ISSUE 2
TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITIONA BRANDED CONTENT MAGAZINE PRESENTED BY PRESSBOARD

How to Build Buzz For
The World’s Most Beautiful
Beer Festival
page 31

Inspired Itineraries: Fresh Angles
For Travel Content

The Secrets to Creating Facebook’s Most
Shared Branded Videos

The Art of Negotiating a Successful
branded Content Partnership

page 5page 10page 3

ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITIONA Note From PRESSBOARD

2

CONTENTS
The Art of Negotiating a Successful
Branded Content Partnership

3

BY JERRID GRIMM

5Inspired Itineraries: Fresh Angles For
Travel Content
BY MELANIE DEZIEL

7

Tourism Kelowna Sets Itself Apart Using
Branded Content

J.K. Rowling put it best when she said, “There’s always room for a story that
can transport people to another place.” Her novels are proof of the magicaland captivating quality of stories that take the reader somewhere new.
At Pressboard, we believe that branded content is all about storytelling,
and our goal is to tell stories that capture the attention of consumers. Thisissue of The Science of Storytelling features three content campaigns that
we had the privilege of creating with some of Canada’s iconic travel andtourism brands. The resulting stories transported consumers across thecountry and inspired them to consider someplace new. Our hope is that the
campaign results, exclusive interviews, and advice featured in this issue ofour magazine inspire you to find new ways to share your brand’s stories andtransport audiences to another place.

CASE STUDY

11

The Secrets to Creating Facebook’s
Most Shared Videos
BY SHAWN RAGELL

13

The Subprime Banner Ad Crisis
BY JERRID GRIMM

15

Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make WhenYou Create Branded Videos
BY TOD PLOTKIN

19

How Are Video Views Counted?
BY PRESSBOARD STAFF

23

How Ontario Found its Voice with
French-Speaking Families
CASE STUDY27

VR’s The Next 3D, Right?
BY SEAN HARGRAVE

29

Branded Content Has a Pricing Problem
BY LEAH BJORNSON

31

How to Build Buzz for the World’s Most
Beautiful Beer Festival
CASE STUDY

Jerrid Grimm
CO-FOUNDER, PRESSBOARD

SPECIAL THANKS TOSHAWN RAGELL

PHILIP CHEUNGLEAH BJORNSONSEAN HARGRAVEMELANIE DEZIELTOD PLOTKINEDITORDESIGN

COPY EDITORCONTRIBUTORCONTRIBUTORCONTRIBUTORISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITION

the publisher to do what they do best, whichis to write, and the threat of that is how
quickly content can become an advertorial.

The Art of Negotiating a
Successful BRANDED Content
Partnership
BY JERRID GRIMM
CO-FOUNDER, PRESSBOARD

The goals of a sales team and the content goals of the brand are notalways aligned. Media buyers have become shepherds of the publishingbrand’s best interests.

When you’re creating branded content,
why use media publishers at all? What’s thereason to engage them?
The reason is that media publishers havepre-established trust in the content that they
release to their users, that’s why we engage
them. We also always review the publishers’
content mix, to see what their balance isbetween editorial content and paid content.
We also analyze their social channels. I don’t
just look at their following either, I like to see
what their organic reach is compared to their
paid reach. What do your followers look like?
How do you gather all that information?
Unfortunately, I have to do it manually.
It’s a very resource intensive, timeconsuming process.
When you’re working through thisprocess, are you looking for media
publishers that have an authority outsidewhat the brand has?
Yes, and not always related. For example, fora travel client, we’re not looking simply for
travel publications, we’re looking at lifestyle,music. Content that the audience may not
immediately see the brand as authoritativeon, even through they are.
What is the standard rate structure forbuying media from a publisher?

Thanks to thought leadership on both the
buy and sell sides, sufficient hype, andsome brilliant campaigns, both advertisersand publishers are now firmly in the era ofcontent marketing.
But perhaps the most overlooked layer ofa content marketing strategy is the mostcritical of them all — the negotiation of thecontract itself.
Negotiating the terms of a branded
content partnership has become the mostcompetitive skill for a media buyer to hone,and the success of a campaign depends
upon its conquering.
From reviewing a publisher’s content mix,
to determining their fit with a client, touncovering which KPI is best for measuring
success, every term of a contract needs

to be considered, carefully weighed, andaccounted for.
We sat down with Diana Walter, Group
Director, Digital Media at OMD Canada, tolearn more about how media buyers are
becoming the best arbiters in the biz.
Pressboard: Generally, what do your clients(brands) think about branded content?
Diana Walter: It’s easy to explain to a client
why they should be doing branded content
during the planning phase.
I believe the challenge comes withexecution. Branded content partnerships area lot of work, and a brand will often become
very motivated to be hands-on duringcontent production. It can be difficult forbrand owners to let go of the reins and allow

Prior to 2016, we were primarily buying
content on a flat fee. It wasn’t because that’s
how we wanted to buy, it was because that’s
how the publishers were selling it. They did
not want to go to a guaranteed view model,
because it’s stressful and often they didn’t
want to share what their organic traffic wasversus their paid traffic. And they didn’t wantto put any more paid money against the
campaign, unless they absolutely had to,which wasn’t required under a flat fee model.
Once we started moving larger budgets
towards branded content, we mandated that
we were guaranteed a number of views. Asof last year, we will only buy on a Cost per
Engagement (cost per view) model.
Have publishers become more acceptingof how OMD buys content, on a cost per
engagement (CPE) model?
No, we only secure CPE because we push it.
It’s very hard to get, even with big budgets.
Publishers continue to push back hard on
the model.

Do you see that CPE model becoming more
prominent in the future?
I believe that everything will continue tostay status quo as flat fees for now, only
because I’m not sure that buyers will wantto put in the work. It takes a lot of workand negotiation each time you start a new
campaign. Publishers want to lump in
production and a bunch of traffic drivers. You
really have to question everything, is thisreally going to get you this many views?
Why do you find that more and morebrands are committing budget tobranded content in lieu of other channels
or strategies?
We have a lot of data showing the valueof third party reviews as well as the valueof third party conversation around yourbrand. So, what is the best way to control
that? It’s branded content. It’s essentially apublication, talking about your brand, in apositive way. That content is then amplified
through social networks and commented on.
If you’re tracking your metrics correctly, youwill be able to see a gradual, but consistent
uptick in your brand’s perception. It’s nota drastic roller coaster ride, it’s a stable
upwards curve. I think that setting those
expectations with your client upfront is key.
What advice do you have for othermedia planners and buyers for working
with media publishers, based onyour experience?
Sales teams aren’t always right. They sellthings, they don’t create content. Theirinterests lie more in closing the deal,
sometimes at the detriment of the publisher’slong-term brand reputation. Sales teams willsell to achieve their sales goals and theirbonus, and then they’re going to get out. I
have not had a content rep for longer thana year. That’s not saying that there aren’t
great sales reps - there are - but the goalsof a sales team and the content goals of thebrand are not always aligned.
As a media agency, at times you become ashepherd of the publisher’s brand on theirbehalf. I want to keep working with thesepublishers for years to come, so it’s in mybest interest that they continue to create
great content and attract readers andviewers. I don’t want The New York Times tobecome a place that’s full of overly branded
advertorials, as it dilutes their brand andmakes them less valuable to me. I want to
be doing branded content with publishers 10
years from now. That means that we need toensure that balance between what the client
wants, and what the media publisher’s voice
stands for.

