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Bridging commentary on the art & science of content; content marketing, branded content, native advertising and the analytics, attribution and intelligence that powers it.
Commentary

How to enhance your native ad product, in response to: DigiDays Publishers Hack the CMS

I enjoyed reading Lucias post over on DigiDay talking about how publishers are hacking the CMS, she talks about early adopters The Atlantic have transitioned over to programmatic ad serving type models whilst some like Hearst are sticking with the CMS. The long term play is that yes Publishers will have to swap to an ad serving like model. The reason being is, that once brands have the idea that they can bring programmatic and ad thinking… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 26, 2015
Native Advertising

The Best Native Advertising Examples

You’re looking for the best native advertising examples, under the IAB native ad guidelines, there are six main types: Infeed units, ads designed to fit in the flow of content, i.e. Facebook promoted post. Paid search units, ads designed to look similar to search results, i.e. Google Adwords. Recommendation units, ads that look like content links under an article, i.e. OutBrain. Promoted listings, ads (often on ecommerce sites) with promoted views. In-Ad, hard to describe. Custom/Can’t be contained, custom ads… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 25, 2015
Reports

The best disclosures are native: a study on effective disclosures on custom native ads

In a recent study we completed, we found that the most effective form of disclaimers are in the content themselves. When disclosures were in the content, peoples ability to identify it as an ad went up 89%. The outtake: native disclosures work best for custom native ads. However, the overall identification was still only half of participants. We believe the way to lift it from here is repetition in the article, however we haven’t found enough examples for further testing yet. Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 23, 2015
This Week in Native Ads

This Week in Native Ads 23/1

Campaign of the Week: Yaron Galai – the man who decides where you’ll browse to from here Yaron Galai understood that advertising on the internet doesn’t work, so he reinvented it as recommendations to “other articles that may interest you”. His company, Outbrain, directs traffic flow and our perspective from article to article, and it’s already worth a billion dollars. Now on his way to an IPO which will be his second massive exit, Galai explains to… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 22, 2015
This Week in Native Ads

This Week in Native Ads 16/1

Campaign of the Week: Time Inc. Tries Out New Digital Strategy with Curated DIY Site Time Inc., the nation’s largest magazine publisher, introduced a new website on Monday that collects articles about do-it-yourself projects and home decor from its magazines and several dozen partner websites, including Apartment Therapy. The new site, called “The Snug,” is aimed at millennials and is part of a Time Inc. strategy to publish digital-only sites that pull in content from… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 15, 2015
Product Updates

Hiring: Engineers

We are seeking an additional engineer to join our team to head up some of our scalability efforts. Our technology stack consists of: – LEMP (what’s the E?) – Python / Django – Utilizing AWS infrastructure Our development process is very agile, with discrete components built rapidly. Our current focus is on scalability to fulfill demand. The best part about this job is we’re still small and solving problems, we have lofty things to crack in the… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 15, 2015
This Week in Native Ads

This Week in Native Ads 12/19

Thanks so much for subscribing, we hope you’ve had a great 2014 and look forward to 2015. -Ben & team   Campaign of the Week: 10 Emoji Greeting Cards That Will Get You Through The Holidays Everything can be said better with emojis. Why we like it: AT&T is a social brand, bringing that through to Christmas Cards is a great idea, simple nice execution and timely. Source: Buzz Feed… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
December 18, 2014
This Week in Native Ads

This Week in Native Ads 12/11

  Campaign of the Week: A Child’s Life After Human Trafficking When I think about what ’home’ means to me, I think about David. Upon arriving at one of our SOS Children’s Villages in Nicaragua, I saw 15-year-old David sitting nervously at a table by himself. This was an unusual sight for me. On each of my trips to our villages, I had been greeted with big hugs, laughter and a myriad of questions from the children and… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
December 11, 2014
This Week in Native Ads

This Week in Native Ads 12/05

  Campaign of the Week: Land Rover – The Vanishing Game With unknown pursuers hot on his trail, Alec Dunbar prepares for a night in the wilderness. Armed with knowledge he gleaned from his experience prepping for the epic war film Exit Wound, Alec procures vital supplies from the local outfitter — clothing perfect for weathering the unforgiving Scottish moors. Why we like it: Campaign built on Tumblr, utilizing various… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
December 4, 2014
This Week in Native Ads

This Week in Native Ads 11/21

  Campaign of the Week: Cities Energized  Cities are a fundamental part of modern life, yet for most of human life they have been the exception. Our ancestors lived almost entirely in rural areas, on farms or in small towns. But about two centuries ago, people began to migrate from field to factory and urbanization began. That movement has steadily gathered speed until, sometime around 2007, the balance tipped. Now, for the first time in human history,… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
November 20, 2014