Digital Diligence: Why The Right Tech Is Essential For Today’s (and Tomorrow’s) Digital Content Needs

2025 is in full swing, and as publishers and advertisers look ahead — as they always do — the continuous need for digital content shows no sign of slowing.

In fact, new research from Canto and Ascend2 confirms that, with more than three-quarters (77%) of creatives expecting their production volume to increase this year, up a full five percent from the 72% in previous years. All this, while 17% expect budget cuts.

“Only 25% of those surveyed feel they have the right tools in place to effectively meet the growing demands for digital content, says the 2025 edition of The State of Digital Content. “This gap indicates a critical need for organizations to adopt resources and technology that enable optimized content utilization and streamlined workflows for more efficient production, management, and distribution.”

Looking at the priorities that content teams are focusing on this year, half (50%) said improving content quality and relevance, 46% said building brand awareness, 42% said improving customer service, and 37% said improving efficiency and collaboration. As for challenges, 45% said keeping up with content demands, followed by allocating budget and resources (37%), managing content volume (36%), and implementing the right tech (33%).

(Source: Canto)

“Content teams most commonly rely on social media management, content creation, and email marketing tools in their content technology stack, with about one-third also using CRM, analytics, and project management tools,” the report says of the “overcomplicated tech stack” that almost half of those surveyed have four or more solutions high. “Consolidating and integrating these tools can significantly improve workflow efficiency, reduce friction, and enable teams to produce higher volumes of quality content.”

The report extols the benefits of a digital asset management, or DAM, in organizing content (including the 80% who see an increase in content ROI, compared to 63% of non-DAM users) as well as AI, which 82% of content teams expect to use in the year ahead to boost efficiency.

“Only one in five (20%) professionals surveyed report that measuring and analyzing content performance is extremely easy,” the report says. “Those that find measuring content performance to be extremely easy are … more likely to have experienced significant ROI increases in the last year. 42% vs 13% had significant increases in revenue last year.”