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Perspectives | Research

Creating a Successful Content Marketing Strategy

Ninety percent of B2C marketers are using some form of content
marketing. However, according to the Content Marketing Institute, less than half of those marketers have a documented content strategy—despite the fact the most effective content marketing is based upon one.  That said, creating an effective content marketing strategy is no small undertaking. There are numerous challenges and things to think about and prepare for, even if you are well on your way on your content marketing.  We plan to address many of these issues at our new Content All Stars Event (September 18th in New York City) as we bring together best-in-class marketers and our members from leading digital content companies to share what works and explore what’s next.pie chart-documented content strategy

Creating Powerful Content
Without a doubt the most important—and most challenging—aspect of any content strategy is building a content engine that will drive success. Few do this better than Red Bull, which not only takes its marketing message to the extreme in terms of its action-sports content, but also in terms of content creation, having founded Red Bull Media House in 2007.  The company’s content-based marketing is second to none, as Managing Director Werner Brell put it, “We have been creating media assets from the beginning.”

“The mindset for launching Red Bull Media House was a natural progression of the company…For all of the athlete projects and events Red Bull created, which subsequently built this brand, cameras have been there.  Everything has more or less been put on film.  We have been creating media assets from the beginning,” said Brell. While his approach is largely to create original content to which Red Bull has exclusive license, the company also partners with media companies, ultimately maintaining “a laser focus on creating the best in action sports programming, centered around storytelling, high production value and overall progression in all aspects of sports event broadcasting,” said Brell. At Content All Stars, he’ll offer insights into the company’s trademark approach to content creation. “At the end of the day,” Brell pointed out, “it’s entertainment. You have to play by the rules of the audience, and they want to watch something engaging on an emotional level.”

Engaging Audiences
Undoubtedly, content creation – great ideas that tie your brand to your target audience or consumers — is the foundation of content marketing. And while Brell’s company has taken the proverbial bull by the horns, not every brand finds itself in the position to create its own media house. However one thing that all marketers can (and must) do is understand their audiences in order to create content experiences that attract and engage them.

As the company’s VP of Content and Global Creative, Ann Rubin madewithIBMSKsaid, “We strive for everything we do in marketing to have some utility, some purpose…for the [audience] beyond the brand message.” In its “Made with IBM series”, the company set out to tell its customers’ stories of transformation to offer actionable insights for others. Beyond creating compelling and popular content, the project brought the company closer than ever to its customers as the process of storytelling became a collaboration. At Content All Stars, Rubin will speak candidly about how IBM focuses on customers and content to transform its marketing into more than a one-way message.

Driving Results
Attracting and engaging audiences through content will take marketers a long way as they seek to build brand awareness and customer relationships that engender trust and lasting affinity.

An important and challenging area of marketing measurement is social media. Yet Claire Tavernier, Managing Director of the UK’s Channel Flip Media and founder of StoryTechLife, believes that social can help demonstrate high levels of engagement and that “these engaged viewers do have more value in the long run.” She will offer concrete examples of how social increases engagement that builds value at Content All Stars.

Yet the most effective strategic marketing plans must leverage these laudable goals to achieve measureable results. Data offers not only a way to know your customers beyond general demographics, but the ability to make highly-granular correlations such as “when the dew point is X, the temperature is Y, and the rainfall is Z…Here are the 15 products you should be selling right now,” according to the Weather Company GM, Vikram Somaya. At Content All Stars, he’ll team up with fellow data guru Bog Ivins, CDO of Mindshare, to show how data can not only provide consumer insights, but actually demonstratively drive consumer behavior.

Are you a Content All Star? If so, request an invitation to attend this first-of-its-kind event, September 18th at NYC’s Conrad Hotel to develop a content strategy that delivers meaningful results.

Revenue | Video

Q&A: Beth Lawrence, EVP Digital Sales, Scripps Networks Interactive, on Video Ad Innovation

Q: To drive success in video advertising, what are the most important things to consider?

Beth Lawrence Headshot A: A successful video business can be driven from two metrics: The first is that quality content matters. High quality production delivered in a well-lit environment is what marketers are looking for.

The second is scale. When clients look to extend TV reach, it’s important that enough users can engage with the message. It’s one of the reasons Scripps Networks Interactive launched a premium lifestyle video portal and distributed network last year called uLive. Comprised of both full-episode play and short-form programming from the Scripps Networks library along with original video, it’s a way to distribute our content—coupled with the ad message—so the viewer can “discover” vs. being sent to a particular destination only.

