3 lessons in branded content from the Associated Press

Marketers strive to be great storytellers.

Those looking to improve their narrative skills would do well to take tips from the Associated Press—one of the world’s foremost news sources.

Paul Caluori, Associated Press global director for digital services, says branded storytelling can be a successful marketer’s most powerful tactic.

“Although it might be weird to hear a 170-year-old organization talking about storytelling lessons, there’s a good history between AP and the PR industry that leads up to that,” he said in his keynote presentation at Ragan’s PR Daily World conference Tuesday in New York.

He added:

One of the most basic ways is through pitching business stories to our journalists. Another is through the delivery of press releases, which we’ve been doing since before there was even an internet to do it on—whether it was with an uppercase or lowercase i.

Over the decades, AP content strategists have used photos, video, press releases and plain text to tell stories. Along the way, they’ve dug deep to find creative ways to put a story in front of an audience.

What have they learned—and how can those lessons help you achieve your branded content goals? Here are some insights.

1. Branded content is still content.