P&G Has A Long History Of Branded Storytelling

Redwood Custom Communications in Toronto is now known as Totem Brand Stories.

Totem likes to refer to its works as “marketing journalism,” which might be problematic for some real journalists with no interest in forwarding brand stories. I like to call this type of work content, or branded content, to be specific. But I digress…
Eric Schneider, CEO of Totem, explains, “As consumers have gained a new level of control of the conversation with brands, there has been an overall recognition that well-constructed content that brings entertainment, solutions and clarity of information has huge value for both the consumer and the marketer. We take our clients’ brands and extend them as media properties, using brand stories as totems for brand communities.”
One of Totem’s model case studies is Rouge magazine, a custom publication developed in Canada in 2005, piloted in the U.S. last year and rolled out to 11 million North American households this year. In addition to the print component Rogue introduces P&G beauty consumers to a broad array of digital content available through a website, social media and e-newsletters.
Like it or not, brands are in the media business today. Some more so than others. As the company that invented soap operas, P&G has been in the media business for decades, so it’s not surprising to see them publish a magazine like this. The question is, is the magazine any good? I haven’t read it, so I do not know. But I have read Travel & Leisure which is published by American Express. It’s pretty good.