Content marketing has been around for centuries. In fact, you could even say that early cave paintings as far back as 4200 BC were a form of content marketing. Still, it has only really become popular over the last century or so.
By 1895 John Deere had launched a customer magazine and in 1904 Jell-o launched a recipe book. In 1922 Sears launched a radio program and by the 1930’s radio soap operas were filling the airwaves.
By the 1980’s, comics, such as G.I. Joe and Lego Bricks Kicks were common. By 1996 Xerox was offering web conferences and by 2001, some 20 billion dollars was being spent at Custom Content.
In 2004 Microsoft launched the first major corporate blog. Honestly, I am a bit surprised it took so long! Still, by this time companies began to take content marketing more seriously. By 2010 efforts for content marketing training coalesced in the form of the Content Marketing Institute and 25 percent of all marketing budgets was being spent on content marketing.
In 2011 content marketers got their very own major industry publication, the Chief Content Marketer. Content Marketing World was also created and Coca Cola actually launched a Content 2020 plan outlining its plans for content marketing over the next decade.
Props to Content Marketing World for putting this together. And if you are interested in Content Marketing, you owe it to yourself to check out this infographic.
