DATA REPORT
Bridging the Gap: Consumer & Marketing Perspectives on Content in the Digital Age
Looking at both the consumer and marketer sides of the content equation, this survey uncovers the gaps between what consumers want and what marketers believe they’re providing in the age of digital influence.
We surveyed 1,590 consumers and 150 B2C marketers from the US, UK and Australia to understand the types of content consumers create, reference and are influenced by across an array of buying experiences — from travel and dining to automotive and consumer packaged goods (CPG) — while simultaneously exploring the viewpoint of marketers who create content experiences for consumers.
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Key Findings
- 90% of consumers say authenticity is important when deciding which brands they like and support
- Although 92% of marketers believe most or all of the content they create resonates as authentic with consumers, 51% of consumers say less than half of brands create content that resonates as authentic.
- Consumers are 2.4x more likely to say user-generated content is authentic compared to brand-created content, yet marketers are 2.1x more likely to say brand-created content is authentic compared to UGC.
- 79% of people say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions, yet only 13% said content from a brand is impactful and a mere 8% said influencer-created content would highly impact their purchasing decisions.
- Although consumers find UGC 9.8x more impactful than influencer content when making purchasing decisions, 49% of marketers are planning to increase their investment in influencer marketing in 2019.
- 67% of marketers say they plan to increase their use of brand-created visuals, but only 15% of consumers say that’s the type of content they most want to see from brands.
- 67% of consumers say it’s important for brands to provide them with personalized experiences, yet 55% of people either disagree or are ambivalent about whether the majority of brands today actually provide them with a personalized experience.
How Marketers Can Bridge the Content Gap to Meet Consumer Needs
With the overwhelming majority of consumers now posting and acting on UGC, brands can no longer just rely on staged, stock or influencer images.
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The Top Content Marketing Challenges (And How to Solve Them)
It’s not just the management and sourcing of visuals that concerns marketers; it’s the pressure to deliver more at a faster pace. Here's how we solve the content challenges.
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21 Campaigns That Captivated & Converted Consumers
Learn how top global brands – like Canon, Expedia, NVIDIA, Toyota and WWF – created successful visual marketing campaigns with user-generated content.
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Busabout Goes 99% UGC to Drive Website Discovery & Bookings
By building an interactive website powered by user-generated visuals and mapping more than 110,000 pieces of authentic UGC onto a dynamic map of Europe, Busabout drove 33% more bookings and reduced content costs by 65%.
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