This report into the future of branded content marketing is an excerpt from the 'Best of Branded Content Marketing: 10th Anniversary Edition' ebook. Within the report, more than 60 marketing practitioners, authors and academics share their knowledge, opinions and experiences of contemporary and emerging branded content marketing and media around the globe. We hope that you enjoy this excerpt from the book and that you’re inspired to send us your own thoughts and predictions. You can download the full edition of the 'Best of Branded Content Marketing: 10th Anniversary Edition' ebook at http://thebcma.info/best-practices/ebooks/ from 19 March 2014.

2. Last year, I asked a number of experts to
help me with some crystal ball gazing
that resulted in the Expert Predictions
chapter of the first edition of the Best of
Branded Content Marketing ebook.
This year I asked a far broader group of
marketing practitioners from around the
world what they expect to see change in
the next five years, and what they expect
will remain the same. The question was
prompted by comments made by the
analyst, author and founder of Altimeter
Group, Charlene Li, who’d pointed out
that despite the many different sites,
technologies and business models we
have today, “the fundamentals of
marketing have remained the same as
have the challenges.”
The question brought a seven-fold
increase in response with a mixture of
description, prescription and prediction.
Because the term ‘content’ straddles so
by Justin Kirby
VP, Strategic Content
Marketing
Tenthwave
The Future of Branded
Content Marketing
Plus Ça Change, Plus C'est La Même Chose
The more things change, the more they remain the same
ExpertPredictionsReport

3. many marketing and other disciplines,
the responses highlighted the need for a
shared lexicon which we hope the
industry can move towards. The recently
BCMA commissioned research
undertaken by Oxford Brookes University,
in partnership with Ipsos MORI, which
has resulting in the following overarching
definition of branded content:
"Branded content is any
content associated with a
brand in the eye of the
beholder”
This is helpful first step by describing
what branded content is generically, but
it doesn’t explain the ‘Why’ (in what is the
marketing problem it attempts to solve?),
nor ‘What’ the branded content specifics
might be for the different variations of
‘Whom’, ‘Where’ and ‘When’. There’s also
the important question of ‘How’ any
success might be measured.
We hope what follows, and the case
studies we have featured in the Best of
Branded Content Marketing: 10th
Anniversary Edition, will start to address
some of these issues. No-one has all of
the answers yet, but we also hope the
responses and points raised will also
provide a frame of reference for
marketers to better navigate a path
through the many challenges ahead.
2

4. SECTION 1
The Yin Yang of Branded
Content Marketing
Jan Godsk of ideatakeway and Chairman, BCMA Scandinavia,
believes that branded content and content marketing may be
two different categories. He uses the term ‘branded content
marketing’ as we have done with the title of this ebook to point
out that it has brand on one side, marketing on the other, and
content in the middle.
Jan Godsk
Chairman
BCMA Scandinavia
“Talking about branded content
and content marketing, I think
it’s all about one word that
connects both, and that’s the
word content.”

5. Branded Content
On the brand side, Jan suggests we think
of this as being more irrational and
focused around our impressions, such as
whether we like a brand or share their
values. Branded content campaigns are
more likely to be conducted upstream as
part of an engagement approach rather
than to just drive awareness in the
traditional AIDA funnel. The term is often
associated with longer-form video-based
output from more creative advertising
disciplines where audiences are engaged
with entertainment-type content that
resonates emotionally. This helps shift
brand preferences and consumer
behaviours. In theory, the less USP-
focused you become, the more your
branded content will emotionally involve
people.
Content Marketing
On the marketing side, Jan proposes we
think about this as being based around
the product/service USP, with the content
being more rational and informative.
Content marketing campaigns are often
conducted downstream in what
McKinsey & Company call the customer
decision journey, with ROI more focused
on lead-generation and sales. Looking at
content marketing in this way helps
explain why some prefer the term ‘brand
publishing’, why it is often used within a
B2B context, its close connection to
Search Engine Optimisation, and the
formats most commonly used:
• Blogs
• E-newsletters
• Case studies
• Press releases
• ebooks
• White papers
• Infographics
• Webinars
• Podcasts
4

6. And Branded Entertainment?
The term ‘branded entertainment’ is used
by some to describe branded content
marketing campaigns where the product
is more integrated into the content. That’s
why the term is often used in connection
with formats such as advertiser funded
programming (AFP) that use more
traditional media like TV, radio and even
film and often overlap with product
placement and sponsorship.
This type of approach is evolving as we
have showcased with the case study in
the Best of Branded Content Marketing:
10th Anniversary Edition where Unilever’s
Surf brand borrowed the attributes from
ITV’s ‘The only way is Essex’ (TOWIE) TV
show to extend their association with it
by creating exclusive, engaging and
entertaining content.
Branded Content And Content
Marketing: Two Sides Of The Same
Content Coin
The Yin Yang image is a simple way of
illustrating that the two approaches are
two sides of the same coin, but
seemingly based on different intent that
shapes the output, engagement and
distribution approaches.
As Mark Welland explains, it also shows
how other disciplines can be
accommodated as part of the mix.
5
Mark Welland
Founder
New Media Works
“In the future, I’m sure, as
within most disciplines,
branded content marketing will
begin to fracture and divide
into more specialist areas. New
platforms and ways of
engaging will drive the process
on the back of services that
users wish to be a part of. This
will need new language to
describe the areas and will
hopefully lead to better ways of
describing the broader
discipline.”

7. SECTION 2
Strategic Considerations
Some of the response from experts focused less
on the future, and more on the strategic
considerations that brands need to be thinking
about with regard to branded content marketing.
We’ve grouped these in themes to provide a
context for the predictions in the following
sections.
“I often hear the cry “We need
a social media strategy” when
what is really needed first is a
customer engagement strategy
based on content.”
Dave Chaffey
CEO
Smart Insights

8. The 3 Circles of Branded Content
Marketing diagram on the right is a
helpful prompt to start thinking about
practice more holistically. The diagram
was inspired by the Three Pillars of
Connected Marketing model developed
by Idil Cakim, the analyst and author of
Implementing Word of Mouth Marketing.
As Dave Chaffey at Smart Insights
explains, content and social media
marketing have become the de facto way
of explaining customer engagement
approaches and so it’s “unfortunate” that
these are too often considered
separately. He says what is needed is a
“customer engagement strategy based
on content”. Idil’s model shows how
these can be unified.
I’ve adapted Idil’s model to provide a
prompt for thinking through the following
questions as part of developing a
branded content marketing strategy:
• What kind of branded content is
created (or co-created) by ‘Who’ and
for ‘Whom’?
• How is engagement managed?
• How is content distributed? (i.e.
‘Where’ in the converged landscape
of earned, owned and paid media,
and ‘When’ in the customer decision
journey?)
• How is the success of the different
parts and their sum measured?
These are also useful questions for
analysing the predictions in the following
sections, as are these strategic
considerations raised by contributors:
7
THREE CIRCLES OF BRANDED CONTENT MARKETING
DISTRIBUTION
CONTENT
(CO)CREATION
ENGAGEMENT
MANAGEMENT
MEASUREMENT

