Future Launches Branded Content Studio to Tap New Budgets

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.

These custom creations make use of the data and behavioral insights Future has collected across its network of websites using its proprietary platform, Aperture. 

The media company is a category leader in technology and women’s fashion and beauty, and it aims to first focus its branded efforts in those spaces. It hopes to use Future Creative to further expand into new categories, such as home.

Expanding through GAS

The launch of Future Creative comes as an extension of a plan laid out by Steinberg in December, called its Growth Acceleration Strategy. 

The two-year plan called for an investment of between $30 million and $40 million in growing its audience, diversifying its revenue and optimizing its portfolio. As part of GAS, Future will eventually hire 200 new staff—150 editorial, 40 sales and marketing and 10 support roles.

Two key hires have been Sharon Yi and Verity Fine Hosken, the senior vice president of Future Creative in the U.S. and creative director of Future Creative in the U.K., respectively. 

Yi, who joined Future in August 2023, most recently served as head of editorial and brand studio at Chief. Hosken, who joined Future in March 2024, comes from the London-based creative agency Fold7.

Steinberg, who joined Future in February 2023, was the former president and chief operating officer at BuzzFeed, which helped pioneer branded digital advertising in the early 2010s.

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Hedging against cookie deprecation

While branded content is more lucrative for publishers, it also acts as a hedge against the looming deprecation of third-party cookies.

When Google finally eliminates the cookie, it will likely reduce the value of ad inventory bought and sold across the open exchange, as its efficacy will be harder to track and measure. 

By standing up a branded studio now, Future hopes to begin working with more clients on a collaborative, direct basis before that inflection point occurs.

“With cookie deprecation headed our way—theoretically—in the first quarter of next year, it’s more important than ever that publishers expand their direct relationships with advertisers and agencies,” Steinberg said.