Breaking: How Native Advertising Makes Headlines

BREAKING:
How Native Advertising Makes Headlines
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NATIVE
ADVERTISING.
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AKA SPONSOR BRANDED
ADVERTORIAL STEALTH
MARKETING CONTENT.
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everybody’s talking about it.
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everybody deﬁnes it diﬀerently.
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nobody knows why.
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but we *do* know one thing:
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native advertising is
is breaking news.
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(also possibly advertising.)
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it’s cool, though:
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sometimes breaking things
can be a good thing.
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so let’s crystallize our
deﬁnition of native advertising...
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then we can break it and see
what we can make with the pieces.
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BUT FIRST...
Who Am I?
@hawkt | #csforum13

hawk thompson
@hawkt | #csforum13

@hawkt
al giordano,
journalist / mentor
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editorial associate
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valley advocate
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sr. content strategist
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razorﬁsh.com
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content director
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hawkthompson.com
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content generalist
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content whisperer
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OK...
Where Were We?
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ONE:
What Is Native Advertising?

the short answer:
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let’s start with a deﬁnition.
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native advertising (n.):
content marketing
designed to belong
in the environment
of its audience.
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the nitty gritty:
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it’s not all black and white.
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native advertising is like
the wild wild west...
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a largely unexplored frontier...
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full of intrepid explorers...
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scheming prospectors...
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...and potential trainwrecks.
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but it also has the potential
to be pretty f*cking awesome.
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it’s all depends on
how you approach it.
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before we can understand
native advertising...
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we need to understand
content marketing.
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content marketing (n.):
a way of connecting
brands with audiences
on their own terms
via shared interests.
@hawkt | #csfor...

types of content marketing:
brand content
sponsored content
advertorials
brand journalism
native advertising
@hawkt | #csf...

native advertising (n.):
content marketing
designed to be loathed
in the environment
of its audience.
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sooo basically...
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easy breezy.
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not so much.
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but there are *tremendous*
opportunities in this space...
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...for the intrepid
explorers among us.
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TWO:
How Should We Approach It?

short answer:
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not like this.
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content marketing isn’t hunting.
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native advertising
doesn’t “capture” audiences.
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we hunt for shared interests.
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then we captivate audiences.
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this is how we do it.
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brand
beliefs interests values products
audience
meta
data
it all starts with metadata.
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metadata is what your brand and
your audience have in common.
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drivers
jockeys
automobiles
horse races
eﬃcient dynamics
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the joy of driving.
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shared metadata -->
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shared interests -->
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unifying themes
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unifying themes should
drive your content.
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metadata should guide content
creation, curation and cultivation.
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create curate
cultivate
content
marketing
editorial-quality text,
images and video
relevant, contextualized
third-party co...

text
articles, interviews,
blog posts, whitepapers,
case studies
create
imagery video multimedia feeds
photography,
infogr...

original
material
created or
commissioned
by a brand
curate
social
feeds
cultivated
UGC
licensed
content
sponsored
content...

to cultivate those interests...
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1) listen to your audience.
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it lets them know you care,
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and your personal attention
is their exclusive reward.
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2) reach them where they live.
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show them you understand...
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what they do with their time...
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and where they spend it.
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3) make interesting content.
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it creates lasting connections.
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THREE:
What Keeps Us Connected?

topics that excite and engage us.
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“i should’ve known better.
you’re...in advertising.”

we’re dying over here.
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“we” meaning advertising.
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also journalism.
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there are lots of ways
we can help each other.
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and plenty of reasons
we why we should.
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three main reasons
come to mind.
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1) banner ads are hurting.
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the banner ad has been
unchanged for 18 years.*
source: https://medium.com/digital-advertising/ad94724dﬀf7
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there are still innovators
in the banner ad space...
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but in terms of engagement,
the numbers don’t lie.
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source: media mind
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2) native ads are starting to thrive.
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potential for proﬁt here is big.
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$40k-1mm per unit* big.
*This is the price range for a piece of Huﬃngton Post Partner Studio original content. Other rates...

in 2012, 10% of forbes’ revenue
came from native advertising.
(source: http://www.adweek.com/news/press/forbes-sponsored-c...

3) everyone wants credibility.
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@hawkt
al giordano,
journo / rebel / mentor
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back in the day, journalists
were paragons of credibility.
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we can learn from them.
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and vice versa.
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if we’re sure we want to go there.
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FIVE:
Should We Even Go There?

we have the opportunity to do
truly groundbreaking work.
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there are a few things we’ll
need to do to get there.
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1) think like a publisher.
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craft a clear editorial direction...
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with ethical guidelines...
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room for diverse views...
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a focus on broad issues...
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and an emphasis on the topics,
not the brand.
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2) understand the environment.
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“no journalist would have to write this
piece of ad content about a brand
and then write a news story
about the same compa...

great, but....
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67% believe news
is often inaccurate*
source: pew research center for the people + the press, august 2013.
http://www.peop...

75% believe news
is often inﬂuenced*
http://www.peopl...

76% believe news
is often biased*
http://www.people-p...

truth be told, there is some bias...
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animal + mother
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vice + wpp
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huﬃngton post + digitas
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buzzfeed + vayner
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and this is just the beginning.
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it all comes down to the story.
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3) serve the story, not the brand.
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lose trust, lose credibility.
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no credibility, no audience.
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no audience, no breakthroughs.
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SIX:
Who’s Breaking Through?

the intrepid explorers among us.
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MULTIMEDIA
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SEVEN:
Where Does Content Strategy Fit In?

we are the foundation.
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“content strategy is planning.
content marketing is one
tactic that might stem from
your careful planning.”
-@gigigriﬃs
so...

if you want native advertising
to work, you have to plan for it.
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1) establish clear goals (and KPIs).
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2) get exec-level buyoﬀ.
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3) build a publishing model.
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organize team:
publisher
editor-in-
chief
culture
editor
features
editor
public
editor
managing
editor
creative
editor
con...

build processes:
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source: http://www.slideshare.net/danieljacobson/npr-examples-of-cope
cope:
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4) promote, promote, promote.
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5) measure and modify.
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source: http://stdout.be/2013/08/26/cargo-cult-analytics/
If you want to make big data work, you have to be really specifi...

TL;DR
Is Native Advertising Broken?

we’re just breaking it in.
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to get where we need to be,
keep these things in mind:
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1) be intrepid.
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2) respect your audience.
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3) share their passion.
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4) keep church and state separate.
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5) take calculated risks.
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6) learn from mistakes.
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7) plan on breaking things.
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do this and
you might make headlines.
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but above all else, do it
because it’s your passion.
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hawk thompson
@hawkt | #csforum13
razorﬁsh.com
hawkthompson.com
hawkt.com
@hawkt

Breaking: How Native Advertising Makes Headlines