What’s All This Talk About Native Advertising?

By Brien O’Brien

There has been enough chatter lately in marketing circles about the concept of native advertising and its role in the promotion of products and services.  For some marketers the concept is a mystery – how different is native advertising from content marketing and why is it becoming such a hot topic.  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has even been weighing in on the matter so let’s explore what is being said about this hot topic.

Native advertising is defined by Wikipedia as, “…a method in which the advertiser attempts to gain attention by providing valuable content in the context of the user’s experience. Native ad formats match both the form and the function of the user experience in which it is placed.”

By that definition native advertising isn’t so new.  Think of product placement in films and television or testimonials for products in the content of articles.  But where the lines begin to be blurred is when the native advertising appears in a digital format – on a publisher’s website for instance – next to publisher written content which looks the same.  It can also take the form of what looks like an article in a print publication, but it is fully paid by the advertiser.  It can be confusing to the reader and may diminish their trust in both the publisher and the brand being promoted.

Social media sites have developed some fairly strict rules about native advertising and how it must be labeled and presented.  The FTC is hosting a workshop on the topic and has released its guidelines for native advertising on social media.

The point is, native advertising isn’t really native or advertising.  And why would a marketer want their content to look and feel just like editorial content?  If you were embarking on a content marketing strategy, wouldn’t you want it to look and read so compelling that you would want it to urge the reader to take some action?  Some buying action?

Robert Rose, writing for the Content Marketing Institute, makes some excellent points on why marketers should avoid the native advertising trap and simply promote their products through true informative content in one way or another.

Content marketing is here to stay which is why the Content Marketing Institute made Inc 500s fastest growing organization for the past two years.  But creating content that is valuable to the reader is the key, not confusing them.