Q: Describe a video advertising campaign that you think is particularly innovative or effective:

A: I really like what we did with the video content we created for Buitoni for Food Network Star. This content included the on-air in-show integration of Buitoni and the custom on-air short form that ran as Buitoni’s TV commercial, as well as its digital pre-roll and VOD offering. Additionally, it contains an excerpt from the Star Salvation webisode series with Robert Irvine that ran on FoodNetwork.com, Food Network VOD and on Food Network’s YouTube channel. Star Salvation offers contestants the chance to “come back to life” after earlier elimination from Food Network Star on TV. I like this example because it is fun, it’s engaging and it provides a web-only solution for these previously eliminated contestants to jump back into the Food Network Star mix, integrated seamlessly with the sponsor’s brand.

Q: What is working in video advertising and what do we need more of in order to drive success in this area?

A: Consumers are demanding great quality video on any device at any time of day. So for Scripps Networks, that’s a beautiful thing and we love the audience wherever we find them. Come on, you can never get enough of HGTV’s Property Brothers! As an industry, we need to be able to answer reach and other needs that arise so that video buying can be seamless like it is in the television business.

Also, I think we’re ripe for ad product innovation in video. We shouldn’t just assume that standard TV ads must travel to digital video and that’s the end of the conversation. With social media tie-ins like Twitter Amplify and second screen solutions that drive the viewer deeper into the content online from TV,  the sight, sound and motion experience only gets better.

Beth Lawrence serves as executive vice president of digital sales for Scripps Networks Interactive. In this role, she is responsible for growing revenue streams for Scripps’ portfolio of lifestyle media brands – HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel and Great American Country – and their respective websites, as well as uLive, Scripps’ premium lifestyle video portal and distribution network. Lawrence also guides the company’s ad sales efforts relating to its mobile, broadband and video-on-demand offerings. In a stellar career with notable media companies including The Weather Channel, Yahoo! and DoubleClick, Beth has proven to be an outstanding leader with strong industry relationships.

Note:  This interview is part of our “Three on Three” series in which we ask three executives the same three questions to uncover actionable insights.

Also in this series:

Q&A: Aaron Broder, CEO & Co-Founder Evolve Media, on Video Ad Innovation 

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Innovation | Perspectives

Content All Stars: Making the Most of the Media/Marketer Partnership

The most successful brands and media companies have one big thing in common: They know their customers and treasure the on-going relationship they have with them. They also both understand the power of content to connect with customers and offer them genuine value by engaging their passions, interests and concerns. Without doubt, the best content experiences arise when media and marketing teams work together to share knowledge about their audiences, insights about what’s worked and what hasn’t and are clear about goals and what’s achievable.

Recognizing the power of media and marketing teams is what we’re doing at our first ever Content All Stars event, which will be held in NYC’s Conrad Hotel September 18th. We are bringing together the best and the brightest from brands such as Red Bull, IBM and Goldman Sachs who will join media brands that include ESPN, Comedy Central, Vox Meda and The New York Times to explore this dynamic relationship by highlighting campaigns and partnerships that have pushed creativity and technologies, showcase novel perspectives from people outside our industry and tackle some current issues around trust and transparency that our industry is grappling with. Some of what we’ll cover:

The most successful brands and media companies have one big thing in common: They know their customers and treasure the on-going relationship they have with them. They also both understand the power of content to connect with customers and offer them genuine value by engaging their passions, interests and concerns. Without doubt, the best content experiences arise when media and marketing teams work together to share knowledge about their audiences, insights about what’s worked and what hasn’t and are clear about goals and what’s achievable.

Content and Customer Conversations

One-way messaging is so last-century. Today, content is a conversation with consumers and has the power to create meaningful and lasting connections. At Content All Stars, you’ll hear from Ann Rubin, VP of Branded Content and Global Creative, about how IBM transformed its ad campaigns into a collaboration with customers and truly transformed its marketing.

Data Drives Insights and Action

Data: Everybody’s doing it. But there are few who can elegantly illustrate how first-party data can actually move product off the shelves. Content All Stars features two of the smartest people in data—Vikram Somaya, GM of Weather FX and Bib Ivins, Chief Data officer of Mindshare—who will discuss their collaboration on turning customer insights into tangible marketing success.

