Still trending robustly as an ad channel/strategy “native advertising” more or less became a “thing” again in 2014. By formal definition it is described as a form of online advertising that matches the form and function of the platform on which it appears. The word “native” refers to the content’s coherence with other media on the platform.
In 2016 we continued to see this form of advertising take hold and proliferate. In reality it has existed for years in traditional print media- magazines and newspapers- known as advertorials. Native advertising is a marketing tool now coming of age in our digital world and being leveraged and embraced by digital formats.
Long present in its traditional print platform The New York Times ran the first native ad on its website January 2014 in the form of an article series from Dell. As in the traditional print renditions the articles were clearly labeled as promotional. Anyone following the series certainly noticed that those labels as promotional content did shrink slightly as the year progressed. Taking a page from client services and advertiser marketing support resources made available to print advertisers The Times has created T Brand Studio, a separate team that makes native ads for clients.
Digital trends such as information sharing and accessibility for astute consumers as well as their expectations of transparency and accountability demand sophistication, relevance, value and creativity in advertorial/native advertising put before them.
Leading the trend and demonstrating prowess with this tool is marketer Netflix. And they are almost single handedly raising the bar in terms of quality and sophistication of its native advertising content.
One example of native advertising in The Times was a series of “articles” from Netflix on women’s prisons as a means to support and promote the Netflix series Orange Is The New Black. And Wired magazine, from the Conde Nast publication family, ran a really slick “article” series from Netflix on the future of television. In fact quality and content of native promotional advertising form Netflix has led many to step up the game in terms of creation of slick content.
The venerable Wall Street Journal’s digital publication has jumped into the native advertising mix thought their Editor-In-Chief likens it to a pact with the devil while saying he is confident their discerning readers will be able to tell the difference between the promotional client/advertiser content and actual news content produced by The Journal’s global news staff.
It is crucial that this native content be sophisticated, valuable and relevant. If not both the marketer and the content platform credibility will falter. As with any form of communications content is king. Not everyone will have the deep pockets of The Times to build a team dedicated to this. As a result the trend is also creating opportunities for new native advertising content developers. A number have been successful in finding venture funding. In 2014 NewsCred raised $25 million, Contently raised $9 million, Percolate $24 million and Simple Reach up $9 million.
