HOW TO DO NATIVE ADVERTISING
world class 25examples The mindset in the advertising world is changing
Sponsored content is getting bigger and bolder. We see more and more eye-popping content that attempts to interact with readers on behalf of brands and publishers.
Some native advertising is large-scale production of target group-oriented content backed up by big budgets. Others are less extravagant, yet no less meaningful.
But what is good native advertising? What separates the sponsored content that makes an impact from its forgettable counterparts?
The good stuff understands what native means to its specific platform. The good stuff mimics its publisher while maintaining the ability to tell its own story . The good stuff manages to provide the audience with real authenticity whether it is based on entertainment or educative qualities. The good stuff, quite simply, is valuable.
In order to make this definition more tangible, we have searched the internet for the very best within the realm of native advertising. This was an instructive journey as it drew a picture of a new mindset among both brands and publishers. The innovators are moving from campaign thinking to focusing on content programs. Long term quality as the undisputed focal point.
The results of our learnings can all be found in this ebook.
We hope you can use some of the brilliant examples of native advertising to inspire your own work.
Happy reading! Table of content
1. Cadillac & Saturday Evening Post – The Penalty of Leadership 2. Century 21 & Craigslist – Walter White’s House 3. Citi & LinkedIn – Connect: Professional Women’s Network 4. Cole Haan & Mic – Two Engineers Have Created the Doll Every Young Girl Should Be Playing With 5. Game of Thrones & BuzzFeed –How Would You Die In “Game of Thrones”? 6. GE & Quartz – World in Motion 7. GE & Supercompressor – The Lunar Footprint 8. GE & The uardianG – Powering People 9. Lenovo & The Onion – Tough Season 10. Marriott & Medium – Gone 11. Marriott & Reddit – Virtual Travel Experience 12. Marvel & Mashable – Everyday hero or thief? Cyber criminal to address 2012 arrest 13. MasterCard & Mashable – Mobile-Minded 14. Microsoft, Esquire & Medium – What I’ve Learned 15. Mountain Dew & Complex – Green Label 16. Netflix & The Atlantic – The Ascent 17. Netflix & The New York Times – Women Inmates 18. Netflix & WIRED – TV Got Better 19. Newcastle & Gawker – We’ve Disguised This Newcastle Ad sa anArticle to Get You to Click It 20. Nike & SB Nation – First & Long 21. OxiClean & PopSugar - Oreo Churros 22. Purina & BuzzFeed – Dear Kitten 23. Quit & Vine – Every 6 Seconds 24. Virgin Atlantic & Fast Company – Brilliant Minds 25. Wells Fargo & Slate – Beatboxing Transforms Education at Lavelle School for the Blind v
Cadillac & Saturday Evening Post – The Penalty of Leadership
This one is an old school example of native advertising.
1 In 1915, the car manufacturer Cadillac got into trou- ble due to a new and better engine type launched by the competitor, Packard Motors. Cadillac made a comeback model, but honestly – it was absolutely Name: The Penalty of Leadership no good. As a result, Cadillac’s strong position as a Type: Advertorial reliable vehicle was shaken. Brand: Cadillac Publisher: The answer to the crisis was found to be one of the Saturday Evening Post world’s first advertorials, an article called The Pen- alty of Leadership. The advertorial was about doing extraordinary things. Cadillac is not mentioned even Purpose: Help Cadillac maintain their market position in the early once. 20th century. Furthermore, the article was only published once in the American Saturday Evening Post.
Today, it’s still considered one of the most influential ads of all time. The ad helped Cadillac maintain their market position long enough for the engineers to get the products under control once again.
READ MORE: The Penalty of Leadership
/ 4 2 Foto: Irmin Wehmeier/Flickr Century 21 & Craigslist – Walter White’s House
Do you know Walter White? If that doesn’t ring a bell maybe Breaking Bad does?
Walter White is the main character in the award-win- Name: Albuquerque Place waiting for you ning series Breaking Bad. The final episode of the fifth and last season had the impressive number of Social Media Type: 6.6 million viewers. To take advantage of the buzz, Brand: Century 21 advertisers paid up to $400,000 for a 30-second Publisher: commercial slot in the season finale. But not every- Craigslist one had to pay the big bucks in order to utilize the Purpose: Brand promotion hype. Real estate marketer, Century 21, already had of Century 21. a steady presence on social media, but they suc- ceeded in pulling of an extraordinarily clever digital stunt.
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Century 21 & Craigslist – Walter White’s House
They put a phony ad on Craigslist for Walter White’s house in Albuquerque just hours before the season finale. The ad stated that the house is an “Albuquer- que Place waiting for you” and included lots of inside references to the actual TV show. Hardcore fans soon picked up on the story.
