Brand content: definition, examples and rules

What is brand content?

Brand content is editorial content whose author or sponsor is the brand, and whose first purpose is to communicate rather than to sell directly.

In French, the official term is therefore “contenu de marque”, with “contenu promotionnel” (promotional content) as a synonym. “Brand” is the English word for the French “marque”: brand content is literally the brand’s content.

The definition clarifies two useful points. The content can be distributed by the brand or by a third party, whether or not that third party took part in creating it. And the advertorial is an official example of it. As soon as a third party distributes the content, transparency rules apply.

Brand content expresses the brand identity: its tone, its values, the topics on which it feels legitimate.

Brand content or branded content?

Platforms use a similar word in a narrower sense. For Meta, “branded content” is content from a creator or publisher that is linked to a business partner, in exchange for something of value. The content features that partner or is influenced by it (Meta branded content policies). It must be published with the branded content tool, which identifies the partner.

Brand content in the French sense starts from the brand. Meta’s branded content starts from a creator paid by the brand. Both fall within the official French definition, which includes content commissioned from a third party.

Brand content and content marketing: what is the difference?

The difference from content marketing lies in the purpose. Brand content serves the image of the brand and the preference for it. Content marketing helps the audience solve a problem in order to lead it to act.

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as an approach that attracts and retains a clearly defined audience in order, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. The official definition of brand content only speaks of communication purposes. No text draws a clear line: the table below is a comparative reading of the two definitions.

The same brand often runs both, with separate content and metrics. The story is the link: brand storytelling provides the story that brand content puts into shape.

What are the formats of brand content?

Any editorial format can carry brand content. What changes from one format to another is the distribution channel, and therefore the rules to follow.

The reviews, photos and videos that your customers publish on their own are not brand content: the brand neither produces nor commissions them. It can share them, but this user generated content follows its own rules.

Annotated examples of brand content

Two real examples, often quoted, show the logic of brand content. The third, fictitious, applies it to a small business.

The Michelin Guide (1900): a service that keeps customers driving

According to the history published by the MICHELIN Guide on January 9, 2020, the guide was born in 1900 as a 400-page promotional booklet, distributed free of charge. André and Édouard Michelin, founders of the tire manufacturer, had 35,000 copies printed and gave them to drivers with the purchase of tires.

The booklet does not praise the tires. It says where to get supplies, have your car repaired, sleep and eat. The logic is easy to guess: a driver who travels more wears out their tires more. The content serves the commercial goal through use, not through a sales pitch.

Red Bull Stratos (2012): the brand becomes a publisher

On October 14, 2012, Felix Baumgartner jumped from the stratosphere as part of the Red Bull Stratos project. According to the account published by Red Bull on July 26, 2016, 9.5 million people watched the jump live on YouTube. This figure is reported by the brand itself, not measured by a third party.

The project bears the brand’s name, and it is Red Bull that publishes the account and the figures on its own site. The brand acts as a publisher: the drink only appears through the name of the project.

Fictitious example: a joinery SME

This example is built for illustration; it does not describe any real company. A manufacturer of wooden windows with 40 employees publishes a video portrait of a craftsman from its workshop every quarter. No offer, no price: this is brand content.

The same company publishes a guide to choosing windows for a renovation, with a quote request form. That is content marketing. If it pays a home decor magazine to publish the portrait, the article must clearly state that it is funded by the brand, for example with the label “Publicité” (advertisement) required in France.

Sponsored content: what transparency rules apply?

In France, brand content distributed by a third party must be recognizable as advertising, and the advertiser must be identifiable. Three laws and one professional recommendation provide for this, depending on the channel.

Article 20 of the LCEN (French law No. 2004-575 of June 21, 2004, version in force since January 5, 2008) sets the principle. Any advertising accessible online must be clearly identifiable as such. It must also make identifiable the person on whose behalf it is made.

The advertorial also falls under the French Consumer Code. Article L121-4, 11° deems misleading the use of editorial content in the media to promote a product funded by the professional, without stating it clearly. Article L132-2 punishes these practices with two years in prison and a €300,000 fine. The fine can reach 10% of average annual turnover or 50% of the advertising expenditure. Online, the penalties rise to five years and €750,000.

For the press, the ARPP, the French advertising self-regulatory organization, has its own recommendation on the identification of commercial communications, amended on May 21, 2025. It requires the words “Publicité” (advertisement) or “Communiqué” (announcement), or an equivalent, at the top of any paid editorial advertising. It is a self-regulation text, without the force of law.

When a paid creator publishes the content to their own audience, the French law of June 9, 2023 on commercial influence applies. Its Article 5-2, in force since November 8, 2024, requires a clear statement of the commercial intent, unless it is already obvious from the context. It cites “publicité” (advertising) or “collaboration commerciale” (commercial collaboration), and accepts an equivalent label adapted to the format. In 2024, the DGCCRF, the French consumer protection authority, checked more than 260 influencers: 40% showed breaches (report published on March 13, 2025, targeted checks).

For the paid formats specific to each platform, see our guide to sponsored content on social networks.

Then there is SEO. Google’s spam policies, updated on August 28, 2026, cite paid advertorials and native advertising that contain links that pass ranking credit. These links remain acceptable if they carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", with Google preferring sponsored for paid links.

Brand content manager: what does the job involve?

The brand content manager designs and manages a brand’s content. According to the job profile of the Apec, the French executive employment association, they create and manage digital content for a brand, a company or an institution, within an overall marketing strategy. Their scope is multichannel.

Their tasks, according to the same profile:

• competitive intelligence and analysis of trends in their sector;
• editorial strategy by target audience and by medium, together with the brand manager;
• managing production, with in-house teams or external providers;
• monitoring the budget, the schedule and the performance indicators.

The position is also called content manager, head of content or editorial project manager. It can report to the marketing department, the marketing and communications department or, in an agency, the agency head. The Apec mentions a five-year higher education degree (bac + 5 in France) in marketing, communications, literature, business school or journalism school and, preferably, at least two years of experience.

These amounts are those offered in job ads, not actual salaries, and the profile does not specify the period covered.

To launch your brand content, start from what your brand can tell credibly, choose a format you can sustain over time, and disclose every paid piece of content distributed on a third-party channel.