Engaging Audiences: Essential, but not Easy

Attracting audiences is a challenge that media companies have faced since the Gutenberg press. Now that the digital media world is moving past a pure numbers game and wants not only audiences at scale, but truly-engaged audiences, it has never been more important. At Content All Stars, Bloomberg, ESPN and Refinery29 will reveal how they are not only attracting audiences, but interacting with them to create valuable audience-engagement.

Social Strategies that Deliver

Social Media has just got to be more than a mad scramble for friends and followers. At Content All Stars we’ll hear from Allison Kingsley, the VP of Digital Development at Comedy Central about how she takes a strategically social approach. And Channel Flip Media’s Managing Director Clare Tavernier will discuss how she factors social into her engagement strategy to drive quantifiable results.

… And we aren’t done lining up speakers yet. If you have a suggestion, email Michelle Manafy. Learn more about our keynotes or request an invitation. Check back for program updates.

We look forward to seeing you at Content All Stars!

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Perspectives

Q&A: Eric Korsh, SVP, Brand Social.Content, DigitasLBi on Content Marketing

This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to uncover actionable insights… If you want to learn more, keep an eye out on our site for more interviews. Today’s Three on Three interview is with Eric Korsh, SVP, Brand Social.Content, DigitasLBi on Content Marketing.

Eric Korsh Headshot

Q: How are you selecting partners to work with on content marketing? What is the ideal number of partners and way to purchase content marketing programs?

A: It’s nice to have a preferred set of partners, but of course most concepts require custom content, and you may not want comedy experts working on dramatic documentaries. So partners are developed broadly, but care is taken at the RFP stage to engage the right creators.

Because there are multiple ways to purchase content, including through media, brand marketing and public relations investment, there are multiple criteria depending on the objectives and measurement that may make one partner more interesting than another. Often, we find that niche partners can create the richest content – and we are able to achieve scale through other means. Other advantages to niche partnerships are the ability to deliver a more engaged, sometimes rabid audience, as well as willingness to create additional content that can amplify a program across multiple channels.

Q: What has been the most effective use case for content marketing and how did you prove success?

A: It’s hard to name single programs, but we have had a lot of success with millennial influencer programs that allow the right content creators to make things that they know will appeal to their organically-built audience. Brands that are comfortable with content coming from outside of the fortress have the most success with these kinds of efforts. We have run successful programs like this with Taco Bell’s “Feed the Beat” and Lenovo’s “Tough Season.”

In terms of success – we know what it will look like in advance because we align with the client. As noted earlier, there are media metrics, engagement and brand marketing metrics, so different tactics are used to drive the kinds of results that are meaningful in any individual case. Broadly speaking – we believe in authenticity. We ask ourselves, as consumers, why anyone would care about what it is we are creating, and why it would be shared.

Specifically, while content has proven to be effective at driving upper funnel awareness and consideration metrics, and lower level product or service use, we are seeing more cases of mid-funnel tactics. Bridges between pure entertainment and a hard sales pitch.

Q: What is the future of content marketing?

A: The future of content marketing is the future of marketing. Not forever, but the foreseeable future.

As Senior Vice President, Brand Social.Content for DigitasLBi, Eric leads the development of digital brand social, content strategy and execution for DigitasLBi clients.  Clients include Harley-Davidson, Puma, Lenovo, Buick and GMC. Prior to DigitasLBi, Eric spent 25 years as a producer of episodic television, TV commercials, feature and documentary films, and music videos. He was formerly COO of Scout Productions.

Note: This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to gain perspective and uncover actionable insights.

Also in this series:

Q&A: Jason Deal, Managing Director Social Media Services Initiative US on Content Marketing.

Q&A: Daniele Kohen, Media Director Neo@Ogilvy West, on Content Marketing

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Innovation | Perspectives

Meet the OPA Content All Stars Keynotes: Soledad O’Brien, Jason Silva & Sarah Lewis

It is an exciting time here at the Online Publishers Association. Under the leadership of our new CEO, Jason Kint, we’re feeling renewed energy and enthusiasm for the digital media industry and the power of compelling content experiences. We are so happy to have an opportunity to celebrate the powerful collaboration between savvy marketers and trusted media brands at our new Content All Stars event September 18th at the Conrad Hotel in NYC.