Which is interesting because as a media
buyer, you come from the buy side, how doyou self-police to ensure that the content
doesn’t become overly advertorial?
Once a campaign is bought, we often let theclient (the brand) handle content approvals.
There isn’t a point to me passing back andforth e-mails between the parties. What I do
is ensure at the negotiation stage that the
publisher is empowered to push back andthat my client understands that the pushback
will make for a better story in the end, which
is better for their brand.
What skills do you think make for a great
media planner or buyer?
These days you need to be the master of
Excel and should love stats and math, but
you also need to have a creative edge. Mostof the people in our office at OMD haveboth. For example, one woman in our office
is a master of Excel, but also is passionate
about arts and crafts. Another memberof our team loves music. I always look forsomeone that has the analytic side with abalance of creativity. I’m essentially looking
to hire Martha Stewart. Finance devil by day,craftsman by night.
As for buying branded content, are there
additional skills you believe are needed?
It’s interesting because I’ve worked onbranded content programs with PR agencies,
creative agencies and account people.
When it comes to content, many of these
individual’s skills work very well, but whenit comes down to any paid components, it
always comes back to the media people.
The reason is that as soon as you involvea paid component, you are looking to buy
placements that reach a defined audience.
Content is some of the hardest negotiations
I’ve ever done in my career, it is the primary
skill required before anyone even starts
creating any content.

4

ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITION

guides, where your audience will want totake your recommendations with them ormark off each stop they make. Alternatively,
you can plot recommendations on Google
Maps or save locations to a public list on
location-based apps like FourSquare.

Inspired Itineraries: Fresh Angles
For Travel Content

The Power of People
It’s not just the places that make a city
special, but the people who work andlive there. Look for ways to show off local
personalities within your company and withinyour community, and to tell relatable stories
that inspire your customers.

BY MELANIE DEZIEL
BRANDED CONTENT CONSULTANT, MDEZIEL.COM

Travel, tourism, and hospitality brands have some of the richest fodder
for content, with entire cities full of stories to discover and share.
But once you’ve ranked the best restaurants and offered up yourrecommendations for evening activities, it can sometimes be a struggle
to come up with new and differentiated ways to tell your town’s story.

• Surprising Tour Guides: Nobody knows
your city better than residents; find theexperts and get them to share theirmust-see, must-visit, and must-eat
recommendations on video. Let a local
historian give background on town
landmarks, have a local chef walk viewers
through the best farmer’s markets, or
have a local vet offer tips on the most petfriendly parks and establishments. Eachexpert can have a single longer episode,

These fresh content ideas, formats, and perspectives can breathe newlife into your local content.

Go Niche With Must-Eats
Restaurant guides are the tried-and-truecontent format for so many travel, hospitality,
and other local brands. Here are a few
ways to spice up your lists of must-eats
to make sure you’re putting your content
efforts toward something that hasn’t been
done before.
• By Patron Need: Which restaurants are
the most kid-friendly, best for dates,
or easily accessible for someone in awheelchair? What if someone’s looking
for a late-night bite after normal businesshours, a place for a fast meal on theirlunch break, or eating in a group of 10+?
• By Dietary Need: Vegetarians, vegans,and those who eat halal, kosher, or
gluten-free will appreciate a dedicated listof tasty eats around town. Consider a listof coffee shops that offer non-dairy milk,a collection of no-nut establishments, orother lists with dietary restrictions in mind.
• By Cuisine or Item: With multiple lists,
your brand can be the go-to authority on
where to eat, no matter what someone isin the mood for. Compile lists of the top
tapas, most sumptuous sushi, and more.
Break it down even further with the bestof a menu favorite; send your readers
on a Mac & Cheese tour or point them
toward the town’s best Moscow Mules.
You can also combine niches from eachcategory to create truly unique lists. How

else will your local readers find the perfectkid-friendly vegan restaurant, or thebest mac and cheese after midnight? By
approaching your rankings through a uniquelens (or two), you’ll not only differentiate
your content, but you’ll prove to be auseful resource for potentially underserved
segments of your audience, both local andpassing through.

Map It Out
If you want your brand, and your content,
to be intricately tied to your local market,
there’s no better way than with a map. Thisutilitarian format is often appreciated byvisitors and locals alike, and is especiallyhelpful when your content is aimed at
helping readers explore your area, try newplaces, or otherwise spend quality timearound town.
If you already have a good amount of local
content — reviews, lists, profiles, guides,
and more — consider reorienting thoserecommendations onto a map to create
an entirely new piece of super-content
with minimal effort. But with all the rich
opportunities to create maps, you may findyourself inspired to create new content, too.
• Recommendations: Maps give you amore engaging format for content you’dnormally have compiled in a list. This
allows you to showcase your chosen
local highlights — restaurants, attractions,activities, shopping hubs, and more —alongside any brand-relevant locations,like your own storefronts, pop-ups,
and more.
• Routes: Take your readers on anadventure by creating a walking tourof historic downtown, a guide to local
running trails, or a scenic bike route. Tellthem where to go and the best way to
get there, whether it’s an hour-by hour
guide to avoiding lines or the ultimate
photoshoot with the most Instagram-ablewalls around town.
• Resources: There are some things thattravelers and locals alike always need tofind, and a handy resource map (completewith your branding, of course) could be ahuge opportunity to position yourself asa local expert. Aim for things someone
often asks directions to: parking, public
restrooms, free wifi, ATMS, hospitals,
pharmacies, museums, outlets forcharging devices, and more.
• Scavenger Hunts: Whether you’reteaching folks your company or town
history by sending them to various
landmarks, or teaming up with local
businesses to encourage patrons tocollect clues or stamps for a prize, amission can help make a map that much
more engaging.
If you’re working with a local print media
partner or have the means to distributeprinted materials, then a physical or printable
map may be a great option; this is a mustfor scavenger hunts or running and biking

or they can have an entire series, witheach recommendation being its own
episode. Don’t forget that you can pairthese videos with an interactive map
so viewers can find the places closest
to them.
• Neighbours As Case Studies: Personal
profiles are some of the most relatable
and compelling content. Whether you tellsomeone’s story through video, audio, or
text, finding someone who embodies yourbrand — or the difference your brand canmake — is a great way to “show, don’ttell” your audience about the benefits you
can bring. Follow a visitor on their trip tothe city, document a transformation you
help create, or showcase a special event
you made possible.
Whether the talent for this content comesfrom your company, community partners,
neighbors, customers, or elsewhere, thecontent will be unique to your town and help
you to forge relationships with residents andvisitors alike.