9. We are media
Chris Gorell Barnes at Adjust Your Set
suggests that we’re also moving from a
world where mass media ruled to one
where the masses themselves are the
media: “People not only decide what,
when and where they want to consume
media, but also whether or not the
message is passed on.”
Your brand is a social construct
that you no longer control
That’s why Bjoern Asmussen at Oxford
Brooks University thinks that marketers
will increasingly realise that brands “are
best understood as socially constructed
organisms”. They will consist of “all kinds
of brand meanings, brand manifestations
and brand stakeholders, such as
consumers, employees, competitors,
suppliers, pressure groups and the
media.”
so get yourself invited, don’t just
buy your way in
Blended Republic’s Chris Sice thinks that
right now, “too many brands follow an
outdated ‘push’ content model. They
create content and look to ‘buy’
audiences.” Chris Gorell Barnes adds
that “if a brand wants to be a part of this
world they must be invited in – you can’t
buy your way in.”
or just try and catch the next
big wave
Branded content is also “no longer about
client strategies or wanting to be in on
the next big wave” according to
Vodafone’s Melissa Hopkins. She says it
is now “simply a news provider, a
conversation piece, a portal for
stimulation, with a brand discreetly
behind it.” Melissa believes only the
brave brands understand this.
and ensure that your branded
content marketing strategies are
truly consumer-centric
Chris Gorell Barnes predicts that “the
brands that will thrive in this new world
will be those that put the needs of the
consumer at the heart of what they do.”
Max Garner at Aegis Media adds that
“authentic and constant consumer-
centric behaviour from a brand will
always be the best way to aid success in
our rapidly changing convergent media
world.” For Patricia Weiss of the BCMA’s
South American Chapter this means
creating branded content in all formats
and platforms that are personally relevant
for consumers, so that brands move from
a media-centric approach to one based
on human context where the “consumer
is the protagonist and hero of every
story.”
8

10. and that your branding is aligned
with your branded content
marketing strategy
Veteran advertiser turned brand
consultant Robert Bean explained that
what were once walls that companies
could control have now become windows
as a result of the digital explosion, and
anyone can see into an organisation from
any number of vantage points. As such it
“behoves brands or companies generally
to sharpen up their act and decide who
they are and what they’re about and be
true to themselves in a way that they’ve
never really had to before.” This means
branding needs to start from the inside
out, so that the people within the
business are aligned around what they
are trying to do and create a culture that
produces a commensurate product that
when managed properly results in a
commensurate reputation.
or you’ll get found out!
Put another way, Robert thinks digital is a
great way of exposing organisations that
are “disorganisations” for want of a
better term. Brands can no longer get
away with trying to project an image that
attempts to engineer a reputation. In
summary, brands cannot “fake” another
five years, believes Jan Godsk.
Welcome to the rise of the
narrative brands
Robert Bean’s inside-out branding
approach is based on the alignment of a
brand’s culture, product or service, and
reputation around what he calls the
‘Single Organising Principle’. This
provides a clear sense of purpose of
what a brand does.
9
PERSONAL
RELEVANCE
DRIVING
PURPOSE
CULTURAL
CONTEXT
WHERE SOCIAL
SHOULD LIVE
THREE TENETS OF NARRATIVE BRANDS

11. Purposeful content and alignment are
themes that are raised in the following
section, as is the importance of
storytelling.
My colleagues at Tenthwave produced
the diagram above that is helpful for
thinking about how branding can be
aligned with a branded content marketing
strategy. It’s based around the idea that
the strongest social brands are described
as ‘narrative brands’, i.e. brand
storytelling that combines the following:
Driving Purpose
As Tenthwave’s Gretchen Ramsey
explains, a purpose is simply a tangible
reason for being a brand (why the brand
exists): “It's that flag in the ground, that
rally cry that everything ladders to and
that is visible and visceral throughout the
entire consumer experience.” For
example, Red Bull's purpose in simple
terms is ‘adventure’.
Cultural Context
A cultural context ensures that the brand
is culturally relevant. Gretchen believes
that in practice this means capturing
macro and micro cultural trends. A
branded content marketing strategy must
be developed with these cultural factors
in mind. Another way of looking at
cultural context was highlighted in a
comment made by the dotcom pioneer
Joe Kraus of Excite fame in a BBC
interview last year: “If the 20th century
was about dozens of markets of millions
of consumers, then the 21st century is
about millions of markets of dozens of
consumers.” Unruly’s Barney Worfolk-
Smith talks about interacting with people
through “fractured passion centres.” The
Duck Tape ‘Race of Gentlemen’
campaign is a good example of how a
brand got itself invited to a very culturally
relevant ‘fractured passion centre’.
Personal Relevance
As Patricia Weiss explains, if your
branded content is interesting for your
audience, “they will be interested in it.”
Being personally relevant is behind the
‘passion’ in the fractured passion centres
that Barney talks about. Gretchen
Ramsey believes personal relevance is at
a “nascent stage” but a feed customised
for the individual user could include
helpful personal visualised data (think
loyalty programming and smart CRM),
geo-context as well as social graph
integration. (see more on this theme in
the More Platforms, Devices &
Personalisation section.)
We hope that you find this introduction to
the following predictions both interesting
and useful. The ideas presented here
provide a backdrop to our contributors’
thoughts on what they expect to see
change in the next five years and what
they expect will remain the same.
10

12. SECTION 3
What Will Change
Branded content at the heart of every marketing strategy
As the CIPR’s Stephen Waddington explains, “Content is the drum beat of
engagement between a brand and its publics”. But the ability of content
“to draw people in naturally through entertaining, emotionally engaging
messaging” is why Pereira & O’Dell’s creative chief PJ Pereira believes that
“branded content will continue to feature in more and more client
strategies” helping to “develop deeper relationships with audiences”.
Publicis Slovenija’s Uroš Goričan also thinks we can expect brands to put
“more emphasis on branded content in their marketing strategy.”
Andrew Canter
CEO
BCMA
“We definitely feel the future
of branded content is very
exciting. And if 2013 was
anything to go by we’re
going to see a rapid increase
in the number of brands
using branded content as
the core of their marketing.”
image©BBPMedia/Giuseppe