We’ll deliver an all-star lineup of speakers to energize and engage attendees with their stories about the power of content to create trusted relationships with audiences, drive consumers to action and communicate what’s personal about brands. Read on to hear about three keynote speakers who are guaranteed to deliver insight and inspiration:

Soledad O’Brien was recently described as “a one-woman media storm,” O’Brien is an award-winning journalist, documentarian, news anchor, and producer. In June 2013 she launched Starfish Media Group, a multiplatform media production and distribution company dedicated to uncovering and producing empowering stories that take a challenging look at the often divisive issues of race, class, wealth, poverty and opportunity, through personal stories. O’Brien’s critically-acclaimed documentary series, Black in America and its follow-up, Latino in America, are among CNN’s most successful domestic and international franchises and she continues to produce Black in America for CNN. In addition, O’Brien is a correspondent for HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, and a Special Correspondent for Al Jazeera America Tonight. She is co-founder of the O’Brien Raymond Starfish Foundation, which focuses on providing disadvantaged women with a higher education.

Watch Soledad O’Brien on the Daily Show with John Stewart

Jason Silva has been called an “Idea DJ” and a poet—“a revitalizer and remixer of optimism, and above all, a curator: of ideas, of inspiration, and of awe.”  His non-commercial series of short videos, aptly named ‘shots of philosophical espresso,’ explore the co-evolution of humans and technology and have gone viral with more than nine million views and “play like movie trailers for ideas,” according to The Atlantic. Silva is the Emmy-nominated host of National Geographic Channel’s #1 rated series, Brain Games and the creator of the web series “Shots of Awe,” micro-documentaries exploring creativity, innovation, technology, futurism, metaphysics, existentialism and the human condition.

Watch Jason Silva’s TEDGlobal talk on Radical Openness

Sarah Lewis is being hailed as a rising intellectual star and her book, The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery, has been widely praised by a who’s who of creative thinkers. Lewis appeared on Oprah’s “Power List,” served on President Obama’s Arts Policy Committee, was profiled as a “Brainiac Rising” in Vogue, was recently featured in Elle on “How to Fail Artfully” and is a faculty member at Yale’s School of Art. She has held positions at the Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, and her essays have been published in Artforum and The Smithsonian. According to Lewis: “The creative process is actually how we fashion our lives and follow other pursuits. Failure is not something that might be helpful; it actually is the process.”

Watch Sarah Lewis’ TED talk on Embracing the Near Win

If you’ve participated in an OPA event before, you know what to expect: A room filled with the brightest and most creative minds in digital media and marketing enjoying a day filled with conversations, presentations and debate about the tools and tactics that will drive the continued growth and success of the digital content industry. If this is your first opportunity to join an OPA event, request an invite now. Space is limited.

Innovation

Collab/Space New York Tackles Real World Challenges to Foster Industry-wide Collaboration

Collaboration is the key to the future of digital media and it is essential for survival, according to Mark Glaser, Executive Editor of PBS MediaShift and host of the brand’s new series of Collab/Space events. This week, PBS and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute held Collab/Space New York at the Ford Foundation. While the day featured a few traditional presentations, the majority of the format took an innovative problem-solving approach that focused on building actual collaboration within the media industry rather than simply highlighting examples of innovation.

CollabSpace New YorkCollab/Space New York kicked off with some ice breaking exercises to set an off-beat and interactive tone for the day, followed by a talk by Atlantic Media VP and GM Kimberly Lau who offered candid insights into how she is trying to increase the pace innovation. While she pointed to Quartz as “a great example of building something from scratch and giving the team the resources they need…without a legacy business to reinvent,” her focus has been on increasing innovation from within that “legacy business.” Though she said that priorities come from the top, Lau emphasized the effectiveness of fostering greater collaboration between editorial and development sides of the business.