6

ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITIONCASE STUDYTourism
Kelowna Sets
Itself Apart
Using Branded
Content

10 Ways Kelowna Has Changed In
The Last 10 Years
Apr 20, 2016

Considering the city’s population has grownby nearly 20% in the last 10 years, it’s nowonder the lakeside city of Kelowna haschanged as much as it has. A blossoming
tech sector, revitalized downtown, changing
infrastructure, an acclaimed university...

All stories were presented by
Tourism Kelowna

CAMPAIGNHIGHLIGHTS

Campaign exceeded
targets, resulting inadded-value of over
$15,000 for Tourism
Kelowna.

The Challenge
Tucked into British Columbia’s beautiful
Okanagan Valley, Kelowna’s numerous
wineries, farm-to-table food scene, andpenchant for outdoor activities make it one offew destinations that is perfect for all types ofvisitors. Tourism Kelowna wanted to showcasethat with a sustained content campaign
speaking to British Columbia, Alberta, andSaskatchewan residents throughout peaktravel seasons.

The perfect girls' weekend
getaway in Kelowna
Sept 14, 2016

No one wants summer to end… thesunshine, beaches, sangria, patios, anddelicious food enjoyed outside with friends.
Luckily, there’s a place where you can still
enjoy gorgeous summer weather (and...

Average reader spentover 1 minute actively
engaged with thebranded stories.

Over 11K social engagements as readers
liked, commented andshared the stories withfriends and family.

our solution
Pressboard built a comprehensive content
campaign that generated 13 original branded
stories, published natively on seven leading
publications. The content inspired people
to visit Kelowna by highlighting arts andculture, entertainment, outdoor adventures,
restaurants, festivals, and other interesting
stories that are unique to Kelowna, all throughthe brand voice of each publication.

8 Things You Can Only Do in
Kelowna
May 16, 2016

Kelowna is a pretty regular summer outpost
for Calgarians, for good reason, but it’s also
worth visiting in the spring. The beer scene
is booming, the wine scene keeps getting
better and the scenery — whether in the...

Branded footer and footer image
accompanied each story

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ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITION

Good stories change the way you
think. Great stories change theway you feel.
JERRID GRIMM
CO-FOUNDER, PRESSBOARD

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ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITION

Pressboard: What’s your role, yourbackground, and what attracted you to thebranded video space?

The Secrets to Creating
Facebook’s Most Shared Branded
VideosBY SHAWN RAGELL
MARKETING MANAGER, PRESSBOARD

The Head of Sales & Brand Partnerships at ATTN: shares expertise fromcreating some of the internet’s most shared branded videos.

All content creators know that publishinggreat work is only half the battle. The real
challenge is getting people to consume andshare your content with their networks.

share our videos, our audience is proudly
declaring something about themselves, theirbeliefs, or their lifestyles,” she explained in
an interview with Pressboard.

Taryn Crouthers and her team at ATTN: areexperts when it comes to creating shareable
videos. Both their editorial and branded
content regularly racks up millions of views,
and the latter consistently ranks among the
top branded videos across all of Facebook
thanks to widespread social sharing.

Recently, a video her team produced inpartnership with Match.com was the number
one branded video on Facebook, as ranked
on Brandtale, getting over 11.7 million views
and being shared by almost 100K people!

As head of their Brand Partnerships team,she understands that getting audiences
to hit the share button can be challenging
because sharing is so personal. “When they

These results demonstrate the power ofcreating shareable videos, so to help othercontent creators and marketers hone theirbranded video skills, we interviewed Taryn
and asked her to share some advice.

Taryn: I lead ATTN:’s brand partnerships
team and am excited about the opportunity
to work with brands to join the social
conversation around issues that matter. I
have been in media for my entire career,
with great companies like AMC Networks
and A+E Networks. But my passion forbranded video comes from my family.
My parents are artists who owned acommercial photography studio and I grew
up surrounded by art directors, brands,
and advertising. I transitioned to ATTN:
because social video is the present andfuture and an exciting medium for brands tohave conversations with consumers. Thereis nothing more thrilling than seeing thoseconversations go viral.

“

Good content inspires praise,
but great content stirs up suchdeep emotion that it moves
people to share it.

In your experience, which of the following
is the greatest challenge with creating
video content?

In 100 characters or less, what isyour favorite tip for creating great
video content?

• CostGood content inspires praise, but great
content stirs up such deep emotion that it
moves people to share it.

• Creative Resources• Production Time
• Distribution• Measurement / ROIYour team has had a lot of successpackaging big, complex topics into shortvideos. What is it about this approach tovideo content that makes it so shareable?
Our mission at ATTN: is to tell stories
that are worth your attention. Many ofthese stories are centered around issues
people are most passionate about, acrosseducation, social justice, politics, parenting,and the environment. We use conversational
language to create a singular argument
around each issue, with a distinctive
point of view. When they share ourvideos, our audience is proudly declaring
something about themselves, their beliefs,
or their lifestyles.
Is there an ideal video length that you findperforms best on various platforms?

Clip from a viral ATTN: video that was created in partnership with Match.com.

Clip from an ATTN: video created in partnership with the film Denial, which was featured in Pressboard’s Top 10 Branded Content
Partnerships of October list.

It depends on the medium — at ATTN:,
we program our content for the platform
where our audience is consuming. Thatsaid, we generally find the most concise
arguments perform best. For instance, ourFacebook videos have some of the highest
engagement metrics on the platform (weaverage around 50,000 engagements pervideo on Facebook, according to TubularLabs), and our Insights team has found that60-90 seconds is an ideal length there.

• Other
Since social branded video is in its infancy,
there is not yet a standard currency formeasuring success. Many use CPM (cost per
mille), CPV (cost per view), and CPE (costper engagement) as benchmarks, but these
metrics do not always take the purpose ofbranded content into account. And all views
are not created equal.
As an example, our views per video andengagements per video are some of thehighest in the industry, but we have neverpaid to promote any of our video content onsocial. This is rare, as most publishers use acombination of organic viewership and paid
distribution. Because our audience discovers
our content organically, we have establishedpremium value and trust. We give brands theopportunity to borrow that trust, and they areseeing the results.
What’s the one trait you believe ismost common among great brandvideo marketers?
As consumers, we are bombarded with more
media and messaging than ever before.
The best video marketers know how toedit themselves. Simplicity and brevity is
the hardest thing to achieve, but the mostimportant. When a consumer sees yourcontent, there should be one clear takeaway.

