Credible editorial is the most important factor marketers are looking for in a media partner, according to research from the World Media Group.
The organisation ran an online survey from 5 November to 5 December, which comprised 176 respondents from agencies (48%), media brand studios (37%), advertisers (13%) and consultants (3%).
When selecting their requirements of media partners, credible editorial came top (72%). Quality of audience engagement followed at 65%, then audience profile 63%. Only a fifth were looking for either a ‘renowned content studio’ or a global audience.
The response is not great news for the many media organisations hoping to pull in income by attracting brands to in-house creative consultancies, indicating perhaps that they should instead commit their resources to ensuring top editorial content.
Elsewhere in the research, marketers outlined how they are measuring the success of campaigns run through media partners. In all, 26% of respondents said increased brand awareness was the primary KPI they used to measure their most recent campaign.
This was followed by brand perception (25%). ‘Time spent with content’ came third.
Spend in the area looks set to increase, according to those polled. Content-driven marketing will continue to grow, with 78% of respondents (and 85% of agencies) believing it will boom over the next two years, 18% said it will stabilise and only 5% that it will decline.
On contributions to campaign success, 71% said the story in the content was the most important factor, followed by authenticity (62%) and creative execution (38%). Once the creating is out of the way, the most important variable looked to be matching the environment/platform to the audience 66%.
On campaign failures, respondents blamed insufficient creative (32%), poor strategy (30%) and lack of media support (22%).
The World Media Group is an alliance of publications including The Atlantic, Bloomberg Media Group, The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, Reuters, The New York Times, Time, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
Alex Delamain, newly appointed president of the World Media Group and senior vice president and head of client sales and services at The Economist, said: “The fact that advertisers and agencies expect investment in content-driven marketing to grow reflects our own experience at the World Media Awards where we have seen a rise in the number and quality of entries we receive every year. But what is really interesting is that they are recognising the impact of quality journalism on content campaigns.
“This sentiment matches independent research carried out by Moat last year which confirmed that readers display higher attention levels when viewing content within a trusted editorial environment.”
Source: The Drum
