Clorox as Content Curator

There’s a line of thinking that whether they like it or not brands are publishers. Their consumers are seeking them out and content is the currency of social media channels. But many are wary of getting into the messy and expensive world of publishing.

Clorox is taking a different approach. It’s linked up with Federated Media Publishing to “curate” content instead. The effect is much the same: a new site, DailyBuzz Moms, which aggregates content from top mommy bloggers in FM’s stable like Dooce, Rookie Moms and Girls Gone Child while sprinkling in Clorox content in the form of its company blog posts on mom-related topics.

The site is the first of several DailyBuzz sites FM plans to roll out for brands taking this approach. The idea is to combine the honesty of independent Web writers with the brand’s own authority position in the area it occupies.

“It’s engaging with consumers at all points of the conversation from exploration to e-commerce,” said Deanna Brown, CEO of FM. “Advertising and marketing is no longer around sheer disruption of the content experience.”

The test will be whether these brand-backed content sites have legs. Clorox is going easy on branding the site, having its posts mingle with the content from FM authors. There are even other ads on the site. Consumers could be turned off by advertiser content mingling with regular editorial, too.

“They benefit by being in service of the consumer,” Brown said of Clorox. “It’s attracting a broader audience. They’re also learning about what moms are thinking and what they’re talking about.”