This year, marketers devoted 37% of their budgets to branded content, which averaged out to exactly $1,860,788 per brand.
Although the percentage of overall market share
dropped slightly from 39% in 2012, 80% of marketers anticipate a moderate to aggressive shift in spending toward content marketing going forward.
That’s according to the annual
content marketing survey from the Custom Content Council, which is put out in partnership with ContentWise.
Of particular note, those figures do not include “native
advertising” or "sponsored content,” according to Lori Rosen, executive director at the Custom Content Council.
“The lines are blurring [between branded content and
native advertising], but we still draw a distinction,” Rosen told
Online Media Daily on Tuesday.
Comparing branded content to traditional advertising, respondents
showed a definite preference to content over magazine advertising, TV commercials, direct mail and public relations.
Remarkably, spending on print publications returned to levels not
seen since before the 2008 recession, while digital budgets saw a 13.8% rise. “That print did so well this year was surprising,” Rosen said. “Usually [the sector] grows at
print’s expense.”
Overall, personnel continues to account for the lion’s share of content marketing spending at 52% of total spend -- a figure that has remained
consistent over the past several years.
Production -- which since 2012 has included digital programming as well -- accounted for 32% of content marketing budgets, while distribution
comprised 18% of total spend.
According to the CCC, customer education was once again cited as the biggest factor in the decision to employ content marketing, with 49% of respondents
holding it up as their primary reason, and 29% naming it as their secondary reason for betting on branded content.
Repurposing of content remains a common practice, with social media
serving as the most utilized secondary channel. Corporate Web sites also received a healthy share of branded content by marketers.
For their research, the CCC and ContentWise emailed
a survey targeting a random sample of companies across all industries. Some 8,000 survey invitations were emailed, and approximately 210 were completed and returned.
Responding
companies included Allstate, ValueOptions, Graybar, TCF Bank, BB&T and Honda, according to the CCC and ContentWise.
This piece is interesting; however, I'm curious about the relatively low response rate. Of 8,000 invites/surveys, 210 responses were used as basis of story. Seems a bit low to me although some of the companies are arguably important brands. Just wondering if it is an accurate reflection of the market and if there are other studies that can bear out these findings?