Content marketing is on the cusp of breaking through, and needs a few best practices in place to become a powerful marketing tactic, says  Gian LaVecchia, Managing Partner, Digital Content Marketing at MEC, in an interview with Beet.TV. Linking strong storytelling, with metrics and distribution is vital, he says.
“If you  don’t have rigorous distribution strategies you will fail. It’s about thoughtful storytelling, multilayer distribution, and analytics. If we do a good job and build on core audiences insights, brand insights, and broader category insights, and engage them in environments where they are receptive to that message…[that can drive success],” he says.
Content marketing ranges from infographics to how-to videos to highly produced videos. LaVecchia points to the recent Johnnie Walker Blue short film starring Jude Law as an example of effective branded content for an aspirational brand.
Another path to success in branded content lies in partnering with credible influencers with meaningful audiences. Those partnerships can bring the right mix of borrowed equity and brand equity, he says. As brands expand into content marketing, better metrics are needed. The goal is to roll up metrics like social mentions, retweets, comments and more info one “attention metric,” he says.
LaVecchia was interviewed by Paul Kontonis, SVP at Collective Digital Studio at the Beet.TV video advertising summit on “outstream” advertising presented by Ebuzzing & Teads. Please find more videos from that event here.

By Daisy Whitney on @daisywhitney