13. Driven by digital and social
The BCMA’s Andrew Canter predicts that,
by 2019, branded content will be at the
heart of every campaign, driven by the
growth of digital technologies and social
media.
and stand-out examples
Romelle Swire’s Chris Smith predicts that
the stand-out branded content
campaigns we’ve seen during 2013 will
both increase industry awareness for the
approach and drive more examples.
Chris specifically mentioned work by
Amazon, Chipotle and Heineken, but
other examples cited by experts include
Red Bull ‘Stratos Mission to the Edge of
Space’, Coca-Cola’s ‘Small World
Machines’, and Banco Popular de Puerto
Rico’s ‘The Most Popular Song’ (also see
Jan Godsk and John McDermott).
and more standardised procedures
Branded Entertainment Online’s (BEO)
Sandra Freisinger-Heinl thinks that there
will always be those stand-out du jour
examples, but it’s “more standardised
procedures” that will encourage the
adoption of entertaining branded content
marketing approaches.
Moving across the spectrum, to
become less isolated and more
integrated
MEC’s Chantal Rickards sees the next
five years as an exciting time with
content moving “across the spectrum”.
Sky MEDIA’s Jason Hughes thinks we’ll
see a greater joining of the dots over the
next five years between the linear and
non-linear world to a point where
“branded content campaigns transcend
TV, online, social, POS with the overall
activation far greater than the sum of its
parts.”
and not just an afterthought
Red Bee Media’s Michael Reeves thinks
we’re still at the point where branded
content is being commissioned in
isolation as an afterthought once the
more traditional marketing has been set.
However, he thinks brands will learn to
plan branded content alongside other
disciplines in order to get the maximum
effect, so that it can lead to or become
the “central articulation of a brand or
communication idea.”
Becoming the communication
norm across the organisation
Stephen Waddington believes the shift
will go further so that what he describes
as “content development” will move
beyond marketing communications to
“become the communication norm for all
operational areas of an organisation.”
but more risks still need to be
taken
Jason Hughes expects “a tipping point
where the penny will drop around the real
value and power branded content
delivers way beyond traditional media
valuation”, so that it “becomes the norm
centrepiece of every campaign.”
12

14. NEW (OPEN AND
COLLABORATIVE) AGENCY
MODELS WILL EMERGE
The social media strategist Jadis Tillery
predicts that “collaboration will be the
name of the game” in the brave new
world of branded content. Compelling
stories can be created that evolve
“dynamically thanks to the consumer
shaping the story itself.” Somethin’ Else’s
Steve Ackerman thinks we’ll also see
“content strategists and content creators
coming together to form new agencies.”
Here are some other predictions along
similar lines:
Publishers as agencies
Patricia Weiss who heads up the BCMA’s
South American Chapter thinks native
advertising looks set to “become the
starlet in the blurred lines between ads
and content”. She sees publishers
becoming more agency-like, working
directly with brands through the creation
of in-house “branded content divisions,
paid media operations, brand strategy
units and digital production services.”
Agency-facilitated brand alliances
with publishers
Forrester’s Ryan Skinner sees brands
regularly building “quasi-official alliances
with each other and publishers, usually
facilitated by an agency, to collectively
produce a compelling digital experience.”
More and different kinds of
celebrity partnerships
Sean ‘Diddy’ Coombes’ recent JV with
Diageo suggests that celebrity talent
partnerships will continue to play a key
role in branded content. For Jadis Tillery
this is not just about “the loyal and
sizeable fan base they can mobilise for a
brand, but as dynamic content creators
and media owners in their own right.”
That said, United Agent’s Joanna Scarratt
thinks that a social media following is
becoming an increasingly important
factor, and as a result we’ll start seeing
new highly paid social superstars.
13
“Native Advertising will become the
starlet in the blurred lines between
ads and content, by reinventing the
business of publishing and snatching
the emerging markets. A growing
number of publishers will create their
own branded content divisions, paid
media operations, brand strategy
units and digital production services,
in-house. More often, they will be
hiring publishers to create content on
their behalf.”
Patricia Weiss
Chairman and Founder
BCMA South America

15. New (open source) business
models
Crispin Reed at UK Fusion Learning
thinks we’ll see “more and more
interesting collaborations between
brands when it comes to content
marketing.” He cites Google’s acquisition
of smart thermostat brand Nest as a way
they can enter the “home through a
different door.” The convergent home is
not a new idea, but for Crispin it’s an
indication of a more “imaginative coming
together of brands to deliver branded
content”. BCMA’s Chairman Morgan Holt
thinks that the combining of
micropayments and user content channel
technology platforms would be
interesting.
so that lines will continue to be
blurred until there are none left
The strategist Sarah Farrugia predicts
that “those who really understand social
media and the importance of truth and
human connections will increasingly use
the multiplying and diverse channels in
more and more interesting ways - blurring
the lines until there are no lines
anymore.”
BUT NEW SKILLSETS WILL BE
REQUIRED
As the online revolution outstrips
marketing knowledge, Joanna Scarratt at
United Agents thinks that no-one quite
yet knows how to exploit branded
content properly. She thinks that this is
because the “speed of the online
revolution, and development of platforms,
has outstripped marketing knowledge.”
new skill sets required
Mike Arauz at Undercurrent recently
wrote about The New Digital Strategist’s
Skill Set that’s moved from the T-shape of
having to know a little about a lot and a
lot about a little to the square-shape of
now having to know a lot about a lot.
14
“A platform (YouTube, for
example) could host brands
that were prepared to open
their assets to the general
public and see what people did
with them. This would give
creators license to rethink the
brand's meaning and create a
whole new presence for the
brand itself.”
Morgan Holt
Chairman
BCMA

