This interesting post looks at why Vice is such a success, and worth every cent of its $2bn valuation.

To those not in the know, Vice is a global online magazine with millennials at its heart. A recent purview of its landing page found articles about how illegal drugs affect your sperm to the specifics of Cajun cooking (Cajuns Boil the Head and Save the Blood).

Picking up on comments made by Michael Derkits, head of news business at Vice Media, at a recent conference, Journalism.co.uk delves into the whys and wherefores of Vice’s success. As you’d probably guess, much of that answer lies in good storytelling. Take, for instance, Derkits’ view of video content:

The rule that videos should be under three minutes long was a “bullshit rule for bullshit content”, he said, and the videos Vice puts on YouTube average around 20 minutes in length.

And, of course, Derkits has something to say about traditional narratives:

We always use Rocky Balboa as such a dull but great example for the whole approach to storytelling,” he said. “The truth is it’s not about five minutes of fighting, it’s an hour and a half long storytelling around this person… to eventually end up at that point.

Importantly, the post contains some valuable insights into how to succeed at content marketing. On the topic of turning a customer into an audience, Derkits said:

It might be a question of semantics but, when thinking of consumers, brands want to push a product. With audiences, however, they should want to tell a story.

Once the idea of customers has been left aside, “building an audience and reaching an audience are two different things,” he said. Building an audience is all about long-term engagement, while reaching is simply about getting content out to people, and “anyone can buy eyeballs”.