BtoB Media Business - December 2010 - (Page 8)

FEATURE Custom-made expansion Custom departments grow to help media companies manage the print-to-digital transformation BY MARIE GRIFFIN ustom marketing is booming, with spending in North America estimated at $32 billion (Veronis Suhler Stevenson) to $48 billion (Custom Content Council). Junta42, in its “2010 Content Marketing Spending Survey,” pegged the 2008-10 growth rate at 11%. ¶ The challenge for business publishers’ custom media departments is to win a greater share of that spending. C “B-to-b media want to capture the outsourcing of content marketing within their custom media departments,” said Joe Pulizzi, founder of Junta42 and CEO of Z Squared Media. According to “B2B Content Marketing: 2010 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends,” a study co-produced by Junta42 and MarketingProfs, 45% of business marketers use their own resources to develop custom content, while 52% use a mix of in-house resources and outsourcing. Only 3% outsource exclusively. Content marketing is becoming very sophisticated, with the creation of specialized content only one part of a complex process. “Most b-to-b media companies are set up to do content marketing on a project-by-project basis,” Pulizzi said. “That’s a great place to start, although the biggest opportunity is to figure out how to develop a content strategy, execute it through completion and evolve it over time, instead of just looking at it as a project.” As media companies make larger investments in their custom media departments, they are also expanding the role of those units. With the ability to rally resources from throughout the company and outsource when necessary, these departments are able to put together innovative, complex programs—whether or not they fit the traditional definition of custom media—without overwhelming the people who are occupied in the daily tasks of generating revenue or producing content. In many cases, the future of business media companies is already happening within custom media units today. Outside expertise Media companies have often entered businesses outside their core through acquisition, the expansion into trade shows being one example. A few business publishers have acquired companies that specialize in custom media and marketing services—or hired key executives from those companies—to kickstart their expansion into this area. However, print media companies often found that custom media businesses operated like advertising agencies. This approach did not easily meld with the traditional media sales process. Additionally, the cost structures of custom media businesses precluded them from serving the needs of small and midsize advertisers. Hanley Wood acquired Wells Group, a Minneapolis-based custom media company, in 1995, and renamed it Hanley Wood Marketing. The unit serves a more diverse client base than Hanley Wood Business Media, which specializes in commercial and residential construction. Hanley Wood Marketing operated independently of the media division until about two years ago, when Hanley Wood made the strategic decision to build its future around digital media, paid content and content marketing. “We’re now able to provide more services to what we would call the media clients of Hanley Wood—building products manufacturers,” said Sheila Harris, who oversees custom media as VP-marketing at Hanley Wood. “We hope to provide a seamless experience to clients, but we are [internally] integrating the best of what existed before in the marketing and media divisions into one marketing services entity.” K. Elliott Nowels, VP-business development at Meister Media, joined the company when it acquired Clear Window Multimedia, the custom content company he founded, in late 2000. Nowels is the director of Clear Window, a separate division of Meister Media that works with the customers of its media brands on complex, custom, integrated-media programs. “We don’t intend to be an everyday agency,” Nowels said. “Our work is more project-based.” At Meister Media, a media brand sales rep is the client’s primary contact for custom projects, but that salesperson relies on Clear Window’s project management team “to ensure the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed,” Nowels said. “These are complex programs, and our folks know all the assets we have to get the projects done.” Mansueto Ventures hired Bob LaPointe to be president of Inc. magazine last year and simultaneously acquired Trendline Communications, the b-to-b custom publishing and marketing services company LaPointe founded in 2001. LaPointe didn’t try to graft Trendline onto the Inc. organization. Rather, he formed a new custom media operation that includes a few former Trendline employees but is primarily staffed by Inc. veterans and people hired over the last 18 months. This custom group operates using a b-to-b media company business model that LaPointe envisions as the basis for all client relationships in the future. “We’ve changed culturally internally,” LaPointe said. “Our value proposition has changed from providing branding value to providing branding, lead generation, lead nurturing, customer retention and cross-selling through integrated marketing platforms.” Last month, SourceMedia hired Julian Orbon as senior VP-custom media. “This is a new position focused on custom media, and there is a higher significance placed on it than before,” said Orbon, who had been in the job for less than two weeks when he spoke to Media Business. Orbon joined SourceMedia from Wax Custom Communications in Miami, a custom 8 | Media Business | December 2010 | mediabusinessonline.com http://www.mediabusinessonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - December 2010

Btob Media Business - December 2010
Contents
Changing of the Guard at Forbes Media
Is Custom Content the Future of Media?
Looking for a Vendor? Check Out Our Annual Guide
Frustrated Sales Guys Launch Media Company
Sales & Marketing
M&A
Development
Events
Production
People
Benchmarks

BtoB Media Business - December 2010