“Everybody judges, all the time. Now, you got a problem with that, you're living wrong.” – Rust, True Detective

If you're like me, you were enthralled by the first season of HBO's True Detective. And because of the way the show is structured, there was a definitive end to the story for the characters portrayed by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.

Online content marketing is more like this kind of finite serial drama than you might think. You need prospects with problems and desires to keep coming back until the conclusion, which is doing business with you.

We're suckers for a bit of clever public transport advertising over here at Cream Global but Pepsi Max has just taken it to a whole new level with its latest out-of-home prank.

Picture this. You’re standing at the bus stop waiting patiently for your bus to arrive when all of sudden, through the other side of the bus shelter you see an alien ship come down from space, a killer robot on a rampage, comets flying everywhere, monsters appearing from the ground or a tiger on the loose running towards you? What would you do?

“To build important companies, the best people live in the future and then fix its problems.” - Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator.

Content marketing, branded content, native advertising...whatever you choose to call it, it has become one of the fastest growing parts of the advertising ecosystem. When created with a little art and sophistication it can surprise and delight readers, transcending traditional advertorials and becoming authentic, engaging editorial. Across the media industry, old-school publishers and digital natives are getting into the act.

So now that you've accepted 'native advertising' is hotter to advertisers than cronuts to Manhattan's hippest, let's see if we can shed some light on how to make it engaging - and still keep it classy.

Asia Pacfic’s best agencies and creative media thinking were rewarded this week at the prestigious Festival of Media Asia Pacific Awards 2014 ceremony held on Tuesday 18^th March 2014 in Singapore.

Brilliant media work from across the region in the past 12 months was judged by an independent panel of 18 senior agency heads and global brand marketers, chaired by Andrew Knott, Vice-President - Media and Digital, McDonald’s.

Day 2 at Festival of Media Asia Pacific 2014 saw 'Agility' threaded through a variety of topics - a fitting theme indeed for this year's Festival of Media Asia Pacific as we made our way through discussions on new disruptive technologies, learning from smaller organisations, different working cultures, being responsive and relevant in real-time and optimising the use of technology.

Agility was the hot topic of the day, and talk about it we did, as presenters shared about agile economies, businesses, platforms and content. There is no doubt that brand marketers, agencies and media owners recognise the need to adapt to the fast-changing and evolving media landscape - from traditional broadcasting to native advertising and social storytelling.

“I hate not giving the people what they want” - Robin Thicke, Blurred Lines

The relationship between content and advertising has changed. Before the aughties (or thenoughties as some people prefer to call them), I worked at a traditional print publishing house where the sales and editorial teams didn't interact. The editors didn't want to be tarnished by the salespeople who were out talking and selling directly to brands. I'm overstating this a little for effect, but not by much.

Fast forward to today and I find myself at a modern media company where the editors have a very different view of working with brands. Why? In the digital publishing space, there's no cover price or cover sales and without advertising or branded content, we can't sustain free editorial online. We don't publish a printed magazine on a weekly or monthly basis so have no associated revenues coming in. If we're going to publish great content we need to be able to fund it.

The Festival of Media Global Awards shortlist for 2014 is more global than ever before, with campaigns from top brands in the US, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Sweden and India.

Volvo Trucks and Heineken International are tied for the highest number of shortlisted entries, with each brand up for six different awards. Closely following are Etihad Airways from the UAE, shortlisted for five categories, and Gillette India and Marabou Chocolate of Sweden, with four each.

The Festival of Media Global Awards this year saw a record-breaking number of entries coming from 27 different countries. The UK, the US, and Australia saw the most entries overall this year, while the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore each doubled their number of entries from last year.