About us

A Custom Content Agency

       At STM Custom Studios, we help our clients humanize their brands and engage their target audiences with content-driven marketing opportunities. At every stage of the process, we use audience analytics and consumer insights to optimize the reach and relevance of our clients’ programs, enabling them to build lasting relationships with the consumers that matter most to them. Our newsroom is staffed with classically trained journalists that understand how to engage audiences and create impactful content.  Our content is relevant, informative and useful on its own merit, and helps our clients establish themselves as thought leaders in their industries.

Professional Storytellers

We’re experts at defining, targeting and engaging an audience through telling stories that resonate with them. 

Our Tools

We use powerful behavioral and psychographic information to create content that is optimized for audiences.

Our Advantage

We can leverage the breadth of Chicago Sun-Times’ digital products to test, distribute and target content.

The Custom Advantage

Custom content is a ‘pull’ marketing strategy. Unlike traditional advertising that ‘pushes’ messages out to consumers, custom content is designed to draw consumers toward a brand with useful information in order to engage consumers in a long-term relationship with that brand.

What we do

Our Solutions

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Reach

We create customized content that can be published on Chicago Sun-Times digital channels, or it can be tailored to your marketing needs on your company’s website.

Audience Insights

Our work is founded upon audience insights derived from advanced web analytics, social listening, qualitative research, and industry expertise.

Strategy

We build content strategies, which incorporate brand voice development, editorial calendars, and social media analysis.

Creation

We pride ourselves on first-rate execution of results-driven content campaigns that advance your branding objectives.

Optimization

Our process doesn’t end with content creation–we incorporate campaign measurement, benchmarking and A/B testing into our ever-evolving content strategies.
$11 Billion
Projected Sponsored Content Spend by 2017

*eMarketer: 190% increase in addressable market since 2012

40+ Million
Monthly Page Views On Our Affiliated Digital Publications

*Google Analytics, 2014

61%
Percentage of Brands Planning to Use Content Marketing in 2014

*“State of Native Advertising 2014,” by Hexagram and Spada

BASED AT THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES IN

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