339: Leveraging Branded Content, with Jared Merves

There is a lot of confusion about the difference between branded content and native content. Wundervue defines branded content as any sales or marketing initiative that uses content to engage a user, and that is paid for by a client.Jared Merves, Founder of Wundervue, explains how to succeed through storytelling. He believes that branded content is the silver bullet that provides publisher partners a path to revenue and profit growth and the sustainment of quality local journalism. Jared explains how branded content is a full customer journey program that lives in the top-to-middle of the marketing funnel to measure awareness and engagement. A successful branded content initiative is connecting the client to their target audience to demonstrate the value of what they have to offer. Jared Merves is a digital marketer, local advertising expert, and entrepreneur. Jared has more than 13 years of experience driving digital innovation for many of the nation’s largest local media companies. At Wundervue, Jared and his team develop turnkey branded content solutions designed to connect local brands and local audiences. Prior to founding Wundervue, Jared was Chief Digital Officer at Belo+Company, an 80-person digital agency in Dallas, TX. Jared has also held digital leadership roles at The Dallas Morning News, TEGNA and Cars.com. Jared is a featured speaker and panelist on local advertising topics and has served on the Local Media Consortium’s steering committee and Cars.com’s Affiliate Board. He lives in Colorado with his wife, Lisa, and their children, Jack and Birdie - and Crosby, their 135lb Great Pyrenees.Join the Conquer Local Community to take part in the conversation and ask your questions directly to Jared Merves.