At the beautiful New York Times building for the Brand as Content. Content as Brand.

Earlier this month New York City played host to the annual New York Advertising Week in midtown Manhattan offering lots of tips for big advertisers and bloggers alike. Amongst dozens of panels and events all week, the Blog What? Design team was able to sit in on some exciting and thought-provoking chats within the fields of social media, branding, branded content development, and more.

Brand as Content. Content as Brand.

Among some of the more exciting panels we listed to was entitled, “Brand as Content. Content as Brand.” While it’s something we assist our bloggers and publishers with at Blog What? Design every day, developing unique content is not something most brands do everyday. 
The panel noted that consumers are no longer interested in flat brand experiences that fail to offer something more, such as a story. 

For our bloggers and publishers who already produce rich content in the digital publishing fields, this means that they must constantly push to remain at the top of their content niches against competitors such as Johnson & Johnson’s johnsonsbaby.com, one of the leading sources for parenting content online. Active and constant strategy-building in the fields of social media management, brand development and management, feature offerings, and  of course consistently fresh constant will ensure that our bloggers and publishers remain relevant when compared to seemingly competition giants.

Regardless, thanks to the democratization of content online and our expert and highly affordable services, facing such competition can be relatively simple. 

One star of this panel, Ivana Kirkbride, lead member of the YouTube Originals team, detailed how YouTube is currently aiming to present its content in more episodic ways, allowing each user the chance to follow a story rather watch many similar, yet disconnected, videos.

The digital convergence panel. Stars of the night? MIT's Media Lab.

Digital Convergence: Can You Imagine…

Thanks to the genius minds over at MIT’s Media Lab, our team was able to hear about some of the great concepts molding the field of digital convergence today.

A representative from the Lab provided the audience with a stunning presentation of the technology behind the new world interface: essentially a projector attached to a complex, robotic arm, this piece of technology allows users to transform nearly any surface into a digital interface. Other presenters challenged the audience to consider a world in which going out shopping for a new digital camera would mean interfacing in the prices of other competitors and other cameras right beside you on the counter.

Brand-Based Story Telling

One other favorite panel focused on the art of story telling by brands. Again, this is something we at Blog What? Design assist our bloggers and publishers in carrying out everyday. Ultimately, a cohesive and engaging story

How do you tell a story through your blog’s brand?