16. to understand culture better
Gretchen Ramsey at Tenthwave mentions
how dramatically and quickly specialised
areas shift in digital, which is why she
thinks we have “a duty to understand
culture on a new level, as it’s intimately
tied with our ability to plan relevance.”
and social behaviour
OgilvyEntertainment’s Doug Scott thinks
that “agencies need to hire behavioural
economists and creative technologists as
well as individuals that truly understand
social interaction.” For him this goes
“well beyond the social media specialist.”
The dawn of the pi-shaped data
storytellers?
In a recent interview by Renegade’s CEO
Drew Neisser with Econsultancy's CEO
Ashley Friedlein on PSFK, the pi-shaped
data storytelling marketer was discussed.
For Ashley the pi-shaped skillset isn’t
about expecting people to know about
everything (square) it’s more about
having a “wide breadth of skills and
knowledge across various marketing
disciplines, but crucially possessing both
left-brain and right-brain abilities”. As
Ashley goes on to explain, it’s about
being analytical and data-driven on one
hand, but also “understanding brands,
storytelling and experiential marketing.”
REAL TIME AND AGILE
Unruly’s COO Sarah Wood sees new
tools emerging that will help support the
macro-trend of real-time content
marketing and allow marketers to
become more ‘agile’. This is where
brands become “newsrooms for their
niche” and invest to support “content
discovery, content curation and content
creation” to compete for consumers’
mind share on social platforms.
or something more additive?
Digiday’s John McDermott hopes that
“brands will move away from their real-
time marketing obsession and create
15
“Agencies need to hire
behavioural economists and
creative technologists as well
as individuals that truly
understand social interaction.
This goes well beyond the
"social media specialist" who
claims to understand how to
evoke more tweets out of a
post.”
Doug Scott
President
OgilvyEntertianment

17. something more substantive and lasting.”
He cites the “mesmerising” Volvo Trucks
‘Epic Split’ campaign with Jean-Claude
Van Damme as well as the “legitimately
helpful” Lowe’s ‘Fix in Six Vines’.
Evolving beyond real-time
opportunism
Tenthwave’s Gretchen Ramsey points to
an “evolution from real-time opportunism
to the storytelling model”, but asks “how
many digital agencies are set up to
manage a meaningful narrative duty?”
She suggests what’s needed is a “new
model of strategic creative where teams
of (visual) storytellers lead brand tales,
not just ideas ‘with legs’.”
and being more creative,
experimental and iterative
Being more agile doesn’t necessitate
working in real-time, or the setting-up of
newsrooms with staff and enabling
technology, it can simply mean being
iterative. For DigitasLBi’s creative head
honcho Chris Clarke, what is more
important than anything else is “creative
excellence, a fluid relationship with talent
and a willingness to experiment.” He
adds that brands can become “part of
culture rather than in the (ad) breaks
between culture”.
THE RISE AND RISE OF
STORYTELLING
It's not really a prediction, but the
importance of storytelling was the most
consistent theme to emerge from expert
responses. As Mumbrella’s Sean
McKeown points out, “brands are already
seeing the value gained from this format
and will continue to invest more of their
marketing budgets in its development.”
More authentic, entertaining and
engaging
Advertisers must find better ways to build
trust, as raised by Paul Bay at Citizenbay
in last year’s ebook. Paul pointed out that
the gap between promise and delivery is
16
“I hope — that brands will
move away from their real-time
marketing obsession and
create something more
substantive and lasting. The
Volvo Trucks/Jean Claude Van
Damme video is mesmerising
and the Lowe’s Fix in Six Vines
are legitimately helpful. Seems
a lot more additive than
tweeting nonsense during the
Super Bowl.”
John McDermott
Staff Writer
Digiday

18. still wide, and that’s why advertisers are
still less trusted than politicians. ISBA’s
Mario Yiannacou thinks that one way of
building trust is to ensure that messages
are completely clear whatever format
they’re in. Stan Joseph of Ochre Moving
Pictures suggests the creation of more
authentic and entertaining story-based
content “will continue to be the hallmark
of great branded content.”
and purposeful content
For Tony Chow at What's your Story Inc
in Singapore it’s all about the creation of
purposeful content, and he sees more
and more brands using story-based
branded content as a key engagement
tool.
that resonates emotionally
In last year’s ebook, Sarah Wood
explained that testing what works and
optimising the performance of branded
content isn't just about using data to
make decisions and refine campaigns in
real-time, it's also about emotions. She
predicted that the brands that succeed in
the future will be the ones creating
content that elicits a powerful emotional
response from their audience.
In longer and more digital formats
MEC’s Chantal Rickards sees more
traditional formats like advertiser funded
programing (AFP) being on the wane, at
least in the UK. But she thinks “digital
continues to offer myriad opportunities,
especially where the content can travel
across many platforms and engage
viewers in clever, dynamic and engaging
ways.” She also thinks we’ll see more
brands becoming more adventurous and
funding longer-form content like movies
and feature documentaries.
and more involving, less
interruptive
Patricia Weiss believes that audiences
will become even more intelligent and
sophisticated as their lives become
increasingly social in a “hypermediatic”
world, and that this is becoming “more
visual and involving, and less intrusive
and interruptive”.
original content funded and
distributed by brands
Stan Joseph sees brands becoming
significant funders and distributors of
original content over the next five years,
taking “their place at the table alongside
broadcasters, distributors and IP
owners.” Joanna Scarratt also thinks the
landscape will change dramatically. She
sees brands becoming both
broadcasters and content makers. She
cites other platforms like Netflix’s funding
of ‘House of Cards’, as well as film
competition initiatives like Grolsch's ‘Film
Works’, or Bombay Sapphire's’
‘Imagination Series’.
17

19. Making good stories more
important than ever to cut through
the content clutter
Doug Scott thinks, “Great stories are
becoming critical. Right now I would say
that from an economic standpoint there
is an oversupply of content.”
But storytelling changes everything
about how brands go to market
In my recent interview with UM’s Chief
Content officer Scott Donaton, he
explains how he thinks that brand
storytelling is a strategic, disciplined
approach to marketing that actually
changes everything about how brands go
to market.
MORE PLATFORMS, DEVICES AND
PERSONALISATION
Experts discussed a whole host of new
platforms and devices that are either
already being used, or on the horizon,
including Google Glass with augmented
reality, other wearable tech, or perhaps
even the ports in our heads for faster
upload/download that Doug Kessler
predicts. Uroš Goričan thinks that these
will “enable brands to connect with
customers via content in an even more
exciting and creative way.”
It will become more personalised
Leo Burnett’s James Kirkham predicts
that in five years the content people
engage with will become more relevant
and tailored. He thinks that it won’t be
recognised as traditional advertising, but
“more as opt-in personalised content.”
Pulled not pushed, and more
contextual
Doug Scott sees content being “pulled by
consumers based on their unique
preferences and habits.” ISBA’s Mario
Yiannacou also thinks targeting will make
a step change that will benefit brand
owners but also consumers by giving
them messages they want to receive.
18
“Brands are going to have to
change their processes and do
something marketers don’t like to
do and don’t do easily. They have
to change the skill sets of the
people they hire. They have to
change the time frames they work
on. They have to change the way
they allocate and think about
budgets. They have to change
their definition of creativity.”
Scott Donaton
Chief Content Officer
UM

