Picture this. You\u2019ve jumped online and an article about some great new spots for dinner catches your eye. You start reading it, only to discover it\u2019s a sponsored piece from a credit card company.<\/p>\n
How do you feel now that you know you\u2019re reading an ad? If it was informative enough, you might not mind. However, if you felt like you just wasted your time, you might be angry. Disappointed. Betrayed even.<\/p>\n
This is Native advertising. Advertising that takes on the form and function of the platform it appears on to reach larger audiences. In simple terms, it\u2019s paid content in disguise, published on third-party websites. Today, it most often appears on news and lifestyle sites as content recommendation ads or in-feed.<\/p>\n
Some might see it as value-adding unobtrusive advertising. Others might see it as deceptive.<\/p>\n
So, here\u2019s the big question. How can we use Native advertising to its full advantage, without being seen to deceive the very people we\u2019re trying to sell to?<\/p>\n
Firstly, let\u2019s think about the format. Digital is interactive, immersive. The audience doesn\u2019t sit passively; they step right into the digital space with a task in mind. So, without a purpose to your content, you risk your message missing the point.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong, I am a big believer in sponsored and branded content \u2013 it has huge potential. However, the challenge is not the format, but the way its executed.<\/p>\n
Native has become more mainstream and commercial, but it\u2019s also plateaued over the past 2-3 years. This is because if it\u2019s finished poorly, it misleads users with tricksy clickbait headlines \u2013 headlines that exist purely for metrics without informing a user what\u2019s in it for them. And all credit to users, they\u2019re becoming savvier and more distrusting of brands who do this.<\/p>\n
According to a recent study by Outbrain, 28% of respondents report having clicked on Native advertising in the last 6 months with only 22% trusting what they read.<\/p>\n
To help claw back control, the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Australia (IAB Australia) jointly launched best practice principles for Native Advertising in November 2015. While it\u2019s a step in the right direction, is it enough?<\/p>\n
For advertisers, sponsored content can still lead to engagement and results in the short term, but they won\u2019t be sustainable in the long term unless backed up by a robust strategy. And it certainly won\u2019t unleash its full potential of driving brand consideration, brand affinity and purchase intent at scale \u2013 unless it is executed with excellence.<\/p>\n
So, what makes good Native advertising?<\/strong><\/p>\n Whether native content is used for performance activity or content distribution, it should always follow 3 key principles:<\/p>\n All that said, it\u2019s not an easy task.<\/p>\n The Native Advertising ecosystem is deeply complex \u2013 with advertisers, media agencies, vendors, publishers and consumers all thrown into the mix. Vendors typically don\u2019t control the user experience, or the content users click through to \u2013 which can lead to a lack of ownership and strategic alignment.<\/p>\n We believe it\u2019s the role of agencies to take the lead and orchestrate a collective effort to improve the consumer user experience, which will in turn benefit suppliers, advertisers and publishers alike. This will ensure complete sustainability and growth of the sector.<\/p>\n With easy access to new tools to gain live insights into what people are searching for and content gaps in the market, we are in a great to position to step it up. If creating high-value content fast and cost-efficiently has been a challenge for our clients in the past, there are new solutions, such as Fabulate, who can help connect brands and content creators to deploy quality content effortlessly.<\/p>\n Clearly, programmatic offers huge benefits, including scale and ease of execution. That\u2019s why it\u2019s seeing a strong uptake, with up to 23% of native ads now being traded programmatically. However, the risk is to lose track of the context\/environment.<\/p>\n At its core, Native advertising needs to display a brand message which resonates and interests a reader, served on the right platform, at the right time. When it’s done well and makes sense for the brand, publisher and reader, Native advertising can be a win for the brand and a chance to spread awareness of the product or company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Picture this. You\u2019ve jumped online and an article about some great new spots for dinner catches your eye. You start reading it, only to discover it\u2019s a sponsored piece from a credit card company. How do you feel now that you know you\u2019re reading an ad? If it was informative enough, you might not mind. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":24984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-insights-en-au"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n