Branded content advertising is a form of advertising which is fast evolving in the present world of socio-economic crisis. The branded content advertising focuses to create awareness of the brand rather than product placement. The advertising adopts a storytelling approach to educate on the values of the brand and create an image among the public. This article features the viewpoints of Khushboo Sharma Solanki (founder, Zero Gravity Communications) on the growth of branded content advertising.
According to a report by The Brandgym, 84% of netizens avoid ads on mobiles. They view only 5.5 seconds of a 15-second ad and only 7.4 seconds of a 30-second ad. Forbes reported that branded content marketing technique helps the customers to memorize the content compared to digital ads and will have more chance for them to search such type of contents. One of the best examples of branded content advertising was Coke Studio launch on MTV in association with Coca-Cola. A survey by USC Annenberg says that 4.5% of marketing professionals trust branded content and 67% believe that there is a chance of an increase in client spending on branded content in the nearby future.
Ethical brand
The branded content advertising emphasizes ethics as a central point and draws our attention to various socio-economic challenges such as mental health, environmental damages, disabled persons, etc. thus thereby dominates the market with a positive image of the brand. ‘Connecting the Dots’, a report by GWI’s shows that 72% of people agreed that covid-19 urged the need to become a sustainable business. The Forbes report 2019 also shows that 88% of the customers support brands that give importance to social causes.
Maximizing of influencers:
The growth of branded content is in association with social media platforms. The option of Facebook stories and Instagram reels helped the influencers on social media to develop expert content with branded hashtags.
Emotional content
A study by Talkwalker and Hubspot says that content that has keywords related to nostalgia shown an 88% increase i.e., 24.4 million in the year 2020. The best example is the previous year’s Christmas campaign of Gucci which takes back people to a holiday party in an office. This trend is expected to increase in 2021.
Perfect and precise implementation
Since the customers are becoming more brand conscious, the advertising should be a perfect format created to communicate with the target segment. The best examples of properly positioned brands are Lego Movie and Porter of Net- a- Porter magazine.
Video Ads
A report by Cisco points that video traffic likely to increase by 3X from 2016 to 2021. Netizens use smartphones for an average of 3 hours daily. Therefore it is believed that video ads will increase in 2021.
The use of mix and match formats, realistic content, and emphasizing appropriate matters that reflects brand philosophy will give a unique image for the brand.
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