Custom content, also known as content marketing, has been an essential staple for marketers for decades. No wonder: Why wouldn’t marketers seek to use the editorial format—well-written content, often from a non-marketing, objective point of view, plus sophisticated design—to communicate with customers and prospective buyers?
The format has been proven effective over literally hundreds of years with newspapers and magazines. Readers enjoy reading and learning through this channel. It engages readers in an organic way, builds long-term trust and establishes strong bonds with audiences. It moves prospects through the purchase funnel and often produces solid leads and first-party data for marketers.
And yet, content marketing is a hybrid. It’s certainly content, but in a subtle way, it’s also advertising. So marketers need to proceed carefully as they embark on custom-content initiatives. This year, with a challenged economy, supply-chain issues and inflation, the bond between buyer and seller is more important than ever.
Diane Ciaglia.
With all those things in mind, we spoke to Diane Ciaglia, the publisher of Four Seasons Magazine, the in-room magazine for guests of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. It’s published by Pace Communications, one of the leading content-marketing firms in the United States. Pace, based in Greensboro, North Carolina, has staying power: It’s 50 years old in 2023.
What follows is a transcript of our conversation with Ciaglia.
Fox Tales: Give us a sense of the overall advertising market this year. Not just Four Seasons, but what you’re seeing industrywide.
Diane Ciaglia: We are seeing a return to print this year, and the need for print as part of a media plan is making a return. Readers are reconnecting with print, there is a place for it in all media plans. It is a nice break from our digital lives, print is trust worthy and entertaining.
Fox Tales: How do advertisers generally respond to content marketing? Is it different for marketers that don’t produce their own dedicated websites and magazines? On the one hand, there are hotel chains, airlines, car companies and others that do their own publications. And on the other hand, there are advertisers that partner with independent media brands like Car & Driver or Sailing.
Ciaglia: Since most content-marketing magazines are a general-interest editorial product, the only difference is how it is distributed and who the audience is, in my opinion.
Fox Tales: What do you hear most from marketers and agencies about what they need from their media partner?
Ciaglia: Most marketers need a partnership from a trusted source. They want to feel as if their needs are being met and that their brand is relevant to the audience. They want ideas and execution of ideas to be seamless and high quality.
Fox Tales: Tell us about your relationship with Fox Associates—high-quality rep firms are probably vital as partners for many brands, and I’m sure that applies to Fox.
Ciaglia: Fox Associates was our rep firm when we published Southwest: The Magazine. They always acted with the utmost professionalism. They always put their clients’ needs and wants ahead of everything else. They were all so knowledgeable about advertising trends and the industry as a whole. As an entire organization they were not only all kind, but they are the most well-oiled machine I have ever come into contact with.