Content

Definitions

Content is text & (moving) image with which an organization sends out a message, online and offline, consciously and unconsciously.

Content marketing is the creation of text and (moving) images, in order to consciously send a message, online and offline, with the aim of influencing target groups of a company (or organization). (See also Content Marketing.)

Content strategy is the plan behind sending a message, online and offline.

Branded content:

• Content from a Brand, published on paid and earned media.
• It is clear that the content comes from the brand.
• Packaged as editorial content.
• Replacement for advertising.

Total Content

Content plays the senses and can make the target audience love the sender.

Total Content. In addition to text & (moving) images, Total Content also consists of all other channels (such as sound, smell, touch, etc.) with which senses can be played, and with which an organization sends out a message, online and offline, consciously and unconsciously. (See also: Total Content and the Creative Industry.)

For example, a product can send a message of quality through its weight, how it feels and sounds to press buttons, etc.

Content is the surface, meaningless and unfocused.

Content is the content of the media. But Content is only the surface, it is meaningless and unfocused in itself.

The meaning of Content is the Message. The Message is on the one hand the meaning that the Recipient gets from the Content, on the other hand the Message is the meaning that the Sender puts into it (consciously and unconsciously).

The Message is therefore targeted: on the one hand from the Sender to the Recipient, on the other hand the meaning the Recipient obtains from the Content.

Sender (S) sends the Message (X) and pre-packages it in Content in a Medium; the Recipient (R) perceives the Content and extracts a Message from it.

Gap: inside-out vs. outside-in / strategy vs. execution

When you are developing content there is a gap:

• On the one hand, you have to make a translation from the brand’s strategy: what does the brand want to say about itself now and over a longer period of time (how does it want to profile and position itself).
• On the other hand, you have to grab and hold the reader’s attention, so you have to bring a story that is in demand. And that at the right time, in the right form (content) and via the right channel.

This is about the gap of inside-out vs. outside-in thinking. In this case, that’s about the same as the gap strategy vs. execution. That is strategic level on the one hand versus tactical level and operational level on the other.