20. Doug suggests that the tailored content
will be “contextually related to a brand's
key product and/or core message”. For
Max Garner at Aegis, context is also key,
and the linking of “the right content for
the right device juxtaposed with the right
type of brand to consumer interaction at
the right time.”
But as DigitasLBI’s Chris Clarke points
out, “more than anything, just as it is
now, brands will need to recognise that a
set of marketing messages plays very
poorly alongside the latest box set.”
Content shifts triggered by mobile,
shared by the second screen, and
expanded through smart displays
For Doug Scott these shifts will be
triggered by mobile (which he believes is
now the first screen), and then shared on
the living room screen, as well as being
expanded through public out-of-home
advertising (OOH) smart displays.
Patricia Weiss believes the endless
willingness of audiences to participate
live in networked culture will “expand the
non-linear conversation around the
content”, and drive SocialTV, second
screen and real-time marketing initiatives.
This will in turn increase the production
of ‘event TV’ programmes, especially
reality shows where “the audience fully
participates and feels like the true
winner.” Samantha Glynne at Publicis
Entertainment also thinks “TV will have a
resurgence and new forms of live and
social events will become popular.”
Eventually moving off screen to
become part of our branded life
James Kirkham sees branded content
moving off screen to become things “like
making a branded gesture mnemonic to
access the brand”, e.g. “tracing out the
Heineken star when you walk into a bar
to access content or order a beer.” For
James this is about thinking of the future
less in terms of branded content and
19
“I think one of the most
important changes in the next
five years is going to come with
the maturation of the millennial
adult who is going to quickly
become the most powerful
consumer, literally ever.”
Eric Schwamberger
Partner
Tenthwave

21. more about “your branded life.” This may
be more relevant to some generations
than others, particularly with the
maturation of the millennial adult,
according to Tenthwave’s Eric
Schwamberger.
Optimisation will become the norm
Katy Howell at immediate future explains
that “social will increase the volume, but
also reduce the size: as audiences (and
mobile) demands bite-sized, digestible
and continuous content.” As such,
“optimisation of content will be the norm,
as brands look to justify content
investment.”
Putting distribution at the heart of
any strategy
Blended Republic’s Chris Sice thinks
brands place too much emphasis on
creating content, but are often ignorant of
distribution and the “boundary-less
nature” of platforms like Facebook and
YouTube. He thinks this presents huge
opportunities and so in future distribution
thinking will be at the heart of their
strategy. He adds that brands need to
learn to act like media owners to attain
the desired ROI. Samantha Glynne at
Publicis Entertainment adds that as
“confidence grows in the qualitative role
of branded entertainment, brands will be
braver in trying all platforms and media.”
and developing their own media
Mumbrella’s Sean McKeown thinks that
although “social media will continue as
an important distribution platform,
brands will need to invest in platforms of
their own that provide greater connection
with audiences.” Jadis Tillery agrees we’ll
see brands “fully embrace the multimodal
nature of the social web” while also
becoming “owners in their own right.”
Blurring the lines between earned
and owned media with the rise of
“fractured passion centres” and
content curation
Barney Worfolk-Smith of Unruly sees
brands interacting with people through
what he calls “fractured passion centres”
that is discussed in the Strategic
Considerations section. Barney’s idea
provides the basis for more opportunities
of co-creation between brands and their
fans. It will also potentially blur the lines
between earned and owned media if
brands start to curate their fan content in
the way that Unruly’s Sarah Wood
mentions.
This very much tallies with the content
ideas around cultural brands that Daniel
Bô at QualiQuanti discusses, and informs
the thinking behind Tenthwave’s ‘Race of
Gentlemen’ campaign.
With customer stories becoming
more important than brand ones
In last year’s ebook, Citzenbay’s Paul Bay
discussed how the democratisation of
content would change the media content
model. Paul predicted that branded
content marketing would become less
about pushing content and more about
listening to your customers’ stories and
20

22. amplifying these. He pointed out that
storytelling implies that brands or their
agencies are still the authors of the
narrative. He thought this downplayed
the increasingly important role that the
customer narrative plays.
and the need for earned media
planning
MRY’s David Berkowitz highlights how
earned media planning might need to
consider the most cost-effective and
value-added alternatives to investing in
fully technology-enabled newsrooms.
Learn to make the most of
wearable tech
When it comes to next-gen advertising,
Unruly’s COO Sarah Wood thinks brands
will need to navigate the opportunities
and challenges presented by not only
wearable technology, but also smart-
appliances.
and navigate through the Internet
of things and hyper geo-location
Welcome to the world of the ‘Internet of
things’, and the possibility of hyper-geo-
located targeting. For example, Sarah
predicts “sausage ads as you open your
fridge, replaced by porridge oats ads if
your cholesterol reading is high, or an ad
for sunscreen displayed on your
smartwatch if the UV rays are high when
you open your front door. Relevance and
utility will be key to success.”
via mobile to an increasingly
screen-less world
As Mumbrella’s Sean McKeown points
out, mobile will play an integral part in the
transition to “location-based marketing
and content distribution.” But Leo
Burnett’s James Kirkham predicts “an
increasingly screen-less world, less
about desktop computers and more
about an Internet of things.” James
thinks we need to be thinking “more
about how content will be engaged with
or interacted with wherever we are
whenever we want to.”
21
“Adapted, evolved content
tailored and personal to you -
just like we are recognised
through cookies - will instead be
you the user recognised through
talent talking to you, directly to
you as part of a pre-orchestrated
pre-determined image.”
James Kirkham
Global Head:
Social & Mobile
Leo Burnett

23. to interact with a brand construct
James Kirkham predicts a future where
the personalisation and tailoring of
content includes live conversation with a
brand construct.
Becoming more programmatic and
marketing as service orientated
Doug Scott sees the evolving approach
to programmatic (and more algorithmic)
marketing “will engage consumers in an
ongoing dialogue with brands, providing
richer stories and greater insights -
ultimately leading to smarter data and
fuelling big emotional experiences.”
Drew Neisser at Renegade thinks “these
are the best of times for CMOs who
approach marketing as a service
opportunity rather than a messaging
one.” This customer-centric approach
“only gets better with the advent of big
data and programmatic media,” since it is
so much easier to provide personalised
and relevant content in real-time.
and requiring a whole lot more
computational power
Charlene Li points out that in five years’
time “we'll have the computational power
of IBM's Watson in a form factor that will
fit in our pocket - and we'll need it given
the explosion of data.”
to get back to where we started
from
Meanwhile, older media such as radio
and book publishing have been going
through their own digital revolutions.
Folded Wing’s Karen Pearson highlights
“nine out of 10 people listen, engage and
interact with radio, and do so across an
ever-growing selection of digital
platforms.” This provides a whole host of
opportunities, especially as now
“listeners want to 'see' radio as much as
hear it,” which Karen points out offers
“additional exclusive visual content that
people can share with their friends”.
22
“9 out of 10 people listen,
engage and interact with radio,
and do so across an ever-
growing selection of digital
platforms. So branded audio
content of the future needs to
engage with audiences across a
wide variety of different
platforms, including DAB,
mobile, tablets, podcasts and
online platforms.”
Karen Pearson
CEO and Founder
Folded Wing

