The age of branded content is upon us. The vast majority -- 79% -- of marketers report shifting into branded content either at a moderate or aggressive pace, according to the latest findings from the Custom Content Council in partnership with ContentWise. “The stability of brand content spend in the face of overall marketing budget decline proves the staying power and efficacy of content marketing,” said Lori Rosen, executive director at the Custom Content Council. “This notable growth outcome is motivating brands to outsource at record levels,” Rosen added. In fact, 52% of companies are reporting that they outsourced some portion of at least one type of branded content creation this year. Those dollars are being spent on external agencies, such as custom publishers, PR/social media firms, design firms, ad agencies and interactive agencies. Some 56% of brands now outsource, and of those, the average annual spend is $987,417 -- an increase of 46% from two years ago, according to the CCC. About three-quarters of brands build content for print and repurpose that content for social media and the brand’s parent Web site. The multichannel nature of content marketing is driving an average brand investment of $1,725,736 -- representing a 5.1% increase compared to two years ago, the CCC reports. How is all that money being spent? First and foremost, personnel continued to be the primary use of budgets. On average, print-based operations spent 44% on personnel; 37% on production and 19% on distribution. Digital-based operations, meanwhile, spent 57% on personnel; 26% on production and 17% on distribution. Also of note, between 66% to 74% of content created for print, electronic and other marketing ends up being used in social media efforts, the CCC found. The research was conducted via online and email methods targeting a random sample of companies across all industries. More than 5,000 invitations were distributed and approximately 177 surveys were completed and returned. Participating organizations included Graybar, Manpower, State Farm Insurance, Towers Watson, Good Will Industries, Sunkist, and ValueOptions.
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have been slow to adopt process automation marketing tools, but nearly three-quarters report revenue growth above plan, compared with only 53% of those who have not deployed the tools, according to research. SMBs implementing marketing automation are 55% more likely to measure campaign payback more efficiently, 40% more likely to measure social media engagement, and twice as likely to measure lead-funnel conversion ratios, according to a Forrester Consulting study, commissioned by Act-On Software. The research found that SMBs have begun investing more in marketing tools, specifically automation. About 61% report spending more than the 2% of revenue average that large enterprises spend. The biggest suggestion from the study points to tying marketing automation tools into a company's customer relationship management (CRM) platform to improve lead-to-revenue strategies. Automation is a strong tool to support lead generation, but sometimes lead management comes "at the expense of a commitment to fill the top of the funnel," according to the study. Effective lead management has become a top concern for SMBs. Overall, 70% of SMBs engage customers through leads. Some 40% of top performers and 39% of bottom performers use a dedicated inside sales team to nurture leads. But, 42% of top performers said they use a mix of email and phone calls, compared with 38% of bottom performers. Only 19% of SMB survey participants report implementing software that automates marketing and lead management processes. This is less than half of the adoption rate of 45% reported by the broader audience of large enterprise B2B marketers, according to the study. Some 50% or of SMB marketers rely on a variety of traditional marketing tactics, from trade shows to digital marketing. Aside from technology, these SMBs continue to invest more people too. On average, SMBs have one marketing staff member, including full-time contractors for every $79,000 in marketing dollars spent. Those performing highest have one marketing staff member for every $65,000 in marketing dollars spent. While 84% of survey respondents use online marketing tactics, the perceptions on the value varies. The majority of respondents admit the importance of online marketing, but not more important than the rest of the marketing mix.
Rising consumer confidence, rampant promotion and a favorable calendar will result in slightly higher growth in holiday online sales than in 2011, according to a new comScore forecast. The research firm projects U.S. e-commerce sales will grow 17% this holiday season to $43 billion, compared to a 15% gain last year during November and December. The season is already off to a solid start, with online spending for the first 18 days of November up 16% to $10 billion, up 16% from the corresponding period a year ago. Thursday, November 8 has been the heaviest online spending day of the season to date at $829 million. “Recent five-year highs in consumer confidence and early retailer promotions appear to be serving as wind in the sails for the beginning portion of the holiday season, with consumers opening up their wallets early and often,” stated comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. Given that Black Friday, the unofficial start of the holiday buying blitz, falls two days earlier than in 2011, retailers benefit from an extended shopping season. A more optimistic outlook on the economy led consumer sentiment to its highest level in more than five years in early November. The index of consumer confidence from Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan increased to 84.9% from 82.6%. Not all forecasters are quite as upbeat as comScore about holiday sales. Shop.org, a unit of the National Retail Federation, last month projected e-commerce spending for the period to grow 12%, based on data collected from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce. A separate forecast from Gartner released Wednesday also estimates online holiday sales will rise 12% this year. Gartner also expects more than half (51%) of consumers will shop online during the holidays. A separate Consumer Reports survey showed a third (32%) of people interviewed plan to hit the stores on the Black Friday weekend and 34% intend to shop online. The same percentage plan to order online from the office on Cyber Monday (Nov. 26). Among other holiday forecasts, JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth issued a report this week predicting e-commerce sales will increase 19% in the fourth quarter overall across the desktop and mobile. He also expects showrooming to be bigger than ever, with 37% of consumers browsing products in physical stores, but buying online or on mobile devices at lower prices.
