The other night, while coming home from work, I picked up the London Evening Standard and stumbled upon Gideon Spanier's wonderfully comprehensive article entitled "Advertising and content collide as digital blurs rules." As the digital content curator of M&M, I could not have come across a more pertinent article to what I do. Although everything Spanier discusses in the article was deeply analysed at the Festival of Media in spectacular Montreux this year, this read honed it all in for me.

Today's digitally savvy audience see right through traditional advertising. So how can brands cut through the clutter and still touch their audiences? Spanier says that in today's world "[it's] not just advertising around the content but being part of it." Shane Smith, founder of Vice, says "We say every brand has to think of itself as a media brand." And so editorial becomes marketing and marketing becomes editorial. The lines are indeed blurred.

The next day, as I sifted through the news to tweet about, I discovered that BBH's Mark Boyd and Drum's PHD's Mark Eaves are launching a new creative company, Gravity Road. Boyd appropriately says, "We launched Gravity Road as a reaction to clients who wanted bigger, longer term ideas built around quality content that has a clear purpose." Curated content is definitely king, as Shane Smith has said. People love a good story, and if they can truly engage with it, they don't seem to care if it's an advert or not. "Is it an ad? Is it content? It doesn't really matter," says Clive Dickens, Absolute COO. 

As a recent hire, part of the discussion has been about where exactly my role sits within the company. Should the girl in charge of social media be a part of the marketing department? the editorial? Perhaps, if curated content truly is king, a bit of both!

By Juliet Perrachon, as spotted on the M&M Blog.