Insight from RAMetrics
Over the last two years, the news industry has come together to deliver the largest news media sponsored content campaign in British history. Commissioned by the UK Government to help communicate broad and nuanced messages around the Covid pandemic, the All Together campaign ran across more than 600 news brand titles in the UK, delivered by Newsworks.
From with the very first ‘stay-at-home’ message in April 2020 to the end of the partnership in Q1 2022, the mix of branded content and display across both print and digital delivered strong recall and engagement results throughout.
This led us to ask the question: where do the strengths lie in branded content and display advertising? Here’s the latest analysis from RAMetrics.
Display breeds familiarity
On recall, display ads perform particularly well. 65% of readers recall seeing ads that are display-based, compared with 55% of readers for editorial-based.
They find it easier to recognise brands via display and find them significantly more familiar (branding: 46% display vs 42% content; familiarity: 57% display vs 44% content).
However, unsurprisingly, branded content draws more of the reader’s attention, scoring 54% compared to 41% for display.
Branded content strikes up engagement
Branded content comes into its own when it comes to engagement.
People tend to prefer branded content (like ad: 53% content vs 44% display) and find them more interesting (60% content vs 46% display), easier to understand (74% vs 69%, content vs display) and more beneficial (40% vs 26%, content vs display).
Interestingly, both spark similar levels of emotion (27% vs 28%, display vs content).
Both perform well on action
Lastly, what about action metrics? The two types perform similarly well, with display and content-based advertising both driving people to look for more information (24% vs 25% display vs content).
Branded content prompts a slight increase in visits to the advertiser (22% vs 20%, content vs display) whilst display is slightly better at driving purchase intent (17% for display vs 15% content).
Which one to choose for your campaign?
Overall, if you’re looking to create a clever and creative marketing campaign and you know your target audience is found across a handful of publications, branded content could make for a really engaging campaign.
But if you’re trying to deliver a high reach campaign to multiple market segments or your audience sits across multiple publications then a strong display campaign is the one for you.