This Week in Native Ads 2/17

• NY Times looks to programmatic ad sales in international markets. Related, the Director of Programmatic from NY Times, Sara Badler, will be speaking at the native ad talks next week. RSVP here.
• Chad Pollitt joins the Native Advertising Institute.
• Big brands fund terror through online adverts. The new brand safety –> who is being remunerated for the ads being bought.
• Facebook opens up for independent ad audit.
• WaPo rolls out new content ad unit – post card, whereby user doesn’t need to click away, to avoid click drop off.

Deals/M&A

• BrandTale acquired by MarketTrack, well done to Ben & Jay for starting and leading to a successful outcome.

Campaign of the Week

• Huckberry on Jalopnik, as a Huckberry fan it caught my attention but also this is a simple straight forward ecommerce play. Hero relevant products to a niche, in this case fighter jet wallets for car fans.

Smartest Commentary

• Not native specific but still relevant  “The traditional skills of an ad agency, strategic thinking and developing big, bold creative ideas, are becoming increasingly marginalised. However, as the world’s markets become more crowded and stand out harder to achieve, they are skills which are becoming more important than ever.” -Michael Moszynski, Founder and Chief Executive of London Advertising
• “Over half of digital marketing managers (53%) say that cookie-based advertising campaigns will die out within the next 12 months, according to a new report from Viant. Instead, digital marketers are embracing a people-based marketing approach.” -Hugh Williams, ExchangeWire

Datepoints of Note

• 60.7% of respondents awarded positive ratings to native content in a BurdaForward study. Readiness to buy increases by 50%, and access a vertical by vertical breakdown here.
• Marketers were slower to adopt native in 2016, will it be the same this year?

Events & Webinars

• [Feb 23] How to Win at Programmatic Native. Panelists from NY Times, StoryLab, Twitter, PowerLinks & TheDrum.