24. Brands have been slow to embrace the
ebooks publishing revolution, and
leverage distribution channels like
Amazon, iBookstore, or aggregators like
Smashwords, and social reading sites.
Enhanced media ebooks, like this one,
provide great opportunities to tailor
relevant branded content for platforms
like tablets in a format that can engage
people for longer periods.
MEASUREMENT, ANALYTICS AND
THE RISE OF EMPATHETIC/
EMOTIONAL MARKETING
There’s no shortage of industry
measurement standard initiatives
The changing media landscape doesn’t
just have an impact on the way that
brands need to rethink the way they
conduct their marketing, but also how
they measure it, not least because of the
growing number of datapoints that are
now available and being used. The
challenges this poses are highlighted by
the growing number of initiatives trying to
develop industry standards for social
media measurement.
We have also seen the emergence of
innovative new ways to measure branded
content, with the BCMA's proprietary
measurement tool, contentmonitor run by
Ipsos MORI, which demonstrates the
effectiveness of branded content.
bringing rigour, but often driven by
measurement tools
Kami Watson Huyse thinks these
initiatives, while bringing more rigour to
social media measurement, “will most
likely be driven instead (in the near term)
by the tools developed to do the
measurement.” This might put the cart
before the horse.
and so there’s a danger of
measuring data for the sake of it
The CIPR’s Stephen Waddington thinks it
is easy to fall into the trap of measuring
things for the sake of it. For Stephen the
only real way of determining the value of
your investment is to measure outcomes,
“Everything else is a proxy at best, but
there are organisations, such as AMEC
with its Social Media Valid Framework
and Google with its Zero Moment of
Truth, that are doing some good work in
this area and helping us to grow up.”
rather than look at how the whole
is greater than the sum of the parts
As Ian Wright at Tapestry Research
points out, “the fragmented media
landscape means that we’re faced with
this dual challenge of really
understanding at a micro-level how
individual channels or touchpoints are
working, but also at a holistic level, how
they all fit together.” This is a tough
challenge, but Ian believes “we’re getting
smarter at meeting it through a
combination of small-scale qualitative
insight, big data observation and survey-
based interpretation.”
23

25. More accountability and analysis
required
Former Ipsos MORI Research Director
Stewart Thomson and others see a
growing demand “for rigorous
measurement of the impact of branded
content campaign elements on the goals
of the overall campaign. Essentially,
brand owners will demand to know if the
branded content pulled its weight and
justified their investment.”
Katy Howell also thinks we will see a
significant increase in the level of
analysis that will be expected,
particularly analysis “often in real-time
that identifies the content that travels on
trend, attracts attention and gets
shared.”
with new tools and skills getting
more sophisticated
According to Uroš Goričan, we’re likely to
see more effort put into developing the
right set of tools to measure efficacy. And
here are some examples:
Improved semantic analysis
Minter Dial sees both listening tools and
skills getting more sophisticated,
particularly with regard to semantic
analysis.
Predictive modeling for a better
sense of who wants what
David Berkowitz sees brands employing
more sophisticated predictive models “to
determine what people want when they
want it.”
and understanding the value of
what they share
But more importantly, David thinks
“brands will have a much better
understanding of the kinds of value of
what they share” as well as better sense
of what their audience wants and likes.
24
“One of the biggest differences
that we’re going to see is as we
get into more predictive fields
right. Brands and agencies trying
to predict what content people
are going to respond to and how
they’re going to respond. And
even predict which ways that
they’re going to want to respond
in turn.”
David Berkowitz
CMO
MRY

26. and the better targeting of
‘material’
Minter Dial predicts “better targeting of
the ‘material’ as marketers come to
understand better their audience and the
real influencers, and on which platforms
and devices they are congregating.”
and more creative scope for
crafting messages
Mario Yiannacou thinks that deeper data
will also “make it easier to ‘dial in’ to
consumers’ frequencies, allowing more
creative scope for crafting messages.”
with emotional data becoming
ubiquitous
As Sander Saar at AOL explains,
emotional data has already started to be
measured through facial recognition
software to understand emotions,
reactions, heart rate, gestures, etc, but
we have a long way to go. As
technologies advance, response could be
tracked live across different platforms
and devices, and mapped not just to a
particular demographic on a network, but
also to the available psychographic and
ultimately behavioural data.
and tracking through to purchase
Max Garner thinks “convergence means
that content and the point of transaction
are also moving closer than ever, so not
only do brands have to still inform,
entertain and delight with their content
but they also have to ensure that where
relevant a journey to purchase is easy,
smooth and importantly unforced should
the consumer so desire it.”
without requiring the capture of
lead data
Ryan Skinner predicts that “businesses
will abandon the practice of capturing
lead data as enough non-personal
identifying data can be captured without
it.”
25
“The more that media can be
delivered on an individual basis
and therefore become
disaggregated, then that whole
way of thinking is going to be
challenged. It will become much
more about what people do than
what audience group they are in.
This changes everything in terms of
how media works and who should
be on the team to deliver and
evaluate it.”
Tim Foley
MD
pointlogic

27. and valuing individuals based on
purchase probabilities
Tim Foley at pointlogic thinks that market
research will get turned on its head by
the explosion of more data. He predicts
we won’t be aggregating audiences
around their demographics, but will
instead be “valuing individuals based on
purchase probabilities”; and as he points
out “this changes everything in terms of
how media works and who should be on
the team to deliver and evaluate it.”
Brands will demand more bespoke
metrics
More brands will want and be able to
develop bespoke metrics that are linked
to their specific brand challenges. This
will lead the industry into more
meaningful discussion than those
surrounding ‘working’ and ‘non-working’
dollars, and possibly away from the
preoccupation with reach-type metrics
that were designed for traditional mass
communications.
In the meantime, longer-term view
may be required
The BCMA’s Andrew Canter accepts that
measuring the ROI for branded content
can be a challenge right now, but argues
that brands should take a longer-term
view and rethink what is being measured
and why. He sees branded content
marketing as an investment, that will
often pay back in the mid-long term
rather than having an immediate impact.
but you can start with a simple
tracker survey
The analyst and author Idil Cakim
explains that “marketers can show the
value of branded content by keeping tabs
on how brand perceptions shift among
those exposed to such content.” She
points out that a “simple tracker survey
can provide this insight.” The key she
says is “to be disciplined about asking
consumer feedback and be ready to shift
gears depending on how such content
resonates with audiences.”
26
“Marketers can show the value
of branded content by keeping
tabs on how brand perceptions
shift among those exposed to
such content. A simple tracker
survey can provide this insight.
The key is to be disciplined
about asking consumer feedback
and be ready to shift gears
depending on how such content
resonates with audiences.”
Idil Cakim
Analyst + author
Implementing Word of Mouth Marketing

