This Week in Native Ads 7/7

Google finally opens up native inventory across Adsense. This is big and probably the tipping point of native getting mass adoption. Not that there will be a flood straight away but it’s signal that native is moving through the adoption curve. This is the time when the tide really starts to rise.

If I’m wrong, I’ll shout you a drink.

Notable Stories this Week

Publishers can now add the three new formats to their mobile sites. Includes in-feed, in-article and matched content. Surely a solid offering.
Follow up to his, is Google contradicting its own policies?
Apple News said to be opening up to external ad:tech. Marketers would pay a premium for this environment but there is a reason Instant Articles & AMP were invented. Hopefully like AMP there are some constraints around it.
Marie Claire Group selects AdYouLike for its private marketplace. There’s money in those pmps.
Sara Badler, Director of Programmatic at NY Times talks tech challenges and Flex Frame (native unit). See point around Audience Guaranteed. My thoughts in a world where an audience can be reached with confidence, contents importance rises.
Reuters Plus rolls out native video.
Marketers can be more successful than ever after Apple fixes its Cookie Glitch. Great POV from Curt at ShareThrough.
Conde Nast introduces new branded content studio called Stories in the UK.

Campaign of the Week

BBC Travel in partnership with Korean Air, explore the unknown tales of South Korea.

Smartest commentary

“One thing The New York Times has done a great job of is that we’ve treated programmatic in the same way as we treat direct. It’s just a way of transacting, it’s not necessarily a preference of one or the other. The process behind native or any sort of ad unit that you think is high impact or sponsorship, what we’ve done is try to work with our partners on how we can make that transact programmatically in the same and seamless way we do direct. I don’t think we’re there yet but we’re all on a dedicated path to get there.” – Sara Badler, Programmatic Director, NY Times
On Why brands shouldn’t produce their content in-house: “There are two reasons why brands should not produce all their content in-house. Firstly, it’s difficult to “talk about oneself”. You tend to push your own agendas and lose sight of what the audience wants.“ Kristiane Roe Hammer, CEO of Newslab

Datapoints of note