The “Unplanned Content” Opportunity: Highlights from Outbrain’s Unconscious Bias Report

Have you ever found yourself reading an interesting article, and thought “how did I get here?”

You’re not alone.

Over one third of what we consume online is unplanned content—something we didn’t intend to find when we first launched our web browser, according to our Unconscious Content Bias report.

Unplanned content has become “de rigeu’r” as we skip through content and explore new information we never expected to find. And it’s younger audiences who are doing this more than anyone else —18-24 year olds spend over 40% of their time online discovering unplanned content according to our report.

According to research from the IAB, on average, this group spends around three hours a day online… that leaves over one hour everyday open for new content. What an opportunity!

This is especially good news for brands—for 54% of our respondents, the unplanned content we’re discovering is most useful when it’s allowing us to discover new products and services we didn’t know we needed. This is a particular priority for the over 45s.

We’re working with our clients to establish how they can take advantage of this growing trend and develop their own content perfectly placed for these groups who are eagerly waiting to discover it.

To find out more read the Unconscious Content Bias report and its findings here.