Dive summary:
- Huffington Posts was a pioneer in the sponsored posts trend starting in 2010 and has since built a sponsored content model unlike any other.
- Instead of creating content for brands, Huffington Post draws on it's pool of articles (approximately 1,600 new a day) and presents relevant pieces in a brand-owned environment allowing the brand to position itself as a thought leader.
- The unique model is working; for example, Cisco experienced a surge of 10 million Twitter followers and 20 million Twitter impressions in just the first 10 days of sponsoring content with Huffington Post.
From the article:
"Another example is Johnson & Johnson’s Global Motherhood campaign. The brand launched an editorial section on the site devoted to maternal health and the publication tapped into the types of editorial around the topic, letting Johnson & Johnson showcase its leadership. In the first three months of the dedicated site, which has a blend of Johnson & Johnson-created content, as well as content culled from around the Web by Huffington Post staffers, there were 4.3 million unique visitors and more than 570,000 social interactions on Facebook and Twitter."