Nearly eight-in-ten consumers said personally relevant content increases their purchase intent for a brand's products and services according to a joint study unveiled by OneSpot, the only Content Sequencingplatform, and Marketing Insider Group, a marketing strategy consultancy. The survey was designed to better understand U.S. consumer attitudes, preferences and expectations for personalized branded content.

"More than ever, consumers expect and demand a personally relevant experience wherever they go and whatever they do digitally," said Adam Weinroth, chief marketing officer, OneSpot. "Findings from this research reinforce the need to make personalization a strategic priority for brands to remain relevant to consumers. Digital marketers who leave this irreversible trend unaddressed are missing a tremendous business opportunity and placing their brands and business results at risk."

Key findings from the study of 1,500 U.S. consumers discovered:

Brands risk alienating consumers by not making content personally relevant.

• Nearly half (45%) of consumers won't spend time with branded content if it's not relevant to their interests.

• Forty-two percent (42%) of consumers are less interested in a brand's products and services if the content the brand provides is not personally relevant.

• More than half (51%) of millennial consumers (age 18 to 34) are less interested in a brand's products and services if the brand's content isn't personally relevant.

Consumers are more inclined to purchase and pay more for products from brands that personalize content marketing.

• Eighty-eight percent (88%) of consumers say that personally relevant content improves how they feel about a brand.

• Seventy-eight percent (78%) say that personally relevant content increases their purchase intent for a brand's products and services.

• Fifty percent (50%) say that they would pay more for products and services from brands who do a good job of providing personally relevant content.

Not all digital channels are created equal when it comes to content discovery; Facebook stands above the others.

• Half (50%) of consumers surveyed cited Facebook as a primary discovery channel for branded content.

• E-mail and Search tied for the second top discovery channel at 29%.

• Millennial respondents (age 18 to 34) cited YouTube (42%) as a primary channel for branded content discovery.

Amazon sets the gold standard in providing a personalized digital experience followed by Google and Facebook.

• At a significant margin, 55% of consumers indicated that Amazon sets the standard for delivering personalized digital experiences followed by Google (39%) and Facebook (38%).

Consumers place the most value on content that informs and educates them.

• Consumers find content that "informs" (40%) and "educates" (28%) to be the most valuable. Only 17% say content that "entertains" is the most valuable and 11% say content that "inspires" is the most valuable.

• Eighty-one percent (81%) of consumers say that content "quality" is somewhat or very important, and 78% of consumers say that "relevance" is somewhat or very important.

• When citing the most important categories for personally relevant content, consumers ranked Health & Wellness at the top with 72%, followed closely by Food (71%) and Electronics & Technology (66%).

"Attention has become the currency of all digital experiences. Increasingly, the best way to attract attention is through high-quality content delivered through an individually personalized experience for consumers," said Michael Brenner, chief executive officer and founder, Marketing Insider Group.