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Today, the media company Future launched a branded content studio, Future Creative, in hopes of bolstering its direct advertising business and preparing itself for the eventual deprecation of third-party cookies.
Future, a specialist media organization, houses over 230 publishing titles, including flagship titles like Marie Claire, Who What Wear and TechRadar. The publicly traded, profitable company generated $500 million in revenue in the first half of 2024—two-thirds of which came from advertising and affiliate marketing, according to public filings.
“To tell a marketer that we want to sell first-party direct advertising, that is not that engaging,” said Future chief executive Jon Steinberg. “But when we say we can sell you custom video, shopping guides and articles; run it on our sites and social handles; and throw in some targeted display, that’s worth a conversation.”
Future Creative will enable Future to work directly with brands to craft custom advertising packages that can run across multiple surfaces, including websites, social media and newsletters.
These kinds of multichannel direct deals are more lucrative for publishers—Future, for instance, generates four times the yield on direct inventory compared to open auction, according to Steinberg.
Branded content also makes use of first-party data and proprietary insights, making them more durable than open auction advertising, which relies on third-party cookies and a fractured ecosystem of alternative identifiers.
Standing up a studio
Similar to Dotdash Meredith, Future has historically operated an intent-based editorial model in which its highly specialized content strategy creates natural contextual alignment for advertisers.
But by volume, the company sells roughly 60% of its impressions on the open auction, a number that it would like to decrease by increasing its first-party and direct-sales businesses.
Certain titles in its portfolio, like Who What Wear and Marie Claire, have already been able to offer brands custom, targeted creative.
25% of Future’s digital advertising revenue involves some form of branded content, and 60% of RFPs the company responds to in the U.S. include branded content, according to Steinberg.
However, the media company has not had a codified set of offerings and procedures across its portfolio until now.
As part of its new product suite, Future Creative can offer brands custom articles, social videos and shopping guides, such as a holiday shopping guide in partnership with Walmart. The division can also create short-form vertical video content for platforms like Instagram Reels and TikTok.