The ad created an online conversation with the fans earning a total reach of over 80 million impressions.
Matt Gentile, director of social media for Century 21, said to AdAge: “In today’s media environment there’s only so many Super Bowls, only so many opportunities to capture the attention and imagination of a mass audience, and Breaking Bad’s season finale was one of those mo- ments. Walter’s house is like its own character on the show ... as the show is coming to an end we felt that the home was going to receive a lot of attention. This show, in particular, represents really exceptional quality and between those two factors it was a good opportu- nity to move forward.”
READ MORE Walter White’s House
/ 6 Citi3 & LinkedIn – Connect: Professional Women’s Network
Let’s not forget the remarkable possibilities that lie in sponsored posts on social media. If you are target- ing professionals, LinkedIn’s Sponsored Updates are very interesting. But what is great native advertising on LinkedIn? Here’s an example.
Name: Connect: Professional Citi, a banking and financial services corporation Women’s Network headquartered in New York City, launched its ‘Con- Type: Sponsored nect: Professional Women’s Network’ in May 2012. posts on LinkedIn They did this to boost the brand among female professionals. Brand:
Citi Publisher: LinkedIn Purpose: Boost Citi’s brand among female professionals.
/ 7 3 Citi & LinkedIn – Connect: Professional Women’s Network
Citi wanted to reach professional women in a unique forum. They wanted to provide content to strength- en women’s financial futures and elevate awareness of the Citi brand.
The bank used polls to generate discussion in the group, and got 30,000 members in the first three months. As of March 6, the discussions in the group, now counting 427.145 followers, are user generated and include videos, news and polls.
Advertising for Citi’s other brands runs alongside the group page.
Citi group managed to create awareness of their brand and reach professional women. The initiative on LinkedIn resulted in over 30,000 members in the first three months and an 18 % week-over-week growth.
READ MORE Connect: Professional Woman’s Network
/ 8 Cole Haan & Mic 4- Two Engineers Have Created the Doll Every Young Girl Should Be Playing With
‘Two Engineers Have Created the Doll Every Young Girl Should Be Playing With’ is the first content piece in the series ‘History Begins Here’ that put the spot- Name: Two Engineers Have light on young women making an impact on busi- Created the Doll Every Young ness. Behind the series is the lifestyle brand, Cole Girl Should Be Playing With Haan. Type: Editorial content The brand itself posted stories from ‘History Begins Brand: Cole Haan Here’ on their own blog, but things first really start-
ed to happen when the series was extended to a Publisher: Mic Agency: Mic’s branded content team Purpose: Brand promotion of Century 21.
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Cole Haan & Mic – Two Engineers Have Created the Doll Every Young Girl Should Be Playing With
content universe on Mic.com, an online publication for primarily millennial readers.
The collaboration between the lifestyle brand Cole Haan and Mic is a great example of a native part- nership done right. After being featured on Mic.com some of the best stories from ‘History Begins Here’ were averaging 30,000 social shares – especially on Facebook.
The reason why we outline ‘Two Engineers Have Created the Doll Every Young Girl Should Be Play- ing With’ is that the story does exactly what native advertising is supposed to do – the brand stepping aside leaving room for great stories and, at same time, being very honest about the content being sponsored.
READ MORE: Two Engineers Have Created the Doll Every Young Girl Should Be Playing With History Begins Here
/ 10 5Game of Thrones & BuzzFeed – How Would You Die In Game of Thrones? Niedziella/Flickr Foto: Søren
Have you watched HBO’s insanely popular series ‘Game of Thrones’? And by insanely popular we mean 8.1 million viewers of the season 5 finale.
A lot of brands can only dream of this kind of en- gagement, and what is more – HBO can also make clever advertising in the right editorial surroundings and with the right tone of voice.
You don’t see many native ads dressed up as quiz- zes. But that is exactly what HBO does with ‘How Name: How Would You Would You Die In Game of Thrones?’. The ad is a Die In Game of Thrones? love child of the popular series and BuzzFeed. Type: A sponsored quiz Brand: HBO (Game of Thrones) The sender goes by the name of “Game of Thrones Publisher: – Brand Publisher”, but the quiz looks and works BuzzFeed like BuzzFeed’s other interactive features, which are very popular on the site. The ad fits perfectly into the Purpose: Promotion of Season 4 of Game of Thrones on HBO. BuzzFeed universe and also received a lot of en- gagement on site.
READ MORE: How Would You Die In “Game Of Thrones”?
/ 11 GE & Quartz – World in Motion
GE has proven to be a big advocate and believer in sponsored content. The American multinational 6 conglomerate has worked with a lot of different pub- lishers including BuzzFeed, The Guardian and The Economist to produce content. Furthermore, the corporation employs an extensive in-house opera- tion.
