By Dale Lovell, Chief Digital Officer, ADYOULIKE

By definition, native advertising is a form of paid media where the advertisement is relevant to the consumer experience, integrated into the surrounding content and is not disruptive. Simply put, native advertisements look and feel like the content that surrounds them. The ads sit within the editorial feed sections of websites, and the ad works in the same way as existing editorial; for example, you normally will have to click on the content in order to interact with it.

Native advertising has experienced significant growth in recent years, as marketers have sought to break through the increasingly cluttered digital landscape. However, to date, marketers have treated native as just another format—another arrow in their digital advertising quivers. Quite frankly, this viewpoint sells native advertising short.

“Native advertising”—although the term comes from the advertisement matching the look and feel of the editorial surrounding it, in that it is native to the publication it sits on—is actually better used as a term to describe the advertising format that is indigenous—native—to online. Native advertising isn’t another digital ad format. It is the digital ad format.

Think about it. Banner ads were essentially adopted by early websites to replicate the standard ad blocks seen in newspapers. A banner says, “This is where the ads can sit—in these standard block units.” Video ads, even still today, are quite often repurposed TV ads. All are formats that came before the advent of the internet.

Native advertising is different. Like the digital medium itself, native ads take elements from other media, but use them correctly for the digital world. Native advertising is the first “native” advertising format of the digital world. We are barely 20 years into mass internet usage, and far, far less for mobile browsing. Native advertising is the format all future digital advertising will take.

Native advertising is in part a consequence of and reaction to some major digital consumer trends—mobile, social media, video, content, ad blocking, the decline in print and many smaller and subtler changes. It’s only when you look at the journey that digital has taken over the last 20 years that it all suddenly clicks into place. For some people, native advertising is the solution that digital publishing has been waiting for—the format that will transform the fortunes of struggling digital publishing business models and usher in a new golden age in publishing. For others it’s a symbol of the death of publishing as we know it, the death of editorial independence and the last-ditch—“dead cat bounce”—effort of an industry that has been searching for a business model for 20 years or more, and failing.

But native advertising is fundamentally not a revolution in advertising—despite what many vested interests may try and tell you. It’s an evolution. It is a medium born out of major changes in consumer habits online. It’s the evolution of advertising formats for a mobile-first world. It’s the evolution of advertising content for a world that is continuously engaging with the feed, where interruption is only OK if you do it in an entertaining or informative way. It’s the evolution of publishing and platform revenue models for publishers that can no longer afford to rely on dwindling returns from print. It’s the evolution of the newsroom and editorial jobs. It’s a technology that can actually help against ad blocking and help distribute the countless pieces of content brands that publishers are creating on a daily basis.

Native advertising will continue to influence and affect our daily lives for many years to come. In today’s era of privacy, particularly with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) going into effect on May 25, native advertising’s importance will be accelerated thanks to the inherent and overt value exchange it provides to the consumer. It behooves marketers to immerse themselves in the creative, technological and commercial aspects at play behind these ads. Going forward, they will not just represent an important part of the digital ad ecosystem. They very likely will represent its entirety.

The post Rethinking Native Advertising: Why It’s More Than Another Format appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

This week, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) issued a variety of 2018 member predictions from Bidtellect, GumGum, Influential, rewardStyle, Sharethrough, StartApp, Storyful, Triplelift, Turner Ignite, and Unruly.

In addition to a fantastic blog post summary, the IAB also dropped this eye-opening infographic, which is shared below for your review.

Check it out and buckle up for a busy year in the native ad space.

The post What’s Ahead for Native Advertising in 2018? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“This is the latest of Nativo’s programmatic integrations and comes at a time when advertisers are increasingly adopting native programs as an essential part of their full funnel media strategies,” the company says.

Recent research from eMarketer found that 47% of U.S. marketers and agencies ran native advertising campaigns programmatically, and this programmatic trend is expected to grow as global content marketing revenues surge to $313 billion in 2019.

“Nativo continues to open up new programmatic pipes to access their unique formats through PMP deals,” said Julian Zilberbrand, EVP of Audience Networks at Viacom. “Managing these campaigns from the same platform as the rest of our media plan makes it an easier decision to include premium native in our paid media strategies.”

Through the integrations, advertisers on buying platforms like Google’s DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBM) can now transact with Nativo programmatically across Nativo Premium which offers buyers a first look at the highest-quality native inventory across every native ad format available today. Nativo Premium enables Nativo’s publisher-direct inventory and its comprehensive catalog of native formats including multiple Native Video units, Native Display, and its exclusive click-in True Native Content experience via a private marketplace /deal ID. Additionally, open exchange buyers can access native display inventory via nativeRTB across publishers leveraging the Nativo native SSP.

