New York, NY (March 25^th, 2015) – Over 100 of the content marketing industry’s major players gathered at the Gansevoort Park Avenue Hotel in New York City on March 22-24 for Content Chaos: Navigating the Path to Engagement, The Content Council’s annual conference.

The event featured high level discussion on the present and future of content and the content marketing industry, examined by keynotes Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post Media Group, Sterling Proffer, VICE Media, Dyllan McGee, MAKERS, Alyson Baer, Twitter and Chris Barth, Contagious. In addition, expert panelists from companies including Google, IBM, Citi, GE, Refinery29, The Weather Company, Condé Nast, Weber Shandwick and more weighed in on the industry’s hottest topics.

“It was a fantastic opportunity to have such a high caliber of speakers consistently presenting sophisticated insights throughout the event,” said Andy Seibert, The Content Council chairman and managing partner, Imprint. “The nature of the event also allowed for a unique chance at in-depth, intimate discussion with these experts.”

Key Takeaways From #ContentChaosNYC

• Authenticity is the name of the game. It’s equally important to believe in your message as it is to be heard. Audiences will immediately see through a disingenuous message, and trust will be lost. Once you lose trust, you lose business.
• Today, it’s not enough just to make a good story – You have to know how to create social buzz. When using a social media influencer, don’t stifle them. Use their voice as much as possible while still aligning with your brand. The brand should define the sandbox and let the influence build whatever sandcastle he / she wants.
• There’s a big difference between just getting eyeballs on your brand and building influence and loyalty. Don’t focus solely on clicks, focus on telling your brand story and building your voice.
• Today, clients are very focused on analytics and measurement in content marketing. Clearly define what you want your content to accomplish. Calculating ROI will follow.
• Set clear guardrails for your brand, defining which conversations and cultural topics are relevant in which to be involved, and follow them strictly.
• Contribute to culture, never extract from it. You can’t force your way into being relevant, you have to earn your way in.
• Consumers want to be entertained, they want to be moved. Understand the emotional potential of your ideas.
• Leverage data to market in the moments that matter. Drive precision in your messaging and timing.
• Practically every brand now wants to be associated with wellness, even if they’re not contributing to wellness. Topics like sleep have moved from the pages of Yoga Journal and Health to the front page of The Wall Street Journal.
• What do all pieces of viral content have in common? No one could have predicted their level of success. Don’t set out to go viral, focus on what your audience is engaged with, what would add value to their lives and how your brand can provide it.
• Brands and publishers are taking risks, getting weird with their content and it’s working for them.
• There was more content created yesterday than a single person could consume in their entire lifetime, and there’s so much junk out there. Brands putting themselves on Instagram or Pinterest just to be there are making a mistake; have a defined strategy and know where you’re most valuable.
• B2B content has to be just as engaging and relevant as B2C – Businesses are also people.
• GenY has come of age during a simultaneous crisis of information and liberation of information. They don’t belong to one clique or one mindset; they can feel fractured and confused. To appeal to GenY, help them make sense of the world.

The Content Council’s latest research, conducted in conjunction with Advertising Age, was also a focus at the event. The full study, which focuses on the state of the content marketing industry and paints a positive picture for the discipline’s future, will be made available to members this Friday, April 3, and available for non-members to purchase at the end of April. Initial results were released via white paper of March 2 and can be downloaded free of charge here.