Content is hard. Every year, the bar for coverage-worthy content rises.
Not so long ago we were churning out infographics, building links in their hundreds with relatively modest budgets.
Having a novel format of content to rely on that could carry an uninspiring idea to success was good while it lasted, but those days are long gone. Us content marketers are a persistent bunch, though. We don’t need a fancy format to lean on. We’re better than that.
These days, in order to consistently create successful content pieces, you need to consistently come up with extraordinary ideas. There are no shortcuts or magic bullets.
Unfortunately, these extraordinary ideas very rarely fall into your lap, and in order to discover these extraordinary ideas, you first need to find inspiration.
Content, Curated. is a monthly newsletter that highlights exceptional content, must-read articles, people worth following and more.
If you’re already subscribed, thank you! If you’re not and you work in the field of content marketing, be sure to sign up to receive a monthly shot in the arm full of juicy ideas to s̶t̶e̶a̶l̶ inspire and inform your future campaigns.
Made something you’re proud of? I’d love to see it! Send it over to markprtr@gmail.com 💌
Must-see Content 👀
The Largest Vocabulary in Hip Hop 🎤
One of The Pudding’s most successful pieces, The Largest Vocabulary in Hip Hop, was recently updated with 75 additional artists. Originally posted in 2014, the interactive now ranks over 140 artists based on the size of their vocabulary.
Discovered via The Pudding’s Twitter account 🕵️
The Lifespan of News Stories 📰
The Lifespan of News Stories is a stunningly designed look at how long news remains in the public eye, grouped by topic, including where stories originate and how they spread.
Discovered via Imperica’s Newsletter, Web Curious🕵️
When the Too-early Bird Sings 🐦
Ignoring the earlier scathing comments about infographics.. they can of course still work well if the data lends itself well to the format. The above piece looks at how disruptive artificial lighting can be to songbirds.
Discovered via Visualising Data🕵️
Sydney Opera Alternative Designs 🐨
The original competition to design the Sydney Opera House received a staggering 223 entries, and the above piece visualises what some of these designs would have looked like today through the use of 3D renders.
Discovered via Gisele Navarro 🕵️
Top 50 Tech-Friendly Airlines ✈️
Indexes have worked well over the last year or so, and are a great way to take existing data and blend it into something new. This piece looking at the best tech friendly airline stretches across two big niches: travel and technology, maximising outreach potential.
Discovered via Patrick Langridge 🕵️
More Great Content…
- Illustration of how the UK generates, and uses, electricity ⚡
- Illustration of how razor thin supermarket profit margins are in the UK using Tesco Annual Financial Report 💸
- Best Friends Forever: Monica’s Apartment Through the Decades 🚪
- A Visual Compendium of Sitcom Sofas 🛋️
- Experience the Night Watch 🎨
- The Cost of Downtime for the Top US Ecommerce Sites 💵
- myeu.uk – What has the EU done for your area? 🌍
- Top 15 BEST global brands ranking for the last 19 years 📈
- Urban Scrawl – “We asked 100 people to draw the first thing that came to mind when they thought of different cities around the world” ✏️
- The Gyllenhaal Experiment 🎥
- Country Colourscapes 🌈
PR Stunts
The below campaigns may not have been intentional PR stunts, however they did attract substantial attention from the media. Being February, there was obviously a bit of a theme 💗
Quit Bugging Me by El Paso Zoo
Looking for a way to help you let go of that resentment? El Paso’s ‘Quit Bugging Me’ event offered you the chance to name a cockroach after your ex, before watching it get devoured by Meerkats via webcam. Crunchy.
Edit My Ex
Travelling the world with the one you love is an amazing experience, however if things turned south you may be left with hundreds of photos that fill you with bitterness as opposed to wanderlust. Edit My Ex is a specialist service that meticulously photoshops your ex out of your snaps, so you can then use that picture of you in front of Angkor Wat as your new tinder profile pic.Notable coverage includes E! News, Marie Claire, Heart, and breakfast TV in NZ.
Refrigerdating
Samsung’s Refrigerdating service helps you find love based on the contents of your fridge. It’s definitely one of those ideas where they thought of the name first and went from there, but it still sparked over 200 pieces of coverage in a very short period of time.
Must-read Articles ☕
Below are several articles that are absolutely worthy of a read during your coffee break:
- How to gather data to craft newsworthy stories 📊 by Alex Andrews
- What’s This Digital PR Thing That Everyone Says You Need?📣 by Gisele Navarro
- Your Friendly Guide to Colours in Data Visualisation 📈 by Lisa Charlotte Rost
- My disabled son’s amazing gaming life in the World of Warcraft 🕹️ by Vicky Shaubert (not strictly content marketing related, but a stunning read.)
- Research: What content actually performed in 2018 🔬 by Kirsty Hulse
- We Analyzed 912 Million Blog Posts. Here’s What We Learned About Content Marketing 📈 by Brian Dean
- Advanced Linkbuilding: How to Find the Absolute Best Publishers and Writers to Pitch 🎯 by Kristin Tynski
Must-follow Marketer 👑
Who:Gisele Navarro, Operations Director at NeoMam Studios.
Why: Gisele regularly shares insightful and actionable information, such as the aforementioned article, that is essential reading if you work in content. NeoMam are refreshingly transparent about the way they do things, and I’m sure their content will continue to make regular appearances within this newsletter.
More recently Gisele has been voicing her concerns about the SEO industry as a whole.
👉 Follow 👈
To Conclude
So there you have it, the first issue of Content, Curated. If you’ve enjoyed this but aren’t currently subscribed, please consider doing so, and I’d love to hear any thoughts you have in general on Twitter, or via email: mark.porter@screamingfrog.co.uk.
Shares are also very welcome!
Cheers,
Mark.