How American Express cracked content marketing

+ 3 Updates for Marketers

March 11, 2025

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In 2007, American Express wanted to do more than just offer credit cards to businesses. They wanted to become the go-to authority on business itself so they created a platform called OPEN. Instead of hiring a huge in-house content team for this platform, they took a different approach.

Amex invited industry experts to contribute guest posts on topics like marketing, sales, entrepreneurship, and finance.

It was a win-win. Amex got high-quality, trusted content without massive internal production costs and the guest contributors gained exposure and credibility.

These guest writers shared their own content with their networks, amplifying the reach of OPEN Forum. The result? More eyeballs, more engagement and more business owners seeing American Express as a thought leader.

Fast forward to today, the campaign is still going strong under the name Trends and Insights. In fact, it’s now the company’s top source of new card members. 

Yes, a content marketing play turned into a lead generation machine.

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⚡ 3 Noteworthy News Updates for Marketers

  1. Reddit looks to facilitate more activity with new posting updates

  2. Google Ads is doubling down on AI, personalisation and new ad formats

  3. Meta is testing AI agents that let users ‘talk’ to businesses

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Thanks,
Luv