The chief reason Adobe's CMO.com is among the web's best branded content titles is its chief editor, Tim Moran.
When it comes to repulsing over-eager marketers, he's combat hardened, thanks to 20 years' experience as a trade editor.
Moran has kept Adobe's marketers from meddling with the corporate blog—without resorting to hands-off policies.
Moran has kept Adobe's marketers from meddling with the corporate blog—without resorting to hands-off policies.
"We don’t have any official or formal policies about church-and-state," he told Velocity.
"The traditional marketers at Adobe have simply come to realize that CMO.com’s job is not to push brand or sell products—there are many other places for that to be done within and around Adobe. They understand our role as the purveyor of thought leadership and insight and have been quite clever about finding ways to get the Adobe POV across on the site in ways that are perfectly acceptable to our media image."
Adobe bought Moran's blog six years ago because it wanted to become a thought leader.
Moran has made it clear to marketers in the meanwhile thought leadership is different from lead generation, and that the two don't mix.
If you want to understand the difference, check out The CMO's Guide to Brand Journalism, courtesy of Hubspot.
