You probably think of Content Marketing as a recent phenomenon. But while the Internet may have made Content Marketing easier to deliver and track, the concept has been around for a while.

Last night I was a few pages into Mad Women by Jane Maas, which is supposed to give us an inside view into what it was like to be a woman on Madison Avenue back in the 60’s. While the writing is mediocre, there are some interesting tidbits, one of which is that even 50 years ago, long before the popularization of B2B white papers, David Ogilvy was doing Content Marketing — not for his clients, but for his own company, Ogilvy & Mather.

Internally, Ogilvy would present what he called “Magic Lanterns” to his creative teams to guide their creative development process. The titles were simple: “How to Create Advertising That Sells”, “How to Advertise Travel” — you get the gist.

But Ogilvy didn’t just use his Magic Lanterns internally; he took out ad space and published them in The New York Times, and sure enough, prospects would show up at his door shortly afterward.

Ogilvy wasn’t the first to utilize Content Marketing. Back in 1895, John Deere had its own magazine for consumers, a tactic that is still in play today, especially with travel and luxury brands like Holland America Cruise Lines and Bentley.

From branded recipe books to white papers to branded websites devoted fully to relevant entertainment for the consumer, Content Marketing has been highly effective throughout the decades and will continue to be, as long as we keep coming up with fun and interesting ways to get it in front of clients and consumers.

Here’s a fun infographic that shows the history of Content Marketing:

Source: Content Marketing Institute