Brands will significantly increase their spend on all forms of content marketing this year and will also focus on delivering more targeted resources and communications to female audiences, according to new research published by Pearlfinders.
The annual Global Index study takes in opinions and views from more than 10,000 brands marketers with the aim of uncovering trends and purchasing intentions for the next twelve months. One of the main takeaways is that ‘content’ will see the biggest uptick in investment during 2018.
Reflecting on the key findings, Ogilvy PR chief strategy and creative officer, Serge Vaezi, said brands are targeting “authenticity” in blogs, articles and news due to a public backlash against fake news, which has dominated headlines on social and other platforms during the last 18 months.
This is supported by the finding that more than a quarter of brands said genuine and interesting content is a number one priority this year. Vazei touched on the recent “value added” trend, by stating that consumers now want to know “what’s in it for them”, which suggests marketers will have to produce high quality creative regularly to meet growing demands.
Brands are now also taking female oriented content seriously following the recent #MeToo movement and several inspiring ad campaigns from the likes of Sheryl Sandberg and Puma.
Timebased Events founder and creative director, Richard Dodgson added: “We’re expecting 2018 to be the year of women. In 2018 it will be more critical than ever for agencies and brands to understand how to trigger female emotions.”
