‘Native advertising’ is one of those expressions you’ve probably heard quite a lot recently. A member of our content team, Andy, wrote a blog about it just the other day, in fact – which you can read here.
Especially during the World Cup and other such sporting events (like the Olympics, for example), we’re subjected to a lot of native advertising – though ‘subjected’ may be the wrong word, as not all native advertising wastes the reader’s time. In fact, good native adverts serves as more than just advertisements – they entertain and sometimes even inform the reader.
What is native advertising?
Essentially, native advertising is the advertising of products through quality content (emphasis on the ‘quality’). This is a much more subtle method than the likes of the in-your-face banner ad, but by no means is it ‘sneaky’ or underhanded – if it’s done properly. A lot of work goes into native advertising campaigns, as their content must be interesting and appropriate to the specific target audiences.
How do I know when I’m looking at a native advert?
A native ad will generally blend into the website you’re on rather well – sometimes you won’t realise the content you’re reading is actually a native ad until you’re halfway through (or even at the end, sometimes). All native ads are designed to blend in with the content they’re placed within – that’s the idea. The longer it is before you realise you’re looking at a native, the better it is – generally.
As you would imagine, native advertising in huge online, due to the fact that so many of us use the internet every day (some of us all day). Native advertising isn’t just a recent internet sensation – in fact. It’s been going on for years in magazines and newspapers – way before the concept of the internet was even thought up. We’ve all surely been reading an editorial or an article and then realised that it is in fact, essentially, an advert for something or other. It could be clothes, it could be a brand of beer – it could be anything, virtually.
This 1950s print advert by Guinness is a perfect and classic example of native advertising. As you can see, good native advertising doesn’t exactly have to be a groundbreaking or gripping editorial or anything like that – the Guinness oyster one basically gives a brief overview of each type of oyster, before at the bottom pointing out that Guinness washes them down nicely. And I’ll tell you what – if I was around in the fifties and came across this advert, I’d be very much inclined to enjoy a Guinness – maybe accompanied by oysters, but maybe not. And I’m not even a Guinness drinker (I’ve had about four pints of it in my life). So, we could say that, some 60 years later, this native advert is still very much effective – still raking in sales.
Let’s not forget that a good native advertising campaign can be instrumental in winning over customers who are undecided whether to go with your product or someone else’s. Of course, Guinness might be a bad example in this instance, so let’s go for running trainers instead. Until a couple of years ago, I was neither a Nike man nor an adidas man – it simply depended which company made the ones I liked the most. However, I am now a Nike man for the foreseeable future when it comes to practical sportswear – and I think that a lot of this is down to their superb native advertising over the years (not just ones concerning their running products).
Anyone over the age of 18 or so who’s remotely interested in football will fondly remember the Nike Football adverts of the early noughties. I’d strongly argue that these qualify as examples of native advertising. They’re short films which basically advertise Nike products non-stop without any subtlety whatsoever – but it’s alright because they’re extremely entertaining.
However, as we’re going to be focusing on online (including video) examples of native advertising in this blog, we’ll have a look at some examples which have proved successful. Firstly we’ll look at the ones which simply seek to increase brand engagement, and then we’ll move onto ones which aim to immediately impact sales.
Native advertising for brand engagement case study – Patagonia
Whilst some native adverts aim to generate immediate sales on a mass scale, there are many which simply serve to increase engagement. For example, any company which uses Instagram will engage in this sort of activity. One that sticks out in my mind is the American outdoor brand Patagonia. On their Instagram page, they basically document outdoor life – as opposed to taking pictures of their products on hangers and what have you. Take a look at their Instagram here, and you’ll see that they just post images of this, that and the other – hardly ever anything to do with products. Some might disagree, but I’d say that this approach is extremely clever.
Patagonia are a well-known outdoor brand the world over in outdoor circles – their products look great and are comparatively affordable in comparison to some of the other brands out there. In other words, Patagonia products sell themselves. On the 5th June, they posted on their Instagram a photo of a bloke on a skateboard, wearing an oversized jumper and beige chinos, who had no socks or shoes on. In this picture, there is absolutely no Patagonia branding at all, yet it (at the point in time at which I’m writing this) garnered over 17,800 ‘likes’. They have (at the moment) just over 440,000 followers – a number which is continuously increasing.
