Back in March, Facebook has decided to add “Paid” to branded content, an option that had only been available to verified pages and profiles. It was the signal that something big is going to happen in this area.
And the numbers don’t lie: “In 2017, we estimated that global branded content spend was approximately $5 billion. By 2020, this total market will reach almost $14 billion“, according to Polar’s blog.
- Top 100 publishers have spend about $3 billion this year in branded content
- This means an average of $30 million in branded content revenue per top performing publisher.
5 Branded Content Distribution Strategies
One thing is for sure, the business model for branded content will get even more complex in 2018. This amount of money generate immediately a higher attention to the entire branded content process.
Here are some tips about the strategies that will influence branded content pricing models in 2018: [source]
“If a story is moving, no one is going to care that it’s brought to you by a brand. Rather, they’re going to be happy the brand brought it to them” [AdWeek]
Branded Content: trends for 2018
From creation to distribution, tech has changed the way brands are using the content. Smartphones and apps are dominating clients lives, so all the strategies should start from there.
Let’s see some tech trends for 2018, identified by Forbes:
- Social will serve as publishing outlets, not just sharing platforms
- Machine learning will enable content conversations
- The rise of virtual and augmented reality will make visual content nonnegotiable
- Advanced tech will make full content personalization a reality
- Live video streaming via social will create new content opportunities
- Mobile optimization will be the standard across industries.
- Artificial intelligence will begin creating and enhancing content.
“What worked last year may not be enough to creep ahead in 2018. Being able to anticipate trends, as well as the change in audience behavior based on technology trends and updates, can help you adjust your strategy and get ahead of the wave”, said Neil Patel (Marketing expert, consultant & international speaker) on his blog.
To resume, the plan is simple: in order to stay on top and get a part of those billions of dollars, your brand needs to be part of the tech wave.
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Polar is the branded content technology partner to some of the world’s largest premium publishers, including AOL, Telegraph (UK), News Corp, Condé Nast, Gannett, Adweek, Fairfax Media, De Persgroep, Nyheter24 Gruppen and many others, helping them strengthen and build their direct-sold branded content business and much more.
Polar’s President, Tom Jenen talked @ iCEE.fest about “The Future of Native Advertising“. The video content is available in iCEE.academy.