One of the larger content programs GE has invested Name: World in Motion in is a content hub by the name ‘World in Motion’. Type: An external content hub It’s sort of a warehouse for GE’s articles, videos, Brand: GE (General Electric) graphics and social media posts. The hub was Publisher: Quartz launched in May 2015 and consists of 240 pieces of content from 10 regions around the world. Purpose: Brand familiarity – why and how GE works and impacts the world. ‘World in Motion’ is created by Quartz, a start-up business news site from Atlantic Media, and resides on Quartz’s website where all the different content has its home. Quartz employs about 100 people and ten of them worked on the ‘World in Motion’ project underlining that content is something that GE is not afraid to put money in.
/ 12 6 GE & Quartz – World in Motion
But why all of this content? According to Jason Hill, GE’s global director of media and content strategy, brand familiarity is an objective. He said to AdAge:
“We have tremendously high brand awareness but not necessarily a deep understanding of what the brand does. The reason why we’ve got into a brand market- ing space is because ours is a story that requires more than an ad. Content helps them explain the technolo- gy behind the logo – why and how GE works and its impact on the world.”
AdAge also reported that ‘World in Motion’ will exist on Quartz’s site at least to the end of 2015 and also take over GE.com for one month. In order to help the promotion of the content hub, large display ads will be used on Quartz.
READ MORE World in Motion
/ 13 GE & Supercompressor – The Lunar Footprint
For the 45th anniversary of the moon landing, GE and Thrillist Media Group joined forces and created a whole sub-site on Thrillist’s site for tech and gear, 7 Supercompressor. The sub-site is called ‘The Lunar Footprint’ and presents several pieces of content Name: The Lunar Footprint to explore. You can find click-worthy titles like “10 Type: An external sub-site with Reasons Why the Apollo Astronauts Were Certified sponsored content / a native Bad Asses”, “You Might Be Wearing NASA Tech partnership Right Now” and “11 Things You Didn’t Know About Brand: GE (General Electric) the Apollo Missions”. Publisher: Supercompressor GE has been telling a strong brand story for quite Agency: some time, but ‘The Lunar Footprint’ shows that Thrillist Media Group the company is able to include a native partnership in their strategy in order to create an even stronger Purpose: Bring to light the role story. GE played in the 1969 moon landing, and brand GE as a com- pany with passion for exploration and innovation.
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GE & Supercompressor – The Lunar Footprint
The one thing missing is clear labeling. On the right side of each article you find an in-feed with live Twitter updates from GE’s profile and also a call to action to like GE’s Facebook site. This, basically, is the only indication that GE sponsors the content.
Thus, more information is needed to make sure that the reader understands that he or she is consuming sponsored content. This is important from both a branding and a legal perspective.
READ MORE The Lunar Footprint
/ 15 GE8 & The Guardian – Powering People
In a blog post, Leanne Brinkies, Head of Native Advertising at King Content, describes why she thought this specific native piece from GE was good:
“’Powering People’ is a great native execution cre- Name: Powering People ated by The Guardian for GE. It is an immersive and Type: Sponsored series informative four-part series that gives a detailed on news site exploration into how technology is transforming Brand: GE (General Electric) Australian communities. There are interesting stories with videos, images and statistics beautifully shot Publisher: The Guardian and put together, and they really resonate with The Guardian’s audience. I learnt something new, not Agency: only about what is happening in different parts of Guardian Australia our country, but also about GE, which changed my Brand Partnerships perspective on their brand.” Purpose: Change people’s perspective on GE.
READ MORE Powering People
/ 16 Lenovo & The Onion9 – Tough Season
If you want to get through to millennials, authentic- ity, self-awareness and a sense of humor is not a bad path to choose. This is what Lenovo seems to Name: Tough Season have realized with their original web series ‘Tough Type: Sponsored video series Season’ that debuted September 2014. The series is created by The Onion Labs (an in-house creative Brand: Lenovo and marketing agency) and season one consists of Publisher: 13 episodes each lasting approximately five minutes. The Onion Agency: The Onion Labs ‘Tough Season’ is something as fancy as a ‘mock- Purpose: Continue building umentary’ – meaning it is presented in documenta- recognition of Lenovo among ry style to create a parody. The first season of the millennials. sponsored video series earned more than 13 million views overall – hinting that Lenovo and The Onion did something right.
/ 17 9 Lenovo & The Onion – Tough Season
In brief, the series is about an ordinary guy, Brad Blevins, and his quest to become the champion of his office’s fantasy football league with his team “Brad’s Awesome Team”. The catch is that there is not that much fantasy about it. The teams have uniforms, stadiums and each episode features NFL players, including Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte, Denver Broncos wide receiver Wes Welker and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck.
