This Week in Native Ads 12/1

After a break, through Thanksgiving, it’s a double whammy mega edition this week. Fake news is the big topic, with Zuckerburg unable to articulate their approach, made worse by Ev Williams’s post on Medium. A lot of informal discussion around how it impacts the companies that rely on advertising arbitrage.

Notable Stories this Week

Taboola, Fake News is everyone’s business.
Co-founder of Reddit bags on native ads whilst pushing their own native solution. Ah…
Forbes Chief Product Officer Lewis Dvorkin talks about their new offering, Co-Storytelling.
Conde Nast 18 person team in Britain accounts for half digital revenue. Nice.
DoubleVerify adds fake news blocker for brands.
‘The underbelly of the internet’: How content ad networks fund fake news. Great reporting by DigiDay.
BlackOps Advertising.
How data can help you success with content marketing.
Politico co-founder launches Axios. Teases new native format. Sounds like sponsored video inside FB.

Deals/M&A

AppNexus impending IPO.
Luma Partners breaks down the state of play in digital marketing.
SintecMedia acquires ad management company operative for $200m.

Campaign of the Week

Guide to extraterrestrial life on TheOnion for the new Hulu Show People of Earth. My favorite: ‘All 21st-century innovations are in fact derived from alien technology secretly recovered from downed UFOs, except for noise-canceling headphones, which were totally us.’ And then for my favorite.
Curbed & Jeep inspire you to get out of the city with this design lead piece on Clearhouse, a house in Shelter Island. The ‘un-hamptons.’

Smartest Commentary

“Consumers are becoming more accepting of native advertisements, especially when they are sponsored by a company with which the consumer has a strong relationship or if the advertisements provide information the consumer can use.” –University of Georgia study
“Viewers don’t discriminate between sponsored videos and editorial content. It’s the quality of the video that really matters and determines whether or not they watch.” –Kathy Kayse, citing a Yahoo study
“Shifting success metrics beyond the click to post-click engagement metrics is so important because marketers simply cannot treat native the same as banners if they want to see success.” –Lon Otremba, CEO BidTellect
“Sponsored content that is transparent, truthful and informative proves to be an effective way of communicating brand information. Content that is disguised is not.” –Beth Donnelly Egan

Datapoints of Note

From BidTellect, CTRs on mobile were 200% higher in Q3.
In-feed placements drive the most consumer engagement compared to in-ad and recommendation widgets.
Quartz drives 33% of revenue from native.
AdWeek boosts views to Branded Content through email newsletter distribution via Polar.

Trends to Watch/Bleeding Edge

Events & Webinars