Have Brand, Will Travel
February 17, 2006
By David B. Hills
LookSmart CEO David B. Hills discusses portable content and what it means to brands.
I was watching some reasonably generic war documentary on the cable network the other night. I love this type of show and these types of documentaries. The show that followed was "48 Hours." It took me a minute but I remembered the period when all of this television content was set in motion. The large media companies started to launch, invest in or buy cable networks. Smart companies that they are, they realized that they needed to follow the audience and find "after-markets" for their content.
The meta-point is that even in today's media world your content can "travel" from the originating "channel" to other "channels" AND at the same time preserve and reinforce brand.
The online medium, broadly defined to encompass all devices, is perfect for this type of syndication since access to content can be tiered to encourage three goals:
Earn additional revenue from your content and expose it to new audiences so you maximize your investment in that content and extend your reach, which will result in new audience to your brand's site.
Preserve control over access to that content. The publishing business will be part free, part registration restricted and part paid subscription. You'll have content that is totally exposed for free that is ad supported, some behind a registration firewall and some in a paid area. It's important you start to think about your content like this and develop a system that moves it from one area to another based on time, topic or audience metrics.
Use the syndication to promote your brand by inserting mentions of what's available at the site. If you're working with a good partner in syndication, they should easily be willing to help you drive traffic to critical areas of your site.
Let's go back to the beginning of the column and my mention of what happened in cable. What's going on today in syndication of content online is a path well worn in media history. We tend to think of this as a new phenomenon, but it's not and content owners are very savvy and will continue syndication online.
Seems to me that everyone benefits from this open view of the world.
The audience benefits since they get access to your content where they want it. You benefit since you earn extra money, get more audience and promote and reinforce your brand.
The advertiser gets to be next to your content in places other than your brand. They know it works and will take the audience if they can get to it.
Now the trick is finding the right kind of syndication partner. You have to find someone who is willing to do what you need, which is:
Create an equitable revenue share for hosting your content and serving it to the audience. In an ideal world, you should get both of these. They work in tandem. You should have as little labor in this as possible. They host the content, you get paid and all you do is "ship" it to them.
Think strategically with your partner about which content belongs where. Some will be free and available anywhere, some behind registration and some behind subscription products. If you and your partner are in sync on what your goals are and how their audience behaves, you should be able to be very organized about what content belongs where.
Use the syndication as a chance to promote your brand. The content itself does it but promote related features that can be found at your site. Don't feel the need for links throughout your syndicated content since you want all of it read, but put simple things like links or mentions at the bottom of the content pointing them to your brand. The partner should be glad to work on this with you.
We all need to take a page from media history. Syndication of content past the originating channel is not a new idea. Strong and valuable content travels well, including preserving and reinforcing brand. The audience wants you but only when it's convenient for them so let's give them what they want.
David B. Hills is CEO of LookSmart, Ltd. (NASDAQ: LOOK), an online media and technology company specializing in vertical search. Hills joined LookSmart in October 2004. He has nearly 25 years of experience in media sales and operations, with extensive interactive media experience in online advertising, search marketing, paid listings and subscriptions. Before joining LookSmart, Hills served as president of Media Solutions for 24/7 Real Media, overseeing all domestic media, search and technology businesses for the company. Prior to joining 24/7 Real Media, Hills was COO and president of sales for About, Inc., which owned About.com and Sprinks, the pay-per-click service.