If you look at the series through your native advertis- ing glasses, what makes this content really brilliant is that Lenovo isn’t afraid to be humoristic at the expense of the brand name. As described in AdAge:
“In the first episode of season one, for instance, main character Brad Blevins boasts of his mental and visual dexterity while turning over a Lenovo tab- let in his hands. “I’m prepared for roughly 582 differ- ent scenarios on my Lenovion,” he says, mangling the sponsor’s name. “I got a whole crate of these. They’re sponsoring this whole team -- for some reason.”
It is showing that Lenovo has a sense of humor and that they are willing to be made fun of. The result is creating both authenticity and brand awareness. And very important – it is done in a tone of voice that aligns with the audience of The Onion.
READ MORE Tough Season 1 Tough Season 2
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Marriott & Medium10 – Gone The hotel company, Marriott International, has be- gun a wave of new initiatives which include the hotel industry’s first-ever branded Snapchat programming and two development deals with YouTube stars.
The interesting aspect of the new initiatives, if you Name: Gone put on your native advertising glasses, is a hybrid Type: A branded magazine between a digital native ad and a branded magazine Brand: Marriott International called ‘Gone’. It’s a collection of 60 travel stories on Medium sponsored by Marriott. Five of the con- Publisher: Medium tent pieces are indirectly about Marriott and labeled as published by Marriott. The rest of the content is Agency: Medium with produced by Medium and identified as “presented Jamie Pallot as editor-in-chief by Marriott”. Purpose: Branding of Marriott International The success criteria for the content have been measured by time spent with the content rather than page views or clicks.
READ MORE Gone
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Marriott & Reddit – Virtual Travel Experience
Since its establishment in 1996, The Webby Awards have developed into one of the most prestigious annu- al ceremonies celebrating excellence on the Internet. Guess who won the award for ‘Best Use of Native Advertising’?
Name: Virtual Travel Experience Marriott Hotels. The hospitality conglomerate brought home the proverbial bacon with a campaign on Red- Type: Sponsored competition dit, which was so sophisticated and futuristic that you and post on Reddit better watch your step as we try to explain it. Brand: Marriott Hotels Publisher: Reddit In the fall of 2014, Marriott Hotels began to promote Purpose: Branding something they called “Virtual Travel Experience”. of Marriott Hotels
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Marriott & Reddit Aided by some very talented virtual effects com- panies, Marriott Hotels managed to build a simula- – Virtual Travel tor-kind-of-thing that allowed people to get teleport- ed. Like in Harry Potter. From one place to another. Experience Just. Like. That.
The next thing Marriott Hotels did was to strike up a partnership with Reddit, the popular entertain- ment, social networking AND news website, where it’s usually the community members who create the content.
In this case, however, Marriott Hotels obtained the right to make a sponsored post on Reddit. The gigantic hotel company asked Reddit users to give “sales pitches” in the form of visual and funny con- tent that explained what makes their neighborhoods special. Afterwards, the Reddit community chose the most appealing sales pitch, and the winner was rewarded with a “hometown trip” in the teleporter and a real vacation as well.
In the end, Marriott Hotels achieved almost 200,000 clicks on its contest page and Reddit’s highest ever user-generated content for sponsored posts. And they won an award.
So good job on that one, Marriott.
READ MORE Virtual Travel Experience
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Marvel & Mashable - Everyday hero or thief? Cyber criminal to address 2012 arrest
Is that loveable Hollywood man, Paul Rudd, in that picture? Is that him?! Why is he wearing that plate? Why does that plate say Scott Lang? Is that Scott Lang on top of this blog post? Who is Scott Lang? Name: Everyday hero or thief? What is this?! Cyber criminal to address 2012 arrest Slow down, slow down; you were right the first time: Type: Sponsored post That is loveable Hollywood man, Paul Rudd, on top Brand: Marvel of this blog post. But he is in character! As Scott Lang from the Marvel film Ant-Man. Publisher: Mashable Purpose: Promotion of the new Marvel movie Ant Man.
/ 22 12 Marvel & Mashable - Everyday hero or thief? Cyber criminal to address 2012 arrest
In July 2015, the worlds of cinema and native ad- vertising collided and merged, when Marvel Studios posted a slick native ad on Mashable. The spon- sored post imitates, or more accurately parodies, the style of a real crime report with the opening line: In 10 days, the doors of San Quentin prison will release one of its most memorable inmates. The article explains why Scott Lang was locked away and you can definitely read between the lines that he is going to seek revenge against those damn bas- tards that robbed him of his freedom. It’s almost like a movie script! The article includes a video “news report” about Lang’s release.
