St. Joseph Communications launches branded content venture

Douglas Kelly: "turning brands into
multi-platform publishers"

St. Joseph Communications, the publishers of Toronto Life magazine, today ramped up its involvement in the creation of branded content with the launch of a new venture called Strategic Content Labs, headed by Douglas Kelly, former publisher and editor-in-chief of the National Post.

Tony Gagliano, the executive chairman and CEO of St. Joseph said : 

“Content marketing has become a significant component of the marketing mix required to reach and engage consumers in today’s digital reality. It is now a multi-billion dollar category in North America and we see a huge opportunity here.”

The relatively recent developments in closely integrating advertising and marketing messages with traditional editorial (hence "native advertising"),  is exemplified by the creation of this content development and professional services group. (It has also resulted in adoption of sometimes baffling new jargon):

“In this quickly changing media, marketing and communications landscape, it is becoming increasingly clear that relevant and engaging content channeled to a targeted audience helps build and deepen the relationship between a brand and its community,’’ said Kelly [in a release].  “Through best-in-class content, we aim to turn brands into multi-platform publishers and audiences into brand loyalists.’’

“Strategic Content Labs will lead St. Joseph’s entry into this quickly expanding space," said Douglas Knight, the president of St. Joseph's Media Group. "Leveraging our publishing ecosystem insights and award-winning storytelling expertise, under Douglas Kelly’s leadership, we will help marketers, associations and governments achieve measureable results through the adoption of a brand-as-publisher approach to engaging audiences with compelling content.”

“It all starts”, said Kelly, “with listening to our clients and their customers and creating a mix of content distributed and curated across the social spectrum, web and traditional media, supported by state-of-the-art measurement tools to drive measureable results.”