The growing deluge of content marketing will inevitably result in consumers raising barriers against content marketing in the same way they now ignore traditional advertising.

Only those who can build great content brands will be in a position to protect themselves. A great content brand is a brand that’s famous for producing intelligent, useful and entertaining content that’s always worth consuming.

Every website is a marketing effort.  Sooner or later, your site involves interaction with a user, and that interaction won’t be 100% technical.  You have to sell the engagement, the the interaction and the story you have in mind.  The tech is secondary to your ability to get your point across.

1.  Find the tech elements you need by browsing the web and making a list (ie, I want menus that work like this site, a shopping cart that works like this site).

2.  Create the entire site using Key Note on the Mac.  begin by copying and pasting other sites then hire a graphic designer to create the elements you need.

3.  Do not do any coding at all.  You will end up with a 3 to 10 page Key Note document with a look and a feel.  You can use it in presentations, in meetings, even test it with users.  Only hand this to developers once you are satisfied that this is what you want.

Ryan Tate, Wired

Amazon has reportedly built a lightning-fast platform to deliver highly targeted ads to shoppers who leave Amazon’s virtual selection to peruse other sites.  The company has developed software to analyse your Amazon shopping patterns and then follow you around the web to non-Amazon sites with targeted ads.

Better still for Amazon, it can make additional money acting as a middle man for other advertisers who want to use this technology, especially companies that make products sold through Amazon.

By building its own ad purchasing machine, Amazon is signalling just how serious it has become about selling ads.  With its huge trove of data on user buying habits, the company is especially well positioned to target potential buyers - and clearly knows it.

Tim Nudd, Adweek

From Shakespeare to Spielberg to Soderbergh, there are only really seven different types of stories - seven archetypal themes that recur in every kind of storytelling.

The challenge becomes finding which one best suits your brand, and then telling it skillfully, believably and - if you’re going to invite customers to join in the story - extremely carefully.

1.  Overcoming the Monster

Literary example:  David and Goliath

Ad example:  Apple’s attack on Big Brother in “1984”

2.  Rebirth

Film example:  It’s a Wonderful Life

Ad example:  Droga5’s “Day One” of retirement campaign for Prudential

3.  Quest

Literary example:  Lord of the Rings

Ad example:  IBM’s “Predictive Maintenance” campaign

4.  Journey and Return

Film example:  The Wizard of Oz

Ad example:  Corona’s “Find Your Beach” campaign

5.  Rags to Riches

Ad example:  Johnnie Walker - “The Man Who Walked Around the World”

6.  Tragedy

Literary example:  Greek classics

Ad example:  PSA’s such as St John Ambulance’s “Helpless” campaign

7.  Comedy

Ad example:  Old Spice Danger Zone

Advertisers are the customers.

When Facebook went public earlier this year, much like television, people were no longer the customers. Brands were. Users simply became product to sell to advertisers.

When analysts spoke of Facebook’s need to monetise the platform, what they were really saying is that Facebook needs to monetise the users.

The product is you.

Consider the human. Humans have limited time, which makes them worry. They want ways to make their life easier, less complicated. They want less clutter. They like new, shiny things. They like information. They like stories. In fact, humans love stories.

As marketers, humans are very valuable to us. But a single human can be subjected to as many as twenty thousand marketing messages a day. That’s not very human friendly.

Humans love stories, not adverts.

When you’re thinking about your marketing plan for next year, when you’re allocating your budget and planning channels; consider the human.

Take some of that budget and hire content producers. Hire storytellers. Start campaigns that put humans first.

Burberry is bringing the best elements of its Burberry.com into its new London store on Regent Street.  The aim is to blend the online and offline environments to create a more immersive and intelligent brand experience.

There are floor-to-ceiling screens that wrap the entire store so it can change into a completely immersive video experience at a moment’s notice.  RFID chips have been attached to many products so content showing how the product looks, how it has been made and other aspects of the product development story, can be displayed on any of the couple hundred in-store screens.

Burberry has realised that people are interested in more than just buying a product.  The customer needs to be part of the story.