“

Social video is the present
and future and an exciting
medium for brands to have
conversations with consumers.

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ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITION

The complex ecosystem

The Subprime Banner Ad Crisis
BY JERRID GRIMM
CO-FOUNDER, PRESSBOARD
This article was originally published on AdAge.com

Are banner ads poised to experience the same fate as the 2008
housing market?

led banks to provide loans they knew werelikely to default.

The mortgage crisis managed to remain
largely undetected in the years leading
up to 2008, thanks in large part to an
extraordinarily complex ecosystem of money
and speculation. Such can also be said
about today’s display ad buying ecosystem,
where marketing dollars pass through avariety of hands, each of which takes a small
cut before passing it down the line where
it reaches (or more often than not, doesn’treach) its final destination.
“Financial markets are a collection ofarguments,” wrote Michael Lewis in The Big
Short. “The less transparent the market andthe more complicated the securities, themore money the trading desks at big WallStreet firms can make from the argument.”

Finding supply where none exists
Before the mortgage bubble reached its
bursting point, investors were eager to
get in on these seemingly low-risk, highreturn mortgage bonds. For brokers, thismeant the more mortgages they could
bundle, the more money they could make,even when the good mortgages were
becoming fewer and farther between. ThisThe same is happening in the digitaladvertising industry, where demand for
display ad impressions continues to climb.
Just as it was difficult to create enoughAAA mortgages to satisfy investors, thesame is true in creating premium digital
ad real estate. There are only so many ad
impressions available on the likes of The
Wall Street Journal, but look-alike inventory
created by bots is unlimited. As with the run
up to the subprime mortgage crisis, there’s
an incentive to create more inventory, andthe easiest, most cost-efficient way to do so
is to create bad inventory.

Ad blockers: The X factor
The breaking point of the subprime
mortgage crisis was the floating-rate
mortgage, where “teaser” interest rates
automatically shot up, substantially
increasing monthly payments and causing
waves of defaults among mortgage holders.
It took many years for the housing market
to come crumbling down, but the fall of thedigital ad industry has an added factor thatthreatens to speed up the process:ad blocking.

Ad blockers have taken a huge chunk out of
the number of available ad impressions; asmany as 16% of users in the United States
use ad blockers, and this number is growing.
The kicker is that ad blockers do not remove
ad inventory unilaterally – they only remove
the good inventory, the AAA inventory. Why?
Because the bots and fraudsters don’t use
ad blockers – only real people do.
If the majority of display ads are never seen
by people, and if the ads that have realpotential are increasingly blocked by ad
blockers, this begs the question – what are
advertisers really buying?

What happens now?
All of these factors come together to painta picture of the digital ad buying space thatclosely resembles that of the lead up to thesubprime mortgage crisis. Bad inventory is
being bundled and sold as good, demandis increasing, supply is being manufactured,and the complex web of actors is becoming
too difficult to untangle. We know what
happens at the end of The Big Short; weknow what happened to the housing market
in 2008; what we don’t yet know is whether
or not the display ad market is bound tosuffer the same fate.

Clip from The Big Short film.

I recently watched Adam McKay’s Oscarwinning film The Big Short. For those who
are unfamiliar with the film, “Four denizens
in the world of high-finance predict thecredit and housing bubble collapse of themid-2000s, and decide to take on the big
banks for their greed and lack of foresight,”
according to the movie’s official description.
Although we’re all too familiar with thefinancial collapse of 2008, hearing the story
told from a new perspective highlighted
some concerning parallels with the current
display ad ecosystem. The movie piqued
my curiosity, leading me to a deeper diveinto the book by Michael Lewis that inspired
the film, followed by hours combing throughInvestopedia trying to make sense of theplethora of terms, definitions, and financial
jargon. The more I dug into the intricaciesof the subprime mortgage crisis, the more I
saw that it resembled the ad ecosystem I’ve
worked in for the past decade.

The mixed bag
Prior to the housing market collapse,
investors took the mortgages that nobody
would be willing to invest in and bundledthem together with highly rated ones inorder to make them saleable. These poorly
rated mortgages were now being sold at
AAA prices, and most investors were none
the wiser.
The way in which display ads are soldtoday is strikingly similar. Banner ads, or
display ads as they are better known in the
ad industry, account for 47.9% of all digitaladvertising spending in the United States,and programmatic display spending wasprojected to reach total spending of $33
billion in 2017. At the same time, however,as much as 54% of all display ads are neverseen, and at least $7 billion is spent serving
ads to nonhuman “bots.”
Much like the bundling of good and bad
mortgages prior to the 2008 crash, thebad online ad traffic is being packaged
together with the good by supply side
platforms (SSPs), traded through exchanges
and bought by advertisers through demandside platforms (DSPs) as investible, andvaluable, impressions.

380m

Devices using adblock softwareon the open web

275m

†

April 2009 - December 2016
Source: PageFair 2017 Adblock Report
Desktop Browsers

Mobile Browsers

236m
181m

216m

121m
145m †

54m
30m

21m

Jan 2010

Jan 2011

39m

Jan 2012

Jan 2013

Jan 2014

Jan 2015

Jan 2016† PageFair’s estimate of adblock usage on mobile browsers was updated in November 2016 in its revised Mobile Adblocking Report

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ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITION

Mistakes you don’t want to makewhen you create Branded Videos
BY TOD PLOTKINEXECUTIVE PRODUCER, GREEN BUZZ AGENCYThis article is courtesy of NativeAdvertisingInstitute.com

Branded videos are a useful tool when you want to connect to yourusers. But there are several branded video mistakes which could flopwith your audience.
Here are three mistakes you don’t want to make when you create
branded videos.

1. Focusing On Your Products, Not
Your Personality
If you want your brand to access yourconsumers at every point in their buying andconsideration process, you have to do morethan just push your product. Instead, hone
your brand experience by building a strong
personality that reflects your consumer’s
ideal lifestyle.
Here’s where branded video comes in – abranded documentary or other native
ad is a perfect opportunity to craft yourbrand experience.
For example, if you sell outdoor-oriented
products, you may want to reflect anadventurous consumer lifestyle. You
could very simply create videos featuring
current consumers engaging in outdoor
activities, like camping. Or, you can get
a little more creative. What else does
your target customer care about? Maybe
the environment, or craft beer? Find theintersection of your brand and theirs.
Patagonia does great work in creating
branded video content. This is due to how
clearly its brand is defined. The Patagonia
brand stands for environmentalism andsustainability. Patagonia has run video
campaigns, such as Worn Wear and Vote
Our Planet, that highlight its stance on
environmental issues.

