I was a contracted independant commercial editor for my former full-time employer Mahlab. The role involved overseeing the agencies sponsored content output, from ideation through to publication within our various publishers' verticals.
The Challenge
Everyone who has had a serious go at making sponsored content will tell you one little fact about it: it's really hard to do well. Simultaneously satisfying the client and the audience is like trying to simultaneously please the USSR and USA during the Cold War.
The major hurdle is client expectations. Most don't understand what sponsored content is. Even when it's explained to them, it turns out what they truly want is an ad; a piece of content with the plain message "our product/service is good, buy it".
A secondary difficulty is making the content both interesting and effective. Say the client offers cybersecurity services to smaller businesses. You can certainly write an interesting article for the audience – everyone is afraid of being hacked and so fascinated by how cyber offence and defence works. But going from interesting to useful to the client; from "oh I didn't know that" to "I should email this company" is a different proposition.
The Execution
Acknowledging all of the above from the outset was my solution. Each client had to be coached to reach the sweet spot where what they wanted to say met what their audience was interested in hearing.
Below are various examples of the content produced for Engineers Australia's Create and Chartered Accountants Acuity. I led the client through the ideation phase, handed off the concept to a writer, and edited it to ensure audience and client were all happy.
- An article for Create from ABB about how the company recycles the energy from trains breaking as they enter the station back into the grid. It's both interesting for the audience of engineers while also letting them know what ABB offers.
- This article for NobleOak for CA's Acuity gave readers a guide to changes in regulation related to income protection insurance.
- Speaking of cybersecurity, here is an article for Liberate I.T. on keeping client data safe. A key issue for accountancy practices.
- Universities partnering with Create for sponsored content was always a smart idea. Just see this article on Hydrogen energy for Swinburne University.