Content marketing and native advertising continue to shape the digital landscape. This competitive field has, for several years, seen brands working alongside publishers and agencies to create and share compelling content that will generate conversation and audience engagement.
However, with developments in how content is created, such as the growth of internal content studios, publishers can now cut out the middle man – most commonly agencies – by directly pitching to brands with the promise of developing and distributing relevant and topical content.
Using their knowledge of how to engage audiences, combined with a readymade distribution channel, publishers can create their own content for the brand and save themselves the trouble (and cost) of working in conjunction with a third party agency.
This means that they are able to upsell their services to brands and have more influence over digital marketing campaigns. Brands may also save themselves time and money by transferring the work which would have been carried out by an agency over to a publisher that can perform all of these actions adequately by itself.
The boundaries between brands, publishers and agencies have been blurred for some time. In the past all three would be very much working together to create, amplify and promote engaging content that would entertain or inform consumers and achieve key objectives for the brand (whether awareness, consideration or action).
Roles and responsibilities between the three parties have often varied but, with publishers increasingly in possession of the same knowledge that most agencies have, and in need of new revenue streams, they are beginning to seize upon the opportunity and carry out the role themselves.
As a result, we will very shortly see the battle lines drawn between publishers and agencies as they go head-to-head for brand budget. Agencies will need to fight their corner and continue to find new innovative and creative ways to produce content if they are to stay one step ahead.
A good digital marketing agency thrives on its creativity, spontaneity and knowledge of the online consumer landscape. While publishers may understand what drives engagement of content, they could be beaten when it comes to producing the compelling literary, audio or visual material required to get users talking about a brand in quite the same way.
For a long time it has been inevitable that the cooperation of publishers and agencies would lead to a crossover of skills, and now it seems that this has finally come to pass: it will certainly be an intriguing contest and one which neither side will give into without a fight.
By Sarah Gavin, Head of Global Marketing Programmes & Corporate Communications, Outbrain
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