By Darren Gilbert

Congrats on your handful of accolades at the Pearl and CMA Awards. How proud are you right now?

I am incredibly proud of the Fresh Living team, led by their inimitable and talented editor, Justine Drake. They work extremely hard and every single piece of content (whether in the pages of the magazine or online) is crafted with passion and care. Both sets of awards have very strict criteria in that the publisher needs to not only show strategic insights and beautiful content but also prove that the content is effective.

The fact that we won so many awards is a true testament that we are achieving all of that for Pick n Pay. Awards in and of themselves are not everything, but it means a great deal to see our hard work being recognised internationally against tough competition. It also gave us an excuse to drink a lot of champagne.

Does winning these awards affect the way John Brown Media goes about its work?

We will simply carry on doing exactly what we always do, and recognise that whilst we are incredibly grateful for the awards, next year there will be other deserving winners. At the end of the day, our success as a business is about the effectiveness of the content we produce and the ROI for our clients. So it’s business as usual, with a healthy dose of inspiration for the year ahead.

What do you believe are the reasons behind your success with Pick n Pay’s Fresh Living brand?

There are a number of reasons: first and foremost is having a client that trusts us implicitly and has done from the start. There is an incredible mutual respect and understanding and a true partnership.

Secondly, our approach at John Brown is to employ the best editorial and design talent, and the team is highly passionate about what they do. The content in Fresh Living, regardless of platform, is hardworking in that it is accessible, useful and inspiring. Justine guards her editorial (in terms of tone of voice and approach) and always has the customer’s best interests at heart. She really knows her audience and they respond to her, and ultimately buy more product as a result.

Finally, as with all our clients, we put measurables in place to ensure that we can show that our work leads to results.

In your opinion, what are the key principles to creating great branded content?

I am a bit concerned about the terms “branded content” or even “content marketing” in that so many agencies and companies are already doing it and have done so forever. So whilst this is true for ad agencies, PR agencies and certain brands, it does not adequately portray what we do at John Brown and agencies like ours.

I like to think of what we do as “editorialised branded content” or, as I heard a speaker say at the Pearl Awards (and need to steal it), “branded journalism”. The latter epitomises what it is we do and differentiates our work against other modalities.

Our principles are simple:

  • Hire the best editorial talent to craft your content;
  • Place the customer at the heart of your offering and produce content that resonates with them on the platform of their choice; and
  • Work hard to establish a relationship of trust and become a partner to your client. 

Whether one is producing content for a staff magazine, fashion or food retailer or in the motoring or telecoms sector, regardless of budget or platform, the same principles should always apply.

What are the main challenges that you’ve faced in creating great branded content?

The biggest challenge we face is when a client “directs” editorial and creative to such an extent that the end product is diluted in terms of quality and value to the reader or customer. Luckily this seldom happens, but when it does, we work really hard to ensure we understand the client’s brand and objectives and win their trust by gently pushing back. Once the results are evident and customers start responding, this usually resolves itself.

Another challenge is where there is siloed thinking in an organisation and little or no communication between departments. For example, brand marketing doesn’t talk to PR and they don’t talk to the social media team etc, and we get a series of mixed messages and unclear briefs. This, however, presents an opportunity for us to play the role of “Chief Content Officer” and become an enabler of thinking about content marketing/branded journalism, challenge internal barriers and bring about a consolidated fresh approach that leads to a single-minded strategy.

We are playing this key role for many clients globally.

What is on the agenda for the company in 2017?

We have some exciting new initiatives which we look forward to launching in the first quarter of 2017. What is great is that of the six awards we won, four were for multi-channel or digital work. We have always been a multi-channel content provider and we are going to further maximise our expertise and effectiveness in this space.

Next year, John Brown SA celebrates its 10th birthday and it feels like we are only getting started …

For more information, visit www.johnbrownmedia.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.