Talking Content Marketing – With Nenad Senic
Talking Content Marketing welcome award-winning brand editor, published researcher, journalist and content marketing aficionado, Nenad Senić.
Nenad is dedicated to helping companies and organizations build long-term relationships with their clients by creating effective content – for web and print.
He is the European editor for Chief Content Officer magazine by Content Marketing Institute and penned the first Slovenian content marketing awards (POMP 2013). Nenad collects customer magazines, newspapers and other print publications from around the world and browse/read them daily.
Here we have a chat about the role that printed content plays in helping to build our audience and gain competitive advantage.
As many businesses progress down a digital only route for content creation, is targeting via printed content a way to differentiate?
Absolutely. Let me make it clear first, I don’t only do print, I actually do a lot more digital.
I am not someone who is afraid that he is going to become obsolete. Especially in Europe, print is still very strong and brings tremendous business and marketing results to brands. It is something tangible when holding a printed publication in your hands. It still feels special, and even, how ironic, something new. It’s so much more intimate than anything digital. By the way, this applies to people of all ages!
Are companies more likely to grow their audience with a mix of digital and printed communication?
In 2014, I was a jury member for the US, UK and Slovenian content marketing awards. I am now even more convinced that, when it makes sense, you should integrate digital and print to achieve and even surpass your marketing and business goals.
There are so many incredible content marketing projects that are basically multi-platform projects that are inter-connected, yet still each is powerful enough on its own: Red Bull, Toni & Guy, Siemens Living Energy, Skoda Slovenia, John Lewis Cook Edition… I could go on and on.
Do businesses take on a much more personal role with print?
Yes, as I mentioned earlier, print still feels intimate and tangible.
We consume print differently than we do with digital and mobile. In a way, we take time with what’s published on paper. Joe Pulizzi also likes to stress that it still seems people are more likely to agree to an interview for print than for a blog. I agree. The production of content for print also takes more care.
The Huffington Post highlighted almost £400m to be lost in revenue from the UK newspaper market by the end of 2014 (and newspaper market is shrinking by 8% per year). Does this mean a huge opportunity for custom newspapers/magazines?
The opportunity has already been seized.
The top three in the UK’s top 100 magazines are titles from content marketing budgets (ASDA, Tesco & Morrison’s). Five out of the top 10 titles, equating to 61% of sales, sit in the branded content category.
While newsstand print has been in existential crisis for a decade now, the opposite is true for branded print. Joe Pulizzi argues it is because brands don’t have to make money directly from their print. I say, it is because brands invest in relevant and quality content, they pay real attention to their target audience and it shows.
Do ‘print is dead’ type articles become tiresome?
Honestly, I ignore anything that predicts death to a type of media. Is Facebook dead? Is Twitter dead? Is content marketing dead? Is advertising dead? Is TV as we know it dead? There’s no value in such texts. You’re either dead or alive. Just my humble opinion.
What is it about print that has held your attention and fuelled your passion?
I just love to take stuff in my hands, to take time and enjoy reading stories.
When reading a printed publication, I don’t get distracted, I do when reading anything digital related. I really like creating new titles. Also I collect brand print media; I feel like I am building my own little library. I believe if I had lived 100 years ago, I would have been a librarian.
Thanks to Nenad for his time and viewpoint, why not get to know Nenad a bit better.
Nenad on Twitter: click here
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Nenad on LinkedIn: click here
