Straight Talk About Public Relations, Revised and Updated by Robert Wynne

Author:Robert Wynne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Maven House
Published: 2018-01-21T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 3.1. Baseball card featuring Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers on the front and marketing for Polar Bear Tobacco on the back, circa 1910. An early example of content marketing.

The Baseball Almanac reports that cards became valuable after the turn of the century. “In the T206 set is the famous Honus Wagner card, which is considered the pinnacle of card collecting. According to some historians, Wagner did not want his name on cigarette ads going to kids, so he requested his cards be pulled from the set. Consequently, very few Wagner cards made it into circulation, which makes the T206 Wagner extremely rare. There are other uncommon cards in the set, such as the Eddie Plank, but nothing compares to the scarcity of the Wagner.”

In 2013 a Wagner card sold for $2.1 million at auction.

John Deere

If the tobacco cards are considered advertising or general marketing, then the American tractor company John Deere should be considered the first successful content marketer. And possibly the best.

Deere was an inventor and blacksmith famous for creating the first mass-produced steel plow in 1837. It was hardier and more effective than the iron-and-wood plows commonly used. In 1886 Deere passed away but his company continued to grow.

In 1895, a seminal year for content marketing and John Deere, the company’s marketing team noticed something very important.

“The same kind of customer who would be likely to purchase a combine harvester would probably be interested in new advances in corn planting,” the content marketing firm IMN reported on its website. “So John Deere positioned itself as not only a source of agriculture products, but as a source of agricultural news and information. The company created The Furrow magazine, an agricultural publication full of news, guides, and information for farmers. Calling The Furrow a success would be an understatement; it’s still in circulation to this day, with a subscriber base of over one million farmers in 40 countries.”

Deere sowed the seeds of loyalty by educating its base.

“What made The Furrow so successful was exactly what makes non-marketing publications successful: the strength of the content,” IMN says. “The Furrow became extremely popular in the agricultural community because it offered useful insight, important information, and essential trade news. This wasn’t a glorified advertisement; it was valuable agricultural journalism provided by one of the industry’s top companies. By positioning itself as the publisher, John Deere was able to foster customer loyalty, spread the brand’s message, and gain even more respect and traction in a competitive industry.”

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