St. Joseph Media’s new content division, Strategic Content Labs, has entered a strategic partnership with Montreal-based social media performance measurement provider Engagement Labs.
Doug Kelly
Strategic Content Labs publisher/managing director Doug Kelly played a key role in bringing the two companies together. He worked with Engagement Labs while he was publisher of the National Post and is a fan of the company’s approach to social media engagement.
“There’s just a real meeting of the minds in terms of the philosophy and the advantage of a broader social structure,” said Kelly. “They’re a good group to work with, they do good work and there’s also some alignment on what sectors are right for development.”
The partnership will see Strategic Content Labs create branded content, while Engagement Labs will use its proprietary analysis tools to distribute the content to appropriate audiences and measure its impact.
“What we’re building here is a content and strategy operation, and the two companies working together allows us to create the content and systematically seed it out there,” said Kelly.
St. Joseph launched Strategic Content Labs in January with a stated objective of creating a “dynamic mix” of articles, info-graphics, images, illustrations, videos and events for clients. This content will be strategically seeded to target communities, who are funneled towards a client or sponsored site offering a richer content experience.
Strategic Content Labs’ primary emphasis is on clients in the energy and financial services sectors. The latter is a particularly strong candidate, said Kelly, because of its expertise in multiple areas, such as mortgages, personal finance and wealth management.
Strategic Content Labs currently has its first contract with an undisclosed company in the manufacturing sector, and Kelly said that content could begin hitting the market within the next few weeks. The company is also involved in several major pitches, he said.
After spending 23 years in the newspaper industry with the Post and Financial Post, Kelly says he has been re-invigorated by the switch to the content marketing space, and is enthusiastic about Strategic Content Labs’ prospects.
