The Constant Renewal of BRANDED CONTENT
- Duncan Morris
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Two thirds of brand-publisher partnerships did not exist at the same time last year.
A Contalto analysis of digital branded content across Jan-Apr 2026 reveals that 66% of brand-publisher partnerships were new, i.e. with brands that were inactive during the same time period last year.
Perhaps more remarkable is the fact that publisher-hosted branded content led the way at 66% versus 62% new brands for paid social partnerships, despite the fact that all the yr-on-yr growth is with social as opposed to publisher-hosted content.
This provides further confirmation (if needed) that publishers must constantly seek out and forge new brand partnerships with new creative, and don't have the luxury of relying on repeat business, recycling and re-using.
Despite the flat-to-negative picture at the macro level for publisher-hosted branded content, there is growth to be found.
For example, brand-publisher partnerships in the Online Services, Automotive and Technology sectors grew by 63%, 33% and 24% respectively, contrasting with the overall 1% decline in brand count.
Government (+40%), Consumer Electronics (+32%), and Trade & Investment (+24%) are also growing yr-on-yr in terms of article volume.
The declines are most apparent for brands in the Cosmetics & Personal Care and Apparel & Footwear sectors (-38% and -27% respectively), both of which have seen a wholesale shift from branded content to commerce content.
Paid social amplification of publisher-hosted branded content grew by 29% yr-on-yr across the first 4 months of 2026.
The surge in paid social posts (publisher-brand paid partnerships on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn) is not limited to direct-to-brand e-commerce posts. Almost half (48%) of all paid social posts exist to amplify publisher-hosted branded content articles. This rises to 89% and 77% respectively for Business/Finance and News publishers.
The average number of paid posts per branded content article now stands at 5.0 versus 3.7 a year ago.
It's worth noting, however, that the line between branded content and commerce content is increasingly blurred, as we see a growing number of hybrid Branded-Commerce Content articles and their associated social posts, i.e. e-commerce-enabled articles that are labelled as branded content and have a single brand partner.
Contalto tracks and analyses brand + publisher partnerships across COMMERCE CONTENT, BRANDED CONTENT, PUBLISHER EVENTS and PAID SOCIAL.
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