Branded Content Accounts for 37% of Marketing Budgets

The Dow is not the only metric reaching new highs in 2013. The annual content marketing survey from the Custom Content Council, in partnership with ContentWise, reveals new highs for branded content in both spending and value. The "Spending Study: A Look at How Corporate America Invests in Branded Content for 2013" compares 14 years of studies, showing a strong growth and affinity for content marketing across the board.

The 2013 survey found an overall increase in marketing budgets of 13.7% from last year to over $5,000,000, with branded content spending claiming 37% of that total, or $1,860,788 per company. Although the percentage of overall market share dropped slightly from 39% in 2012, 80% of marketers in 2013 anticipate a moderate or aggressive shift in spending toward content marketing as the industry continues to thrive.

Comparing branded content to traditional advertising, respondents showed a definite preference to content over magazine advertising, TV commercials, direct mail and public relations. In addition, spending on print publications has returned to levels not seen since before the 2008 recession, while electronic budgets saw a 13.8% rise.

"Content marketing has reached a perfect storm. All channels - including print, digital and social are growing," said Lori Rosen, Executive Director at Custom Content Council. "Every major brand has embraced content media leading to higher quality, higher impact and higher ROI."

Spending Survey Highlights:

How Money is Spent: Personnel remains the largest component of content marketing spending at 52% of total budget, a figure that's been remarkably consistent the past several years. Production (which since 2012 includes electronic programming as well), accounted for 32% of content marketing budgets, while distribution comprised 18%.

Reasons for Using Branded Content: Customer education was once again cited as the biggest factor in the decision to employ content marketing, with 49% of respondents naming this their primary reason and 29% naming it secondary. Customer retention and brand loyalty follow in popularity.

Repurposing of Content: Repurposing is once again a very common practice, with social media channels being the most utilized secondary channels, underscoring the multi-channel nature of content marketing. Corporate websites also receive a healthy share of the branded content by marketers.