Since its beginnings, Patagonia has branded
itself as a philanthropic company. It sells an
experience, a lifestyle through its branded
video content. While the Patagonia productis activewear, the Patagonia brand isactivism. And this is made clear throughits videos.
The Patagonia brand is successful in creatinga brand personality for a very specificreason. It doesn’t integrate these beliefs
because it’s what the consumers are looking
for. No, it integrates these beliefs because
that’s what Patagonia is. That’s
what consumers relate to, a brand with adefined personality.

2. Ignoring the Voice of your
Distributor
There is a stark difference between
commercials and native advertisements.
Commercials focus more on sellinga product. Native advertisements needto fit a content style — the style of yourvideo distributor.
One of the biggest mistakes you canmake when creating branded videos is notmatching your distributor’s style. Distributors
have their own brand, just like you. And, they
like to stick to their own brand experience.
The reason their followers follow that
distributor on social media is for that voice.
You don’t want to strong-arm your distributor
to fit you — you need to pick the right
distributor that matches your content.
If you create a serious, fact-heavy video fora video distributor known for its easy-towatch, lighthearted content, your video will
not be successful. Video distributors havevery specific audiences. Viewers know what
content they’re looking for, and what content
their distributor is going to provide. It’s notjust about understanding the distributor’sfollowers, though.

with random acts of kindness in a grocery
store elicited an emotional response fromthe audience.
This video would not have succeeded if it
had used a different tone. The heartwarming
style and message matched the Upworthy
brand perfectly. The results were that thisvideo got over 17 million organic views
and had over 287,000 shares. This madeit the most viewed video on Facebook for
November last year, according to Brandtale,beating out industry favorites such as
BuzzFeed Tasty.

3. Not Communicating With Your
Community
Another mistake you can make is notconnecting with your brand community. If
you’re branding your company right, youhave consumers who care about you. Brand
communities can be strong and fierce if they
truly care about your company. Creating,fostering, or maintaining a brand community
can make your users more passionate about
your company, and not just your product.
If consumers care deeply about yourbrand, they may take it on as a part of theirown identity. Brands have a power overaudiences and consumers. How many
people do you know that define theirpersonalities by where they shop or thetechnology they use? Walmart versus Target,
Mac versus PC, iPhone versus Android, andcountless others.
A brand represents a piece of yourconsumers. This strong connection brings
with it a power that you can capitalize on.
Audiences crave that personal connection,and they want to know that their being
heard. Fostering a two-way communication
allows you to strengthen the intimate bond
between brand and consumer. Video is an
excellent two-way communication tool.
You need to capitalize on your brandcommunity.

Clip from Upworthy’s Facebook page.

Clip from The Stories We Wear: Fred Casenave on YouTube.

For instance, Cricket Wireless worked with
Upworthy to create a video about kindness.
Kindness is one of Cricket’s brand values,
and this fits in perfectly with Upworthy’s
mission to spread uplifting and motivating
video content to their Facebook audience.
Spotlighting the Fill My Basket nonprofit in adocumentary style as they surprised people

In 2015, before the release of Star Wars:
Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Target
launched a campaign called Share The
Force. All over the world, Star Wars fanssent in home videos and posted online,
celebrating their favorite memories of theStar Wars franchise.
This campaign was so successful because
it started a conversation with Target
consumers that feel passionately about Star
Wars. Audience members were actively
engaged in the conversation with the Target
brand, and felt personally connected to thebrand because of this.

Clip from Target: Share The Force Website on YouTube.

Including hashtags in your video can beincredibly beneficial as well. This year, 74%
of all online usage will be video. Additionally,
75% of viewers interact with an online video
each month. Videos are also inherently
shareable. In fact, 92% of mobile video
watchers share videos online.
Hashtags will help your audience further
interact with your brand online and helps
form your brand community. Connecting
audience members through a common
hashtag they can share and trackstrengthens the bond between consumers
and brand.

SummaryYour audience is part of the foundation ofyour brand’s success. Branded videos canbe a fantastic way to reach them, but only
if the video is done correctly. In summation:
focus on your brand personality and brandexperience, match your video distributor’s
style, and stay in communication with yourbrand community.
Remember, your community is as much apart of your brand personality, experience,and success as you are. Remind them of thatwith quality branded video content that they
can connect with. Follow all of these rules,
and you’re well on your way to creating a
successful and shareable branded video.

16

ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITION

You’re never going to killstorytelling because it’s built
into the human plan. We comewith it.
MARGARET ATWOOD

18

Whether the video
auto-plays or must be
user initiatedRequired amount of timespent watching a video
before it’s counted as a view

Amount of video required
to be on screen before it’scounted as a view

Whether views are only
counted in-app or whenembedded on other sites

ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITION

Facebook

Facebook

How AreHow video views are counted
on Facebook, Instagram,
Video
Views
How
Are Video
Views Snapchat,
Counted?
Twitter and othersocial media platforms.
Counted?
(Infographic)

100 million hours of Facebook videos are watched every day, butthey have some pretty loose criteria that qualify each of those views.
Videos only need to play for a minimum of three seconds, even on
mute, in order to be counted; this includes videos that autoplay in theNews Feed.

Initiation:
In feed: Autoplay
Stories: User initiatedTime Spent:In feed: 3 seconds
Stories: Upon opening

While desktop videos need to be 100% visible in order to be counted,
they only need to fit onto half of a mobile screen before a view iscounted. Facebook also counts videos that are viewed outside of theNews Feed, such as in private groups or embeds, the same way.

Viewability:
100% on desktop, 50% on mobile
Platform:
Both in-app and embedded posts

BY PRESSBOARD STAFF
Snapchat

A visual guide to understanding how platforms like Facebook, Snapchat,YouTube, and Instagram count video views.

Initiation:
User initiatedTime Spent:Upon opening
Snap Ads: 2 seconds

Video is taking over the Internet.
Counting video views is theprimary method for measuring
video performance.

Viewability:
100% on mobile only
Platform:
In-app only

How AreVideo Views Counted?

But not every view iscreated equal.

Instagram
Initation:
In feed: Autoplay
Instagram Stories: User initiated (butsubsequent videos autoplay)
Instgram Live: User initiatedPlatforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat each havetheir own method for counting views. There are four key factors toconsider when comparing video views:

In the past, Facebook had a separate measure to count the numberof people that viewed a video for 30 seconds or longer, but they
have since lowered that qualifier to measure views of 10 seconds ormore. When working with longer videos, marketers should pay more
attention to the number of 10-second views, as it presents a moreaccurate picture of how many people actually watched your content.

