Paid social commerce grows 65% while Middle East conflict cools branded content
- Duncan Morris
- Apr 2
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 23
Intelligence for the Content to Commerce Economy
Contalto tracks and analyses brand + publisher partnerships across BRANDED CONTENT, COMMERCE CONTENT, PUBLISHER EVENTS and PAID SOCIAL.
As we enter Q2, it's time to take stock of the year to date, highlight key trends and let you know what's new at Contalto.
Q1 2026 Highlights
65% yr-on-yr increase in brand + publisher paid social partnerships.
Commerce is the biggest driver of this surge.
Posts linking to 3rd party eCommerce platforms up 205%, and brand-linked posts (usually to an eCommerce-enabled page on the brand's site) up 123%.
Luxury Brands are leading the charge.
Paid social posts for luxury apparel and footwear brands are up 92% yr-on-yr. Jewellery brands up 97%.
The surge in brand + publisher paid social partnerships is also seen in many other sectors, including Travel & Tourism, Retail and Health & Medical.
Luxury brands are also major players in commerce content where 'Fashion & Style' and 'Beauty & Grooming' content accounts for almost half (46%) of the 30,000 commerce content articles that we tracked and analysed in Q1.
The top 5 luxury brands across combined branded and commerce content are: Balenciaga, Prada, Tiffany & Co., Gucci and Dior.
Middle East conflict already cooling the market.
Publisher-hosted branded content volume declined by 11% yr-on-yr in March.
This contrasts with the first two months of the year when volumes matched their 2025 levels. Content from Middle Eastern brands declined by 52% yr-on-yr last month, which points to the effects of the Iran war on the wider region.
Turning to publisher-hosted events: although only 3% of these take place in the Middle East, publishers benefited from event sponsorship beyond the region by almost 100 Middle Eastern companies and government bodies in 2025. Our events intelligence will reveal how much of this sponsorship activity remains intact for 2026.
Contalto News
Enhanced Luxury Coverage
We've boosted Contalto's coverage of the luxury and high-net-worth markets with the addition of new publishers including Spears, Elite Traveler, The World of Fine Wines, Decanter and Boat International.
Content Authors
Users can now search and filter Commerce Content articles by author name, title or expertise. We already have over 2,400 authors in the database despite adding this feature only recently.
Schedule a demo
We're always happy to show you the Contalto platform in action, whether your interest lies in BRANDED CONTENT, COMMERCE CONTENT or EVENTS.
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