Overall, it’s a pretty funny piece of native. The sto- rytelling speaks in a very brand specific and unique voice. We applaud that. Fans of the Marvel superhero universe should embrace it and newcomers will get an appealing and efficient introduction to Ant-Man.
However, we’re not completely sold on Mashable’s labeling which says nothing more but “BrandSpeak”. It remains one of the vaguest and least transparent ways a publisher can formulate that the following content is sponsored. It doesn’t even mention the actual sponsor, Marvel Studio.
The final verdict: Good content. Bad labeling.
READ MORE Everyday hero or thief? Cyber criminal to address 2012 arrest WHiH: Newsfront Top Stories
/ 23 MasterCard & Mashable – Mobile-Minded
13MasterCard and Mashable joined forces and cre- Name: Mobile-Minded ated a graphic-heavy article about how we use our mobile devices – “a look at the complex relationship Type: A graphic-heavy between humans and the devices we hold near and sponsored article dear”. Of course a native ad, which was baptized Brand: MasterCard ‘Mobile-Minded’. Publisher: Mashable Purpose: Branding of MasterCard.
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MasterCard & Mashable – Mobile-Minded
If you search the web for good native ads, ‘Mo- bile-Minded’ will show up several places. For in- stance, in the piece ‘The Best Native Ads of 2014’ Outbrain wrote:
“In fact, for all the content about mobile to hit the web this year, ‘Mobile-Minded’ ranks as one of the most immersive instances.”
And the praise goes on:
“If MasterCard’s goal is to change the perception of its brand as a credit card company to a technology company, more pieces like this can go a long way toward achieving that goal.”
BUT… As Outbrain also mentions in the post, Mas- terCard is a little too self-promoting in the post – a large section in the beginning is focusing on Master- Card’s digital payment system. But in the end, the value of the comprehensive picture of our personal connection to our phones outweighs the touch of self promotion.
READ MORE Mobile-Minded
/ 25 Actor: Sigona Viewer 14
Microsoft, Esquire & Medium – What I’ve Learned
‘What I’ve Learned’ is not a new feature – for a long time is has been a popular column written by Esquire. The new thing is the partnership between Name: What I’ve Learned Esquire, Medium and Microsoft. Type: Sponsored content / Native partnership In order to bring new life to the series – and “hope- fully make a bit of money along the way” as Es- Brand: Microsoft quire’s editor in chief, David Granger, said to The Publisher: Esquire & Medium Wall Street Journal – a new platform was created on Agency: Native.ly Medium. The 10 new animated ‘What I’ve Learned’ Purpose: Branding of Esquire, pieces were released one week at a time together Medium & Microsoft’s new HP with ten resurfaced pieces from the original series. Spectre X360.
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14 Actor: Johnny Depp
Microsoft, Esquire & Medium – What I’ve Learned
An interesting detail is that Esquire and Medium split the associated ad revenue, hence it was truly a native partnership. The mediator in this deal was the online ad agency Nativ.ly. Furthermore, the whole thing was sponsored by Microsoft and the new HP Spectre x360.
Thus, besides being great sponsored content (won Best Sponsored Series, Judge’s Choice, at Share- through’s The Native Creatives) it demonstrated a new way of doing native partnerships.
READ MORE What I’ve Learned
/ 27 Mountain Dew & Complex 15 – Green Label Since 2007, PepsiCo American Beverages has been overseeing several websites and a YouTube-chan- Name: Green Label nel – all for the purpose of branding Mountain Dew, one of PepsiCo’s biggest soft-drink brands which, Type: A content hub on an external website just like Complex, is aimed primarily towards young men. In order to align the old content, PepsiCo Brand: Mountain Dew decided in 2013 to work with Complex to create a Publisher: Complex Media sponsored-content initiative. The result was the new Agency: Complex Media with website ‘Green Label’ – a content hub that focus- Justin Tejada as editor-in-chief es on fashion, music and sports for a young male Purpose: Branding of Mountain audience. Dew and aligning old content in new hub.
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Mountain Dew PepsiCo and Complex Media worked together on the creation and production of content for the site & Complex and with Justin Tejada, who formerly worked for Time Inc. Magazine, Sports Illustrated Kids, as edi- – Green Label tor-in-chief.
The layout of the website plays with the same Mountain Dew’s green colors and in the corner of the site you find the labeling in the form of “A Moun- tain Dew Venture”.
Complex also has an important point of view in terms of the content creation. Rich Antoniello, chief executive at Complex Media, said to The New York Times:
“If authenticity and credibility are not paramount, the branded content will be dismissed by its intended audience, and the result will be the sponsor’s failing to achieve its goal to have a deep conversation on a consistent basis with the consumer.”
