Native Advertising. It's one of the biggest buzzwords in digital advertising. Despite there being no clear definition as to what constitutes native, marketers are buying into its appeal. But just how much do digital media planners and buyers leverage native for their clients? TripleLift teamed with The Industry Index by DMR to gauge the thoughts and opinions of the digital media community on the topic of native advertising. We surveyed 100 agency executives from around the country representing some of the biggest media buying agencies including Starcom MediaVest, MED, Carat, Mediacom, UM, Spark, Mindshare, among others. This is what they had to say about native.

1. DIGITAL MEDIA BUYERS
GET NATIVE
How Agency Executives are
Leveraging Native Advertising to
Connect with Customers
2014 State of Native Advertising Survey Conducted by

2. Table of Contents
2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift2
Methodology
No Single Definition
Native Is Increasingly Used
Creative Remains Biggest Hurdle
Most Agree Native is Value
Native Seen as a Branding Tool
Native Comes in Many Forms
Native is Visual and Viral
Reaching the Right Audience on Any Screen
Programmatic Promising But Uncertain
Conclusion
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

3. Methodology
In conjunction with hosting the multi-city Visual Marketing Summit, The Industry Index by
DMR and TripleLift partnered to gauge the thoughts and opinions of digital media buyers
on the topic of native advertising.
In May of 2014, DMR and TripleLift surveyed 100 digital media buyers from around the
country representing some of the industry’s biggest media buying agencies including
Starcom MediaVest, MEC, Carat, Mediacom, UM, Spark, Mindshare, among others.
2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift3

4. No Single Definition
Despite being one of the hottest
topics in advertising, everyone
has a different meaning as to
what defines native advertising.
Respondents were asked to give
their own definition of native.
These were some of the most
common themes:
Q: How do you define native advertising?
2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift4

5. Q: Do you currently
employ native advertising?
27%
NO
73% of digital media buyers
surveyed currently employ a native
advertising strategy. 67% plan to
increase the use of native in 2014
and beyond, while 26% expect
their use to remain the same.
Only 7% of respondents look to
scale back the use of native in the
future.
73%
YES
7%
NO
67%
YES
Q: Do you plan to do more native
advertising in 2014 & beyond?
26%
SAME
2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift5
Native is Increasingly Used

6. Q: What is the primary reason you do not employ native advertising?
NO
YES
2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift6
For those not using native
advertising, the biggest barrier
was a lack of creative. Scale and
measurement were included,
and various other reasons like
“focused on TV”, “not enough
knowledge on it”, “not seen as a
DR tool” were cited as reasons.
It is clear the industry needs
more education on native and a
deeper understanding that it can
be executed with existing assets
across a number of sites.
Creative
Scale
Measurement
Other
15%
Scale
39%
Creative
15%
Measurement
30%
Other
Creative Remains Biggest Challenge
Creative Remains the Biggest Hurdle

7. Q: Rate how valuable you find native advertising:
YES
SAME
1
4%
26%
61%
7%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
1 2 3 4 5
Overall, the general consensus is
that native advertising is effective.
68% of digital media buyers find
native advertising to be valuable or
extremely valuable forms of
advertising.
Least
Valuable
Neither Most
Valuable
2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift7
Most Agree Native is Valuable

8. Q: I use native advertising for:
(select all that apply)
YES
SAME
Despite recent studies pointing to
the growing use of digital to drive
direct response campaigns, native
is a predominately a branding
tool.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that
among the main KPI’s marketers
use to measure native are strong
indicators of brand effectiveness.
Only 13% look at the archaic CTR
as the main KPI.
Notwithstanding, measurement
still remains the top challenge
associated with native advertising:
40% claim this is difficult. This was
followed by scale (31%) and
creative (20%).
Branding Direct
Response
Other
96%
20%
2%
13%
19%
24%
8%
35%
CTR
Shares
Conversions
Other
Brand Lift
Q: What is the main KPI you use
to measure native?
2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift8
Native is Seen as a Branding Tool

