We’re finally living in the future.

I remember issues of Wired when Kevin Kelly was editing back in the mid 90s that predicted brands would return to their role as publishers. Godin was right: The past few decades of mass marketing through fewer channels was the anomaly.

But you return to your roots changed. Brands have forgotten how to act as publishers because they’ve been renting the expertise for so long. It's no surprise most advertisers are flummoxed by the never-sated maw of social and struggle to proportion resources across strata of broadcast, online, print, physical and events. It’s hard to think, much less act, like something you haven't been in almost a century.

How to spend the money? That’s always been the question. How to split the pie between paid media or your own infrastructure (to distribute your content), production (of your content), licenses and fees (of content elements) and (heaven forbid) on talent to figure out the idea behind the content.

I’m energized by a conversation I had last week with Darryl Ohrt about his shop Mash+Studio. We had been talking about this brands-as-publisher evolution way back at the Blogger Social conference in 2008. Darryl gets it, and his new shop is going to thrive.

Because there's a space now -- between the ad agencies trying to move from (relatively) expensive TV commercial-centric staffing, fees and production process and the PR firms moving from their (relatively) less expensive text-centric, reputation-management models. Never mind the tech/SEM-centric digital shops. All sides are trying to become more nimble in their own ways. All are trying to be more like the others.All sides are trying to figure out how to retain revenues and relationships while morphing themselves into network TV newsrooms. Always on. Always shipping. Always listening and reacting.

Because it’s all about the content. But faster and more, more, more! And could you please do it for less, less, less!

So the conversation with Darryl got me thinking about editorial strategy and the idea of the annual content plan. What are we going to create? How often? How well? By whom? For whom? And unlike traditional publishing -- where their job is complete if and when you consume their content -- advertising content must also ask: Then what? (i.e. What's the call to action?)

A content plan can exist in two dimensions simultaneously: vertical moments and horizontal layers. And behind it all, guiding whomever authors and approves content, lurks a persona. (More on that in a bit.)

AN ANNUAL CONTENT CALENDAR

Vertical moments

If you're publishing, you're thinking in arcs, in seasons. You've got dramatic times in your calendar (e.g. Back to School, Open Enrollment, Black Friday, Hunting Season, the big car shows, the Oscars) akin to broadcast network sweeps. Before and after those fewer tent-poles are regional sales, new service offerings, seasonal pricing akin to plot twists. And more frequently (but less important in your audience's eyes) are the updates: Additional mark-downs, news sizes and colors, Star Wars Day, a whitepaper, a webinar, etc.These are vertical moments -- one after another, rinse and repeat.

TV's Lost producers had a giant book that guided their sweeps, plot twists and updates -- what content they produced and when. Your local network news station manager could white-board the majority of the next 12 months of broadcasts. Content can be predictable.

This is also how you might vet a traditional scope of work. You map the harvests and the lean times.

Horizontal layers

Or you can think about annual plans in terms of qualities of content.

EVERGREEN CONTENT: It's timeless, e.g. An auto brand's list of standard features (seat belts! paint!), your store's convenient location, customer testimonials, free overnight delivery, FAQs, automated-service emails. Evergreen content will always be available, and has no specific urgency. It is almost never defined by a media plan.

The challenge with evergreen content is that it is expected, and your competitors have just as valued evergreen content as you do. Evergreen content is table stakes, necessary foundational support. It's the cash-savings equivalent in a financial portfolio. Necessary, not flashy. Persona is the key to deriving greater value from evergreen content than others in your category.

SEASONAL CONTENT: It’s got a freshness date (beyond obvious ties to the earth's rotation around the Sun), e.g. Sweepstakes, anything "new," membership drives, all deal-of-the-day offers. In other words, season content starts and, most important, stops. It's defined by urgency and the limitation of time.

The trick is not confusing seasonal and evergreen content. You can't always be on sale (witness JCP). The store that's “going out of business” for more than a few months is lying to you (and that's why you don't shop there). When seasonal content isn't honest, it stinks.

PROMOTIONAL CONTENT: It's rare. It's got paid media behind it. The stakes are higher. This is the bulk of traditional advertising -- the campaigns, Super Bowl spots, Facebook partnerships. Promotional content creates its own time. And if the idea catches on, it can define a point in time. It is the most expensive kind of content to make because it contains the most amount of control.

Balance

You can't afford to produce only promotional content. In the same context, there's a reason networks celebrate fewer sweeps. As Howard Gossage once put it, “How often do you need to be told your house is on fire?”

Likewise, a diet of only evergreen content and zero drama attracts little attention. At some point, it helps if your brand is on fire (the good kind).

Understanding your brand's recipe for an annual content plan comes from your brand's DNA. In practice, this is often known as a persona.

PERSONA: How your brand acts in the world, as driven by who and what it emulates. In other words, what's your brand's DNA, told moment by moment through the ebb and flow of 12 months?

A persona is typically less than 200 words. It informs, but also illuminates.I view persona as a guide to writing. It is much less about personality and character attributes (e.g. “the brand is cunning, empathetic, always listening, a close friend, convivial, never puts up with B.S.”). We can infer that sort of creative direction from a brand manifesto or a body of work. Instead, an effective persona describes how the brand ought to act in various circumstances.

Example: Brand X is 100 years old, so it demonstrates insight through historic perspective. Brand X's industry crowds two tent-pole seasons each year (early Fall and January); the brand’s history of invention stands apart much better outside of these months.

Example: Brand Y is a challenger, so it often compares measurements, accolades, statistics, etc. to showcase value. It's retail industry never flags and is peppered with made-up events. As a relative start-up, Brand Y differentiates by focusing strictly on the lives of women with children.

Example:  Brand Z is locally owned. So it never engages in national or global memes without offering a clear connection to the city/region it operates within. Brand Z's calendar is tightly woven with local sporting events.

An effective persona makes it clear how a brand ought to act (or when to choose not to act) and what approach content authors should take to publishing throughout the year. The more distinct the persona and content authors' interpretation, the more likely even evergreen content will be noticed, cared about, persuasive.

Every annual content plan will be different, even for brands within the same industry competing for the same customers. Chalk this up to brand personas, to perceived effectiveness of media, to the vagaries of brand leaders and their teams. The point is, a plan always exists (whether you realize it or not). If you can articulate why it exists the way it exists, the more effective your authors will be at creating persuasive, memorable content. The better your brand will succeed as a publisher.