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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.

This Week in Native Ads

This Week in Native Ads 3/1

The Ligatus acquisition might have snuck under your radar but this is notable consolidation in Europe. For American readers they are the TripleLift or ShareThrough of Europe (headcount of 180 vs 230) but they’d already been acquired by Bertelsmann the publishing/broadcasting group. This is much more common in Europe. The deal was for stock. So why would an already exited player onsell and for stock? Likely CPMs guarantees on deals were under pressure from ITP and fearing a more competitive… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
March 1, 2019
This Week in Native Ads

This Week in Native Ads 2/22

This week is a full on edition, so buckle in as it’s full of gems, from datapoints on Amazon, DrainerBot, to Apple acquiring a digital marketing firm. ? Notable stories this week This News Corp Australia story is interesting, the Outbrain vs Taboola showdown. Ultimately Taboola won this round. This is a battle which goes on every month. Hulu’s latest influencer marketing campaign should give you second thoughts about using one. Great… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
February 22, 2019
This Week in Native Ads

This Week in Native Ads 2/15

One big thing Lots of deals happening, acquisitions big and small. Two years ago we were noting the lack of deals, now we’re seeing a flurry of activity. I had a great chat with a journalist this week, who was asking, at this point – how does a brand justify not doing content? Would love to hear from readers what they think or have heard. Notable stories this week Facebook’s share of ad revenue… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
February 15, 2019
Product Updates

Nudge Product Update 2/13

  Read on as we share the latest content, product features, upcoming events and more.   Never miss another product update; sign up to the newsletter here.   Nudge Update, February 2019   Last September I sat down with the team to look at the next big areas of focus for us as a company. Where can we improve on our strengths but also work on our weaknesses.   From a product… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
February 13, 2019
This Week in Native Ads

This Week in Native Ads 2/8

  One big thing I want to speak on the pace of change. Twitter this quarter is changing their reporting metric to mDAU, monetizeable daily active user. The market did not like it. Imagine if they had used this number a few years ago when Jack first came back. They would have been decimated. Were they measuring it? You can guarantee it. 3000 employees isn’t a ship you can turn overnight. Nor the expectations of millions of users. In… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
February 8, 2019
Commentary

The measurement problem facing modern marketers

It is 2021, and measurement is more of a moving target than ever. The industry, platforms, and content are all in flux. Lets take a look at recent data points we’ve seen: – 87% of ad execs say they hold back spending on media and platforms due to poor measurement. – MediaPost – Half of the marketers in this survey discard at least half of their data. – eMarketer – Centralizing marketing data remains a top… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
February 4, 2019
This Week in Native Ads

This Week in Native Ads 2/1

Notable stories this week Facebook & Google market research. This does raise the threat of being disintermediated by the operating system itself, what happens if Apple bans the app? Apparently Facebook has prepared for such a scenario (shout out to @ow for pointing this out). Very curious turn of events, they’re playing with fire. I suspect there is a research firm who recruits… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
February 1, 2019
Commentary

How Branded Content Drives Business Outcomes

The tldr; content that is consumed, disclosed and has calls to action will drive business outcomes. Getting to content that is consumed, is the hard part. More on that below. Before we indulge in this post, there are a few provisos I need to give. These are, level setting, branded content can easily drive business outcomes when you have effective measurement in place. If you don’t have that – you can and will lose money very… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 29, 2019
This Week in Native Ads

This Week in Native Ads 1/25

One big thing Marie Kondo is having her cultural moment, I read the book a few years ago – and subsequently went on a rampage through the house and my belongings ha. From a marketers perspective, it’s also a process worth doing, reviewing all the tools, systems, processes, partners and looking to simplify. In a world of growing spend, we’ve added more, simplifying helps everyone focus on the end result – better business outcomes. IF you haven’t caught… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 25, 2019
Best of

The Best Native Advertising Examples of 2019

In this article, we spotlight the kings and queens of native advertising and branded content in 2019. Each week, we picked remarkable content campaigns to feature in This Week in Native Ads (sign up to the newsletter here). Being included in This Week in Native Ads automatically got you in consideration for the best ads of the year. See 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018. Submit your own work for consideration for 2020, here. (See 2020/… Continue reading

Jessica Toib
Jessica Toib
September 28, 2022