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Q2 • 2021


COVER STORY


Make Room, Content; HERE


DATA COMES By Tim Sweeney


Jon Hinderliter’s new book, The Death of Content as King, examines what he says is a once-in-a-generation shift toward a reliance on data that marketers need to fully recognize.


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f you are a marketer or creative who pursued your profession because you wanted nothing to do with statistics


and survey results, the title of Jon Hinderliter’s new book, The Death of Content as King: How a Data Democracy Has Revolutionized Marketing, might not be an enticing choice for your next beach read. But don’t be scared off by the notion of spreadsheets ruining your life. Hinderliter himself says that his book is not about forcing people to fall in love with data, but rather about encouraging them to understand the dominant role it now plays. “It’s less about stopping content creation and


more about knowing what works,” Hinderliter says. “Without data, the marketer risks the chance of missing the consumer and, even worse, not


knowing they missed them. Organizations of any size should start by looking at the data around points of awareness, purchase, and experience.” One of Hinderliter’s main points in the book is that only data can determine the who, what, where, when, and why for content. Content itself cannot tell you about the audience who views, reads, or listens to it; what part of it was consumed by that audience; where the audience was before or after consuming it; when it was consumed; or, most importantly, why the audience cares about it. “The content on the web page as text,


audio, or video can’t answer any of these questions,” Hinderliter writes. “Its only purpose and function is to be consumed. Only data can provide value from the content.”


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