Branded Content Intelligence

Filters & Filtering

Your fast track to the most relevant content

Every day we upload hundreds of new branded content web articles and social posts to the Contalto application. The cumulative volume of content over weeks and months would make it impossible to find content that's relevant to you were it not for Filters.

Filters Explained

We tag every web article and social post with key data points including brand name, publisher name, sector and sub-sector. Web articles for full publishers are also tagged with other data points including target, themes, image and video count, and our proprietary Content Analytics.

This enables users to search for, or ‘filter’ the mass of content based on their requirements. e.g. Show me only content for brand X, or publisher Y.

Filters are accessed via The Toolbar at the top of the screen.

As there are quite a lot of filters, we group them into ‘types’ under two headings: Main and Analytics.

Filters: Good to know

1) Users do not need to go through the process of choosing and applying a filter or filters every time they want to find relevant content. Filters can be saved with Content Feeds or Dashboards, which can then be accessed via a single click in their respective menus, with no need to open Filters in the toolbar at all.

These Feeds and Dashboards can then be used as the basis of automated email notifications for yourself or your team, meaning that relevant content is pushed to you, with no need to even log into the Contalto app.

2) Multiple filters can be combined with AND / OR logic to create powerful queries of the Contalto database.

For example, show me all B2B-targeted content from key competitors that contains the sustainability theme.

SELECTING FILTERS

1) From the Total Content Feed

After clicking on the Filters button in the toolbar, you will be informed that no filters have yet been selected, so click the pink button to display the list of filter types.

2) From a Dashboard

If you are viewing a standard dashboard, the toolbar will indicate that one filter is already applied. In the example below, The Technology Sector dashboard is displayed, and mousing over the filter button in the toolbar confirms that the Technology Sector is indeed the active filter.

Click the filter button to add one or more filters on top of the currently active filter.

Note: The exception is the Overview dashboard, which has no active filters.

Check below for full details on selecting and applying filters, as well as combining filters of different types…

Applying a Single Filter

Let's start by choosing filters from a single type…

In the example below, we have selected the Sectors & Sub-Sectors filter. This opens two columns for us to choose from. A number of other filter types also have this 2-column structure.

In this case, we can either choose one or more Sectors from the first column by scrolling down the list, or we can do the same for Sub-Sectors by scrolling that list. However, it's a long list, so it's often best to select from the first column to begin with. This pins the chosen sector ('Luxury' here) to the top of the sub-sector list, from where we can refine our selection (narrowed down to ‘Watches’ and ‘Jewellery’ here).

The alternative is simply to start typing what you're looking for in the search bar.

Once happy with our selection, clicking the ‘X’ in the filter tab takes us to a summary of our filter selection, and confirms the filtering logic. In this case, we will see all content for brands from the Jewellery OR Watches sub-sector.

You will also see buttons (bottom-right) in the filter summary panel to ‘Save New Feed’, 'Set Up Alert' or ‘Save Filters’. The first two of these functions are covered in the Content Feeds and Notifications guides. ‘Save filters’ is covered later in this article.

Filtering is instantaneous, i.e. as soon as the first filter is selected, the content feed or dashboard will reload in response. Fully close the filter panel to view the results.

Combining Filters

Next, we'll combine filters from different types…

In this example, we begin with a filter from the Region and Country type, i.e. brands from ‘North & East Asia’. We could have chosen specific countries within this sub-region if preferred.

After making the first filter selection and clicking the ‘X’ in the Filters tab, we see the confirmation of our selection and two pink-coloured buttons:

Add More: Go back and add more filters from the same type

Add Other Filters: Add filters from another type

Opting for the latter, we now choose ‘Publisher Genre’, and select ‘Business & Finance’. We could have selected specific publishers from within this genre (in the last column) if preferred.

After clicking the ‘X’ once more, the filter summary panel confirms the filtering logic. In this case, we will see all content for brands originating from North & East Asia AND from Business & Finance publishers, i.e. the two conditions apply for each content item. It is not a case of one or the other.

Filter Logic

All filters of the same type are linked with OR logic.
E.g. Content from all brands in the ‘Watches’ or ‘Jewellery’ Sub-sectors

Filters of different types are linked with AND logic.
E.g. Content from Middle Eastern brands AND containing the 'Climate Change' OR ‘Sustainability’ Theme.

As mentioned above, the ‘Save New Feed’ and 'Set Up Alert' buttons (bottom-right) in the filter summary panel are explained in the Content Feeds and Notifications guides. ‘Save filters’ gives quick access to frequently used filters, as shown in the image below.

FILTER TYPES

Full explanations of all filter types are given below in two sets of tabs: first Main filters, then Analytics filters.

Note: best viewed in ‘expanded’ mode

MAIN Filter Types

Sectors & Sub-Sectors

Each brand is attributed to its most relevant Sector (or industry vertical), as well as its more specific Sub-Sector.

Contalto offers 33 Sectors and 276 Sub-Sectors with which to filter the database.

Brands & Brand Groups

New brands feature in branded content every day, and are added to the Contalto accordingly. With tens of thousands of brands in the database, we advise starting to type the brand you're looking for in the search bar. This will instantly reveal all possible matches from which you can make your selection.

You have the option to select from individual Brands, or from Brand Groups (where brands belonging to a master brand or advertiser are grouped together).

