Greetings from the very humid streets of NYC, where everyone knows that the best parts of Moby Dick are the whale facts:
LHC is not immune to feeling the dog day effects of late August, but we're still out here hustling (even if its not reflected in the number of emails we've sent). Some new projects upcoming include a website launch for a new media brand, a rebranding and blog launch for a retail tech company, and a VERY exciting brand sponsorship for Charles the Dog. Hit us up if you want to find out more!
On to the #content:
Brand = $$$$
Deep down, all marketing people have the same existential fear: that since what we do is hard to tie directly to revenue, no one takes us seriously. It’s why CMOs have less job security than other c-suite execs, why “ROI” is such a buzzword, and its why, when times are tough, marketing budgets are the first to go. After all, you can’t show your really cool “story” to investors as proof of success. But actually maybe you can?
Or at least that’s the premise behind Brandometry, a new financial vehicle that’s based around brand value. Brandometry operates on a simple premise: that brand value is a leading indicator of public company performance. In other words, better brands do better in the stock market. In financial services, where everyone is looking for an edge, (there is, no bullshit, a fund that will invest your money based on astrology), Brandometry’s investment theses is deceptively simple. But it’s one that’s got data to support it -- according to the fund, their index would have significantly outperformed the S&P 500 over the past 6 years.
So next time someone questions the value of branding, show them your stock portfolio.
Featured content person: Melissa Lafsky of Storyline
Melissa is just your average garden variety lawyer-turned-journalist-turned-content-strategist-turned-entrepreneur. She got her start in the media game founding the Opinionistas blog in 2004, before becoming one of the early editors at The Huffington Post, launching the Freakonomics blog at the New York Times and then the iPad edition of Newsweek. After a 10-year stint in editorial, she moved her stoytelling skillz to the brand world, working to craft messaging, company-wide narratives and content strategies for tiny niche companies like GE, Facebook, and Citibank. She’s also trained as an EQ and executive coach, which no doubt comes in handy when dealing with your typical Fortune 500 bigshot.
Says Melissa: “The heart of any meaningful content is story; without a strong story driving everything you produce, there's no backbone and no substance for people to grab onto.”
Some (high-paying) jobs
Squarespace, which has no joke the coolest office in NYC, is looking for a Director of Content Marketing to create a branded content strategy to increase their usage and traffic.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is hiring an Executive Director of Content Strategy to lead their brand new, content based incubator team in developing a digital platform. Only SOME of the checks come courtesy of the Ukrainian government.
The Girl Scouts of America are looking for someone who “lives, breathes, and even sometimes dreams about making good content content” to be their Content & Alum Product Senior Manager. No word on whether the job includes free cookies because we definitely live, breathe, and dream those.
Other things of note
1) Cannabis brands want to use influencers, but influencers are wary (they need to reach out to Worldstar).
2) Mayonnaise is the newest addition to the list of things Millennials have ruined. There may have been some outrage but all we know is that “Identity Condiments” is our new favorite phrase (our identity condiment is hot sauce).
3) We always like to try on new business acronyms (RASCI, anyone?), so we were excited to discover CMP, which are not just Content Marketing Platforms or Cash Money Problems but also apparently Consent Management Platforms -- which thankfully have to do with GDPR regulations and not #metoo.
4) Martech is the future (how wonderful!) and this infographic explains it.
What We're Listening To
“Loading Zones”, an amazing new Kurt Vile song about (as all good songs should be) how to avoid parking tickets . It’s very important, especially to people like us with an unfortunately more than passing acquaintance with the Parking Authorities of the world.