First and foremost, entertainment producers should remember that creating high-quality entertainment content is more than just about the quality of the content itself. Research has shown that audience entertainment content forms a very important part of the overall success of any content-based marketing or advertising initiative.

To accomplish this goal, all content-marketing initiatives, including content creation, require an understanding of the overarching goals of the campaign and core audience.

However, for entertainment content to be successful, there is often a difference in perspective between the content creator, or content maven, and the marketing organization. In fact, the latter usually focuses on how to get the most readers, viewers, and listeners to appreciate the content better than the former. In many instances, this can result in mismatched goals and content, which is bad for content and for the brand.

Entertainment Content Marketing

Content marketing is often referred to as content-centric marketing, and the general idea is that content marketing is about creating content for the audience that the organization hopes will perform best. Most consumers might not understand the difference between content marketing and entertainment content marketing, but entertainment is more meaningful when an organization collaborates with the company’s editorial calendar, as well as with other initiatives to expand the reach of the creative output.

In an article on The Media Line, James Wynn, veteran journalist and CEO and President of Wynn Media, noted the importance of content on a content-centric platform as a way to increase visibility for an organization’s brand name, reach the specific audiences, and extend it to other content products.

“This is what (the CEO) should have been hearing from the Department of Entertainment,” explained Wynn. “Just as the CEO has to listen to their marketing team to attract a ‘new audience,’ the CEO of entertainment should have been hearing from the department about what is working and what is not so that we can all work together in alignment.”

Wynn went on to explain that this has always been the best solution to get a content-oriented audience, as opposed to just creating content for an existing audience.

“The secret is developing ‘mass’ content so that you capture the attention of everyone from casual contributors to the diehard audiences,” Wynn emphasized. “This includes both traditional and digital media, entertainment/content production, and content and media distribution channels.”

In an article on the Communications Planner by Dale Smith, he explained the direct links between audience listening and engagement:

“In a typical promotional campaign, this is not a direct relationship – rather, it is the result of targeted messaging. Effectively, the cost of engaging a targeted audience is relatively low. In similar fashion, engagement with a targeted audience is relatively inexpensive. Engagement needs to be a key aspect of any entertainment marketing campaign. In order to have engaged audiences, creators need to ensure that they have a competitive proposition and thoroughly develop a content marketing strategy that engages as many people as possible, while at the same time generating increased awareness and traffic to the content-related website/site.”

Focus on Audience Engagement

Unfortunately, very often, this aspect of content management is an afterthought. For example, some media organizations, most notably TV station owners, often neglect to develop content calendars.

“Audience engagement is an afterthought,” explained Smith. “Programs and sales executives focus exclusively on numbers – ratings, demo ratings, budget ratings, station priority rating points, etc. Audience engagement is rarely addressed in these conversations, which brings me to the key take-away here – schedule content on a weekly basis for the digital platform. Audience engagement must be factored into the planning process when time is of the essence and a weekly schedule is required.”

Despite the fact that audience engagement is an overlooked step in content creation, it shouldn’t be that way. Better content marketing doesn’t just mean that you have to pull together effective content.

In the words of advertising legend Charles Colson, good content is “good enough.” Content marketing is all about using content as a simple form of communication and that involves two things, common sense and audience engagement.