Time Spent:In feed: 3 seconds
Instagram Stories/Live: Upon opening
Viewability:
100% on mobile only

Initiation

Time Spent

Viewability

Platform
Platform:
In-app only

Twitter
Whether the video
auto-plays or must be
user initiatedRequired amount of timespent watching a video
before it’s counted as a view

Amount of video required
to be on screen before it’scounted as a view

Whether views are only
counted in-app or whenembedded on other sites

Initiation:
Autoplay
Time Spent:3 seconds

If you’ve been paying attention on social
media lately, you’ll notice that platforms thatwere once primarily text- and photo-based,
like Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitter, are
Facebook
quickly being overtaken by video content.

Social media platforms like Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat host
content across platforms, and each has theirown method for counting views.

Viewability:
100% on any device
Platform:
All platforms and embedded posts

As a result, a view on one medium isn’t
Initiation:
In fact, the Cisco Visual Networking Index
necessarily as valuable to marketers as it
In feed:predicts that video will account for 80%
of allAutoplayis on another. Here’s a quick breakdown of
Stories: User initiatedInternet traffic by 2019.
how all the major video sharing platforms
Time Spent: count (and charge for) views, followed by
But tracking the success of all of thosea more detailed explanation of the various
In feed: 3 seconds
videos isn’t as simple as it used to be.Stories: Upon opening
metrics by platform.

In response to the rising popularity of live videos, Facebook has
tweaked their News Feed so that these videos are more likely toappear higher in users’ feeds, making them a smart investment formarketers. In addition to using the same metrics as with other videos
on the platform, Facebook also tracks peak concurrent viewers, whichis the highest number of total viewers that were watching during thelive broadcast.

Snapchat
Snapchat has been growing rapidly in popularity, and now rivals
Facebook’s video views by facilitating over 10 billion video views
per day.

YouTubeInitiation:
User initiatedTime Spent:
Indeterminate % of total video time

Viewability:
100% on desktop, 50% on mobile

Viewability:
50% on any device (only for advertisers)

Platform:
Both in-app and embedded posts

Platform:
All platforms and embedded posts

Snapchat
Sources

Initiation:

When paying to promote video on the platform, Facebook lets you
choose between three bidding options; impressions, 100% in-view
impressions, and 10-second views. A 100% in-view impression is where
the entire video passes on screen, but this metric is only available toadvertisers paying to promote video. Depending on the kind of video
you’ve produced and your campaign goals, the distinction between
bidding options can be very important.

http://www.recode.net/2015/11/4/11620370/facebook-gets-eight-billion-video-views-per-day-now-what
http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/03/news-feed-fyi-taking-into-account-live-video-when-ranking-feed/

The platform is unique from other social media in that users need toactively open videos in order to play them. As such, each time a video
is rendered on screen, a view is counted, no matter whether thatvideo is watched in full or for a fraction of a second. That goes for all
videos, whether they’re private messages, Snapchat Stories, or within
Snapchat’s Discover section. Videos can only be viewed on mobile
devices but they’re always displayed in full screen.

20

ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITION

Twitter

YouTube calculates organic, non-paid viewsin an interesting way, too. While Google
keeps this information somewhat underwraps, the shared experiences of readers
reveal that YouTube counts a visit as a viewif a certain percentage of a video’s length
has been played. This means that for somevideos, only 10 seconds need to be played
for it to count as a view, while for others thenumber is larger.

Following in the footsteps of Snapchat andFacebook, Twitter rolled out its own autoplay
feature in June of 2015, similarly requiring
only three seconds of video play on muteto be counted as a view. Before that time,
views were counted only when a user
clicked-to-play.

The site also only counts views from thesame IP address in breaks of 6 to 8 hours,
meaning you can’t simply watch a video
on repeat in an attempt to rack up views.
With such stringent requirements, it should
perhaps be no surprise that 64% of branded
video content is published on YouTube.

While videos are now posted more
prominently on the platform, Twitter does
not display an external view count. However,it does provide a view count to the user
who posted the video. Another importantdistinction is that videos need to be 100%
viewable on any device for three seconds inorder to be counted.

What this means for marketers

Videos in Instagram Stories, the not so subtle
attempt at copying Snapchat, disappear
after 24 hours. Within that time period, users
can see who watched each video as wellas the total number of views. Instagram
counts views on videos in Stories the same
way as Snapchat – instantaneously when astory is opened.

Snapchat is continually updating theadvertising features in their platform to makethem more valuable for brands. Advertisers
are able to promote their own full screen
videos between Stories, Our Stories,
Publisher Stories, and Shows from brands
that a user follows. Views on these videos,called Snap Ads, are counted after at least
two seconds of consecutive watch time,
or after the viewer completes a swipe up
action. The swipe up action on Snap Ads canbe used to display a web page, drive an app
install, or reveal long-form video content.

Instagram
Much like its parent company, Facebook,views are counted after three seconds.
Like Facebook videos, Instagram videos no
autoplay with the sound automatically on,
unless the user’s device is on silent or they
disabled that feature in either app’s settings.
The biggest distinction between the twois that Instagram’s view counter does notrecord views from embedded posts or
those on desktop. It’s also important tonote that although Instagram videos loop
automatically, loops are not included in
the view count. The same principles forviews apply to Boomerangs, the gif-life
videos that can be posted in Stories or in
the Instagram feed.

Twitter beat Facebook in the race to launch
live video streaming when it debuted its
companion app, Periscope, in February of
2015. Like Facebook Live, Periscope counts
the number of live viewers that watched yourbroadcast in real time across Periscope’s
apps, the web, as well as Twitter.
It also counts replay views and the total
amount of time spent watching the video.
You can divide the total time by total
number of viewers to approximate averagetime spent watching your video, but otherthird-party analytics tools like Fullscope andScopeInsights might provide you with morein-depth information.

YouTubeOf all the video sharing platforms, theoriginal behemoth of the medium has themost stringent requirements for counting
views. When it comes to advertisingwith Google’s TrueView (pre-roll ads that
autoplay before videos), views are only
charged when a user watches the video
for 30 seconds or more. In other words,
marketers are not charged when users
engage the “click to skip” button or close
the video within 30 seconds.
YouTube ensures that real users want towatch a video before counting it as a view.
That means that the company is constantly
screening for automated bots, and anythingthat can be considered spam (such as autoplay) will not be included in the view counter.

Considered altogether, it becomesabundantly clear that what is considered a“view” varies drastically from one platform toanother. While some make it easy to rack up
big numbers, it’s important to consider what
those views are really worth compared withother platforms and how they align with yourbrand’s goals.
At Pressboard, we’ve always advocatedfor using qualified attention-based metrics
as opposed to inflated or inaccurate vanity
metrics that mislead brands into fallingshort of their true goals. Understanding how
different platforms count and qualify views is
a great first step in ensuring that your brandis monitoring the right metrics and craftingyour video strategy accordingly.