“Advertisers and their agencies continue to look for ways to engage their audiences within the editorial feeds of premium publishers,” said Chris Rooke, SVP of Strategy and Operations for Nativo. “Enabling our buyers to transact with Nativo and Nativo publishers programmatically accelerates a paradigm shift in advertising that is respectful of consumers, protective of open web publishers, and highly effective for advertisers.”

The post Nativo Increases Programmatic Access to Native Ad Formats, Premium Inventory appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“Today’s consumers are inundated with irrelevant and off-topic advertising experiences, turning them against certain brands and driving them away from certain websites,” a provided media announcement explains, noting further that the integration of Eyeota’s data in the Nativo platform allows publishers, marketers and advertisers to apply Eyeota’s extensive audience profiles and create more compelling and even more relevant online experiences for consumers.

Eyeota audience data covers user preferences and interests across a range of topics, including technology, health & wellness, finance, B2B, social media, politics, among others, and is now available to customers through the Nativo platform.

“The accelerated adoption of native advertising demands increasingly sophisticated and robust targeting capabilities to ensure persistent relevance to global customers,” said Justin Choi, CEO at Nativo. “Through our partnership, brands will now reap the benefits of significantly increased content-to-conversion by reaching more relevant consumers with our proven native executions.”

“Nativo’s platform delivers a proven solution for marketers and advertisers to serve relevant branded content and ads to consumers,” adds Kevin Tan, CEO at Eyeota. “Adding an audience data layer to their marketing strategy helps them improve their understanding of customers and their interests. Our partnership creates an opportunity for brands to deliver more targeted and engaging content to the right audiences.”

For more info on available data segments, check out the Eyeota Data Desk here.

The post Eyeota and Nativo Bring Global Audience Data to Native Ad Tech Platform appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The report in question notes that this 1.0 version is a drag-and-drop SDK that allows VR developers to unlock a variety of monetization options, with a broad mix of immersive ways publishers and brands can advertise natively in VR without disrupting people’s experience.

“We’re building a sustainable alternative to the premium pay-for-play content distribution model, fueled by brands telling interactive, engaging VR stories, that will facilitate quicker mass market VR adoption through accessible F2P content,” said Marc Bennett, Vertebrae’s COO.

The Unity-compatible SDK works across the major VR platforms and is simple to integrate.

“Vertebrae works with publishers to guide them on choosing the best placements and formats within their experiences and then pays them based on impressions,” noted the company in a release.

“We’ve made it a priority to offer a range of immersive, native ways to tell stories in VR,” said Vince Cacace, CEO at Vertebrae. “Options range from simple 360 pre-roll ad formats to more complex in-VR product placement options. Imagine engaging with a virtual product that, when opted into, seamlessly unlocks branded worlds that amplify the VR experience while articulating the brand message.”

Additionally, we’re told that Vertebrae is also currently working with the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) to define standards for the new advertising formats.

The post Vertebrae Releases Native Advertising SDK appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

That’s the announcement shared with MMW today from Nativo, a leading native advertising technology platform.

The company has just published the results of a landmark study examining native advertising spending from Q1’2014 through Q4’2016.

Nativo’s Business Intelligence team analyzed ad spend across their entire marketplace, identifying key trends from major verticals such as Automotive, Travel, CPG, Health & Fitness, Finance and Insurance, Tech (both B2B and B2C), Entertainment, and Food and Beverage.

The report asserts that overall, native spend is on the rise: across all verticals in Nativo’s marketplace, spend increased by 600% from 2014 to 2016. This further validates eMarketer’s recent projections that by 2018, marketers plan to lean further into native—US native ad spend will reach more than $28 billion.

But beyond the broader positive outlook for native, never before had ad spend trends been broken down by specific verticals. The industry only had access to vertical trends anecdotally. To provide digital marketers with insightful benchmark data, Nativo analyzed three years of native ad spend on their signature True Native (in feed, click-in native ad units) and Native Video formats. Results reveal markedly different ad spend trends by vertical.

To learn more, check out Nativo here.

The post Nativo Touts Results of Lengthy Native Ad Spend Study by Vertical appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Offering a new estimate of the size of the native advertising market, eMarketer notes today that spending on native digital display ads “will make up more than half of all digital display ad spending in the US this year.”

The new forecast estimates that US native digital display ad spend will grow 36.2% this year to reach $22.09 billion. At that level it will make up 52.9% of all display ad spending in the US.

