Doing Sponsored Content Badly: 'Native Advertising' Isn't Native If It Sucks
from the not-how-to-do-it dept
There's been an uproar about The Atlantic's decision yesterday to run sponsored content from Scientology, which consisted of a pretty poorly done advertorial about Scientology's "successes" in the past year. The comments on the piece included a bunch of "wow this is just awesome!" type comments that suggest both moderation and pre-planned comments from supporters. After widespread outcry about The Atlantic going in such a direction, the piece was pulled. Recently, there's also been similar (though slightly different) "sponsored" posts on Buzzfeed, in which staff plaster some company's name over a "top 10" or "top 15" list that they slap together -- often by pulling images from other sources (Reddit is a popular one), without making much effort to credit whoever came up with the content. There's even been a fair bit of controversy over the Associated Press' recent decision to allow sponsored tweets from Samsung during CES.All of these seem like examples of doing "sponsored content" badly -- just as more and more publications are getting into sponsored content. While it's good to see publications taking some risks and trying something new, the downside is that it has the potential to completely scare off companies from doing any forms of sponsored content, even when it can be done much better. For many, many years, we've talked about how how content is advertising and advertising is content, and those who get it right are going to go far. The problem is that it's tough to get right -- often because the marketers themselves are so focused on old school "advertising" in which they have to keep pushing their message and their message alone, they miss out on the fact that this backfires in a big bad way every single time.
There's been a lot of talk lately about "native advertising" -- which is the buzzphrase around this kind of content these days. Many point out that "advertorial" is nothing new, and that's accurate, but true native content is something different. For years, when we've talked about these concepts, everyone has complained about said "advertorial", suggesting that it's annoying or misleading -- and that's been the problem with the examples above. But, when done right, it doesn't need to be either annoying or misleading. And we need to get to that point. Five years ago we put forth some basic concepts for why the world needed to move towards this model, and I still think they hold true today:
- The captive audience is dead. There is no captive audience online. Everyone surfing the web has billions of choices on what they can be viewing, and they don't want to be viewing intrusive and annoying ads. They'll either ignore them, block them or go elsewhere.
- Advertising is content. You can't think of ads as separate things any more. Without a captive audience, there's no such thing as "advertising" any more. It's just content. And it needs to be good/interesting/relevant content if you want to get anyone to pay attention to it.
- Content is advertising. Might sound like a repeat of the point above, and in some ways it is -- but it's highlighting the flip side. Any content is advertising. It's advertising something. Techdirt content "advertises" our business even if you don't realize it. Every bit of content advertises something, whether on purpose or not.
- Content needs to be useful/engaging/interesting. This simply ties all of that together. If you want anyone to pay attention to your content (which is advertising something, whether on purpose or not) it needs to be compelling and engaging.
And that's the real point here: it is possible to do "sponsored content" in a compelling way. I still like to point to the example that we did a few years back with UPS sponsoring us to do some videos about the topics we already talk about, leading to things like the following video about the economics of abundance:
The world will get there eventually, but it's an ongoing struggle to get both publications and marketers to realize that "native advertising" isn't native if the content sucks and no one wants to see it (especially if it's pure propaganda, or otherwise enrages people). Some continue to insist that any and all such sponsored content is, by definition, problematic, but I don't think it needs to be. It's just that we need to get people in marketing firms and at publications to move past such a view of native advertising. The Atlantic should have known ahead of time how people would react. Buzzfeed should have made sure its content didn't set off a firestorm. And the companies paying for such ads should also learn that if they're just creating annoying content, it's not helping anyone, least of all themselves.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: advertising is content, buzzfeed, content is advertising, native advertising, scientology, sponsored content, the atlantic
Companies: ap, buzzfeed, the atlantic
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
For example, a company I've worked with in the past was always trying to sell themselves via Youtube and Facebook. Whenever I suggested creating relevant material for status updates, videos or blog content instead of material highlighting the company, they would ask me "Well..will that attract clients?".
I never gave them a response, but that's because they wouldn't want to hear that nobody wants to spend the time watching a video about a company they've never heard of.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
native advertising
Like those little pesky pop ups at the bottom of your page. Think about removing them, they are annoying.
Otherwise, a well constucted argument I agree with .
[ link to this | view in thread ]
pop ups at the bottom of your page
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Scientology is the Al Qaeda of the Internet
Scientology is the fastest shrinking cult in the world. They have been scooping up real estate and that is their definition of “expansion”. In actual fact, they are losing more members than in their entire 50 year history of scamming people.
When I left in 2005, their members statistics had been going down fast and steady since 1996.
Now that more and more media outlets are not afraid of exposing the scam that is scientology, they are having a very hard time getting new “raw meat” through the door and out with their credit cards.
This Atlantic flap should serve as a lesson to other media outlets. Scientology is the Al Qaeda of the Internet. Stay away – far away. Their money is not worth the trouble.
Marc Headley
15 Year Scientology International Headquarters Employee
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Scientology is the Al Qaeda of the Internet
However, when I read this: "Scientology is the Al Qaeda of the Internet" my first thought was "when did Scientology become the universal, exaggerated boogyman used to scare people into submission?"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: pop ups at the bottom of your page
2. Scroll down to 'My preferences'.
3. Look for 'Bottom toolbar' and click 'Disabled'.
4. Profit! and/or no more annoying toolbar at the bottom.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Scientology is the Al Qaeda of the Internet
Loved your book, Mark. Thanks. Scary to see that such an organization still exists in our modern society, unfettered by laws that should prohibit them from operating. Who cares if it is a religion, forced slavery and human trafficking should not be allowed in our society. Happy to have you on the outside.
This Atlantic flap should serve as a lesson to other media outlets.
I don't have a problem with Scientology or anyone else buying air time to flog their overly expensive and worthless wares, so long as it is labelled by the publisher as an advertorial or the publisher takes the hit when the lawsuits start for failure to live up to their promises. The beauty of freedom of speech is the freedom to shoot yourself in the foot...it isn't that people can say what everyone else agrees with, but that people can make an idiot of themselves.
My problem is that they buy airtime to flog their wares, and then sue or silence those like you who speak out against them and their atrocities. Let them show their crap...those of us who know better will laugh/cry, and those who don't will hopefully use a search engine to find out more. I don't like them or what they have to say, but I'll defend their right to say it, if need be, just as I'll defend your right to show them for who they really are.
Oh great...now I am an SP.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
the "ad" has been pulled
In their own words, "We screwed up."
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/01/15/the_atlantic_scientology_magazine_yanks_sp onsored_content_after_outcry.html
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Hire
http://www.bmwblog.com/2009/08/25/video-collection-bmw-films-the-hire/
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: The Hire
I thought Ok-Go/Chevy did pretty good with their Needing/Getting Chevy Sonic commercial. Ok-Go has been doing pretty good with their sponsors lately. Produce a free blow-out music video.
Of course, Twister (Movie) was probably the best advertising for the Red Dodge Ram truck...my Grandmother (who grew up and spent all her life in the Tornado Alley) left the movie theater saying she wanted that indestructible truck.
[ link to this | view in thread ]