At the recent Media Tech Summit 2013 Conference, Unilever and News Corp executives encouraged marketers to develop content specifically for mobile and tablet devices rather than simply translating it from older media channels. News Corp executive, Nick Bell, said "[We] look at native advertising as something that takes the form of the product, which drives engagement, and is not interruptive to consumer experience but is clearly marked and denoted." He likened it to the movie trailers before the feature film, which many people find interesting and engaging. The trailers are contextually relevant, and consumers know that they are advertising, but they add to the experience.
It sounds like Instagram is attempting to do exactly this with its new advertising program. They are trying to position their ads as a type of curated content, by working with brands that are already popular content creators within the Instagram community. The ads will look just like pictures from the friends you follow, but will have the "Sponsored" designation at the top right corner (see right). Instagram is taking it a step further by enabling users to hide the ads, using the "..." button on the bottom right and give feedback on ads they view as a way for Instragram to deliver more targeted, relevant ads going forward.
Facebook and Twitter have been doing something similar for awhile with their Sponsored Posts and Sponsored Tweets, though not with the same level of interactivity, as far as I know. This is very similar to the "Special Advertising Section" in magazines that looks just like any other article in the publication except for the special designation at the top. So this is really nothing new to publishers like The Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post.
An alternative to using content sites like Instagram and WSJ.com is embedding advertising into the user's navigation experience. One example is to place ads between pages of an online article that the user must sweep through in order to get to the rest of the content. If advertisers can target the right audience (e.g. the article is about travel to Asia and there are airline ads featuring deals on flights to Asia) these ads can be very successful.
Another example is using the captcha on a site as an ad. In the example to the left, Wishbone salad dressings took over the captcha, and instead of asking the user to type in random letters and numbers, the advertiser is asking the user to type in part of the brand message, in this case "Sassy." I expect activities like these to drive greater user engagement, particularly when compared to traditional banner ads place above or beside content.
One way to take this a step further might be for advertisers to sponsor particular articles related to their category or industry. User could access them by typing in the advertiser name or brand message to access these articles. Alternatively, that could be a step in the process to share articles with friends and family. The key here will be to target effectively, so the content is relevant to consumers rather than annoying and to determine the frequency and level of engagement required because there are so many content providers for users to go to if they tire of these types of ads.
Facebook and Twitter have been doing something similar for awhile with their Sponsored Posts and Sponsored Tweets, though not with the same level of interactivity, as far as I know. This is very similar to the "Special Advertising Section" in magazines that looks just like any other article in the publication except for the special designation at the top. So this is really nothing new to publishers like The Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post.
An alternative to using content sites like Instagram and WSJ.com is embedding advertising into the user's navigation experience. One example is to place ads between pages of an online article that the user must sweep through in order to get to the rest of the content. If advertisers can target the right audience (e.g. the article is about travel to Asia and there are airline ads featuring deals on flights to Asia) these ads can be very successful.
Another example is using the captcha on a site as an ad. In the example to the left, Wishbone salad dressings took over the captcha, and instead of asking the user to type in random letters and numbers, the advertiser is asking the user to type in part of the brand message, in this case "Sassy." I expect activities like these to drive greater user engagement, particularly when compared to traditional banner ads place above or beside content.One way to take this a step further might be for advertisers to sponsor particular articles related to their category or industry. User could access them by typing in the advertiser name or brand message to access these articles. Alternatively, that could be a step in the process to share articles with friends and family. The key here will be to target effectively, so the content is relevant to consumers rather than annoying and to determine the frequency and level of engagement required because there are so many content providers for users to go to if they tire of these types of ads.
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