22

ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITIONCASE STUDYHow Ontario
Found its Voicewith FrenchSpeaking
Families

Les Parcs du Saint-Laurent : une
destination familiale de rêve à
quelques heures de voiture!
Jun 27, 2016

Je me souviens que plus jeune, mes parents
nous amenaient faire du camping un peu
partout. Comme nous étions une grandefamille de quatre enfants, ça faisait pas...

CAMPAIGNHIGHLIGHTS

All stories were presented by St.
Lawerence Parks Commission

Incredible 8.83%
conversion rate fromthe branded logo andfooter back to theclient’s travel booking
site!

5 activités pour relaxer dans les
Parcs du St-Laurent
Jun 27, 2016

The Challenge

Pendant l’été, il est indispensable de trouver
une façon de décrocher de la routine
quotidienne de temps en temps, afin deprofiter du soleil tout en faisant le pleind’énergie! Pour y arriver, nul besoin de...

The Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership
Corporation wanted to target the Montreal
market to promote tourism to the St. Lawrence
seaway beaches and surrounding areas. They
needed a way to reach French-speaking families
and highlight why they should visit Ontario.

Campaign exceeded
expectations and overdelivered on reads.

our solution
We used content to position Ontario’s St.
Lawrence Parks and Beaches as the perfectdestination for Montreal-based families looking
to book everything from a one-day getaway toa weekend adventure. The campaign included
three branded stories in French language
digital publications that highlighted the five
St. Lawrence beaches and the many familyfriendly activities available at the parks.

Average reader spentover 2 minutes actively
engaged with thebranded stories.

Direction les plages du St-Laurent
Jun 29, 2016

Vous êtes à la recherche d’une destination
pour vos vacances d’été? Avec ses six
plages de bord de mer, de la sablonneuse
Mile Roches Beach à la plage Glengarry qui
a une vue imprenable sur les Adirondack;les berges du Saint-Laurent sont l’endroit...

Branded footer and footer image
accompanied each story

24

ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITION

There’s always room for a story
that can transport people toanother place.
J.K. ROWLING

26

ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITION

VR’s The Next 3D, Right?
BY SEAN HARGRAVELONDON EDITOR, MEDIAPOSTThis commentary is courtesy of MediaPost.com. Views expressed are the opinion of the author.

How long are we going to talk about VR as
being the next big thing? For those who say
it has to happen because it brings people
closer to content and truly immerses them, I
have one word – 3D.
Tune in to Sky and two things hit you. Sky
3D is no longer working; there just was not
the demand. Then secondly, you remember
you didn’t have to unsubscribe, it was
free. How often does Sky give away a freechannel? The fact is, Sky couldn’t monetiseit, nor make a serious attempt to, [which]tells you everything you need to know about
3D. Don’t know about you, but my sets of
3D glasses have long been put away in the
cupboard, and memories of watching
Avatar with the family or an occasional
Premier League game are now long
distant memories.
Yet, here’s the thing. When you go to see thelatest blockbuster on an IMAX screen, it’s atempting upgrade, isn’t it? When you visit a
museum or a tourist attraction, the 3D show,
often called 4D if the chairs rumbled too,always has a queue.

Could this be the future of VR? Certainly inthe short to medium term it would appear
so. The equipment is expensive, so too is
the computing power to run it, and there
are very few applications other than anoccasional computer game. Then there’s
motion sickness.
So as columnists suggest that theopportunities for advertisers are limitless,
we just need to figure out what they are, I’mleft wondering whether The New York Timesmight have had the best steer here. Its VR
guys presented at Dmexco last Autumn andthe general gist was this is great technology,
but please don’t allow advertisers to jump allover it from the start. The uses it believes are
apt for VR are editorial, such as, say, placing
the reader-turned-viewer in to a crime
scene or sitting them into a boat packed
with desperate refugees. Advertisers havebeen asking to sponsor [VR] content and get
involved in its creation, but the paper has
so far resisted, its team says, because theinclusion of logos and the like would only
detract from the power of the medium.

I know a lot of brands are tempted to dosomething fun and snazzy at a conferenceor event with Google Cardboard. My
advice – don’t. It is to wonderful immersive
experiences what WAP was to surfing themobile internet. If VR’s going to enter thehome, it’s surely not going to be through a
cardboard box, but rather a gaming headset.
Their prices are coming down, but I haven’t
once had any pestering from the kids to getone; they don’t know a single person who
has one, they have no yearning to be thefirst to find out.
Even so, PwC reckons VR is set to be theUK’s fastest growing sector in media andentertainment between 2016 and 2021,
showing a compound annual growth rateof 76% to become worth GBP801 million at

the end of the period when there will be
16 million VR units in use. We’ll see if the
optimism is borne out, personally; I’m not
feeling it.
I rather think, then, VR is headed the
direction of 3D. Even when 3D specs
became cheap and the tv channel pumped
out content for free, it still didn’t take off.
But, take anyone to a planetarium with a 3D
dome and we’re all queuing up for tickets.
People don’t like wearing odd-looking
eyewear – just ask Google Glass or Snap
– but when it’s part of the theatre or an
experience, we’re there.
The advantage 3D has is the expensive stuff
is done by the exhibitor and we get freeglasses; the tickets cost a bit more than a

2D presentation but as a one-off experience,
we’ll take the hit. VR is the other way round.
The equipment the user needs is hugely
expensive, and so it’s hard to see it making
a massive impact where it isn’t supported
by a brand selling an amazing laser questor virtual fun fair experience. If a big set ofgoggles adds to the excitement, we’ll queue;
when it represents you as the only one witha helmet on your head, we’ll probably giveit a miss.
Who knows what advances will be madein 10 years time, but for now the endlessslew of VR being the next big thing leaves
me as unimpressed as my stack of
3D glasses gathering dust in a seldomopened cupboard.

28

ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITION

Branded Content Has a Pricing
ProblemTo learn more about how advertisers would
like to purchase branded content, wecaught up with Jason Gee, former DigitalMedia Specialist at Best Buy Canada, who
was responsible for the strategy, planning,and execution of digital media within thecompany’s in-house digital team.
Editorial note: This interview took place
before Jason Gee’s transition into a new roleas Team Lead, Digital Media & Marketing at
Toyota Canada.
Why do you leverage branded content as atactic at Best Buy?

BY LEAH BJORNSONCONTENT MANAGER, PRESSBOARD

The law of supply and demand refers to the desirability of a product orservice, and ultimately sets the price for how much something will costin the marketplace.

