I’d like to offer a word of caution for those who may be over-excited about native advertising. Native advertising works for a couple of reasons; audiences aren’t used to embedded corporate content, and these media forms are somewhat deceptive, and don’t appear as sponsored.
Those two factors create a bubble that will surely burst once readers and viewers get tricked enough times.
Just this past Monday a friend complained about a Buzzfeed article focusing on entertainment ideas that happneed to be sponsored by a potato chip company. The problem with the article its lack of disclosure, and every suggestion was followed by a push for X-brand chips.
I recently saw both SocialMedia.org CEO Andy Sernovitz and Edelman EVP Steve Rubel discuss the conundrums of native advertising. At both events, Andy and Steve discussed how important it was to clearly disclose paid sponsorship of any media promptly. Andy noted that many forms of native advertising are in violation of the FTC’s disclosure rules, and then coached attendees on best practices.
I’m not sure that’s going to happen without significant consequence. Though the FTC acts periodically, real impact will come in the form of decreasing results. This is inevitable as more and more consumers distrust content featuring brands, and the mastheads and social networks that publish questionable content.
The decline is already happening. Last year a study showed that most people view brands who engage in native advertising more negatively or not at all. I wonder how people feel now that we are almost done with 2013, and they have become more familiar with embedded promotions.
Like all advertising methods, a two percent yield will likely be enough to keep native promotions viable, but at the same time let’s not get crazy here.
As more brands move to blend content with ads, the impact will match every other tactic that becomes widely practiced by marketers. We can expect less consumer trust, lower yields, and a need for higher levels of quality to achieve success. Worse, rather than raising the tide of the overall marketing program, native advertising will negatively impact trust across all forms of digital advertisements.
Moving forward, contextual media will force media outlets and advertisers to get even more creative with their efforts to get in front of consumers. Intrusions will not be tolerated as openly as they are now. Perhaps the open sponsorship models of the 50s will take hold as brands pay to make relevant information available in exchange for a brief update. Who knows?
What do you think? Are we heading for a decline in native advertising success?
Featured image by the Altimeter Group.