If there was any doubt that content is king prior to 2015, that notion has long since faded and
has been replaced by echoes of a refrain that resonated through the branded entertainment
industry in recent years: "What's old is new again." But for the dynamic content marketing sector,
there's nothing old about a blazing streak of double-digit expansion since the throes of the Great
Recession in 2009. And while its roots go back as far as product placement more than a century
ago, content marketing has not only weathered the more recent tidal shifts causing disruptions
across the communications ecosystem, it has risen to the fore as one of the most valuable digital
& alternative media solutions.
Content may be king again, but content marketing is not new. It has evolved through a series of
labels and definitions since the 19th century, including custom publishing, and today it shines as
a segment of the ever-changing branded content sphere, which also includes branded
entertainment, product placement, custom publishing, native advertising and advertainment,
among others.
But like other forms of successful branded content, this platform is able to combine the use of
both traditional and digital & alternative media channels by developing content specific to the
needs of target consumers. As a result, content marketing is capable of creating emotional
connections by engaging audiences through multiple channels with the power of effective
storytelling.
Driven by a rapid phase of evolutionary shifts, a seminal transformation has pushed the global
media ecosystem past the digital tipping point, hastening the fragmentation of the advertising
and marketing sectors as brand marketers, ad agencies, content producers, and media investors
scramble to redesign their strategic growth plans. The key to their success will be their ability to
make smarter, faster business decisions during an era of frenetic shifts spanning the worlds of
technology, media and telecommunications. These changes have created an abundance of
choices for consumers and businesses regarding wireless devices, digital media, rich content,
broadband access, and cloud computing.
As a result, consumers - particularly young Millennials - have become more mobile, elusive,
multicultural, multitasking, and in control of their digital environments while demonstrating
shorter attention spans. There are literally millions of content distribution channels operating
today that were not available just a few decades ago, resulting in target audiences that are
overloaded with ad messages and brand marketers overwhelmed with the clutter they must
pierce in order to engage consumers at the right time and location.
With the explosion of more than 150 different ad and marketing channels as of mid-2015, brand
messages can easily get lost if the intended consumer is media multitasking, or worse yet, viewing
content on devices with ad-skipping tech, ensuring most commercials are missed entirely.
Consequently, brands and agencies have had to reevaluate the media buying process in an age
of multichannel and cross-channel integrated marketing solutions.
As it passed through various evolutionary stages, content marketing has built credibility as an
effective component of integrated media campaigns because brands have found it to be
successful at breaking through the increasing clutter distracting potential end users. And with the
various differences between B2C and B2B markets, the content you publish today is more
important than ever. It must be driven by well-planned strategic marketing campaigns that
feature targeted content and leverage the strengths of traditional and digital media.
To help you navigate this dynamic media platform, PQ Media deployed its top research analysts
into the field and pored over decades of proprietary global market intelligence to develop the
first-ever econometric analysis of the size, growth, segmentation, key growth drivers, and the
challenges ahead for the growing B2B and B2C content marketing industry. PQ analysts have
identified which global markets are the largest and the fastest growing; which hold the most
potential; which media channels offer the most opportunities and challenges; which countries
rank among the Top 15 Global Markets, and many other important analytics, including the
following key data points:
- Value of global content marketing worldwide grew 13% in 2014 to $26.5 billion, and PQ
analysts project it will accelerate at a 15% CAGR in the 2014-19 period to over $50 billion;
- B2B content accounted for 53% of the global market value in 2014, while B2C content
grew at a faster 14% rate for the year;
- USA is the world's largest overall content market, generating $12 billion in 2014, although
it ranked 12th in annual growth, more than 10 points behind top-ranked South Korea,
which rocketed 26%;
- Branded print & digital magazines is the largest content marketing channel at $8 billion,
while branded mobile content & apps grew the fastest in 2014, soaring 62%;
PQ Media
executives
have been instrumental in defining, segmenting and sizing the content
marketing industry from the beginning, nearly 20 years ago. As such, we've worked exhaustively
over the past year to ensure we deliver to you the most comprehensive, in-depth, credible and
actionable strategic intelligence ever published on the global content marketing industry,
spanning the four major regions, 15 leading markets, three key sectors, and 13 media channels.
And we've packaged all this content into the most data-rich product bundle ever assembled on
this industry, including:
- 324-slide PowerPoint deck designed as the core report;
- Accentuated with a new, deep-dive, supplemental Excel databook, featuring nearly
40,000 data points and providing details on more than 1,000 content marketing
companies operating worldwide;
- Package covers the 2009-19 period, including 2014 actuals, 2015 pacings, and 2015-19
forecasts