Whether it's HBO, Showtime or Netflix, one of the biggest challenges marketing upscale TV programming is how to reach an affluent audience. Same goes for those marketing luxury goods, whether it's Louis Vuitton or Porsche. Since its late-2011 launch, Spotlight Cinema Networks has offered a targeted platform for brands such as those to reach a blue-chip market.

The front page of Tuesday's New York Times business section trumpeted a story about how General Electric chairman Jeffrey Immelt had retooled the company. In doing so, he was shedding the "shadow" of his legendary predecessor Jack Welch. That same day in the same section, there was a piece touting a major content marketing deal among National Geographic Channel, Imagine Entertainment, Asylum Entertainment and GE for a six-part, multimillion-dollar documentary series about science and technology dubbed "Breakthrough." Not surprisingly, GE is bankrolling the series because it will highlight work being done by technologist and scientists, some of whom work for …

Truth: Logic rarely spurs action. And yet, more and more, we (marketers) are focused on metrics. We rack our brains trying to figure out how to move prospective customers logically through the sales funnel. We create content based on algorithms and probabilities. And while doing this, we wish and pray that we can have a monstrous breakthrough success, the kind of overnight sensation that Malcolm Gladwell or Jonah Berger might write about some day. Well, it ain't gonna happen if your nose is down in a spreadsheet. Because emotion, not numbers, is the gasoline that fuels marketing awesomeness.

Ever since Twitter caught fire at the South by Southwest forum eight years ago, SXSW has been the go-to forum not only for the next big thing in music, but also in digital. This year's digital it products there were all about video: Periscope and Meerkat, two live-video-streaming apps. It's an open question if either of these two platforms will become part of the social media marketing firmament. Still, that this category is blowing up means a big opportunity for content marketers.