The lens through which we view the media world is getting more focused. You have to fight to draw attention away from our phone more now than ever before.
As the efficacy of traditional outbound marketing continues to wane, more and more marketers consider native advertising and content marketing as viable alternatives. Every everyone has an ad blocker installed, television is on demand, people under 30 don’t read the newspaper so advertising is changing and getting more creative in its approach.
We’ve seen sponsored or embedded content is starting to look fake to the savy. Enter native adversing and content marketing.
What is native adverting?
Native advertising is a type of disguised advertising, usually online, that matches the form and function of the platform upon which it appears. In many cases, it manifests as either an article or video, produced by an advertiser with the specific intent to promote a product, while matching the form and style which would otherwise be seen in the work of the platform’s editorial staff. The word “native” refers to this coherence of the content with the other media that appears on the platform.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a technique of creating valuable relevant content that is attractive to your audience with the objective of driving engagement. In many cases, it manifests as articles or videos, produced by an advertiser with the intent to promote associated lifestyle or services linked but not directly related to the product they are selling. For example a health insurer might produce a lifestyle magazine promoting healthy living with recipes, exercise tips and interesting articles as part of their promoting approved extra cover like yoga (seriously – you can get free rehabilitation yoga) and other health management programs. The word “valuable” is important here it needs to be content that the audience will actually want to consume.
Both can have a role to play in any substantial marketing strategy.