BEIJING, Nov. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- PR Newswire has released its comprehensive new report on content marketing and new media adoption in China. The report reveals that many Chinese companies now consider content marketing a critical component of their communications strategies, and the greatest challenges they face are content production and ROI. The report further found that new media usage will rise sharply in the next 12 months.

The survey, the largest ever held in China on this topic, was conducted from August to October 2012 and collected 1,387 questionnaires from marketing, branding and communications personnel, as well as C-suite executives.

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Key Findings

• 95% of companies surveyed consider content marketing important or critical, and believe that the greatest challenges they face are content production and ROI. 40% of top executives (C-suite/business owners) manage or participate in brand-related content marketing activities.
• In the coming 12 months, companies will significantly increase the frequency in which they use new media tools for content marketing. This list of tools includes the dominant Weibo (microblogging) platforms and mobile marketing, as well as multimedia elements such as images and videos. However, the use of blogs is expected to drop considerably.
• 57% of companies surveyed allocate less than RMB500,000 of their budget to content marketing (excluding advertising), while 75% allocate not more than 50% of their total corporate communication budget to content marketing. In the next 12 months, budgets allocated to content marketing through channels such as online media, Weibo and the mobile internet are expected to rise significantly.
• There are major differences in the extent of use of various content marketing tools and channels by companies of different types and sizes across different industries. As compared to their overseas counterparts, Chinese companies attach the greatest importance to new media channels such as Weibo, online communities and forums, encyclopedias and videos, but significantly less importance to social networking services.
• 88% of companies surveyed use news releases as the most common tool for content marketing. 34% percent of companies use news release distribution services provided by PR agencies and newswires. The majority of news releases issued by companies involve a new product launch (76%) or a promotional/marketing campaign (59%).
• 85% of companies surveyed have set up a homepage on social media sites or a corporate Weibo account. The number of followers grew from last year, but not significantly. Companies are learning to be more realistic in terms of objectives and expectations surrounding communication through new media.
• Companies are paying more attention to customer service and to the interactive features of recognized social media. In the past 12 months, 60% of companies said they had adjusted or changed their products, services or marketing strategies at least once as a result of comments or feedback from their followers on social media sites, up 10% from last year.
• 61% of companies surveyed have not yet used third-party media monitoring services. Comprehensive media and public opinion monitoring (27%), via social media and digital mining services offering in-depth industry-wide analysis of competitive intelligence, are more favored by companies.

The full report on China's Content Marketing Trends is available for download in both English and Chinese.

Related story: 

• PR Newswire Releases 2011 Study on Social Media Adoption by Companies in China
• PR Newswire Releases First-ever Report on the Work-related Use of Social Media by Chinese Journalists in 2010

About PR Newswire

PR Newswire (www.prnasia.com) is the premier global provider of multimedia platforms that enable marketers, corporate communicators, sustainability officers, public affairs and investor relations officers to leverage content to engage with all their key audiences. Having pioneered the commercial news distribution industry 58 years ago, PR Newswire today provides end-to-end solutions to produce, optimize and target content – from rich media to online video to multimedia – and then distribute content and measure results across traditional, digital, mobile and social channels. Combining the world's largest multi-channel, multi-cultural content distribution and optimization network with comprehensive workflow tools and platforms, PR Newswire enables the world's enterprises to engage opportunity everywhere it exists. PR Newswire serves tens of thousands of clients from offices in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, and is a UBM plc company.

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For more information, please contact:
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SOURCE PR Newswire