Details
The Executive Summary of the State of Branded Content 2026 is now live and can be accessed here.
Each year, here at the Native Advertising Institute, we conduct this survey in order to understand the current state of the industry and receive insights about challenges, opportunities, and changes. In collaboration with FIPP, the survey for this year is based on the responses of over 75 agencies that span the world and present a global picture of the industry at present.
Key findings
While the report is extensive, some of the areas to highlight are the following:
- Revenue in branded content is growing, shown by 55% of studios surpassing their revenue targets in 2025 and an average YoY growth of 18%. Crucially, studios are in agreement that this growth is set to continue, with 88% expecting growth in the next year
- The three biggest challenges included training sales teams to sell branded content effectively, followed by platform competition and limited budgets.
- In relation to requested content formats, native articles are still in the lead, but short-form video is also in high demand, and this is expected to grow the most over the next two years.
- The biggest threat was seen to be declining traffic due to SEO concerns as the algorithm changes and the successful navigation of that, which was followed by shrinking budgets and the economy, particularly when they are driven by external factors, such as geopolitical issues.
- The biggest priority was scaling revenue and growing their market share, which was followed by expanding into new formats. This aligns with the biggest opportunities that were also seen as new formats and products and new revenue.
AI: What the industry really thinks
Given the current state of AI, the rapid developments and their impact on the industry, there was a whole section of the report that delved into agencies' feelings about this. The results are surprisingly positive while reflecting an industry that knows the human side of content is powerful.
While a significant percentage of studios are currently using AI in their branded content operations, only 15% have it integrated across how they work or see it as reshaping how they operate. Similarly, 81% report that there has been no significant change to their pricing model due to AI. This shows a willingness to adopt new tools but no movement to replace all human creatives. However, 9% of respondents did say that they had restructured roles due to AI, resulting in fewer junior staff and more strategic and senior roles.
Overall, it seems as though the industry is taking a positive but cautious step towards AI usage, where there is certainly room for it to take a more predominant position in workflows while also acknowledging that AI-created content can bring serious harm to publishers and the human centred must continue.
How has the industry changed?
In the final section of the report, we compare the findings to previous years in order to understand how the industry has moved and where it has remained the same.
Importantly, it is clear that the industry is continuing to grow. This was expected in 2018 and is only continuing to rise, shown both in growth results and industry predictions. Branded content is only becoming more embedded in marketing and advertising workflows, suggesting a real acceptance of it.
Strengthening this argument, branded content studios have matured over the years, contributing to greater ad revenue and seeing studios develop. Where branded content was once a side project, it has now matured into full-service studios that offer diversified content types.
Within this, articles are still the leading format, which has stayed constant through the years. Clearly, a well-written and compelling narrative is one of the most important tools that we have at our disposal in the industry and this is likely to continue to be the case. While video is growing in importance, this is also not new and both these statistics reflect the willingness of audiences to continue to give attention to thought-provoking content.
Why are these findings relevant?
The rate of change in the industry is rapid, and especially with the developments in AI, it can be difficult to get a full overview of where the industry currently stands. Creating this report based on the voices of those operating within the industry creates a full and comprehensive view of what is actually happening.
For studios who are wondering if their views are insular or relevant, for those who are concerned about what AI means, or for those who want to know if their strategies make sense, the data provides invaluable insights into the state of the industry that can be helpful for them.
We’re all riding the waves of branded content change together and understanding what the seas look like is helpful for each and every one of us.
Download the executive summary here to learn more.
