Eight companies with great content marketing strategies

Here I’ve rounded up some brands that are successful with content marketing.

I hope you won’t have seen all of my examples. Some of them have heritage in content, and some don’t.

For more case studies, subscribers can check out the Econsultancy archive.

By Ben Davis June 12th 2014 10:15

Brands with content heritage that have adapted to online

AMEX

You can read about AMEX’s history of content in this excellent post from Contently.

In 1915 the brand opened a travel agent and there followed a range of publications, including titles such as:

The American Express Cruise Around the World: A Handbook of Information for Cruise Members (1922)
Tours in France by Rail and Automobile (1924)

AMEX has excelled in digital, too. It’s Open Forum was started in 2007 and is a site for customers to exchange knowledge with others and read advice from AMEX.

Arup

Since 1966 The Arup Journal has presented the best of Arup’s work and thinking.

Now it’s online, is free and easy to access, and pushes the reputation of the engineering firm.

Thoughts, videos and publications

Download the magazines for free

The Arup journal

British Library

The British Library has nearly 600k followers on Twitter.

The content that goes well on social is often from the library’s collection blogs.

Burberry

From the late 19th century Burberry has been at the forefront, equipping Roald Amundsen, creating gabardines used in WWI and producing adverts come content such as the two-pager below.

Burberry today is very active with content marketing, live streaming events and catwalks, using social media heavily and developing Burberry Acoustic. Burberry Acoustic is the partnership of unsigned artists with the brand, showing videos on the website and performing at events.

IBM

IBM has had research labs churning out new findings and new products since the 1940s.

The company today publishes on a range of topics, with its Midsize Insider the bes example of content marketing and community. The range and volume of contributors can be seen below. It’s not a small undertaking but a big resource for medium sized businesses and their professionals.

Midsize Insider

Contributors to Midsize Insiders

Brands new to content that have picked up the baton

L’Oreal

L’Oreal’s makeup.com site is probably one of the clearer examples of content marketing. Tips and tutorials, how-to videos, looks and news, all through the lens of L’Oreal.

With cosmetics a market where content has taken off online with the success of vloggers, brands have had to catch up. Indeed, some brands have hired the vloggers themselves.

ASOS

OK, it’s a new brand, but it’s doing some good content marketing, along similar lines to the L’Oreal example above.

The #bestnightever campaign used music videos, games, style advice and celebrity content to push ASOS gear.

The campaign aimed at young women resulted in 5.6m positive acts of engagement across social media platforms. The content was credible, authentic and desirable in order for ASOS’s customers to love it enough that they interact and share with their friends – delivering on the campaign objectives of deeper brand engagement and advocacy.

.@EllieGoulding has joined the party. Watch, shop, and listen to her jamz to get ready for your #BestNightEver: http://t.co/xEyKPA8B

— ASOS (@ASOS) November 5, 2012

Volkswagen

End of the line for the Kombi was an emotional event.

Volkswagen commemorated it with a website and a whole bunch of content. Fans could share their memories and a book was produced which could be subsequently bought.

This was all about raising awareness of the brands heritage and history of great products.