This set the tone nicely for a series of five minute presentations from a range of organizations who had an innovative product, development or initiative underway that they wanted to take to the next level. Among the many mini-presentations:

  • NPR Producer, blogs and social media, Wright Bryan discussed the challenges expanding the functionality and adoption of its analytics dashboard.
  • New York Times Data Scientist Mike Dewar showcased the work it the R&D Labs team is doing with its Streamtools toolkit for dealing with live streaming data that isn’t yet capturing the imagination of a wide range of staff so that it can be fully leveraged..
  • Quartz reporter David Yanofsky showed off his Open Source Chartbuilder tool, which he would like to see broader market adoption and mobile-centric development. .
  • Newsroom Development Editor David Biderman from The Wall Street Journal (which was celebrating its 125th anniversary) discussed its progress in creating a fast and easy-to-use Web CMS interface that it hopes will find adoption among the multitude of parent News Corp.’s sites..
  • Daily News’ Managing Director Cyna Alderman looked at the challenges faced as her organization launches an ambitious project to support media startups—not just financially, but by bringing them into the newsroom to closely collaborate on innovation. .
  • Vox Media Designer Scott Kellum looked at the company’s Cardstacks, which underpin its explanatory journalism efforts and expressed the need to improve their discoverability, shareability and scope.

While it included an excellent presentation from News Corp.’s VP of Product Kareem Amin on how he “questioned everything” (and circumvented a fair amount as well) to kick start innovation, the afternoon was primarily devoted to breakout groups that worked on honing their collaboration skills before setting to work tackling the challenges and objectives of the morning’s presenters. As Daily News’ Alderman tweeted, the biggest takeaway was “strengthen your projects through collaboration.” That theme was not only apparent in the enthusiasm the breakout groups exhibited in helping solve the presented problems, but also in the over-arching goal of the day: to strengthen the digital media industry through collaboration among organizations and the passionate people working in them.

Photo credit: Anika Anand

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Perspectives

Q&A: Jason Deal, Managing Director Social Media Services Initiative US on Content Marketing

This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to uncover actionable insights… If you want to learn more, keep an eye out on our site for more interviews. Today’s Three on Three interview is with Jason Deal, Managing Director Social Media Services Initiative U.S, on Content Marketing.

Jason Deal HeadshotQ: How are you selecting partners to work with on content marketing? What is the ideal number of partners and way to purchase content marketing programs?

A: As an owned and earned media service within a media agency we produce a lot of content in-house, but partners are also core to our offering. We do this in a variety of ways ranging from working with partner agencies on shared accounts around campaigns (e.g. creative agencies), to constructing original content with publishers within paid media programs, to studio-style outsourcing with specialty vendors (e.g. infographics design experts). While we’ve not yet had much experience with the large-scale content sourcing solutions, they’re certainly on the radar and part of the discussion as our clients dial-up their brand publishing efforts.

The variety and volume of partners is shaped by the specific brand, audience and campaign objectives. It’s also increasingly shaped by our growing cognizance of which publishers are equipped to expertly manage high-quality original content production on behalf of brands. With the growth of native-ad products and accompanying brand content services by publishers, vetting the production capabilities of these groups is something to which we pay close attention.

Q: What has been the most effective use case for content marketing and how did you prove success?

A: Most of our work is with major B2C brands so earned media value is a primary objective. When we help our clients get to the right piece of content with the right distribution and promotion, we have seen incredible engagement, sharing and conversation lift. We’ve also seen how this can spike web traffic and subsequently sales lift. The (admittedly elusive) trick is getting to the consumer insight and associated creative idea that gets people sharing.

Q: What is the future of content marketing?

A: The current organic reach question on 3rd party social platforms is tripping marketers up a bit, but over the long-haul brands will increase their investments in marketing content. The paradigm shift they are going through now is around content strategy. I won’t beat the dead-horse regarding the need for brands to create unique content value, but will suggest that the next mental shift is going to be around distribution.

For most brands – especially B2C brands that work with a media agency like ours – organic reach and search won’t deliver the visibility and scale they need. Just like the old microsite, if you build it…they will not come. Distribution will increasingly be baked into the content marketing plans including tight orchestration with paid media for amplification of high-performing content. The advent of brand content platforms and native ad products by publishers are filling an important space between traditional digital display and owned-channel publishing. The emergence of this more contextually relevant distribution – along with improving brand content—will drive new levels of engagement and the social sharing that helps brands to win with empowered consumers. A lot of change… but terrific developments for both brands and consumers.

Jason Deal is Managing Director, Strategy for Initiative one of the Interpublic Group’s two worldwide media networks and part of the company’s IPG Mediabrands unit.  Prior to his role in strategy, Jason oversaw all digital marketing efforts including social and mobile on behalf of the agency’s automotive accounts Hyundai and Kia. In addition, Jason served as the head of Initiative’s Prophesee unit, which offers marketers a full-service social media solution from insights to strategy and ultimately execution. Prophesee currently provides innovative social strategies to several of Initiative’s flagship clients including Hyundai/Kia, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and Best Western. Before starting his 15 year career in the agency world, Jason worked as an advisor to several political candidates and causes throughout the United States. A veteran in the digital marketing industry, Jason worked with numerous Southern California-based design, digital and general agencies.