28. SECTION 4
What Won't Change
Somewhat tellingly, experts have
significantly less to say about what they
think will remain the same in five years
than what they think will change. Here’s
the round-up of the responses:
It’ll still be all about relationships
Despite the brave new world of branded
content marketing that we’ve already
seen predicted, Altimeter Group’s
Charlene Li still thinks “marketing
fundamentals will remain the same,
namely that the relationship with
customers and clients will be built one
person at a time.” We shouldn’t get
“blinded by the light of bright shiny
objects to ever, ever forget that
relationships are paramount.”
Strategy starts with the data
The BCMA’s Andrew Canter thinks that
what will still be of the utmost importance
is that “the strategy for any branded
content campaign is based on deep and
meaningful consumer insight strategies”,
and that means starting with the data.
Charlene Li
Founder
Altimeter Group
“We can’t be blinded by
the light of bright shiny
objects to ever, ever forget
that relationships are
paramount.”

29. But go beyond the desk to find real
insight and opportunities
The advances in analytics and listening
platforms that have been predicted
suggest that it will still be the few that go
beyond desktop and dashboard. This
remains a missed opportunity for those
that don’t, because analytics might tell
you the ‘What’ and ‘Where’, but they
don’t tell you the ‘Why’. As Gretchen
Ramsey, VP, Strategy at Tenthwave,
points out, marketers must also give
people “what they don’t know they need”
and no amount of big data can deduce
that. What is needed is more
ethnographic-based, face-to-face
research to help foster empathy and
which leads to a deeper understand of
the customer.
and to help create content that
resonates
Cutting through will always require
content to be distinctive, but as
mentioned by Bjoern Asmussen at
Oxford Brookes University, it also has to
“resonate with the targeted stakeholders’
needs, interests and/or passions.” As
Kemplewood’s Mark Wood points out, for
any form of branded content to work “it
has to be relevant, useful or entertaining.
Preferably all of those things.”
Brands will still be struggling to
join all the dots
Uroš Goričan at Publicis Slovenija
mentions the continuing problem of
“developing strategies that are truly
aligned with the essence of the brand”
and maintain a common thread that runs
across all media. Perhaps, as Somethin’
Else’s Steve Ackerman predicts, the
brands who’ll succeed will be those that
are best able to define their personalities
as opposed to their marketing objectives.
People will still be sharing content,
and caring more about themselves
than brands
MRY’s David Berkowitz thinks the sharing
of content will continue, with branded
28
Drew Rayman
Managing Partner
Tenthwave
“Being customer-obsessed and
digging deeper allows brands to
out-innovate their competitors by
offering more authentic, relevant
and personal experiences.”

30. content being a “relatively small but a
relatively important part of the mix”
because “people care more about
themselves than they do brands.”
Where consumers go, brands will
continue to follow
One thing that isn’t going to change is
the need for brands to connect with
people who buy their products and
services. At the same time, David
Berkowitz points out that people won’t
stop “shifting to new media properties
and platforms”, as we have seen with the
take up of Snapchat and Whatsapp.
particularly with video-based
branded content
Leo Liang at Youku Tudou Inc in China
thinks that people will still enjoy more
user-generated content (UGC) and semi-
UGC content, but there will be more
possibilities for them “to watch, share
and even shoot videos at any time and
any place”.
This is a driver for the prediction from
Patricia Weiss of the BCMA’s South
American Chapter that branded video
content will continue as the main form of
branded content to reach audiences on
social media.
But old media habits will continue
to die hard
Patricia Weiss also thinks traditional
advertising will still get the biggest share
of marketing budgets. She does,
however, think that advertising is likely to
become more entertaining and story-
based, even if it will still be used for the
most part to push products in the more
traditional way.
Pereira & O'Dell's chief creative officer PJ
Pereira reminds us that what also won't
change is “consumers' rejection of
irrelevant interruptive advertising.” But as
the strategist Sarah Farrugia points out,
this sadly won’t stop those who continue
“to blast branded content into the world
to bore/titillate people in ever more inane
ways.”
and we’re about to be deluged by
more crap
In the digital domain, Forrester’s Ryan
Skinner still sees marketers obsessing
over Google and that the vast majority of
content marketing won’t be very good.
That’s more delicate than his former boss
Doug Kessler at Velocity Partners who
warns that as “every B2B brand turns to
content marketing, we're about to be hit
by a deluge of... “crap”.”
Experts will continue to disagree
about what the future holds
Interestingly, the BCMA’s Chairman
Morgan Holt doesn’t imagine any
dramatic reinvention of the branded
content business model. He thinks “the
players know who they are, the value
they get from it, and how to work
together.” He also sees the model as
being “an extension of advertising”.
29

31. particularly whether we’ll figure out
the secret of branded content
success
Sandra Freisinger-Heinl from Branded
Entertainment Online (BEO) thinks we’re
currently living in a world of “branded
entertainment cocktails” with “a dash of
content, a splash of social media, a shot
of digital, laced with a pinch of music.”
However, Sandra predicts that on the
horizon is a basic formula available “to the
tastes of every single target group”. This is
similar to Joanna Scarratt’s prediction
about how the “art of branded content will
be as rigorously understood in terms of
effective consumer engagement as TV
commercials are now.”
That seems unlikely if, as Doug Scott at
OgilvyEntertainment predicts, “everything
we know today about branded content will
change; the only thing that will remain
constant is the desire for good stories.”
It’s a view supported by Michael Reeves at
Red Bee Media, who says there will be an
“essential need for branded content to
tell a gripping story, irrespective of the
gadgets and devices used to tell the
tale.” Tony Chow at What’s Your Story Inc
in Singapore, adds that what will also
remain “constant is the customer will
always be the hero of the story.”
So it looks like we’ll still have a lot
of figuring out to do
In this book’s introduction the Best of
Branded Content Marketing: 10th
Anniversary Edition, Doug Scott talks
about the branded content industry being
in an adolescent phase. But it might be
worth thinking about the prediction by
Frank PR’s Graham Goodkind about a
time not too far in the future “where
consumers get so savvy, aware and cute,
that the only way to interact is via more
and more discontinuous thinking and
disruptive techniques.” Whatever the
future holds, I predict that there’s still
going to be a lot of figuring out to do.
30
Ryan Skinner
Senior Analyst –
Content Marketing,
Forrester Research
“Within the next five years the
world of content marketing will
be turned upside down, even if
businesses are still practicing it
(and to a greater degree than
today). Only 10-15% will regularly
practice content marketing really
well. And people still won’t be
really satisfied with the word
‘content’ or the expression
‘content marketing’.”