READ MORE Green Label
/ 29 Netflix & The Atlantic – The Ascent Move in closer, this is a member of the native ad- vertising super league.
In March 2015, Netflix paid The Atlantic and their in-house creative marketing group, Re:think, an un- disclosed sum to create a lengthy, reported article with interactive charts and a video exploring the dynamic between certain U.S. presidents and their wives. The ad included the fictitious couple in the Netflix original series House of Cards. The article, called ‘The Ascent’, is a native ad and works as a promotion of the third season of House of Cards.
Sam Rosen, VP of Marketing for the Atlantic, said to Digiday that the goal was to increase loyalty with existing viewers in addition to attracting new ones: “By aligning ‘House of Cards’ with great content that people love, we’re not just encouraging peo- Name: The Ascent 16 ple to watch a show, we’re also helping to build Type: A sponsored article their relationships with [main characters] Frank and Brand: Netflix Claire Underwood as characters and thus, ‘House of Cards’ and Netflix more broadly.” Publisher: The Atlantic The Atlantic’s in-house Agency: In July 2015, ‘The Ascent’ won ‘Best Sponsored creative marketing group, Content Editorial’ (both Judge’s Choice and People’s Re:think www.twitter.com/atlan- ticrethink Choice!) in The Native Creatives, Sharethrough’s native advertising award. Purpose: Promote the third season of House of Cards
/ 30 Netflix & The New York Times 17 – Women Inmates
‘Woman Inmates’ was one of the most talked about native ads in 2014 – and surprisingly was given praise from – no, we are not lying – journalists.
The ad was featured on The New York Times’ web- site in June 2014 and examined the US prison sys- tem for women. The ad promoted the Netflix orig- inal series ‘Orange is the New Black’, but it never told the reader to watch the show. Instead it delves deep into the topic of imprisoned women. The content piece consisted of video interviews with women inmates, experts in the US prison system, charts, infographics and an in-depth article on why the current prison system needs to be reformed to meet the needs of women inmates. Name: Women Inmates Type: A sponsored interactive The content was both authentic and credible in The article New York Times’ environment, which was reflected in Brand: Netflix numbers. In terms of generated traffic, ‘Women In- mates’ ranked in The NYT’s’ top 1,000 articles among Publisher: The New York Times more than 67,000 pieces published in 2014 and got Agency: The Times’ department more than 145,000 impressions. in charge of creating content for brands, T Brand Studio Purpose: Promote the Netflix series Orange is the New Black
READ MORE Women Inmates
/ 31 Netflix & WIRED – TV Got Better Netflix’s first foray into the realm of native advertis- ing was taken in May of 2014 when an ad – ‘TV Got Better’ – appeared on wired.com. The ad is written by Anthropologist and Culture Expert, Grant Mc- Cracken and covers the future of TV and how tech- nology is changing advertising. It’s clearly labeled as sponsored content, and the ad has also been applauded for its omission of disrupting banner ad 18 units. It’s a great example of branded in-depth, interactive content done right. As you scroll down the single page, you are presented with stats, a video interview Name: TV Got Better with the producer of ‘Arrested Development’, Mitch Type: A sponsored interactive Hurwitz, a real-time reader survey, a timeline of TV article history, and audio commentary. Brand: Netflix Even though, Netflix is mentioned at the end of the Agency: The Advertising Department of WIRED article, this is almost unnecessary, because, as a reader, you already have Netflix and similar providers Purpose: Focus on how at the top of your mind. Meaning, that the ad has technology is changing television done its job. in order to promote Netflix.
The ad has since been compared to The New York Times’ editorial feature ‘Snow Fall’.
READ MORE TV Got Better
/ 32 19 Newcastle & Gawker – We’ve Disguised This Newcastle Ad as an Article to Get You to Click It
The native ad with the very blunt headline ‘We’ve Name: We’ve Disguised This Disguised This Newcastle Ad as an Article to Get Newcastle Ad as an Article to Get You to Click it’ was made to promote Newcastle You to Click It Brown Ale’s site ‘If we made it’. On the site they Type: A sponsored show outlines of the craziest commercials they interactive article could ever make. Brand: Newcastle Brown Ale The ad on Gawker is, how should we put it, very Publisher: Gawker forthright in its messaging, but that is actually what Agency: Studio@Gawker makes it so good.
Purpose: Raise brand awareness in connection with Super Bowl.
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Newcastle & Gawker – We’ve Disguised This Newcastle Ad as an Article to Get You to Click It
With a deadpan humor the author of the story keeps the tone of voice perfectly aligned with Newcastle’s own. The author writes:
“As someone being paid to write this, I have to say that it’s the greatest ad ever, mostly because New- castle asked me to use those exact words. Is it the greatest ad I’ve ever been paid to call the greatest ad ever? Yes.”
