Brands Spending More on Content Marketing Staffing

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

Phoenix—ContentWise's newly released 2010 Staffing and Compensation Study shows the increased adoption of employing content specialists,  suggesting that brands are more competitive than ever with content marketing initiatives.

The task of producing and managing branded content has shifted in the past decade from being the role of generalist communicators to being the responsibility of those in specialty roles. In 2010, 74 percent of the positions involved in branded content were specialty roles, such as an editor or art director, whereas in 2001 the opposite was true, with 72 percent of the positions being generalist.

"When projects require specialty talent, that's a nod of increased emphasis, usually as a result of competition and the resulting quality demands, and/or increased investment as a result of experiencing past successes," says Chris McMurry, CEO of McMurry, the operator of ContentWise.

Not surprisingly, companies are spending more (201.2 percent more compared with 10 years ago) on wages for people  involved in branded content initiatives. An average of $146,270 was spent on wages for 2.49 full-time equivalent staff members in 2010 versus $48,558 in 2001 for 1.01 full-time equivalents.

This is partly a result of content marketing evolving in the past decade from a primarily branded magazine- and newsletter-based activity into other tactics, such as video, website content, podcasts and social media. For those in positions involved in creating a brand's content marketing, 56.3 percent of time is spent on publications and 41.3 percent on other media.

The research was conducted through a mailed survey targeting a random sample of for-profit and nonprofit organizations across all industries, and the results provide a degree of accuracy of +/- 6.4 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. Among the responding organizations were ADP, California Department of Transportation, Clariant Corp., Clear Channel, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hoosier Energy, Macy's, Sirius XM Radio, State Farm Insurance, Steelcase Inc., The French Culinary Institute and Thomson Reuters.