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Industry-wide studies on consumer behavior from the Cohley Insights team.
With demands for fresh content to populate social channels, power FB and Instagram ads, email marketing campaigns and site updates, today’s top marketers need more content than ever.
Keeping up with the heightened demand for content has been a major challenge, as brands' content spend is at an all time high but 55% of CMOs say that having enough content is a top three concern for them heading into 2019. They need to mitigate the risk of content fatigue, and they need to serve different demographics with content that’s contextually relevant to them.
So the question has to be asked: If content budgets are at all an all time high but brands’ content needs aren’t being met, what gives?
For obvious reasons, creative directors and marketers alike are afraid of losing control of the voice and aesthetic that defines their brand. That’s totally fair, but content that’s generated externally doesn’t need to be in “competition” to in-house creative.
As Geraldo Aldaronda, who is the Creative Director at Ministry of Supply, explains,
“As a brand grows the need for content can skyrocket. But with proper support and direction, external content creators efficiently support resource constraints while expanding the reach of our creative vision. ”
— Geraldo Aldaronda - Creative Director @ Ministry of Supply
Outsourced content can be the perfect supplement to in-house creative. It can populate brands’ social channels, keep ad creative fresh and optimize email marketing performance.
The cost efficiency is also a critical component. Based on Cohley client survey, we found that the average photoshoot costs brands $400 per actionable photo. Cohley’s clients see their “cost per image” sitting 60 - 90% less. Having a larger pool of diverse, actionable content to deploy and A/B test across digital channels can absolutely up performance; We’ve seen it time and time again.
“Remember when creatives didn’t do data? ”
— Billboard in New York City
The content adds a critical layer of authenticity in the eyes of the consumer. Today’s most innovative brands are able to find a healthy balance between maintaining brand aesthetic and incorporating outside content, incorporating data to inform and refine content decisions.
According to a LinkedIn study, one in four brands still doesn’t incorporate any content that’s produced externally. With the democratization of high-quality content creation that we can primarily thank smartphones and editing apps for, combined with the significantly lower costs associated with generating this type of content, this is simply a missed opportunity.
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