Will 2015 be the year content marketing grows up?

To really know what 2015 holds for content marketing, we first have to look at what happened this year. So let’s examine the evidence.

Follow the talent

Two interesting moves happened in the content world in 2014, with high-profile talent leaving established businesses for younger ones, swapping one discipline for another.

Against the more established flow of content people going to ad agencies, Katie Lee left Leo Burnett to become managing director at Gravity Road. Equally atypical was Conor McNicholas leaving Redwood for content startup AllTogetherNow. Senior editorial talent has been rare in adland content shops, so this will worry the big publishing agencies going into 2015.

Who knows if these moves are about frustrations with existing models or excitement about new ones, but talent moving in new directions suggests the tectonic plates are shifting.

Follow the money

New business wins are another sign that content marketing is growing up. eBay recently appointed Naked Communications to look after its content and social media. In another move, Adam&EveDDB’s specialist content division Cain & Abel picked up Sony Mobile earlier this year. Seven, where I work, also recently secured the content marketing business for Weight Watchers.

The diversity of winning agencies is striking. Businesses known for media and advertising are joining established content leaders in picking up briefs from major clients.

Exploiting the content opportunity

We’re also seeing lots of startups and new divisions. Engine has launched Moment Studio with Warburtons as a founding client; digital agency AnalogFolk has set up an editorial arm; Wunderman has launched a content studio; and search specialists iProspect has signalled a move into content creation. It’s also rare to find a PR or social media agency not talking up content.

Production businesses are also realigning to make more of the branded content opportunity. Somethin’ Else made the news for hiring creative talent from Omnicom’s Drum, and the highly regarded production company One Two Four recently restructured to create a consolidated branded content firm and hired senior client-side talent to bolster its strategic credentials.

Let’s not forget media owners. Every week sees another publisher launch a native content division. The recently in-sourced Guardian Labs is making waves, most recently with their real-time content campaign for Baileys.

Marketing must become more generous

Content marketing is about helping people enjoy what they love. The best branded content credibly contributes to an audience’s passion for a subject – in essence, not making people like stuff, but making stuff people like. This needs to happen when the consumer wants it, not just when the brand has something to sell.

In an increasingly busy and interruptive world, chief marketing officers (CMOs) know their marketing must demonstrate this kind of generosity. That’s why 2015 will see more brands expand their content marketing plans. In fact, content will become a given in any modern marketing communications plan.

Six content marketing predictions for 2015

1. Creativity will rise: with a record-breaking 81 agencies from six continents submitting 450 entries at 2014’s International Content Marketing Awards (and the first grand prix given for video) the work will get richer and better. We may even see a grand prix for Branded Content at Cannes 2015.
2. Performance will come to the fore: as CMOs demand that content clearly drives the bottom line, we’ll move beyond intermediate metrics like shares and views.
3. Budgetary realignment: with no new money for content, we’ll see advertising, search and CRM budgets in particular being squeezed.
4. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising will continue to diversify: new president-elect Tom Knox will pick up the baton from Ian Priest to keep pushing members to think beyond 30-second commercials.
5. Intermediaries will appoint content specialists: seeing the spiralling choice of agencies and approaches, the likes of Oystercatchers, AAR and Roth Observatory will formalise their interest in content marketing and bring in specialist consultants who truly understand it.
6. Consolidation will begin at pace: First, advertising and editorial will continue to come together. That might mean agencies merging within a holding company, or it could be an ad agency buying an editorial specialist (or vice versa). Second, we will see a once-great name of traditional contract publishing either go under or be acquired by a nimbler rival.

Robin Bonn is business development director at Seven. You can find him on Twitter @robonn.

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