I strongly support "adverts" like this and I wish that all companies spent a far higher portion of their marketing budget on creating content like this rather than on targeted advertising.
To me, it seems like a win for everyone.
- I hear about the company while learning something interesting. I'll probably remember their brand.
- The company has people actively searching for and promoting their article (e.g. on HN) instead of trying to bypass or block it with adblockers etc. And this article might bring in leads and sales for them years in future, instead of only while they keep throwing money into adspend.
- A writer who is interested in technology and writing gets paid, instead of that money going to Google / some ad agency who randomly puts levers on and off hoping to make the conversion rate go up.
- An editor, designer, proofreader, technical checker etc etc all get involved (as opposed to a one-person blog piece with a similar goal of "look at this cool thing I made") -- also people I would like to see supported more over ad agencies.
I think (hope) that "marketing as education" -- e.g. actually high quality content that also promotes a specific brand instead of the cheap "content marketing" that so many people are trying now -- will be the future of marketing once people realise they don't want to be tracked so invasively, adblockers get better, laws tighten, etc.
To me, it seems like a win for everyone.
- I hear about the company while learning something interesting. I'll probably remember their brand.
- The company has people actively searching for and promoting their article (e.g. on HN) instead of trying to bypass or block it with adblockers etc. And this article might bring in leads and sales for them years in future, instead of only while they keep throwing money into adspend.
- A writer who is interested in technology and writing gets paid, instead of that money going to Google / some ad agency who randomly puts levers on and off hoping to make the conversion rate go up.
- An editor, designer, proofreader, technical checker etc etc all get involved (as opposed to a one-person blog piece with a similar goal of "look at this cool thing I made") -- also people I would like to see supported more over ad agencies.
I think (hope) that "marketing as education" -- e.g. actually high quality content that also promotes a specific brand instead of the cheap "content marketing" that so many people are trying now -- will be the future of marketing once people realise they don't want to be tracked so invasively, adblockers get better, laws tighten, etc.