The demand for content has never been higher. From viral posts to personalized experiences, brands are challenged with creating campaigns that capture the attention of their customers while keeping pace with trends and staying on-brand. This requires more content to stand out – not merely more quantity but also better quality.

In new Adobe research across more than 1600 marketers, nearly all respondents (96%) have seen content demand increase at least 2X over the last two years, with 62% saying it has increased 5x or more. The research also shows that marketers are shifting their content production process and strategies to keep pace, as most marketers (71%) also anticipate content demand to grow more than 5x between now and 2027.

From shifting customer expectations to increased demand for social and video content, marketers are facing new challenges and opportunities to evolve their content, while also reimagining their workflows to meet demand with technologies like generative AI.

Customer expectations for personalization are driving content demand.

Marketing teams are not only under increasing pressure to scale content to meet rising demand, they also have to address quickly changing customer expectations. Sixty-one percent of marketers stated that consumer expectations for personalized experiences is the top factor driving the demand for content. Content shifts to media formats like video and audio (46%) and the increasing need for hybrid customer journeys (44%), such as connected in-store and digital experiences, are also challenging teams to deliver more content, across more formats and channels, more frequently. Over half of marketers (62%) say their audiences now expect new content weekly or even several times per week, creating further pressure for teams to operate faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Social and short form video content are seeing the fastest growth.

As the rise of the creator economy and the impact of virality and engagement online has taken center stage, it’s never been more important for brands to understand how content resonates on social platforms, and marketers are already thinking about this. Sixty-six percent of marketers say that the demand for social content is growing the fastest, with short-form video following closely at 54%. Whether driving engagement with a particular audience or fostering brand loyalty with branded social and influencer content, marketers are thinking about what content will stand out most on social. However, many teams continue to struggle to produce enough content that performs well, as over half of marketers (56%) cited that their biggest challenge with social content is knowing what will resonate across each platform.

For organic social content, respondents selected a variety of challenges including the inability to produce enough on-brand and brand compliant content fast enough (33%) and having enough timely content (34%). Similar restrictions appear in paid social efforts, where marketers say there is not enough variation of fresh content to keep campaigns timely and relevant (37%) and they do not have enough content to reach all audiences they want to (32%). Facing these challenges and meeting increased demand for content cannot be met with more content alone, but more personalized, scalable and efficient strategies to ensure every piece of content performs well across platforms.

Teams are evolving workflows to reduce bottlenecks and keep content flowing.

Even when teams know what content to create, delivering at scale can often be hindered by operational inefficiencies. Nearly half of all respondents (47%) in this survey report that creating, reviewing, approving, and activating a single piece of content can involve between 51 and 200 people—and for 18% of marketers, that number exceeds 200. Creating content at this scale results in high outputs. Most marketers (70%) say their organization creates at least 1,000 assets per year, with 29% saying between 1,000 and 10,000 assets annually, 23% saying between 10,000 and 100,000, and 18% saying between 100,000 and 500,000 assets per year.

Time constraints and process bottlenecks are also slowing marketers down. Over one third of respondents (36%) say they struggle to find the time for content creation and ideation, while siloed collaboration across teams (33%) and lengthy manual approvals (31%) are also barriers to content production. Manual approvals may also be holding marketers back, with 89% of marketers sharing that content must go through three or more approval stages, and over half (58%) saying that more than 40% of time is spent managing reviews and approvals, rather than creating high-impact content strategies and the content itself.

Generative AI is now part of the marketer toolbox to scale content production.

Amidst increasing content demands, marketers are evolving their workflows with the help of generative AI. Marketers are using it throughout the content process to help them scale production, improve collaboration, and create better quality content that is more data-driven and performant. From optimizing content for better performance (31%), translating for global audiences (31%) and generating multimedia assets like images and videos (31%), marketers are adopting generative AI across the content lifecycle to address their unique needs and challenges. Over half of respondents (52%) say they use generative AI in multiple parts of their content production process. Eighty-four percent of marketers say they plan to use generative AI to support content workflows in the next year, and 55% plan to increase their usage.

As content demand continues to accelerate, marketers must finetune their strategies to address their biggest roadblocks in producing enough on-brand content, while also ensuring that it performs well and resonates with their audiences. By adjusting workflows and using technology like generative AI, marketers are able to scale production and create enough variations of content for more personalized and effective campaigns.  Innovation throughout content workflows is not only helping brands meet the skyrocketing demand for content, but also unlocking new levels of efficiency, creativity and scale.

https://business.adobe.com/fragments/resources/cards/thank-you-collections/generative-ai