Note: This Q&A is part of OPA’s “Three on Three” series where we ask three industry executives the same three questions on a topic to gain perspective and uncover actionable insights.

Also in this series:

Q&A: Daniele Kohen, Media Director Neo@Ogilvy West, on Content Marketing

Research

Mobile Moves Digital Spending, eMarketer Reports

US industries will collectively spend upwards of $50 billion on digital advertising in 2014 according to eMarketer’s 2014 Digital Ad Spending Benchmarks by Industry report.  While direct-response still captures the largest amount in the overall spending—$29.61 billion versus the $20.5 billion predicated to be spent on branding this year—both segments are growing at approximately the same rate. eMarketer also finds that, “As marketers get better at measurement and attribution, the lines between direct-response spending and branding are blurring more than ever.”

eMarketer Digital Spend 2014 Chart 1It is important to note that the larger trend numbers don’t tell the whole story. While eMarketer finds double-digit gains across virtually all industries since 2009, they say that more important data is among the “subtrends within individual industries.” In particular, evolving mobile behavior is impacting spending trends. To reflect this significant industry condition, this year eMarketer includes its first estimates of mobile v. desktop spending on an industry-by-industry basis.

eMarketer predicts that the US retail industry’s advertising spending on paid digital media will reach $11.05 billion in 2014 and rise to $17.39 billion by 2018 and it continues to be the single largest-spending industry by a wide margin. However that spending is largely concentrated in direct-response advertising. Among the factors driving retail’s use of digital media is consumers’ use of mobile devices throughout the shopping process.

The travel industry also skews heavily to direct response, devoting a larger share of its overall budget to performance advertising than any other industry covered in eMarketer’s report (74% of its $4.15 billion spend). However eMarketer foresees a possible shift increase in mobile spending from this segment as consumers shift to mobile travel booking and marketers experiment with advertising that taps into this trend as well as last minute purchases.

More than one-third (35%) of US automotive-related digital ad spending will be on mobile this year, eMarketer predicts, accounting for $2.15 billion of the $6.15 billion total. This will put the auto industry in line with the US industry average when it comes to mobile’s share of digital ad spending. In the automotive sector, mobile-based branding and upper-funnel advertising efforts are increasing in response to evolving consumer research behavior—which has shifted to mobile. eMarketer suggests that brands “must remain well-considered and top of mind among consumers who are not yet in-market in order to win a place on their shopping lists once they are.”

Mirroring increased consumer usage of a wide range of financial activities via mobile devices—including banking, buying securities and managing funds—the financial industry is increasingly viewing mobile as an attractive advertising platform. In addition to mobile, this sector is likely to increase its usage of digital video, social media and sponsored content. At present, 62% of the financial industry’s digital spend is being used for direct response and 38% is used for branding.

eMarketer Digital Spend 2014 Chart 2Somewhat stronger in the branding area is the US healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, which will spend $1.41 billion on paid digital media in 2014, including $373 million on mobile ad formats. This segment will invest 44% of its digital spend in branding-focused campaigns. An interesting growth segment among pharma and healthcare is the use of digital media to target small, specific audiences for expensive specialty drugs that treat less-common ailments.

The segment focusing the largest percentage of its digital spend on branding is CPG and Consumer products with the lion’s share of its ad budgets going towards TV. The CPG and consumer products industry, in which a mere 8.4% of total spending is done via digital channels, focuses a hefty 65% of their $4.2 billion digital budget on branding efforts. The good news is that the digital ad spend is growing and eMarketer predicts that some of the largest budget increases, by percentage, will be in digital video, as brands transfer linear TV efforts to online and mobile, where they are starting to find effective ways to measure campaign success.

The full 2014 Digital Ad Spending Benchmarks by Industry report is available only to eMarketer’s corporate subscribers, though an executive summary can be downloaded here. The full report covers Automotive, Computing Products & Consumer Electronics, Consumer Products, Financial Services, Media & Entertainment, Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare, Retail, Telecom and Travel.

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