We leverage branded content to help
us build brand awareness, and educate
and attract new customers for non-core
expanded assortment and services that weotherwise wouldn’t be able to communicate
in a typical banner. As the consumer mindset
gravitates towards electronics, we use
branded content to reach new audiences
and introduce some of our expandedassortment categories.
For example, with content we can createawareness around the fact that Best Buy
Canada carries health products, baby
products, furniture, luggage, and fashion
bags. We achieved 98% positive sentimentswith these articles, as most of the comments
were related to consumers not knowing that
we carry these product lines.
In another recent example, we needed toeducate audiences on the benefits of Geek
Squad, something that we couldn’t possibly
explain in an ad banner. Working with our
media partner, we were able to accomplish
this by sponsoring content surrounding
common tech problems. This was a great
way to deliver content to audiences withoutsounding too advertorial; it educates but also
ties back to the Geek Squad brand.

Best Buy Canada branded content created with Canadian Traveller through Pressboard.

In 2017, more companies are creating
content than ever before, with 89% of
B2B marketers using content marketing,according to Content Marketing Institute.
Of those, 62% report being much more or
somewhat more successful with content
marketing than they were a year ago.
Still, the relationship between price anddemand for content marketing is shaky andunpredictable. Prices for custom branded
content created with publishers can vary
greatly, and are influenced by a publisher’ssocial reach, monthly impressions andpageviews, brand recognition, and a wide
variety of other factors – which can makethings difficult.

In order to make buying content a smoothand cost-effective process, we need todetermine a standard for how much content
marketing should cost an advertiser. But todo so, we first have to decide how to arriveat the rate.
Should we stick to the old digital standardof media impressions? Or should branded
content be priced by clicks? Or perhaps byviews or conversions?
There’s a lot of disagreement about which
metric is useful to advertisers and mostapplicable to branded content, but it’s aquestion that needs to be answered tomake it easier for the industry to buy andsell content.

How do you typically purchase branded
content from media publishers?
Often, we gravitate towards the flat fee
model mostly because it’s currently the mostcommon pricing model for branded content.
The next pricing model that we buy with isbased on views/reads, which is a great way
for us to justify branded content in this dataand numbers-driven industry. This allows us
to set expectations in the planning stage ofthe campaign.
How would you prefer to purchase branded
content from media publishers?
At Best Buy Canada, depending on the typeof content, whether sponsored articles or
influencer marketing content, we would
prefer to buy views/reads, as long as they

Best Buy Canada branded content created with Toronto Star through Pressboard.

aren’t capped. This model helps us to set
expectations for the dollars invested, as theprimary goal is to get as many people aspossible to engage with it.
The next preferred method would be ona flat fee rate, especially with influencer
marketing, as it allows more flexibility forthe content. The flat fee model allows theadvertiser to negotiate custom details that
could potentially increase the chancesof something turning viral. However, thedownside is, during the planning stage,
it’s difficult to predict how many views you
will be attaining, and there isn’t a structure
in place to guarantee views, which means
there is less incentive to push the content
beyond the contractual amount.
Based on your experience, what is the bestpiece of advice you would give to otherpeople that are buying branded content
from media publishers?

Align with the right publications andinfluencers for your brand. Just because
somebody has thousands of followers or are
relatively inexpensive doesn’t mean that they
will resonate with your consumers, be onbrand, or produce content that will become
instantly viral. If it does become an instanthit, you want to make sure it is forthe right reason and it is portrayed in theright manner.
I am very diligent and methodical whenchoosing content partners to make surethat we are communicating the Best Buy
brand in the best way for our vendors,
our stakeholders, and most importantly to
our customers.
What is your favorite tip for creating greatbranded content?
Give them content that’s worth their time.
Remember, loyalty is built from being pulledin, not pushed through.

30

ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITIONCASE STUDY

How to Build
Buzz for theWorld’s Most
Beautiful Beer
Festival

You can now drink craft beer at
the world’s most beautiful beer
festival
Nov 9, 2016

Drinking craft beer is already enjoyable, but
drinking it in one of the most majestic
places on earth – The Canadian Rockies –is even better. Dubbed “the world’s most...

CAMPAIGNHIGHLIGHTS

All stories were presented by Banff& Lake Louise Tourism

Campaign exceeded
targets, providing
over $10,000 in added
value for Banff & LakeLouise Tourism.

3 reasons why you need to be at
the Banff Craft Beer Festival

The Challenge
The destination marketing organization for
Banff and Lake Louise needed an impactful
but cost-effective way to promote the Banff
Craft Beer Festival. With the event in its second
year, this campaign was designed to raiseawareness of “The World’s Most Beautiful
Beer Festival” to beer and travel enthusiasts in
British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

Nov 8, 2016

Alberta’s beer industry will be quieting down
for the winter – while snow falls on the maltbarley fields and local beers ferment in theirtanks – but that doesn’t mean its fans will
follow suit. Our coldest season actually...

Readers expressed
intent by clicking
through from thestories to the client’s
landing page atalmost 2x the average
conversion rate.

High social impact asreaders shared thestories and expressedinterest in comment
sections.

our solution
Pressboard designed an efficient content
campaign that generated three uniquepieces of branded content. All content
was commissioned through Pressboard’s
marketplace and published natively on regionaland national publishers that were carefully
selected to reach the festival’s target audience.
The branded stories highlighted the best
reasons to visit the Banff Craft Beer Festival
and were well-received by readers.

The World’s Most Beautiful Beer
Festival is Happening Here inAlberta!
Jun 29, 2016

Thirsty for a little adventure – and a lot of
incredible craft beer? Well you’re in luckbecause the self-proclaimed “world’s mostbeautiful beer festival” is taking place...

Branded footer and footer image
accompanied each story

32

ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITION

Good content inspires praise, but
great content stirs up such deep
emotion that it moves people toshare it.
TARYN CROUTHERSHEAD OF SALES & BRAND PARTNERSHIPS, ATTN:

34

ISSUE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM EDITION

Download Your Free Media buyer’s
guide to branded content
Over 50 pages of free advice on branded content from the world’s leading
media buyers, brands, and publishers! From ideation to execution, learn how
to create successful branded content partnerships.
Download your copy at
get.pressboardmedia.com/media-buyers-guide-branded-content

About Pressboard
We believe that stories are better than ads. Brands use
Pressboard to tell compelling stories with the world’s
greatest publishers.

Whether you’re interested in working with the mostpopular business, technology, or lifestyle sites in theworld, you’ll easily find your next content partner in thePressboard marketplace.

Once selected, your content partners get to work
crafting stories their audiences will love. They’llsuggest the best ways to showcase your brand,
whether it’s through an article, video, or infographic.

Once approved, your stories go live for the world to enjoy! All stories live on your content partner’s
website and are shared through social media, e-newsletters, and native ads.
Pressboard’s platform tracks the number of people viewing your stories and measures their levelof interest. Our cost-per-view model means that you only pay when someone actually views yourbrand’s story.

Ready to tell your brand’s story? Contact us at info@pressboardmedia.com
pressboardmedia.com | Vancouver | Toronto | New York36