I’d imagine that Patagonia’s use of Instagram is having an extremely positive impact on their sales – and all they’re really doing is posting a picture a day of people doing ‘outdoorsy’ things. Of course, it’s not just Patagonia who are embracing native advertising for non-immediate sales purposes.
Native advertising for immediate return on investment (ROI)
Whilst Patagonia seem as laid-back as the people in their Instagram pictures, there are some brands which will produce native advertisements in a conscious effort to quickly generate a substantial increase in sales. Going back to Nike, they might be a good example.
Every time there’s a World Cup or a Euro competition, Nike produce (usually several) adverts on the lead-up. This year they’ve produced two of their signature short film-type adverts, both of which are more than four minutes long. The ‘Winner Stays’ and ’The Last Game’ adverts have proved highly successful – and the latter is actually animated as opposed to being real life footage. In addition to these two long ones, there have also been some shorter ones produced, which are the standard TV spot duration.
So is native advertising worth it in regards to profitability?
Of course, this is a question which will have a different answer depending on which brand or company you are. Companies who natively advertise well will definitely find it profitable. The key is of course to be genuinely interesting with your content – whether it’s written, visual or video (or audio). If (or when) people realise that they’re looking at a native ad, they’ll either become annoyed or they won’t mind at all. If the latter is the case, you may find that your native advertising campaign is a success, as a boost in sales could occur as a consequence.
As I said about Patagonia, I would imagine that their incorporation of native advertising has had a superb impact on their sales. Of course, this is rather hard to measure – there’s not really any way you could accurately calculate how much their Instagram usage had boosted sales by, but you can bet it’s quite a lot.
How can I measure the success of my native advertising?
Many people believe that the best way to measure the success of your native advertising campaigns is to evaluate it as though it was regular content – which, really, it should be very much like. So, essentially, unique visitor figures, page view figures, and the amounts of shares and comments are all fairly good gauges.
You can also, of course, use click-through rates to measure the success of a native ad, as this will tell you how many people clicked on it after reading (or viewing) it.
So how do I succeed with my native advertising?
The best way to make your native ads look and feel like organic content is to actually make them organic. If you can come up with original ideas which are interesting to read, you’ll be onto a winner.
In this day and age, we are constantly bombarded with adverts – left, right and centre. When was the last time you went on YouTube and weren’t made to watch at least the opening bit of an advert before being allowed to watch the actual video you clicked on?
I don’t believe that native advertising is particularly ‘deceptive’ – even some good examples of it are quite obvious from the outset. As long as it offers something else other than a call to action – something that is of interest to people – I don’t see any problem with it.
You need to figure out how you can create content which leaves the reader (or the viewer, if it’s a video) feeling like they’ve not just wasted their time. Of course, this is much easier said than done, but if you aren’t willing to put some serious thought into it, you may as well not bother.
These days, brands can’t afford to be unimaginative when it comes to their advertising (of course, this doesn’t just refer to native advertising, but all types). We skim past the vast majority of adverts we come across, because they’re uninteresting. Therefore it’s even more crucial that our native advertising doesn’t fall into the same trap – especially given the fact that it requires more effort on the viewer’s part than most other forms of advertising.
Effective forms of native advertising
Many people refer to native ads as ‘advertorials’ – which is obviously a merging of the word ‘advert’ and ‘tutorial’. We generally use this expression when we’re talking about a native ad which aims to actually generate direct sales.
Everyone loves a list – they’re easy to read and they’re presented in an organised fashion. For example – going back to Guinness – a good list-type advertorial would be something like ‘The best five snacks to have with Guinness’, as it’s not exactly going to be a laborious read and it’s bound to only take up a minute or two of the reader’s time at the most.
That said, you could compile a bigger list which spans several pages if you want – a ‘Top 20’, for example. If its content is interesting enough, there’s no reason why not. Similarly, rough guides can be quite effective and engaging – that Guinness oysters one could be classified as a guide, I’d say.
Summary
Essentially, the question which makes up the title of this blog post has no definitive answer. I will say that I personally think the answer is only ‘yes’ if you’re coming up with innovative and engaging stuff. Of course, this costs more money and uses up more time than simply regurgitating the sort of stuff other people are doing with their native advertising campaigns. However, if you can think up ideas which are unique and portray your brand as thought-leaders, you’ll certainly gain a competitive edge. As I said before, if your native ads are actually entertaining to the majority of people who come across it, you’ll more than likely experience great success as a result.