August  8, 2011
iCrossing’s Live Media Studio to Turn Brands into Storytellers

@Hearst: What’s your view on the trend of brands acting more like publishers?

Tarah Feinberg: For a long time, we’ve lived in a world where brands engaged in marketing that was very one-way—it was, “This is our message. This is our product. This is what you should believe.” We now live in a world where we have much savvier consumers who have access to a wider range of information. Now CMOs know that they have to be content publishers in order to provide a higher value to their audiences other than information about their products. But the dilemma is that they’re having a really hard time building and managing a publishing operation because they’ve never done it before.

@Hearst: Given today’s digital media landscape, what role does real-time play in crafting content for a brand?

Feinberg: Real-time marketing boils down to understanding the needs of a brand and its audience at any given moment. We might broadcast different content in the morning than in the evening, on a Monday than we do on a Saturday. It’s about making sure that our client’s communications are always as relevant as possible. We can measure how the content is performing and take immediate feedback from the communities, which means that we are constantly improving the experiences on an ongoing basis.

@Hearst: What are clients hoping to achieve?

Feinberg: As a baseline, we know that we’re talking about products or services and selling something. But what brands are now looking to accomplish with the Live Media Studio is to build advocacy around their offerings in the marketplace so that they’re not just talking about themselves—they want the world talking about them. If a brand can compel someone to sing its praises, it’s been proven by research that that person’s social network is more likely to buy that product than if they just hear a message from the brand.

Tarah Feinberg

@Hearst: How will iCrossing’s partnership with Hearst influence the Live Media Studio?

Feinberg: We are very fortunate to be a part of Hearst because it allows us to leverage its state-of-the-art creative resources, including all of the in-house production capabilities and a network of freelance writers. Hearst has some amazing thought leaders in so many different categories, including fashion, automotive, and finance, which overlap with our client roster. When working with a publication, we can use archived content or co-create it with our clients.

iCrossing is disproportionately competitive compared to other agencies because of our partnership with Hearst. Virtually no one else in this space has the amazing mix of incredible content creation, editorial capabilities and marketing acumen. All of these aspects that Hearst specializes in have amplified our studio operations.

@Hearst: Tell me about your role as senior director of the Live Media Studio.

Feinberg: My outward-facing role is to convey the vision and the offerings that we are bringing to other departments at iCrossing, to Hearst properties, and to our clients so there’s a unified voice about the Live Media Studio. The other part of my role is to offer operational guidance, drive the creative product and help the studio continue to evolve its mission and value of content and communities.

@Hearst: What does the addition of the Live Media Studio suggest about iCrossing’s future?

Feinberg: It’s a natural evolution for the agency. The Live Media Studio shows how iCrossing has always been at the forefront of digital marketing. When the company was founded, we were really ahead of the curve for search—we were doing search marketing before Google was “Google.” We innovated in that area, but since then the digital space has progressed to more than that. And while our search and paid media offerings are still very strong, we’ve identified that the future of marketing is about using real-time and rich content that is rooted in a brand.

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Watch a video of iCrossing leaders talking about the significance of their Live Media Studio.