by Herman Manson (@marklives) As soon as news got out that Media24 was closing down its content marketing arm* Gillian Loos, then an Associate Publisher there, got a call out of the blue from one Lize Sadie.
Sadie, with a background in media herself, had heard good things about Loos from a friend who worked at Pixelink24, and wondered if any 
clients might follow Loos once Media24 had wound up the business.
Loos took some time to think it over, but in the end a persistent Sadie won out, and their content marketing business, Contentum, is the result.
It helped that Sadie’s hunch about client side was correct – Standard Bank – one of the clients Loos managed at Pixelink24, gave the duo their first project and became a founding client.
Loos says there is space for smaller content marketing agencies in the market. Most companies use multiple agencies in any case and as content requirements grow thanks to online and mobile take-up she doesn’t see why content specialists should not also have a seat at the table.
Sadie says that Contentum, Latin for content, will offer a more strategic approach to content than most freelancers are able to do. Both Sadie and Loos have experience in publishing and marketing enabling them to align branded story telling with business and marketing fundamentals.
They will work with a number of preferred suppliers where clients need a broader tech, production or design solution. Their focus is digital content since this is where they believe most opportunity is to be found.
The challenge at the moment is to convince clients that their real content requirements and their current output don’t match. They have found that many businesses employ a digital manager tasked with maintaining their brand online but that these managers are being overwhelmed by the content requirements of social media channels and customer expectations as competitors build more content rich media channels.
Contentum hopes to serve alongside existing digital content managers and assist them in meeting brands’ content requirements. And not just any content, but content aligned to the strategic requirements of brands, and that also offers real value to digital channel/site visitors.
* Update 1012/12/03:
In an earlier version of this story we said Loos worked at Pixelink24. Loos was an Associate publisher at Media24’s Custom Publishing Division which had bought PixelInk two years prior.
– Industry news you’ll make time for. Sign up for our free newsletter!