Independent research from Contented reveals that digital agencies have misjudged the threat posed by customer publishers and the growing trend for “editorialisation of brand” in the digital arena.
The research, commissioned by the Association of Publishing Agencies, included in-depth interviews with digital agencies, brands and customer publishers and shows that 10% of customer publishing revenue is now attributed to digital activity including podcasts, RSS feeds, ezines, microsites, hosting and transactional sites.
This represents growth of 114% since 2005, with an estimated increase of 33% for 2008 versus 2007. To reflect this increase currently one in seven customer publishing employees has specialist digital skills, which the research predicts will rise to one in six by the end of the year.
Customer publishers now deliver digital editorialised content to over a third of their client base (37%). The variety of digital services ranges from basic content adaptation and provision; with 93% of customer publishers having provided these services to clients, through to web hosting (34%). With 72% of customer publishers having designed and built emails, ezines and microsites, this provision is increasingly falling under the customer publishing remit, as is rich media, including podcasts, video and audio (57%). Less well represented, but growing nonetheless, are eCRM (53%), community and User Generated Content activity (43%) and database management (40%).
The less developed areas of eCRM and community are those likely to see the most growth over the next three quarters of 2008; indicating that the customer publishing industry is keen to move beyond its traditional skill set and continue to embrace the capabilities of Web 2.0, reflecting the confidence and buoyancy of the industry.
Julia Hutchison, COO, APA: “We commissioned the research to get a considered, “warts and all” overview of the digital arena and gain an understanding into the digital positioning and expertise of customer publishers in today’s landscape. Clearly customer publishers have found a niche and are turning their differentiator “editorialisation of brand” to their advantage.
“If forecasts remain on track digital activity and integrated campaigns will increasingly become a focus for brands and customer publishers are extremely well placed to deliver such strategies given the industry’s unrivalled understanding of brand communications, but also most importantly, the consumer. Whilst printed publications will always remain an essential part of the marketing mix, it is an extremely exciting time for the industry as it evolves its offering to meet client needs.”
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