9. Q: What type of content do you find compelling when employing native?
(Select all that apply)
Editorial
Content
Images
(Visual-based
content)
User-
Generated
Content
Sponsored
(Branded)
Content
Video Whitepapers
70%
64% 62%
47%
45%
11%
It’s no wonder the digital media
community has so many different
definitions for native; there are
several unique strategies that can
be employed that fall into the
realm of being native.
Interestingly, editorial content and
user-generated content (which
often includes images) leverages
brand ambassadors to help tell
the story. These forms of native
advertising often have more
validity with consumers since it is
not seen as sales pitch.
2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift9
Native Comes in Many Forms

10. Q: Which do you believe has
more effect on ad engagement?
80%
AN AD’S
IMAGE
20%
AN AD’S
COPY
No matter how you define a
native ad, when it comes to
engagement, 80% of marketers
believe that an ad’s image is
more likely to affect a consumer
taking an action then an ad’s
copy.
Perhaps the reason digital media
buyers put stock in measuring
social shares (page 8) from native
content is the shared belief that
the channel is viral in nature.
86% of respondents believe
native is more likely to be shared
compared to other forms of
digital advertising.
Q: Do you believe native advertising
is more likely to be shared vs.
standard display?
86%
14%
YES
NO
2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift10
Native is Visual and Viral

11. Q: When evaluating media, what do you prioritize?
AN AD’S
IMAGE
Audience
Content
Placement
When it comes to where native
campaigns are running, digital
media buyers prioritize audience
as the most important factor in
evaluating media. The context
in which the ad lives is the
second most important factor,
followed by ad placement.
Rather than live in a specific
media silo, native ads are truly
native to a cross-screen era. 73%
of digital media buyers have no
preference what screen – mobile
or display - native advertising
runs on.
6%
Q: Do you prefer to run native on mobile devices, as opposed to desktop?
YES NO27% 73%
24%
70%
2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift11
Reaching the Right Audience on Any Screen

12. Q: Do you believe you can successfully
buy native programmatically?
6%
24%
70%
40%
YES
60%
NO
Despite the industry talking
native programmatic, 60% of
digital media buyers do not
believe native can be bought
programmatically, with only 22%
planning to do so in 2014 and
beyond. 67% are unsure if they
will buy native programmatically.
The uncertainty around whether
or not native will successfully
integrate into programmatic
channels highlights the need for
education on the channel, and
clarity into the technologies that
power these solutions.
Q: Will you be buying native ads
programmatically in 2014 and beyond?
22%
YES
11%
NO
67%
NOT
SURE
2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift12
Programmatic Promising But Uncertain

13. Conclusion
6%
24%
70% NO
In a very short period of time, native advertising has morphed from a relatively new fad to a
significant advertising strategy being employed by Fortune 500 brands. Agencies have
clearly adopted native as a tactic for delivering branded engagement online despite the
muddled definition of what constitutes a native ad. What agencies do agree upon is that it
can deliver an integrated user-experience delivered across-screens.
The need to establish best practices when measuring native and even curating creative
resources for these campaigns is clear. While there is a general consensus that native is a
channel driven by visuals versus copy, media buyers need the confidence of knowing these
campaigns can be easily executed without long production cycles. Lastly, media buyers
clearly are jumping on the programmatic bandwagon with no real idea of how it works or
what it means. It is clear that until we, as an industry, establish some clarity around how
these technologies work, it will be hard to move to a world where native can truly be bought
and sold programmatically.
2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift13

14. 2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift
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technology solutions they need. The Industry Index combines expert curation with objective
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TripleLift is the native advertising platform built for the visual web. Leveraging pioneering ad and
computer vision technology, TripleLift seamlessly integrates a brand’s most engaging images
alongside contextually relevant content, across any device, at scale. Founded in 2012, TripleLift
is credited with developing the first viable alternative to traditional banner advertising and
introduced the industry’s first programmatic exchange for premium native inventory. The use of
big, beautiful imagery to tell brand stories has delivered meaningful interaction and engagement
for many of the world’s leading brands and publishers. TripleLift was named 212 NYC and The
New York Times Ad Tech Startup of the Year, and was a finalist in AdWeek’s Startup of the Year
awards. For more information, please visit www.triplelift.com.