With the rapidly expanding emphasis on mobile and online media, advertisers are having to scramble to make new connections with consumers. In recent months, many brands have begun to utilize native advertising.

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Native Advertising: The Key to Consumer
Connection
http://tier10lab.com/2013/06/03/native-advertising-key-consumer-connection/
June 3, 2013
By Eric Huebner
With the rapidly expanding emphasis on mobile and online media, advertisers are having to scramble to
make new connections with consumers. In recent months, many brands have begun to utilize native
advertising.
This concept is the complete antithesis of traditional web-based advertisements. It rejects age-old
standbys like banner ads in favor of greatly increased content integration. In simple terms, this transforms
the advertisement from something that intrudes on whatever a person is browsing through to something
that literally becomes part of what they are looking at.
Popular websites such as BuzzFeed, which only employs native advertising, have pioneered this
technique. BuzzFeed, which aggregates popular social media and news stories in highly visual articles
and photo-based lists, often runs sponsored articles that take the exact same form as anything else that
the site might run, but also emphasizes a particular brand or product.
For example, an agency looking to promote a new horror film may publish a list on BuzzFeed of the ten
scariest scenes in the history of cinema. On this list, a viewer would find hair-raising classics like The
Excorcist and The Omen alongside stills from the promoted film. In this way, the consumer still gets the
content that they want, but they also take in an advertisement with it. Critically, this form of advertising
doesn’t distract from media, unlike traditional advertising, which often can interrupt the flow of content
rather jarringly.

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Recently, native advertising has debuted on Facebook and Twitter, in the form of sponsored stories and
promoted tweets. These both appear in a user’s timeline, just like a status update or tweet, but link to a
brand’s website or an article that emphasizes product placement.
Native advertising has also presented an interesting opportunity for brands to partner with media
companies in new ways. Twitter’s partnership with American Express has led to a new rewards program
through which American Express customers can earn special perks by tweeting hashtags associated with
the company.
Depending on the platform selected, native advertising can instantly provide a credibility boost to the
company utilizing it. For example, news sources such as the New York Times are renowned for their
quality and credibility. Native advertising on their website can go a long way in ensuring a particular
brand’s credibility.
Some, such as BuzzFeed President Jon Steinberg, believe that native advertising will eventually become
not only the dominant form of advertising, but the only form of advertising. Native advertising emphasizes
consumer connection like nothing else that the marketing world has been able to produce. While it’s safe
to say that native advertising won’t completely supplant all other forms of marketing any time in the
immediate future, it’s model of interactive content and consumer targeted advertising certainly presents
an intriguing option for companies looking to gain a competitive edge over competitors.
[Source: AdAge]
All the images compiled above came from BuzzFeed.
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