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I was bouncing around my usual financial web sites last night (thestreet.com, fool.com, Yahoo! Finance) reviewing a few articles on Google (YouTube buy, the recent earnings report) and started to notice the type of advertising I was seeing on those sites.

First, it was a block ad from Cisco promoting their podcast series - one of their SVPs discussing the latest innovations in technology.

Second, it was American Century. By simply clicking on their ad, I could unveil the secrets to rolling over my 401k with ease and simplicity (white paper)

Third, it was Charles Schwab. "Chuck" was offering, if you clicked, to detail their customers most common investing problems and how Chuck solved them (white paper).

You guessed it. All these examples have branded content in common. The smartest marketers are offering their customers and prospects highly valuable content to start or continue a relationship with them. This type of content creates a change within the prospective buyer that may and often does ultimately lead to a buying decision (to buy new or stay).

If you troll through b2b web site advertising, you still find mostly product pitches that offer some sort of differentiation. But watch out. The next wave of branded content is coming, and you'll see much of it on the b2b side.

Labels: branded content, custom publishing, podcasts, white papers