The status of content marketing in Europe 2021 – survey

Blind spot

I always thought I knew stuff about content marketing. But, I have to correct myself. Because, I know stuff about content marketing in The Netherlands. And about content marketing in English speaking countries. But how about Germany, our neighbours? Much harder to read about or listen to. The same goes for the French speaking part of Belgium. Denmark, Sweden, Norway? Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Switzerland… All European countries, but I hardly know anything about content marketing in those countries. So what is the status of content marketing in Europe actually?

The ICMF Survey 2021

And that’s why we, as The Post, took part in the ICMF: The International Content Marketing Forum. A collaboration of content marketing associations and agencies in Europe to develop and share knowledge on the subject of content marketing. One of our projects is a biannual survey about the status of content marketing which was conducted in the last quarter of 2020 with Scion Research Labs. And there are some interesting findings. The survey gives quite a good idea on the overall status in Europe. Such as:

The study found that 41 to 76 percent of the companies surveyed have a well-developed content marketing strategy. Further, there is widespread unanimity among executives in terms of content marketing leading to high target-group engagement, having a positive effect on brand trust and attitude, and increasing brand value. In the participating countries, companies invest a good EUR 13 billion per year, with this figure set to rise in the near future.

And:

In terms of organization: In almost all of the nine countries, only a minority of companies rely on a specialized content marketing unit – which generally offers the potential to enhance the content marketing knowledge base and to quickly respond to communication needs. Overall, the study’s results indicate that there is a clear need to catch up internationally when it comes to content marketing organization.

Similarities and differences between countries

But, I am particularly interested in the similarities and the differences between countries. Even between The Netherlands and Belgium we found major differences.

For example:
We both think we have a clear and understandable content marketing strategy (BE 73%, NL 72%), but in terms of internal commitment from employees and management we both score very low (BE 42%, NL 50%). While the German speaking countries score way higher. Why?

Another example:
The Netherlands score really low regarding producing content on journalistic principles, only 51%. In Belgium that is 66% and again the German speaking countries score between 74% and 81%.

And just one more interesting difference between The Netherlands and Belgium is the fact that the Dutch state that podcasts are becoming increasingly important in content marketing: 74%, and only 29% of the Belgians agree.

Clubhouse session to discuss the data

And all of this intrigues me. What causes the differences? Is it a cultural thing? Or maybe more historic? Can we compare the numbers? Or does every country interpret things differently? And that is why I hosted a Clubhouse session about the outcomes of this survey. Can we interpret the raw data? What causes the similarities and differences?

On Monday March 29, noon, we will discuss this with the following guests and experts: Prof. Dr. Clemens Koob, Michel Libens, president at Custo Belgium and Coen Zeevenhooven, president of Platform Content in the Netherlands. And also podcast expert Marvin Jacobs will take the stage and try to explain the differences between Belgium and The Netherlands.

You are welcome to join, listen and ask questions. So set the date to your schedule: Join the talk about the ICMF Survey

Download the data from the survey

It is audio only, so if you want to be prepared, just download the data from the ICMF Survey.

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Guests on stage in our Clubhouse session:

Countries participating in the ICMF

The ICMF is growing with new members. UK and Slovenia just joined and the countries that participated in this last survey are also a member: Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and also Czech Republic. Only Czech did not participate in the survey this year. But there are also still a lot of countries lacking. If you are interested in participating on behalf of your country, please contact Paal-André Schwital. He is the president of ICMF and can tell you all about it.