Interactive Content Helps Clear Marketing Clutter

As the end of the calendar year approaches, marketers are either formulating or finalizing their plans for next year, and those plans are set to include more content. Nearly 70 percent of marketers plan to increase the amount of content they produce in the upcoming year, taking the form of blog posts, infographics, eBooks, white papers, reports, and webinars. Nearly a third of marketers are planning to produce significantly more content. According to Scott Brinker, as posted on venturebeat.com, there is already an overwhelming amount of content out there creating clutter and preventing businesses from being able to distinguish themselves in the digital world. But if marketers are planning to increase their content in the coming year, and there is already too much content out there, this seems like a vicious cycle of continually adding to the content chaos.

Brinker suggests a solution. The current scope of content marketing is too mundane, he believes. He argues for the need for less “passive” marketing and more interactive. He isn’t the only one who thinks interactive content is the next great thing in the marketing world. Mary Meeker of KPCB, in her report on Internet Trends, detailed how interactive content has taken the reins online, with her prime example being the interactive quizzes that BuzzFeed runs. Although BuzzFeed’s interactive content can be classified as “low-brow entertainment,” 40 million views on a “which state do you belong in” quiz is pretty significant.

The New York Times posted an interactive quiz last year around this time (check out the link here, it’s actually a fun quiz). This was the most emailed and most viewed article for the New York Times. Other interactive quizzes and content from earlier in 2014 have also generated unprecedented traffic. A Slate quiz to “Travoltify Your Name” (this one is a great one, too) was viewed by more than 9.5 million unique users, making it the most viewed article in Slate’s 18-year history, causing Skate’s editor, David Plotz to only be able to describe his feelings as “bemused.”

Interactive content clearly has a history of driving unprecedented numbers. And, with most marketers planning to increase their content in the coming year, creating content that strays from the usual might be just the thing to separate from the clutter.