Too much? Apparently not for Gawker’s and New- castle Brown Ale’s respective audiences. And the interesting thing is that by exhibiting extreme self-awareness, the ad manages to question the entire native advertising format. A debate that is always worth having.
READ MORE We’ve Disguised This Newcastle Ad as an Article to Get You to Click It If we made it
/ 34 20Nike & SB Nation – First & Long It’s not that Nike desperately needs brand awareness per se. But the fact that they do native advertising anyway is maybe an example of why The Swoosh is among the world’s most famous sports brands. They Name: First & Long know when it’s time to try new methods. Type: A sponsored section on an external website In a sponsored section on American sports network Brand: Nike SB Nation, six NFL athletes are featured. The site is called ‘First & Long’. The storyline behind the site Publisher: SB Nation almost reads like the script from a Hollywood movie: Agency: Vox Creative Purpose: Achieve brand “Every NFL player got their start in high school. awareness.
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Nike & SB Nation – First & Long
Some were mega-stars, some had just discovered the game. All of them found success. Now, six of them are going back to crash their schools to see if they can find the next great NFL player in their own backyard.”
On the site you can find six short videos where each of the football players gives a pep talk designed to encourage young athletes to keep pushing them- selves.
For even more value, users can sign up for a “pep talk” in the form of a text from one of the six NFL players.
The labeling is clear, the design is true to both SB Nation and Nike, and the content is entertaining and perhaps even educative.
READ MORE First & Long
/ 36 OxiClean & 21PopSugar – Oreo Churros Oreo Churros! Mmm … the combination of those two words creates rainbows and unicorns in one’s Name: Oreo Churros mind. No wonder this native video won ‘Best Spon- Type: A sponsored sored Video - People’s Choice’ in The Native Cre- video on Facebook atives, Sharethrough’s native advertising award. Brand: OxiClean The video is published by PopSugar, a media and technology company for women, and sponsored by Publisher: PopSugar Oxiclean, a line of household cleaners. Agency: Vox Creative Purpose: Branding of Oxiclean’s In the five-minute long video, PopSugar’s Brandi Dishwasher Detergent. Milloy walks the audience through the recipe of Oreo awareness. Churros. And OxiClean really got it right by choosing PopSugar and the cookie angle – it seemed to be a sweet spot for their audience. When this was writ- ten, the video had received 88,386 likes, 263,435 shares and 8,555,342 million views – on PopSugar’s Facebook page alone!
/ 37 21 OxiClean & PopSugar – Oreo Churros
Also, you don’t get the “advertising nausea” while watching the video – it really feels like well-pro- duced, valuable content. Although at the end of the video, Brandi mentions that the “best part” is: “... no clean up, now I can just put everything into the dish- washer. No rinsing or scrubbing required, Oxiclean Dishwasher Detergent tackles it all, so I get time to enjoy the sweeter things in life – like Oreo Churros.” It almost ventures into the territory of stereotypical cleaning advertisements, but it remains credible, be- cause it’s done with a smile and remains true to the format and publisher.
Furthermore, at the beginning of the video we get a distinctive “Presented by OxiClean - Dishwasher Detergent”. Oreos AND clear labeling, yay!
READ MORE Oreo Churros
/ 38 22 Purina & BuzzFeed – Dear Kitten
“Dear Kitten. Since I have hissed at you the custom- ary 437 times, it is now my duty as the head of the household to – begrudgingly – welcome you.”
This is how a viral video starts – and proves that cats still rule the internet. With the mesmerizing voice of BuzzFeed’s Ze Frank in your ears, you follow a letter from an older cat to a younger kitten that moved in with him. The older cat gives lots of great cat advice such as hiding from the dreadful “va-coom” (if you have a cat, you know their eternal fear of vacuum cleaners) and – of course – eating delicious food from Friskies.
This sponsored video, ‘Dear Kitten’, is created by the cat food company Purina and BuzzFeed and quickly went viral after the release gaining over 10 million views. At the time of writing, the video has Name: Dear Kitten been seen 23,380,492 times on YouTube (that’s a Type: A sponsored whole lot of potential cat food buyers!…). video on YouTube Brand: Purina It’s a first class example of how users don’t care if Publisher: BuzzFeed something is advertising as long as it’s entertaining. Agency: BuzzFeed Motion Pictures Purpose: Branding of Purina and their cat food ‘Friskies’.
