Global content marketing revenue has continued to surge in the first half of 2015, with content marketing set to become a US$313 billion industry in 2019, according to PQ Media’s ‘Global Content Marketing Forecast 2015-19’.

Following a positive 2014, which saw revenue generated by companies that provide content marketing services grow 13.3% to $26.47 billion, 2015 will be the sixth consecutive year of  double-digit growth in the content marketing industry, according to PQ Media’s inaugural report on this topic.

When in-house and contractor spend is taken into account – as shown in the graph at the top of this article – global spend on content marketing has hit US$145 billion worldwide, and over the next four years will more than double, according to PQ Media’s forecasts.

Key growth drivers include next-gen B2B content, software and consulting firms, as well as consumer research-savvy B2C marketers scrambling to leverage and re-target their valuable content assets to capitalise on the growing influence of Gen-X and Millennial consumer and business users.

PQ analysts said there were no overt signs of cooling down anytime soon either, predicting 2016 to be another year of double-digit growth.

Among the platforms and channels producing the best results are online, mobile, social, gaming, video, apps, ebooks, print books, and hybrid research and newsletter products, the report says.

The content marketing industry saw revenue for B2B content marketing rise 12.5% and hold a 52.7% share of the content marketing sector, which generates US$13.96 billion of world-wide revenue. B2C takes a slightly smaller slice of the overall pie but had a higher growth rate at 14.3%.

PQ Media’s chief content officer, Patrick Quinn said that content is, was and always will be king of the media and entertainment business. “Content marketing has emerged as the most vibrant and talked-about marketing sector of the past five years, building momentum at a faster growth rate each year from 2010 through 2014,” Quinn said.

“Growth momentum continued in the first half of this year, driven in part by the increasing sophistication with which leading brands, marcom agencies, and forward-looking boutique content marketers are studying and engaging their target users with more testing, research, planning, and leveraging their most effective and efficient content, technology and talent.

“Ultimately, the best content marketing overlays engaging storytelling with a strong content foundation; concise and insightful prose; and the use of creative design aspects.”

Regional trends

The US is the world’s largest content marketing market with US$12.11 billion in 2014 revenues, which exceeds the revenue of the remaining top 15 global markets and is growing quickly at 12.2%.

Australia is the largest content marketing market in the Asia Pacific region due to close ties with the two largest markets: the US and UK. Many marketing agencies have offices in all three countries which results in marketing campaigns originating in the US or the UK being adopted for an Australian market.

Elsewhere in the region, China is growing in many aspects of emerging media, but content marketing isn’t one of them due to a lack of experts in the area as well as the Chinese economy decelerating due to the housing bubble.

Channels

The ‘Global Content Marketing Forecast 2015-19’ identifies three major sectors of content marketing and 13 different channels that share similar characteristics.

‘Hybrid print and digital content marketing’ is the largest of three sector categories, reaching $14.09 billion worldwide in 2014, propelled by the largest of the 13 channels tracked by PQ Media: branded print and digital magazines and advertorials at $8.13 billion.

The fastest-growing content marketing category in 2014 was ‘digital-only channels’, which jumped 27.7%, driven by rapidly growing channels such as branded mobile content and apps, which soared 61.5% last year.

‘Non-textual content marketing channels’ were the smallest category, although it posted the second-largest channel in sponsored events and event publications.

About the report

PQ Media’s ‘Global Content Marketing Forecast 2015-2019’ is a KPI benchmark analysis designed to help management teams at leading content publishers, market data providers, digital media producers, brand marketers, ad agencies, and management consultants make smarter, faster business decisions by better understanding the climate that they operate within.

The forecast analyses the B2C and B2B content marketing industry by region, market, media sector, platform and channel.

The ‘Content Marketing Forecast’ tracks the 2009-19 period, with 2014 actuals, 2009-14 historical, 2015 pacing, and 2015-19 forecasts.