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Native Advertising: The Ethics Question

Pradeep Rajadas. Talk at LIBA.

Traditional Advertising is intrusive: The ad stands out from the rest of the content on the page.

Native Advertising matches the content of the page in form and function  

The concept is not new and has been around in the form of Advertorial content

What is Native Advertising?

1900’s Ford and the hobbyist car races

The History Of Native Advertising

Long Form Ads

• InfomercialsSoloflex

Sponsored Content

Ads are ugly: They stick out of the user experience.

People have an aversion to ads; Most people ignore advertising completely. It’s like its invisible to them.

 People don’t want to be sold to. There is a tradition of avoiding salespeople

Why Native Advertising?

70% of social media advertising is native by default.

Promoted Tweets on Twitter. Sponsored Stories on

Facebook Video ads on YouTube.

Social Media and Native Advertising

Good Content = More Page Views  = More Revenie

Bad Content = Less Page Views = Less Revenue Where does Advertorial

Content fit in?

The Content Equation

In the movies you watch – actors use products/services that are intentionally placed there. There is a charge to place these ads.

The same applies to Sitcoms. What about recommending products that

are genuinely “liked” by the “characters” on screen. Who loves Orange Soda?

Native Advertising is Everywhere

Should we allow Native Advertising at all?

Publishers that publish native ads without the “Sponsored” indicator.

There needs to be a certain level of “intrusion”.

The Ethics Question

Facebook has one of the best approaches to Native Advertising.

Right Hand Side Ads are obviously Ads. But they have tweaks that help them blend with the content.

In-stream Ads look like regular content – but they have symbols that indicate that they are sponsored – to the discerning user.

Facebook Pages themselves are part of the Facebook User Experience – but they are actually ads.The Facebook

Approach

The Hybrid approach to Advertising. If you’d like to sell a product, then

there’s banner space for that. You can design the ad in such a manner that will not detract from the user experience.

If you’d like to engage with customers, then there’s an area for that as well, but the guidelines to conform to the user experience will be stricter.

The Future

This has been a Native Ad for Native Advertising; as seen at LIBA, Beacon.

Don’t get too native