Branded Content Project interview: Creating a Brand Studio
our craft
Foundry425 Creative Director Sean Haley and Creative Accounts Supervisor Jenny Johnson recently sat down with the Branded Content Project to discuss how local media outlets can create their own brand studios.
The Branded Content Project is a partnership between organizations including Local Media Association, Local Media Consortium, and Facebook Journalism Project.
The initiative helps outlets produce better branded content and find new ways to engage with advertisers and their audiences.
When it comes to building an authentic brand Foundry425, Jenny said the agency wanted to use the name recognition and credibility of the Star Tribune to their advantage. But differentiating branded content from the newspaper is important, too.
"When we were thinking of our logo and thinking of our brand we thought about, ‘Okay what can we do to still link us to the Star Tribune but also differentiate ourselves enough so we're not considered a newspaper?’” Jenny said.
So what kind of content can Foundry425 create for those unique brand experiences? The agency offers everything from written content, infographics, animation, and even video games, Sean said.
And showing potential advertisers all these capabilities starts with establishing a name and presence for the agency. This means using many of the same capabilities clients might use, including search engine marking, social media and other digital tactics to get in front of advertisers.
“We’re building, much like we would for our advertisers, the same type of promotional plan because we want to feed our pipeline with some good leads,” Jenny said.
