IAB Spain this week revealed Los Siete Pecados Capitales del Branded Content – a structured, 86-page essential evaluation of probably the most persistent failures in model content material manufacturing. Launched on March 11, 2026, the doc was elaborated by a Branded Content material Working Group and designed in collaboration with Yorokobu. It’s positioned not as a guide of greatest follow however, in accordance with the doc, as “a mirror” – a collective train in self-criticism from throughout the system.
The publication arrives at a second when branded content material has develop into one of the crucial contested phrases in Spanish promoting. Seven firms contributed to the working group: Atresmedia Publicidad (David Lebrero), DAZN (João Ramires), FLUOR Way of life (Eduardo Prádanos), Havas Media Community (Luna Aranguiz), McCann WorldGroup MRM (Lala Llorens), Telefónica (Paula Ávila), and Webedia (Miguel Alonso). The breadth of contributors – spanning broadcasters, sports activities streaming, life-style businesses, media networks, artistic businesses, a telecoms operator, and a digital media firm – displays an effort to talk from direct manufacturing expertise slightly than theoretical distance.
For the advertising and marketing group, the doc issues as a result of it addresses a structural downside in a self-discipline that pulls vital funding however usually produces underwhelming outcomes. IAB Spain’s digital roadmap for 2026 already flagged AI-generated “slop” as a growing quality threat across the Spanish digital advertising ecosystem, and this report extends that concern immediately into branded storytelling. The seven failures recognized are usually not summary – every is grounded in recognizable business habits.
The construction of the report
The doc is organized round seven named vices – drawn from Catholic ethical theology however utilized with blunt specificity to promoting manufacturing. Every chapter follows a constant inside construction: a quick conceptual introduction, symptom descriptions with labeled archetypes, a set of diagnostic indicators with sardonic metric names, a sequence of reflective questions, and a closing suggestion from the IAB Spain Branded Content material Fee. The visible design, dealt with by Yorokobu, provides every sin its personal coloration palette and character illustrations.
The seven vices of their listed order are: soberbia (satisfaction), avaricia (greed), lujuria (lust), ira (wrath), gula (gluttony), envidia (envy), and pereza (sloth). The construction is deliberate. In line with the doc, the prologue states: “This guide was written by a bunch of pros from completely different disciplines of branded content material. We didn’t all the time agree. And that’s the reason we predict it really works. As a result of from debate, shared imaginative and prescient is born.”
Pleasure: the model that not listens
The primary and arguably most structurally harmful sin addressed is satisfaction. In line with the report, in branded content material “satisfaction creeps in when there’s an excessive amount of brand and too little story. After we confuse visibility with connection. After we consider that the title of the model justifies all the pieces.” The doc characterizes satisfaction as a situation that “disguises itself as confidence, however in actuality blocks listening, kills empathy, and extinguishes innovation.”
The diagnostic indicators for satisfaction are intentionally named with ironic acronyms. The IPP (Indicador de Presentación para Premios) measures the share of artistic choices taken to impress awards juries slightly than generate real shopper affect. The NEPS (Nivel de Ego Por Slide) counts what number of instances a undertaking is described as revolutionary, disruptive, or historic earlier than a single metric is proven. The NDTI (No Necesitamos Datos, Tenemos Intuición) tracks campaigns developed by ignoring analysis or viewers suggestions. The CNC (Campaña que No Admite Cambios) captures proposals thought-about so good that no person dares to revise them, even when context has shifted.
The fee’s closing suggestion on satisfaction is direct: “The target of branded content material is to not showcase, however to attach. And that solely occurs after we decrease our tone, sharpen our listening, and let ourselves be stunned.”
The second sin, greed, targets what the doc characterizes because the structural imbalance between what manufacturers need and what customers obtain. In line with the report, “greed manifests when the one factor that issues is what the model needs – to promote, accumulate leads, monetize – regardless that no person understands why they need to listen.” The textual content identifies two dominant expressions: an absence of generosity in content material, the place manufacturing serves aims slightly than viewers wants, and an obsession with short-term outcomes that sacrifices narrative high quality and emotional connection.
The scientific image described is restricted. 5 key messages in a 20-second video, two logos, a name to motion, and a QR code – all collectively. The end result, the doc notes, is that the consumer remembers nothing. Greed additionally manifests in what the report calls “austerity misunderstood”: chopping funding in concepts, time, and manufacturing to inflate margins, producing weak content material, burned-out groups, and detached audiences.
The fee’s suggestion on greed closes with a formulation that has clear operational implications: “As a result of if there isn’t a trade, there isn’t a conversion that compensates.”
Lust: dazzle over depth
Lust, the third sin, describes the prioritization of visible spectacle over communicative substance. In line with the report, “it’s that impulse that results in producing sensible, aesthetic, spectacular items… however empty ones. Content material that seduces at first look, however evaporates immediately.” The report notes that the issue just isn’t magnificence itself – kind ought to entice – however that “when the wrapper eclipses the message, the result’s affect with out depth.”
The diagnostic metrics for lust embrace the BV (Bounce de Vanidad), measuring the share of customers who arrived, noticed the primary visible affect, and left uninterested; the TCS (Tiempo de Consumo Superficial), measuring seconds spent on content material for its look alone; and the VD (Coeficiente de Viralidad Desesperada), monitoring content material designed to be shared even when it communicates nothing.
The report identifies 4 behavioral patterns that sign this sin: the will to indicate off in any respect prices via aesthetic obsession, surrendering to development fascination with out strategic objective, all the time selecting creators or influencers based mostly on follower rely slightly than model alignment, and pursuing affect as an alternative of which means. The fee closes the chapter with a memorable phrase: “It isn’t a one-night stand. It’s a secure relationship.”
