The Perfect Marketing Strategy for Soap, Soda, and Startups

 Back in the 1930s, a prosperous detergent company based in Cincinnatihad a problem. There was no established, effective way to reach the housewives the company depended on for revenue during the Depression-era decline of the United States economy.

The company decided to innovate by telling these women stories through a newly-commercialized technology called radio. Not just any stories, mind you, but compelling episodic tales of families facing strife, drama, joy and pain – often punctuated with multiple plotlines and cliffhanger endings. That company was Procter & Gamble, which went on to become one of the biggest brand advertisers on the planet. But when it came to this particular channel, P&G was both the media producer and the advertiser.

At the dawn of television in 1952, Procter & Gamble Productions quickly shifted its Guiding Light serial from radio to TV, followed by the debut of As the World Turns in 1956. The aptly-named “soap opera” became a staple of American culture and, by the 1970s, the most lucrative television market around.

Fast-forward to the dawn of the newly-commercialized World Wide Web in 1994.

Procter & Gamble’s then chief executive Edwin L. Artzt issued a challenge to members of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. He urged them to understand emerging new media in preparation for consumer change and the brand marketing strategies of the future.

Just as P&G ended its run producing soap operas in 2009, the much larger and broadly-diversified company had another audience to reach, this time to sell Gillette razors, Tag body spray, and Head & Shoulders shampoo.

This audience was the new breed of man who participated more heavily in housework and child-rearing across the board, often while his wife went to work.

P&G’s Man of the House debuted in January of 2011. It’s a multimedia content website providing meaningful tips for men on cooking, family budgeting, parenting, and the ever faithful advice on sex and pleasing women in general.

“This is the 21st-century version of the soap opera,” said Josh Bernoff, senior vice-president at Forrester Research. “It’s information. It’s topical.”

Welcome to the Power of Content Marketing

What P&G Productions did 80 years ago to reach an audience vital to its business is now known as content marketing, and when it comes to promoting products and services online, it’s the most effective alternative to advertising. In fact, many consider it the new advertising, mostly because people don’t perceive it as advertising at all.

That’s why Man of the House works, while P&G television commercials get the Tivo treatment. That’s also why another big dog of brand advertising – Coca Cola – is proclaiming that content marketing will be a significant chunk of itsgo-forward marketing strategy, aimed at doubling worldwide consumption of Coke by the year 2020.

Content marketing went mainstream in 2011 at the enterprise level. CMOs know they need to be doing it, but only a few large companies are finding ways to change from business as usual to the new realities of reaching the empowered, informed, and socially-networked consumer.

Content Marketing Success for Startups

The more interesting use of online content – and the focus of my efforts here at Forbes – is the use of content marketing by startups. Essentially, it’s the idea that a smart startup should think of itself first and foremost as a digital media company, regardless of the eventual product, service, or business model.

h ere are just a few examples:

·         37 Signals bootstrapped a profitable design firm, and then evolved into a mega-profitable software company, thanks to the fanatical following the company built with its Signal vs. Noise blog.

·         Darren Rowse took his passion for photography and created Digital Photography School, a highly-lucrative web community with a diverse collection of revenue streams.

·         My own company, Copyblogger Media, began as a blog and evolved into a multimillion dollar software and training firm, with an initial investment of only $1,000 and my spare time.

The most exciting aspects of the evolving digital media space will come, in my view, from entrepreneurs, not media conglomerates. My goal with this Forbes column is to spark your imagination, arm you with smart tactics and strategies, and hopefully help instigate the next round of new media innovation.