Tim Wu, the law professor who coined the term "net neutrality," has joined a host of other industry observers in asking a federal appeals court to uphold the Federal Communications Commission's neutrality rules.Wu filed his own friend-of-the-court brief that takes aim at Verizon's argument that the regulations impinge its free-speech rights. He argues that the company's interpretation is at odds with more than 100 years of common carrier rules, which prohibit content transmittors -- like telephone companies -- from picking and choosing which calls to put through based on content.The neutrality rules, which took effect last year, ban wireless and wireline broadband providers from blocking sites or competing applications. The regulations also prohibit wireline providers from engaging in unreasonable discrimination.Verizon is asking an appeals court to vacate the rules. The telecom says the FCC lacked authority to enact the regulations, and that the rules restrict the free-speech rights of broadband providers by requiring them to transmit all manner of content.But Wu says that accepting Verizon's argument would open all common-carrier regulations to free-speech challenges. "Transmitters similar to Verizon have been subject to non-discrimination duties similar to those imposed by the [FCC's] order since the 1840s. There is no way to hold the order unconstitutional without implying the same for much of more than a century and a half of similar regulations," he argues in a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the Circuit Court of Appeals in D.C.Wu also says Verizon's argument blurs the distinction between carriers -- such as itself, or companies like FedEx -- and publishers. "Erasing the line between publishers and transmitters, by granting Verizon the First Amendment protections reserved for publishers, would break sharply with more than a century of historical practice and have unpredictable consequences," he argues.He adds that the public at large doesn't equate broadband providers with publishers able to decide what to post. "The articles a newspaper runs are understood to be part of, and the responsibility of, the newspaper. "If a blogger wrote something outrageous on the Internet, it would be absurd to complain by saying 'Can you believe the blog Verizon ran yesterday?' "
Superstorm Sandy. The fiscal cliff. Twinkiecide. Talk about sounding the alarm. Lately, events have been so ominous that a person could be persuaded that the Mayans were on to something, apocalypse-wise. Still, during this Thanksgiving week, we do have something new to be thankful for -- massively thankful, in fact. Particularly apt for the sweet-potato-based holiday, this gift comes to us via the earth: it’s an agricultural miracle! Not only will it be a windfall for our economy, moving us off that cliff through new tax revenues that could go to hospitals and schools, it will also take the strain off our prison and judicial systems, improve the general health of the populace, lower the number of drunk drivers on the road, and end gang violence from Mexican drug cartels. Incidentally, it might save the the advertising business. Packaging, design, marketing, publishing -- the sky’s the limit. (At the very least, think of all those fans and lights to be sold!) It starts with C and has a B and stands for cool. Yup, it’s cannabis, man -- aka, the marijuana stimulus package, coming soon to a state near you. Sadly, since Nov. 6, we’ve been so collectively obsessed with the wayward babes of the Petrashian scandals or photoshopping tiny coffins for the Twinkie (and it looks like curtains, at this stage) that aside from a few giggly, embarrassed newscasters dancing around announcing the news, we haven’t taken time to think about the economic aftermath of bold ballot initiatives in Colorado and Washington that legalized the recreational use of marijuana. And it’s not just for Democrats: in the mile-high state, more people voted for marijuana legalization than for Obama’s reelection. In addition, Massachusetts approved the use of medical marijuana, joining the wave of 17 other states. Obviously, it’s not your pothead father’s ganja anymore. We’re not talking Amsterdam, or old-fashioned head shops, bongs, or Cheech-and-Chong-style low-tech stoners. Rather, the future belongs to Ganjapreneurs who are getting into sophisticated gourmet items, like marijuana-laced candy, olive oil, ice creams, and chocolate truffles. (It’s the thing itself and the munchy -- in one! And these are much more expensive goodies than Twinkies!) There are also marijuana-medicated beverages and capsules in various strains that could be marketed like the range of ales that microbrewers sell. In all, more than 25,000 different products can be made from the crop, not to mention all the hemp-related fodder that could reinvigorate the automotive and stand-up comedy industries. The big unknown, still, is how quickly the federal government will allow a regulated marijuana market to take shape. At this point, however, it’s inevitable -- and then banks will free up money to make loans and the biz will grow exponentially. One study predicted that the roughly $2 billion medical marijuana industry could reach $9 billion by 2016. Think of the opportunity that pot in all its legal permutations could present for Big Tobacco, for instance. Ironically, given a little pot production, companies that in this country are now uniformly despised as merchants of death could rehabilitate their images. They’re already set up for manufacturing, distribution, packaging, and marketing. That would also mean massive infusions of advertising money into the media, (and perhaps huge print initiatives could make magazine publishing viable again.) If the advertising is regulated differently, these new pot products might even allow the tobacco companies to get their names back on TV. Which reminds me of a certain scene in the pilot episode of “Mad Men” involving a fictional Lee Garner Jr. and the actual cigarette brand, Lucky Strikes. After the Surgeon General’s rumblings on the danger of tobacco, the companies were no longer allowed to make health claims in their ads. This resulted in a very tense, smoke filled conference room scene between Don Draper and the Sterling Cooper crew and Garner and his father. After a few false starts, our starched and Brylcreemed hero saved the day by coming up with the phrase “It’s toasted.” (Which the brand had actually used in 1911.) Garner Sr. pointed out that every cigarette brand was toasted. Don responded that that was beside the point. Working his patented magic on the room, he then explained the meaning of advertising: “Advertising is based on one thing,” he said. “Happiness. The smell of a new car, the freedom from fear, that massive billboard on the side of the road that screams that whatever you’re doing, it’s okay,” he said. “You are okay.” And now, in the midst of all of this apocalypse, we need to hear “You are okay” more than ever. We’re not toast. Rather, we’re toasted.