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/ 39 23 QUIT & Vine – Every 6 Seconds
Did you know, that every 6 seconds one person dies due to tobacco? That is a terrifyingly high number, right…? And that’s also why the organization QUIT, whose mission is to reduce suffering and death from smoking related diseases, needed to use this fact to shock smokers into giving up their harmful habit.
Do you know another thing that happens every 6 seconds? A Vine video loops. Thus, QUIT launched six-second anti-smoking video clips on Vine. Three Vines were made, each showing how often or how many people smoking kills. The short and simple Vine format was perfect in order to present the Name: Every 6 Seconds hard-hitting “Every 6 Seconds” fact. Type: Sponsored videos on Vine The campaign was launched in Melbourne with the Brand: QUIT objective to get some of Australia’s 2.8 million smok- Publisher: ers to quit. Vine Agency: BuzzFeed Within the first 3 weeks the Vine campaign generat- Motion Pictures ed 142,000 vine likes, 73,000 re-vines, 11,300 vine Purpose: To get some of Austra- followers and 19,000 tweet mentions. lia’s 2.8 million smokers to quit.
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/ 40
Virgin Atlantic & Fast24 Company – Brilliant Minds
In April 2014, the airline company Virgin Atlantic and the business media platform Fast Company launched a series of two-minute videos called ‘Bril- liant Minds’. In the videos you get up-close-and-per- sonal with members of Fast Company’s 1000 most creative people who all operate around the globe to Name: Brilliant Minds reinvent business and the culture of entrepreneur- Type: Sponsored videos ship. Brand: Virgin Atlantic It’s filmed in the Virgin Atlantic Business Lounges Publisher: Fast Company and aimed at the business traveler market. Overall it Purpose: Brand Virgin Atlantic seems to be a perfect combination of brand relevant targeting the business traveler surroundings, interesting content, the right audience market. and a respected website. Also, there is no doubt that Virgin Atlantic is the sender, which makes the product completely transparent.
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/ 41 Wells Fargo & Slate – Beatboxing25 Transforms Education at Lavelle School for the Blind
What do you get if you combine visually impaired people, beatboxing and native advertising? A great Name: Beatboxing Transforms piece of content, that is what you get! The online Education at Lavelle School for news and culture site, Slate, partnered with Fargo the Blind Wells Bank in making a content piece featuring stu- Type: A sponsored dents from Lavelle School for the Blind and Visually interactive article Impaired who attend B.E.A.T (NYC’s music and Brand: Wells Fargo Bank beatboxing class). Publisher: Slate The ad was part of a campaign called ‘Small Is Aganecy: Slate’s department Huge’ that wanted to show how our lives can be for branded content marketing, affected by even the tiniest moments and decisions. SlateCustom The outcome was an authentic piece of content, Purpose: To show that Wells which included audio commentary from teachers Fargo celebrates the nonprofits and videos with students playing instruments or and communities the company beatboxing. supports in the advertising cam- paign ‘Small is Huge’
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/ 42 About us the Native Advertising Institute
What we do potential for everyone involved. It is our hope The Native Advertising Institute is dedicated that as many of you as possible will join us on to helping marketers become successful with our mission to unleash that potential. native advertising. Our story Whether you are a die-hard expert or just Many questions may just lead to new ideas getting started with native advertising this is and new solutions. And the Native Advertising where you find the insights and tools you need Institute is the product of just that. We have to elevate your game. The Native Advertising found that marketing professionals need Institute is dedicated to providing you with a place to go to find answers to all their case studies, best practices, how to guides, questions about native advertising. analysis, industry news, and research. The Native Advertising Institute is founded by Our focus is on all things native advertising Jesper Laursen, the CEO of Brand Movers and from newspapers, magazines and broadcast Media Movers. The companies specialise in tv, to online media like news sites, blogs, video content marketing and journalism, respectively. and social media. Jesper, a passionate content marketing and Why we do it native advertising entrepreneur and speaker, You might say that the Native Advertising believes that native advertising done right, Institute is a result of the latest evolvement in holds great potential for getting your message advertising. across to the right people, at the right time, and in the right manner. Within the past 12 months, there has been a dramatic increase in the interest for native Currently, his company Brand Movers is advertising. This creates an urgent need to hosting the biggest content marketing learn more about how to actually make native conference in Scandinavia called Clever advertising work, how to avoid the pitfalls, and Content, they publish the largest magazine how to drive maximum results. in Northern Europe on the subject called Content Marketing Magazine and they work Marketers of all industries are looking for ways with various brands and media on native to get their content out to their peers, engage advertising projects. the audience of the media and to turn that interest into actual business results. Native advertising done right holds fantastic
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Editor - Anders Vinderslev Writer - Stine Andersen Art direction - Louisa Hamilton Ferguson & Askan Thomas Photos - Thinkstock / 43