Branded content: three trends to keep an eye on

Opinion

Brands and publishers are evolving their partnerships to deliver effective content that truly engages with consumers.

Branded content has been growing rapidly in recent years, with the wider native advertising market predicted to be worth more than $400bn by 2025.

For some time, this non-disruptive form of digital advertising has been the obvious answer to internet users becoming less impressed by the ads they see online, and is already an avenue that most media outlets have explored.

Simultaneously, with the market surging in popularity, we are seeing an evolution in how brands and publishers are working together to deliver effective content that truly engages with consumers. And with that in mind, there are three key trends that we’ve identified that brands and publishers should be keeping a close eye on.

Producing influential content

If your insight and targeting is on point, it’s all about catching attention and driving engagement and that’s where talent and influencers come in – the fairy dust on a partnership that if executed correctly will ensure your audience sit up and pay attention.

Traditionally, advertisers would clamour to use editorial. But the market has matured enough to know that’s not an appropriate way of being able to retain editorial credibility.

It’s worth a publisher having a network of talent that aligns with their brand values that can be called upon for campaigns in an authentic way. But issues can often arise when it comes to celebrity talent.

There have to be clear guidelines in place around usage rights. The talent has agreed to become a part of a branded content campaign for the publisher, not agreed to be an ambassador for the brand.

Brands and publishers can benefit from finding common ground between what the brand is trying to promote, what the publisher stands for, and what the talent involved is looking to address. That’s when brilliant content can be created.

When campaigns work well, the brand wants to continue working with the talent as well as the publisher.

Rivalling your customers

In recent years, brands have become media owners in their own right. Many of them have their own magazines, and their own video and digital content. So, they’re keen for campaign assets to live beyond those branded content campaigns, and produce their own at the same time.

Previously, only the traditional media organisations would be considered in competition for most branded content opportunities. Now, as long as you create and distribute great content, there’s an opportunity to get in on the act.

It’s not uncommon for ubiquitous pitches to be presented to 40 media owners at the same time. That’s when it’s clear that publishers are now competing with brands that they may have previously considered customers.

For brands and agencies, that’s brilliant news. Because the increased competition encourages the media owners to think differently. That’s why having various forms of storytelling via different touchpoints differentiates the best branded content providers from the rest.

This increased competition also opens the door for more partnerships, however.

It opens up the ‘art of the possible’. For example, traditional, long-established media owners can bring their trust, heritage, and expertise to the table alongside a “competitor” that may have their own first-party data, or access to harder to reach audiences. This creates complementary areas that can be utilised by brands.

First-party data

First-party data is something that everyone is quite familiar with now, with the – albeit delayed – movement to the cookieless world. Within branded content, there’s an opportunity to use that data not just in terms of targeting, but also when it comes to emotional resonance.

By understanding the emotional context of content, consumption of advertising can increase by up to 45%. So, it pays to understand not just your audience’s preferences, but how content and what’s around content makes them feel.

Emotion has become increasingly important. Emotions are what drive consumers to engage with a piece of content, and quality storytelling can inspire those emotions.

A combination of data from audience preferences, opinions, and emotions can enable the publisher to build up a full story of its audience ecosystem. The larger the data portfolio, the more targeted you can be in your delivery. But, more importantly, it enables you to have a greater insight and clarity on what makes the audience tick, so ideas can be refined. These insights then mean you’re reaching the right audience, at the right time, with the right idea to elicit the behaviours that the brand and publisher want.

The branded opportunity

As traditional digital advertising becomes more difficult to execute effectively, branded content offers a powerful avenue for brands to reach audiences through trusted publishers. A combination of influencers, the number of media owners around, and first-party data are all continuing to drive the market’s extraordinary growth.

Media owners have always been about connecting brands with targeted consumers, minimising wastage and maximising engagement. As the market has evolved, doing so with an authenticity and seamless editorial integration has become the name of the game.

Ultimately, branded content delivers on all of this and when executed properly, provides that all important layer of data driven insight and transparency to ensure it will continue to be the darling of the industry for a long time to come.

David Dumville is director of content solutions at News UK