Digital marketers from the Midwest to Utah have long known the effectiveness of content marketing strategies. Now, an innovative new study from the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) gives us some numerical data to demonstrate exactly how effective content marketing really is, and what marketers can do to up their game.
BBC StoryWorks, the content marketing division of BBC Advertising, partnered with facial coding technology company CrowdEmotion to analyze consumers’ feelings of positivity toward familiar advertising brands. The study used participants from Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, Germany and parts of the U.S., such as Utah. Minuscule facial movements were recorded and analyzed as unconscious behavioral indicators of consumer emotional responses to content.
According to the data, well-labeled, high-quality content marketing campaigns are both emotional and persuasive. Overall exposure to content marketing campaigns increased explicit positive feelings toward brands by 77 percent. Exposure also increased subconscious positivity by 14 percent.
Participants seemed to appreciate when brands were upfront with their marketed original content. 64 percent of participants appreciated content marketing so long as the presenting brand was clearly labeled. In addition, respondents appreciated marketed content more when it was in line with the quality of the news provider’s editorial content. 63 percent of respondents were happy with high-quality marketed content, and over half of respondents found the content interesting and shareable.
Overall, content marketing was most effective when it followed these five tenants: being both transparent and educational, matching the editorial quality of the pieces around it, clearly establishing its purpose, integrating the brand with the narrative and being placed in a premium news carrier environment.
In other words, content marketing delivers solid, quantifiable results when it brings interesting, high-quality information to consumers in a way that doesn’t feel forced or misleading to the consumer. For digital advertisers in Utah and around the country, the message is clear—keep doing what you’re doing, and do it well.
