Long perused by wistful dreamers and active buyers alike, real estate and development listings, display ads, brochures and publications are certainly among the most enduring and endearing forms of content marketing. There has been a lot of new activity of late, from the sumptuous Elliman magazine that landed with a thud outside my home bundled with the New York Times a few months ago, to Coldwell Banker's empathic "Home Field Advantage" videos featuring baseball stars, as well as its use of user-generated photos and videos as part of the sales process, to name just a few.

As someone who has freelanced for most of the past 25 years - including some dabbles in what I had no idea would someday be called "content" - I was intrigued by a blog post I came across the other day: "Nurturing Freelancers Is the Key to Content Marketing." "Of course it is!" you may have heard me shriek.

About four years ago, GAF was marketing its roofing supplies just about the same way it had been since it was founded in 1886. But after listening to "some rumblings" from its certified contractors about the different kinds of questions their customers had been asking them lately - queries about color, style and design - the Parsippany, N.J.-based GAF commissioned some market research. It revealed some startling insights, says vice president Emily Videtto, and led to an overhaul of GAF's marketing that sets it apart not only from direct competitors but also from most companies in the building trades industry. …

Global content marketing revenues - monies generated by operators who provide content marketing services - rose 14.4% during the first half of this year following a 13.3% spurt last year, and are expected to more than double over the next five years, according to KPI benchmark data released yesterday by PQ Media in its first annual Global Content Marketing Forecast.

Branded content and entertainment creators must feel a bit like the B+ student whose report card contains "you can do better" notations from teachers. For the second consecutive year in the four-year history of the category at Cannes Lions, the jury declined to hand out a Grand Prix, although 63 Lions overall, including 16 Golds, were awarded.