) from the media. Forbes' journalism model, pioneered (then dropped, then readopted) by Nick Denton at Gawker Media, was very recently considered a controversial and even a heretical approach for journalists. The value proposition, however, is deceptively simple and makes sense: Pay writers bonuses based on the audiences they can attract.

• Leaving Adton Abbey  in Publishing Insider on 01/13/2012
  

  A dispatch from a once gilded abbey, now in a state of disrepair: My Dearest Publisher, Over the past couple of decades, we have weathered wave upon wave of challenges -- and, frankly put, it shows. Our carefully built walls of distribution have all been washed away by Search, and we can easily see the tides of Social building on the horizon. A few of us hold out a distant hope for tablets, but in my heart I fear these walls may never be rebuilt.

Comments by Andrew All comments by Andrew

• Aspirational Lifestyle Marketing Is Dying. Don't Worry, It's A Good Thing by Kapono Chung (Marketing Insider on 04/30/2021)
  

  Status seeking is pretty built into who we are as a species, but waxes and wanes in how it manifests itself. For example, the late 1950's/early 1960's were driven by conspicuous consumption and materialism, and the late 1960's were a reaction.  I think you are on the right track about current trends.

• The Real Problem With Identity by Larry Ackerman (Marketing Daily on 02/21/2017)
  

  This year was the first time I ever felt the pull of a political identity as a "white male", and specifically around my gender.  I felt this was clearly a *bad thing*; those who identified this way overwhelmingly voted for Trump.  This identity began to emerge due to the political conversations on social media around the election-- I felt a bit on the outside of my own filter bubble. When I mentioned that I was starting to feel this way, one woman expressed her own astonishment --  that she couldn't imagine *not* feeling a political identity. She felt she lived in a society that already imposed that identity upon her, and it was essentially her duty to her "tribe" not to sublimate it.  In other words, my not feeling a political identity was part of my privilege, a luxury. She was right but so are you. Identity politics are a double edged sword. Pretty much every successful movement for social equality and justice has relied upon identity politics, and yet they also divide us and make us less full as people.

• Ad Execs United On Data Ownership, Divided On Whether It Belongs To Agencies Or Clients by Joe Mandese (MediaDailyNews on 12/01/2016)
  

  Deck chairs on the Titanic for publishers and media buying agencies.  Facebook (what we like) Google (what we want) and Amazon (what we buy) all have deep and unparalelled insight into our psychographic profiles and physical location. They continue to offer better and better targeting for advertisers.  All of this behavioral/contextual data stuff is web 2.0 and won't matter.

• Why 'Content Marketing' Is Bigger Than 'Jon Mandel' by Joe Mandese (Content Marketing Insider on 07/15/2016)
  

  Content Marketing is going to be overrepresented because  these "pitches" you are getting, on a meta level, are content marketing -- of the PR variety. Content marketers (as an industry) will always create a disproportional amount of noise, because it is what they do.  Its like having an open audition for a talent show at Juilliard.

• Learning To Love My Boss Jennifer by Ari Rosenberg (Publishing Insider on 08/20/2015)
  

  Lets say you are the boss. Then to paraphrase:"To have a great relationship with me, you have to fall in love with the feeling you get from pleasing me. You have to embrace the little things I want of you, and commit to doing these things exactly as I have asked them."Wait, wasn't that a line from Fifty Shades of Gray? (i kid)

• Influencers: When Are They A Bad Bet? by Erik Sass (The Social Graf on 08/03/2015)
  

  The brands who worry about the downside risks you cite here, then seek to control the influencers voice, message, and audience. Which leads the influencer's content to become dull, generic, ineffective, and inherently commercial. (And ultimately a waste of money).The best way for brands to fail with influencers is to conceive of them the way you do-- as minor talentless celebrities who can endorse and be identified with products.  Commoditizing a human being (like Jared the Subway guy) can work spectacularly well for a brand, but is a very a high risk strategy.This is not the only way.  A more effective approach is to use influencers as content creators with  access to audiences --  but giving them enough independence and distance to be creative: less like endorsement and more like patronage.  Influencers can become micro-custom publishers with audiences, expertise, authority, and content.   It comes down to this simple rule...when it comes to influencers, the only thing Brands should never try to buy is influence. 

• General Mills To Remove Artificial Ingredients From All Cereals by Karlene Lukovitz (Marketing Daily on 06/22/2015)
  

  The cold cereal category has seen a long slide in sales as consumers have shifted to yogurts and other protein-heavy options (despite the cereal industry's attempts to make consumers aware that with milk, cereal offers as much or more protein as other options).  The "consumer preference for high protein" is a straw man from Gen Mills PR. Cereal is declining because of concern around obesity and the cumulative adverse effects of sugar and carbs.  

• The Risks Of Promoting Popular Content by Paolo Gaudiano (Publishing Insider on 11/26/2014)
  

  This was a great piece Paolo -- refreshing to see OPI taking on some topics on the editorial side (rather than ad sales) side of the house.

• What David Letterman Means To Me by Larry Dobrow (Video Critique on 05/01/2015)
  

  Great piece.  And RIP Teri Garr.

• Coca-Cola Tries Again To Position Itself As Health Food by J. Max Robins (Content Marketing Insider on 05/01/2015)
  

  Let me channel my inner Don Draper and argue the other side...Content marketing is bringing out the hypocrisy police in journalists like never before. Why? Because content marketing threatens traditional publishing.  Brands are now essentially competing directly with Publishers for audiences.   Can Coke buy an ad page in Parent magazine and support it -- journalists would be happy with that.  But can Coke (or Red Bull, or Starbucks) create health focused content themselves, set the agenda, and capture the data themselves-- well that seems to cross a line somewhere. That is the traditional role of Publishers. I concede that Coca Cola's titular product is a deeply unhealthy beverage. They have a serious image problem. Fit Family Challenge may well be a bridge too far for them -- and could backfire.At the same time, content marketing is now going mainstream. I reject that we should *automatically* conflate the products and policies of a corporate backer with the content itself. Exhibit A: The Christian Science Monitor is a hundred year old content marketing campaign funded by a church founded on faith healing and anti-medicine beliefs.  These are dangerous-- so why does the CSM get a pass? We regularly award it Pulitzers, and even consider it a respected pillar of journalism.Because the CSM has a reputation for telling the truth with their content. That is what actually matters. You want to play gotcha with Coke? Show me how Fit Family is actually promoting drinking sugary soda, because then it is NOT telling the truth. If Fit Family is encouraging people to exercise, or drink AquaFina or make healthier choices within the Coca Cola brand umbrella, then I reject your gotcha.  Yes it may be a cynical move and undoubtedly there is hypocrisy, but if branded content is going to exist, if we are going to get our news from Starbucks and Morning Joe, then we have to evaluate it on its own merits.  Is it good, and is it truthful?

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