If you’re having trouble seeing past the glare emanating from some of your favorite websites these days, it might be the “new” shiny monetization method that carries one of the following labels: native advertising, custom content, sponsored content, branded content, content marketing or perhaps the very latest: collaborative content.
While there are varying definitions of each, the underlying thesis beneath them all is that web readers, viewers and social-network users are more likely to respond positively to marketing tactics that don’t look like advertising and instead take the form of the rest of the content on the website or platform. On Twitter, that means promoted accounts and tweets; on Facebook, sponsored stories. And on media properties, that amounts to written, video or image-rich posts that look a lot like the editorial content on the site and which would make proponents of church-and-state divides between advertising and editorial departments cringe.
But whatever form these content-centric marketing products take, the rush of media companies looking to invest in them tells you one thing: They believe a sole reliance on display ads isn’t the best way to turn, maintain or grow profits. The question, though, is whether custom content will grow into a go-to revenue source for media properties across the board or just a few select properties that do it best. “The enthusiasm for content marketing is partially an acknowledgement by the industry that banner ads can’t be our best and only answer,” said Jeff Lanctot, chief media officer at digital ad agency Razorfish. “There’s an appetite for finding something new and different to help brands stand out.”
Continue reading at AdAge.com
