Content marketing is an increasingly important revenue generator for New Zealand magazine publishers, this according to an informal Magazine Publishers Association survey. It also has the potential to give marketers greater access to audiences with significantly less output.
Twenty three members of the Magazine Publishers Association (MPA) answered the survey exploring the importance of content marketing earlier this month. Content marketing was defined as content created for a paying client, whether or not it runs across the magazines own brand platforms.
The results suggest the traditional church-and-state reluctance to create editorial style content for an advertiser is all but gone, with almost 60 percent of publishers agreeing that they love working with clients in this way, and see it as the way of the future.
Half the respondents reported that content marketing made up between 30 and 70 percent of ad revenue, while for 18 percent it was more than 90 percent. And publishers were generally upbeat about the outlook for the next two years, with more than three-quarters predicting an increase in content marketing revenue.
“After years of a kind of wary acceptance of native advertising – which was often seem as a necessary evil – magazine publishers (particularly some of the new ones) are suddenly embracing it enthusiastically and putting top level resource into it,” explains Sally Duggan, Executive Director at MPA.
Content sharing
According to an article published in the June/July issue of NZ Marketing magazine, this has highlighted the importance marketers place on maximising their content exposure. Although the article notes that there does appear to be concerns over native content crossing over into mainstream publishing, with quality and reputation of publishers at stake.
On this, the article goes on to say: “advertisers want to present their message in a way that mirrors the editorial content of the host publication.” This has also resulted in content sharing partnerships which allow marketers to reach different audiences with similar content.
“Most stories have at least a couple of angles that may work better for different audiences, and content sharing means messages can be tailored to these audiences, doing justice to both the subject and the reader. Everyone gets more value,” the article goes on to say.
From the MPA research it would appear that publishers appear to be waking up to the undoubted opportunities and advantages – including commercial – offered by shared content marketing.
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