Wrath: how stress corrupts content material
The fourth sin – wrath – is the one one which addresses inside course of dynamics slightly than audience-facing failures. In line with the doc, wrath in branded content material “not often seems as a frontal shout. It often seeps into processes disguised as urgency, firmness, or management. However in actuality it’s nervousness, concern, or lack of listening.”
Named symptom archetypes embrace the “Temporary con Cuchillo” (poisonous briefings written from frustration), “Andar Como Pollo Sin Cabeza” (impulsive choices taken with out route), and “Enojo por las Críticas” (mismanaged battle the place any remark is perceived as an assault). The diagnostic indicators – RDR (Ratio de Decisiones desde la Rabia), TEA (Tasa de Entregas Para Ayer), and PMPA (Porcentaje de Emails con Tono Pasivo-Agresivo) – use humor to make recognizable office dysfunction seen.
The fee’s suggestion on wrath is notable for its name to emotional governance: “Moderation, emotional administration, and a sporting spirit are key to establishing strong and lasting relationships, and to creating sound choices. Creating protected environments, acutely aware management, and clear processes just isn’t a luxurious: it’s a necessity.”
Gluttony: the amount entice
The fifth sin is gluttony, which targets the compulsion to supply and publish with out restraint. In line with the report, “when quantity replaces worth, content material loses its objective. It turns into noise. And the general public merely stops listening to it.” The doc notes that this failure is turning into structurally extra harmful with the advance of AI and automation, which makes high-volume, acceptable-quality content material technology accessible to all manufacturers. “The actual problem will not be to supply extra, however to know the way to differentiate.”
The report describes two recognizable patterns of gluttony: “Ansia de Contenido” (manufacturers that publish with out filter or objective, repeating items and stretching codecs) and “Público Empachado” (audiences saturated by generic, repetitive, dispensable content material). The fee’s abstract formulation for this chapter is: “High quality versus amount. All the time.”
Envy: imitating slightly than constructing
The sixth sin, envy, describes the sample of replicating rivals’ successes slightly than constructing genuine model identification. In line with the doc, envy is “one of the crucial invisible and repeated sins on this business. It seeps into aims, choices, and the reason why.” The report identifies 4 behavioral expressions: format replication (copying profitable campaigns with out including something authentic), award obsession (designing campaigns for juries slightly than audiences), FOMO (getting into platforms as a result of competitors did, not due to technique), and follower-driven influencer choice with out alignment to model values.
The envy chapter attracts an uncommon conceptual reference. Reflecting on the Buddhist notion that non-essential need born from ego is a supply of struggling, the authors write: “In our sector, that need leads manufacturers to wish to be what they don’t seem to be, to disguise themselves with borrowed success as an alternative of working their very own voice.” The fee closes: “Inspiration provides. Imitation subtracts. If you don’t defend your voice, no person will hear it.”
Sloth: autopilot because the enemy
The ultimate sin – sloth – will be the most pervasive. In line with the report, it “usually goes unnoticed, disguised as effectivity, routine, or false safety.” It manifests in unrevisited processes, recycled concepts, generic briefings, computerized approvals, and AI used to not enrich concepts however to supply extra with much less effort. The diagnostic metrics are pointed: the ISA (Índice de “Esto Siempre Lo Hacemos Así”) measures how routinized proposals have develop into; the IAF (Índice de Abuso de IA por Flojera) counts situations the place AI changed slightly than enhanced artistic pondering.
The fee’s suggestion on sloth speaks on to the rising AI manufacturing context: it urges groups to “make use of automation to scale, to not exchange editorial or human imaginative and prescient,” and to overview every bit as if it have been the one one, “as a result of particulars construct belief and status.”
Trade context
The publication is structured to perform as skilled self-examination slightly than market positioning. The working group explicitly framed the doc this manner: “Whereas we have been writing it, we additionally doubted. We additionally discovered ourselves repeating formulation, fearing we have been less than it, eager to say all the pieces. And that’s additionally a part of the method. The distinction is in realizing it.”
For practitioners evaluating marketing campaign technique, the report’s diagnostic frameworks supply a structured vocabulary for figuring out failure patterns earlier than launch slightly than after. The seven sins are usually not merely rhetorical units. Every chapter consists of between 4 and 6 diagnostic questions and a set of measurable indicators that, whereas ironic in title, describe actual operational behaviors. The format encourages inside group overview slightly than exterior audit.
The doc additionally closes with seven “uncomfortable reminders” – one per sin – that perform as condensed sensible ideas. Amongst them: “While you solely take into consideration what you are taking out, you neglect what you may really give” (on greed), and “Doing it effectively prices extra firstly. However much less on the finish” (on sloth).
Timeline
Abstract
Who: IAB Spain’s Branded Content material Working Group, with contributions from Atresmedia Publicidad, DAZN, FLUOR Way of life, Havas Media Community, McCann WorldGroup MRM, Telefónica, and Webedia. Design by Yorokobu.
What: A essential 86-page business doc figuring out seven recurring failures in branded content material manufacturing – satisfaction, greed, lust, wrath, gluttony, envy, and sloth – framed not as a greatest follow information however as a collective train in skilled self-examination, with diagnostic indicators, reflective questions, and fee suggestions for every.
When: Revealed on March 11, 2026, by IAB Spain.
The place: Spain, authored by business professionals from main businesses, media firms, a broadcaster, and a telecoms operator, supposed for the broader Spanish and Spanish-language advertising and marketing group.
Why: As a result of branded content material has grown into an overloaded umbrella time period protecting many poorly executed initiatives, and the business – in accordance with the doc’s personal authors – acknowledged the necessity to pause, determine its personal patterns of failure, and supply a shared vocabulary for high quality evaluation earlier than manufacturing, not after.
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