For years B2B marketers have been using thought-leadership content to attract customers and deepen relationships. Companies realized relatively early on that potential customers are very willing to engage with your brand if you are providing them something of value - for free. On the flip side, the effectiveness of traditional marketing was dwindling, and continues to do so.

It's taken a long time for consumer brands to come on board with this tactic. In the past, the new frontier for consumer brands was branded (or unbranded) entertainment. After many years, we’re finally starting to see a shift.

Up until recently, you'd be hard-pressed to find the words "user experience" and "book" in the same sentence. With the Kindle, Amazon was arguably the first company to begin that discussion. Prior to January 27, there was much speculation and anticipation that Apple would open that discussion up more with the introduction of their tablet device, the iPad. Unfortunately, what Apple presented during its much-hyped keynote was more of an incremental step forward in the e-book experience. Why? – The iPad uses the ePub format for books, which doesn't allow for rich media.

Rather than sit idle, publishers are working hard to create custom apps to bring readers the future of the book. Well, that's at least what we were all hoping. This week Penguin Books showcased the first next-gen efforts of the book publishing industry, and all I can say is, "Wow!"

“Surprise” and “delight”: two words that are rarely associated with Microsoft. But that’s just what Microsoft did at the Mobile World Congress this past week in Barcelona. Well, the surprise part, at least.

It seems that marketers are finally starting to realize that delivering valuable, relevant content to consumers has some merit. In truth, this has been going on for years, and I'm surprised that there continues to be a debate about it.

Beyond welcoming content from your brand, today's consumer expects it—whether it comes in the form of how-to guides and videos, a consumer electronics video blog, or an iPhone app that helps you remove stains.

This shift is something that we've been talking about at Sequel for a long time. There's a saying we have when speaking with new clients, "You're now in the content business."