In the example below, we started to type Microsoft in the search bar, and selected one result from the Brands column. It's also possible to make multiple selections from the Brand column, or to choose the Brand Group, which contains all 20 Microsoft brands in the database.

Brand Groups are particularly useful for finding content from major advertisers with large portfolios of brands, for example LVMH, for which we currently have 56 individual brand names.

Region & Country

Contalto attributes each brand to its respective geographical Region and Country of origin. This is based on the location of the headquarters of the brand or of its parent company.

This allows users to filter e.g. for all branded content from brands originating in Southern Europe, or more specifically from Spain or Italy, and so on.

Setting up and sharing feeds and dashboards filtered on brand regions and countries is a great way to provide relevant information to sales teams with responsibilities for those territories.

Brand Region and Country does not indicate the geo-targeting of branded content campaigns. It is based purely on the brand's geographical origin.

As with most filter types, users may select single or multiple regions or countries, or a combination of both

Publishers & Publisher Groups

Filtering by Publisher is a good place to start the quest for competitive intelligence.

Users may choose from the list of individual Publishers, or from Publisher Groups (where individual publisher titles belonging to a larger publishing or media company are grouped together).

Given the large number of publishers, users may find it easier to type the publisher name in the search bar.

Publisher Genre

The Publisher Genre filter lets users discover or analyse all branded content for all monitored publishers within a specific Genre, such as News or Travel.

Publishers monitored by Contalto belong to 19 different genres, from which users can select one or more. The individual publishers belonging to the genre(s) are then shown in the right-hand column.

ANALYTICS Filter Types

Target

A simple two-way choice between B2B and B2C.

Based on a combination of the brand, publisher and the article or video content itself, Contalto estimates whether web articles are business-to-business or business-to-consumer targeted.

Note: Only web items (not social posts) for Full publishers have target information.

Topics & Themes

Filtering content by Topic or Theme is a great way to find content to inspire a brief or pitch that you are working on.

For example, choosing the 'ESG & CSR' filter will show you all content that talks about the concepts of ESG and CSR, either directly (using the same abbreviation), or indirectly (e.g. describing a brand's net-zero or diversity target).

Contalto tags web content with one or multiple content Themes, of which there are 126 in total. Each of these Themes belong to one of a 20 parent Topics.

Note: Only web items (not social posts) for Full publishers have target information.

Also Search in Content

If the available Contalto Themes don't meet your needs, and you're looking for something more precise, try searching within the actual text content of web articles. Check the ‘Using Search’ section in The Toolbar guide for more details.

Text, Images & Video

Contalto notes the presence and number of images and videos within web content, as well as the word count of any text.

As a result, users can filter for e.g. content with 2+ videos, or 3-5 videos, or content over 2000 words, or between 750 and 1000 words.

Not forgetting that filters can be combined to result in queries such as: show me all content for cybersecurity brands that uses video.

Note: Word Count, Image and Video count is available for Full publishers only.

Branding

Contalto identifies and scores each article on the basis of 9 Branding criteria. A weighted score is then applied across these to calculate the article's overall Branding Level.

Users can filter content by Overall Branding Level, or by any of the other criteria via sliders and check boxes.

For example: show me all content with a branding level of 80%+, or between 25% and 50%, or show me content that features the brand in the article title, and also shows the brand's assets in the article content.

Check the Content Analytics guide for a full explanation of Contalto's branding metrics.

Note: Branding data is available for Full publishers only.

Archetypes & E-R Balance

Filtering by storytelling Archetype lets users find content for all web articles that have a specific Lead Archetype - either Informative, Inspiring, Practical or Entertaining.

For example, show me all ‘Inspiring’ content for Travel & Tourism brands.

In the same filter type, we also have Emotional-Rational (E-R) Balance, whereby users can select upper or lower limits, or define a range.

For example, show me all content for brands from the Middle East that is between Emotional and Neutral in tone, i.e. not Rational.

Check the Content Analytics guide for a full explanation of Archetypes and E-R Balance.

Note: Archetype and E-R data is available for Full publishers only.

Social Type

Contalto checks each paid social post for any links it contains, and then attributes the post to a Social Type, based on the presence or absence of a link, and where that link points to.

Social Types Defined

Publisher-Linked
The post links to the publisher's site - either directly to the branded content article it is promoting or some other page on the publisher's site.

Brand-Linked
The post links to the promoted brand's site - often to a page where the product or service can be purchased directly.

E-commerce
The post links to a 3rd-party e-commerce platform or online retailer, i.e. not the promoted brand's own website.

Event
The post promotes an event (in-person, virtual or hybrid), and links to an event registration page, either on the publisher's site, or on a 3rd party event site.

Other
The post contains a link that points to a destination other than the publisher, the brand, e-commerce or event.

Pure Social
The post contains no links. This is often the case for posts with videos, i.e. the post itself contains the content rather than serving the purpose of driving traffic to content located somewhere else.

Labels

The vast majority of digital branded content is labelled as such, i.e. the web article or video has a Label, usually above or below the content, stating that it is sponsored, paid for, or in partnership with a brand, or one of many other labels.

Contalto has identified hundreds of these labels, which are available to search or scroll. Users may select any number of labels with which to filter content.

For example: show me the content that publisher X labels in partnership with or in association with.

Some labels contain an underscore, such as ‘Created by _ for _’ where the blank indicates the publisher or brand name or both.

Note: Labels are for web content, not paid social posts, all of which use the standard label or disclaimer of the relevant social platform.