Hasta La Creative!

Just as buzz around content marketing and native advertising seems to be reaching a fever pitch, a player in the brands-as-publishers movement has raised a substantial new round of funding.

New York-based Contently has announced that it closed a $9 million Series B funding round in December. The 30-person startup licenses software to brands, agencies and publishers, giving them access to its network of freelancers and payment tools. Freelancers can be hired on a project basis to write blog posts, sponsored articles, white papers or even social-media posts. Customers include American Express, General Electric, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Federated Media and Weber Shandwick.

While the software is often used to commission content for brand-owned properties, it’s also getting traction among publishers who need material for sponsored posts they’ve sold to advertisers. Slate, the AP, Forbes, Gawker, the Atlantic and Mashable have used Contently for that purpose. For example, Mashable editors worked with Contently freelancers to produce BMW’s Global Innovation Series, which included this post on the prototype for a flying car.

Continue reading at AdAge.com