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Gustaf & I hung out at Cannes last week, so will start this week off with some some topline thoughts from our discussions at Cannes (around native). Index Exchange were kind enough to ask my thoughts on native too.
A few people noted, I missed two weeks of This Week in Native! So this is a catch up edition. Look for the bullets from the Time Inc study…
Cannes Takeaways
- Native content is emerging more and more amongst internal comms/PR teams inside brands.
- [Part of a wider trend of native/media being used across multiple functions – not just marketing].
- Native content is serious business for publishers – all of their pitches were content centric.
- Programmatic native is getting a bad wrap around quality issues. But acknowledgement that controls are getting better. Click wastage is a bigger problem than adblocking.
- Brand safety is top of mind, great for native content which is a brand safe media vehicle.
- Many brands are still stuck on getting started, more blueprints are needed. (Please do send me what you have, would love to consolidate).
- Transparency is the undercurrent.
- Publishers in Europe are banding together more, to collaborate, share ‘content’ inventory and resources to drive scale.
- Politics & advertising feel like they’re on a crash course, for some sort of regulation and/or change in rules.
- People based marketing, targeting people not bots, and in turn making sure the content is actually seen. Opportune for native.
- Brands still aspire to the data-driven, people based, personalized promise. They’ve just had their hands full this year.
- Voice is now a big thing. What’s the native play here?
- AliBaba pushing their marketing cloud.
- Top Book recs, How Brands Grow mentioned multiple times, reading now.
- “Creativity is the story, innovation is how we drive it, technology is the enabler” – David Sable, CEO Y&R
And read this, major themes from Cannes.
Notable Stories this Week
- ShareThrough had two announcements this week, their exchange is now available via Google DBM and you can dynamically personalize native ads with their FlashTalking partnership. Nice.
- Who will replace the 30 second spot? A good read on how YouTube is retiring their longer ad formats – and the tension for the laggard tv advertisers who don’t want to give up the spot.
- Facebook is doing household targeting. Smart. Presumably you can slice this, I want to target the teenager in each household, as well as a parent. Opens up plenty of creative opportunities.
- Six ways to use sponsored content in an integrated PR strategy. A good tactical post to have in the bookmarks.
- Axios finds Apples News is the best (of Instant Articles, AMP). Apple doesn’t get enough attention here, they have the native sdk and the reach.
- Taboola expands programmatic in Australia.
- NYTimes native revenue gets a boost from its acquisitions.
- [Tweet] How native fits in at each part of a campaign.
- PopSugar grew their content business 85% using data.
- How Bloomberg is proving the effectiveness of their content. Surveys. We’ve found it’s not always practical for native content (sample size / response rate being the challenges).
Deals/M&A
Campaign of the Week
- The art of living with and within art. Sotheby’s with NY Times. This is exactly what Sotheby’s should be doing, then doing smart distribution to get the right people in.
- How to pack the ultimate beer cooler on Gear Patrol. Timely ahead of July 4th. Vienna Lager with Gear Patrol.
Smartest commentary
- “The future of being a platform is giving publishers a way of replicating their unique experience on the platform.” – Roy Schwartz, President & Co-Founder Axios
Datapoints of note
- Time Inc study reveals 2/3 consumers trust branded content more than traditional advertising.
- [Time Inc continued] Gen Z-> 93% saying they want to see brands do something new, unique, or creative to get their attention.
- 88% indicating that custom content feels like a good way for new brands it hasn’t heard of to reach them.
- 84% agreeing that custom content is a way for brands to engage them, and 72% wanting video and infographics to better explore a story or data.
- 90% of those polled like the idea of custom content as a way for brands to engage them.
- 89% believe custom content is a great way for brands to break through the clutter
- 93% like brands sharing interesting things they may not have otherwise seen.
- 92% believe brands have expertise on topics and add value to content.
- ^^ yes. Not to mention it’s a brand safe environment.
- 95% of YouTube ads watched with the audio on.
- 93% of Instagram ads not labelled by influencers.
Events
- [Awards] Get your entry in for Native Advertising Institute and also TheDrum.
We’re hiring!
We are looking for an account executive/superstar to join the ranks, get in touch if this is for you.
Ta,
Ben
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