It is clear that 2012 is truly the tipping point for branded content. With consumers, technology and media as the trifecta of powerful driving forces, content creation, distribution and consumption barriers have collapsed. Now that we stand in the rubble of these former barriers, the content free-for-all has begun. More and more projects are taking shape around the globe with fantastic properties showcasing compelling brand messages, but how do we measure success? And on the flip side, how do we advance the implementation of branded entertainment programs beyond one-off experimental marketing programs trying to take advantage of this newly found land of media access?

After our first completed calendar year of the Horizons Project, OgilvyEntertainment is proud to announce winning the Gold Stevie Award for the mini-documentary series “Stories of Inclusive Innovation”, one of four pillars in the Horizons Project campaign for DuPont started in May of 2011.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a curator. You search specific keywords on Google and evaluate results to target exactly what you’re looking for. You follow and trust a host of sources for particular veins of information and expertise. While I admit that the subject matter of Curation Nation, namely content aggregation and curation, overtly sparks a conversation most inviting to data experts, I believe that the sooner you accept that you, too, are a curator, the better.

Oceans. Beaches. Mountains. Canyons. Forests. Deserts. There aren’t many spots on this planet that can boast such a variety of terrain. But the United States isn’t just any place. Then there’s the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Gateway Arch, Mount Rushmore, the Alamo, and the Hoover Dam. And what about the largely undiscovered treasures that line American soil: Iowa’s breathtaking Effigy Mounds, Wyoming’s mysterious Devils Tower, and Massachusetts’s inspirational Walden Pond? There are plenty of reasons to explore America, and for the first time in this country’s 236-year history an international tourism campaign is under way to attract tourists from all corners of the globe, inviting them to “discover this land, like never before.”

May 31, 2001. And then the world changed—well, TV changed, anyway. I remember it clearly. We’re brought into a boat in the South China Sea, as host Jeff Probst provides just the right amount of exposition for us to understand the situation—the rules of the game, the players, and the unprecedented $1 million brass ring they’re all after. The show was Survivor, and 24 seasons later, it’s still thriving.