It’s hard to plan for the future if you’re not aware of the past. Whether we like it or not, there’s no such thing as a new idea anymore. Everything we do is building upon something that someone else did before us – and we should be fine with that.

And while it’s true that we should try our best to create unique and original content that our followers will engage with, it’s also true that it’s very difficult to create something that isn’t similar to a dozen other pieces on other people’s websites. So instead of trying to put the past behind us, it makes sense to at the very least be aware of it.

That’s why we wanted to take a look at just a few of the classic content marketing campaigns that revolutionised their times – and which can still provide inspiration today.

Jell-O at a Fancy Restaurant

In 1904, Kraft Foods released a range of cookbooks for Jell-O (what British and Australian people call ‘jelly’). It was a shrewd move, because it increased demand for the product – after all, if you wanted to make each of the recipes then you were going to need to buy a lot of Jell-O. It’s a classic example of content marketing and a company that added value to customers while simultaneously boosting sales.

But arguably the finest example of content marketing comes from Michelin, which has been publishing the Michelin Guide since 1900. The guide, which lists the best restaurants and provides people with tips on where to eat, was created to drive demand for new cars – pun intended.

In the year of its publication, there were only 3,000 cars on French roads, which meant that there wasn’t much demand for new tires. Michelin realised that if they wanted to grow their business, they needed more people to drive cars. And how do you get more people to drive cars? Well, releasing a handy guide of all of the fantastic restaurants that are just a short drive away from people was a pretty good start.

These two examples have a lot in common with another classic example of content marketing, the humble soap opera. Soap operas got their name from the fact that in their early days, they were literally sponsored by soap manufacturers to help to get their products in front of housewives. Soap operas, the Jell-O cookbook and the Michelin Guide are all great examples of brands thinking outside the box and spreading the word through content way before the internet even existed.

Conclusion

Nowadays, everyone has a blog site and some social networking accounts, and in many ways that’s become the new norm. If you want to cut through the noise, you need to think outside the box and follow in the footsteps of the early innovators. Your brand has to learn to think like a publisher.

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