CMO council to study relevance, performance & value of Branded Content.

With custom branded content and media channels continuing to multiply in North America, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and the Custom Publishing Council (CPC) have formed a strategic alliance to study ROI in an area of marketing spend that totaled $33 billion in 2008.

Custom media represents the fourth largest area of marketing and media expenditure (behind broadcast TV, newspapers, and direct mail), according to VS Communications. There are more than 123,000 custom magazine titles with an average circulation of 336,060. Some 57 percent of these are distributed through the mail and 27 percent in digital formats through the Internet. Many are also placed in waiting rooms, airline seats, hotel rooms, reception areas, dealerships, clubs, restaurants, and other high-traffic locations.

Additionally, the two groups will work together to develop the Content ROI Center, which will be housed on the CMO Council website and CMO members will receive CPC rates for all events and conferences. CPC and its members will team with the CMO Council to launch a new interactive resource center aimed at furthering the caliber, effectiveness, performance and measurement of branded custom content delivered through print and digital media channels. It will examine the range and evolution of custom content and where and how it is realizing and advancing marketing goals and business deliverables.

The Content ROI Center will feature in-depth research, best practice studies, opinion articles, reports, analytics and commentary covering all forms of custom content creation, multi-channel and multi-format delivery, as well as performance metrics around impact, response and engagement.

“Our new alliance with the CPC helps to further our mission of educating our members on all marketing alternatives. We look forward to sharing resources, best practices and other information so that our members can continue to leverage their marketing dollars in the most effective way possible,” said Donovan Neale-May, the executive director of the CMO Council, which has more than 5,000 marketing executive members controlling an estimated $125 billion in annual spend. “With custom media now being used across multiple platforms, we anticipate a mutually beneficial collaboration.”

“The CMO Council initiatives are far ranging and innovative and we look forward to moving ahead on a number of fronts,” said CPC Executive Director Lori Rosen. “As custom media continues to evolve and appear in all shapes and sizes from millions of print publications to Vlogs and mobile content, it is vital to keep marketers informed of what works well and where improvements can be made. The Content ROI Center will accomplish this and more.”

CMO Council scorecards and analytics will look at content development strategies and content economics; market insights and knowledge; brand definition, fit and focus; program alignment, synergy and context; message clarity and reader receptivity; content relevancy, topicality, and quality; circulation and reach; consumption and response levels; activation, retention or pass-along rates; online buzz, word-of-mouth and advocacy; integration of social media networks, blogs and online communities; relationship continuity and affinity; recipient churn and attrition rates; retention or recovery success; as well as degree of targeting, segmentation, localization and personalization.

As part of the partnership, the CPC will also provide access to its vast network of content produced by its 90 member companies—spanning thousands of magazines – to showcase public service messages and ads promoting participation in the CMO Council’s new Pause to Support a Cause campaign. This milestone program donates money to charities of choice based on individual participation in online market research funded by global companies.

The CMO Council initiative includes a creative advertising contest that invites consumers to produce attention-getting public service announcements that encourage companies and consumers to help survey the social responsible way. The contest will be run on the Zooppa Internet platform and will draw on the talents of its global online community of 42,000 aspiring creative professionals, students and wannabe advertisers, graphic designers and digital media developers. The eight-week program gives contestants the opportunity to produce and submit print ads, online banners and videos in support of the newly launched CMO Council campaign (www.surveyforgood.org).

The Pause to Support a Cause campaign was conceived by Ed Martin, director of international insight and new methods at The Hershey Company. Dozens of leading non-profits, market research groups, advertising and marketing associations, as well as the Business Civic Leadership Center of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have already registered to participate in the international campaign.

For more information at http://www.cmocouncil.org>