“Content marketing,” is being talked about in what seems like every corner of the planet at the moment. The Google Trends Graph identifies a surge in searches for the phrase recently too.
But content marketing is nothing new. It’s older than me. It’s older than you. It’s older than my Nan and probably even older than her Nan would have been. Maybe. I came across this example about a year ago and it came up in conversation today, so I thought it an example well worth sharing.
This example of content marketing is from Jell-o. Check this “slick” looking thing out:
Back in 1904, Jell-o (which, at the time, was a relatively unknown product and certainly was a far cry from enjoying the brand awareness it enjoys now) started creating and distributing copies of its own recipe book by handing them out door to door. This book had all sorts of recipes that used the Jell-o product in. These were pretty easy recipes and as Jell-o was so cheap, they were cost effective recipes. And you know what? People loved it. So much so that Jell-o still produces these recipes in a digital format today. Check them out for yourself.
In fact, Jell-o credits its distribution of a cook book with over $1 million in sales from 1904 to 1906, launching Jell-o as the household brand it became.
Jell-o produced and distributed useful content to the right audience in the right way at that time.
Sound familiar?
Absolutely, without doubt, my favourite traditional content marketing example to cite. Brilliant.
Now I fancy jelly and ice cream.