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"But before they can become global media brands, venture-backed video content providers need to earn revenue. Dublin-based BalconyTV, which showcases up-and-coming music artists, has nearly 32 million views but is exploring advertising, sponsorships and brand partnerships to capitalize on its massive following. "We'll probably bring a brand on board and advertisers in the short-term," said BalconyTV Chief Executive Stephen O'Regan.  "We need to get a lot of things right before we can reach our goal of becoming a large music brand globally." AwesomenessTV, meanwhile, is currently relying on advertising revenue it shares with Google but Terbeek said the earnings were "material" so far. But he added that larger opportunities including licensing content to third parties and big media brands exist down the road, not to mention potentially lucrative exit opportunities."

A recent study from marketing firm Performics shows that 33 percent of people are most likely to respond to brand offers when they are reposted by a friend. The study states that 27 percent will do so on the brand's page, 26 percent from the newsfeed, and 20 percent from a social ad. The study also touched on some valuable information about branded content engagement. Consumers are most likely to engage with branded content containing images (44 percent). A close 40 percent of people said they are likely to engage with Status Updates and 37 percent with videos.

The over-saturation of advertising, and an ever-increasing distrust of ads has led to a decline in the effectiveness of paid media. Conversely, earned media is gaining ground. Check out this whitepaper from Zuberance, previously offered last month, to see why earned media is so powerful and to learn how you can put it to use for your brand. In this report, you will learn: 1. Earned media is the most trusted and credible form on content for a brand 2. Social media has amplified the sheer quantity and reach of earned media 3. Conversion rates are higher and ROI is larger 4. Earned media lasts 5. Earned media is measurable

Nike's Jordan brand will try to own those real-time conversations through a program of promoted tweets designed to blend into the ongoing social discourse on Twitter. Nike is not an official sponsor of the 2012 Summer Olympics, July 27 through August 12, but it is seeking to capitalize on the Games indirectly. When the Team USA men's basketball team is playing, the Jordan brand will include spontaneous real-time comments about the game in its promoted tweets. These Twitter ads will also contain pre-planned brand content and links.

Good overview of brands and their initiatives in the content marketing space.

Fascinating, it appears to me that many people prefer banners to sponsored content as they've learned to completely ignore them (i.e. your more likely to be struck by lightening than intentionally click on a banner) whereas they can be tricked into reading sponsored content that most see as junk that is completely manipulated by the advertiser. One note is that this was a small survey of about 500 people. I would love to see a study with 50,000 responses.

Article discussing how Brands are moving to Tumblr not just bloggers Kate Spade's marketing team uses Tumblr as an extension of Twitter, but with a greater emphasis on images - mainly vintage photographs of Oscar de la Renta and women wearing his designs - with the occasional short caption or quotation. For Bearman, the platform is primarily a way to distribute branded content; she does not use Tumblr to interact with fans, reblog others' posts, or, notably, push merchandise.

P&G's LifeGoesStrong.com as an alternative path to branded content than soap operas.

Most brands have yet to hop on the bandwagon when it comes to utilizing responsive design on their sites. But Digiday found 10 brands - some major, others not as well known - whose sites are employing responsive design, allowing customers to easily access their content on a range of devices.

Live conversations for dead content.

""iHeartMedia Soundboard,""

"The brand identified company-created and fan-created accounts. The results of that first audit: 232 Facebook pages, along with roughly 100 YouTube channels and 30 Twitter accounts. A case was made for why individual markets would gain fans and views if they eliminated local accounts in favor of global Reebok accounts. Some markets were hesitant. To get them onboard, Mr. Bahl allowed test posts on the global Facebook page and illustrated how related-video recommendations can juice views on YouTube. Markets such as Hong Kong quickly realized their customers were already gravitating toward global accounts. Some local accounts, like India's Facebook page, with nearly 1.8 million fans, remain in place. Reebok whittled its overall social presence by roughly half in that first audit as it rolled up the majority of company-created accounts to focus on three Facebook pages, two Twitter accounts and one YouTube channel. It left fan-created content untouched. The brand also established a broader communications strategy, defining who could use trademarks to create accounts and for what purpose. A second audit is now taking place, with the goal of further streamlining Reebok's social-media presence by the end of the year -- just in time for 2013 product launches."

1. Create custom images catered for sharing 2. Create a profile for your brand 3. Add Pinterest social plugins to your website 4. Pin other industry content 5. Add calls to action to your YouTube videos

Branded networks are an artifact of when networks mattered. People just want good content delivered in a convenient way, which brand it was originally created for is meaningless.

Great article that Jerry found on OTT.

The more I read about the idea of content curators, the more I think it may currently be called "trendspotter." 

couple of good examples of branded content

T-mobile in your butt? When branded content goes wrong?

Branded content