32. SECTION 5
About The Report
This report into the future of branded content marketing will also be published as a standalone
paper. It is part of an ongoing project that Justin Kirby started in 2002 when he set up an
international discussion forum where hundreds of marketing practitioners and academics shared
their knowledge, opinions and experiences of contemporary and emerging marketing and media
trends over several years.
The forum activity led to the creation of the 2005 book 'Connected Marketing: The Viral, Buzz
and Word of Mouth Marketing Revolution’, and it informed Justin’s ongoing investigation into the
future of branded content marketing in collaboration with industry experts, which he curates
annually in partnership with the BCMA. The first annual report was published in 2013 in the pilot
edition of the ‘Best of Branded Content Marketing’ with the full contributions curated at
Afluxstate.com.
Over 60 industry experts around the globe participated in the outreach from which this year’s
report was compiled. You can read their full contributions and keep up with the ongoing report
series at Afluxstate.com.
To participate in this series or send us your feedback about the predictions, please email Justin.
ABOUTTHEREPORT

33. Steve Ackerman, Managing Director, Somethin' Else (UK)
Bjoern Asmussen, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Oxford Brookes University (UK)
Paul Bay, Founder, Citizenbay
Robert Bean, Founder, Robert Bean Branding (UK)
David, Berkowitz, Chief Marketing Officer, MRY (USA)
Daniel Bô, CEO and founder of QualiQuanti, and author of Brand Content, and
Brand Culture (France)
Idil Cakim, analyst and author of Implementing Word of Mouth (USA)
Andrew Canter, CEO, BCMA (UK)
Dave Chaffey, CEO, Smart Insights
Tony Chow, Media Consultant and Chief Storyteller at What’s your Story Inc
(Singapore)
Chris Clarke, Chief Creative Officer, at DigitasLBi (UK)
Minter Dial, Professional Speaker, Consultant & Coach and Brand & Digital
Marketing Strategist (France/UK)
Scott Donaton, Chief Content Officer, UM (USA)
Sarah Farrugia, Thinker, Strategist, Progressive at Sarah Farrugia &
Company (UK)
Tim Foley, MD, pointlogic (UK)
Sandra Freisinger-Heinl, Journalist at Branded Entertainment Online (BEO) and
Managing Director at MA Media Agency (Germany)
Max Garner, Managing Partner at Aegis Media (UK)
Samantha Glynne, Managing Partner at Publicis Entertainment (UK)
Jan Godsk, Founder Ideatakeaway and Chairman, BCMA Scandinavia (Denmark)
Graham Goodkind, Founder, Frank PR (UK)
Chris Gorell Barnes, CEO, Adjust Your Set™ (UK)
Uroš Goričan, Creative director at Publicis Slovenija (Slovenia)
Morgan Holt, Chairman at the BCMA (UK)
Melissa Hopkins, Global Head of Brand MarComms at Vodafone (UK)
Katy Howell, CEO, immediate future (UK)
Jason Hughes, Head of Branded Content & Product Placement, Sky MEDIA (UK)
Stan Joseph, CEO, Ochre Moving Pictures (South Africa)
Doug Kessler, Founder, Velocity Partners (UK)
James Kirkham, Global Head: Social & Mobile at Leo Burnett (UK)
Charlene Li, co-author of the bestseller Groundswell, author of the New York
Times bestseller Open Leadership, and Founder of Altimeter Group (USA)
Leo Liang, Senior Director of National Business Development, Youku Tudou Inc
(China)
John McDermott, Author, Digiday (USA)
Sean McKeown, Commercial Director, Mumbrella Asia (Singapore)
Nick Mercer, Commercial Director at Eurostar (UK)
Doug Neisser, Founder & CEO at Renegade (USA)
32
REPORT CONTRIBUTORS

34. Karen Pearson, CEO and Founder of Folded Wing (UK)
PJ Pereira, Chief Creative Officer, Pereira & O'Dell (USA)
Gretchen Ramsey, VP, Strategy at Tenthwave (USA)
Drew Rayman, Managing Parter, Tenthwave (USA)
Crispin Reed, Managing Director, Fusion Learning ((UK))
Michael Reeves, Business Development Director, Red Bee Media (UK)
Chantel Rickards, Head of Programming/Branded Content EMEA at MEC (UK)
Sander Saar, Product Manager, AOL
Joanna Scarratt, Head of Brand Partnership at United Agents (UK)
Eric Schwamberger, Strategy Partner, Tenthwave (USA)
Doug Scott: President, Ogilvy Entertainment (USA)
Chris Sice, Managing Director at Blended Republic (UK)
Ryan Skinner, Senior Analyst - Content Marketing, Forrester Research (UK)
Chris Smith, Business development director at Romelle Swire (UK)
Stewart Thomson, ex-Research Director at Ipsos MORI, Media CT Division (UK)
Jadis Tillery, Social Media Strategist and Speaker (UK)
Stephen Waddington, CIPR President Elect, Director of Ketchum Europe and
author of Brand Anarchy and #BrandVandals (UK)
Kami Watson Huyse, CEO, Zoetica (USA)
Patricia Weiss, Chairman & Founder, BCMA South America; CSO, Wanted
Agency; SVP Strategic Consultant for Branded Content, Branded Entertainment &
Transmedia Storytelling, ASAS da Imaginaçaõ (BRAZIL)
Mark Welland, Founder at New Media Works (UK)
Mark Wood, Partner at Krempelwood (UK)
Sarah Wood, COO, Unruly (UK)
Barney Worfolk-Smith, Head of Creative Solutions, Unruly (UK)
Ian Wright, Managing Director at Tapestry Research (UK)
Mario Yiannacou, Media & Advertising Manager at ISBA (UK)
33