“Growth of native digital display is being driven by publishers’ pursuit of higher-value and more mobile-friendly inventory, as well as by advertisers’ demands for more engaging, less intrusive ads,” said eMarketer principal analyst Lauren Fisher.

Fisher is also the author of the new report.

“We’re seeing a huge ramp up in non-social publishers adopting in-feed ads and video,” Fisher said. “Coupled with continued advances on the programmatic native front, this will accelerate non-social native display spending.”

To learn more, check out the eMarketer report summary here.

The post eMarketer Posts New Estimates for Native Ad Spending appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Through this partnership, BrandForge and the LMC will provide Consortium members and their more than 1,700 local media outlets across the United States with new tools to launch, scale and expand revenue from native advertising projects for their content marketing clients.

“BrandForge’s services fit extremely well with our core value, which is to provide our members with the highest-quality partnerships and resources to efficiently grow their digital reach,” said Rusty Coats, executive director of the LMC. “Through this partnership, our members – many of whom have small, local staffs – will be able to tap BrandForge’s global expertise to further expand their mobile-ready native advertising services and revenues, without the need for new hires or overhead.”

Coats adds that more than half of the Consortium members’ content is now viewed on mobile devices.

We’re told that BrandForge was selected as an LMC partner following an extensive vetting process by Consortium members. The LMC selects the highest-quality service providers that mesh well with its members’ needs. BrandForge joins the likes of Google, Yahoo! and Monster.com as approved LMC partners.

“The LMC plays a powerful role in supporting the sustainability of local media, and BrandForge adds to this portfolio by empowering local media to better access the power of mobile-ready advertising revenue,” said Matt Sanders, Senior Director and General Manager of Deseret Digital Media. “We are pleased to join the ranks of a select group of LMC business-to-business service providers, and we look forward to working with Consortium members and their marketing customers to help them garner results.”

The post First Look: Deseret Digital Media’s BrandForge And Local Media Consortium Partner appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

For the report, MediaRadar analyzed programmatic native adoption over the last twelve months, identifying the number of brands buying programmatic native ads through popular exchanges, such as Nativo, TripleLift, Sharethrough, Unruly, and Bidtellect.

According to a provided statement, with its analysis, MediaRadar uncovered the following:

• More Than 4,000 Advertisers: In 2016, 4,182 unique advertisers bought programmatic native across programmatic native exchanges.
• Adoption Grew 86% by Year’s End: Programmatic native surged throughout the year. The total monthly brands buying campaigns increased by 86% from 593.4 in January to 1,133, by November. In Q1 of 2016, on average, 726.3 brands bought campaigns each month. In Q4 of 2016, on average, 1,094.3 brands bought campaigns per month.
• Still, Penetration Remains Low: In 2016, according to MediaRadar data, 50,605 advertisers placed online ads on just the top-200 largest publishers alone. As a point of comparison, if 4,182 unique advertisers from that group purchased programmatic native, then, on the year, programmatic native adoption among advertisers sat at just 8%.

“The category is still quite small when compared to the overall digital market,” said Todd Krizelman, CEO & Co-Founder of MediaRadar. “Still, if you’re running a programmatic native exchange, given the surge in adoption from Q1 to Q4, this is really encouraging news. There is a lot of opportunity still left to pursue and plenty of headroom for future growth.”

To learn more, click here.

The post Number of Brands Buying Programmatic Native Campaigns is Exploding appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The firm announced a complete brand re-launch, including a new logo, in response to its hyper-growth globally.

“The new branding better aligns the company with its international expansion and global growth objectives for 2016,” reads a company news release.

ADYOULIKE, which pioneered native advertising in the European market, has been a leader in the development of programmable native advertising, currently one of the fastest growing channels in advertising.

Other rebranding efforts include a revamped website, as well as agency and publisher marketing collateral. Promotional event and marketing partnerships will be announced soon.

“I am proud of this new logo which manages to translate our mission and our strengths,” said Julien Verdier, the CEO and co-founder of ADYOULIKE. “Native advertising is the future of advertising, and we are creating and developing powerful technological advancements that can ensure its expansion.”

This new visual identity was created by Elie Majorel, Head of Design at ADYOULIKE in what he describes as “a new logo that underlines technological strength with sobriety.”

“The elegance and simplicity of the black and white are the promise of unique advice and expertise from a native advertising pioneer,” noted Majorel. “A discreet allusion to the feed, thanks to the verticality of the words and the point referring to the URL, remind that ADYOULIKE is a digital start-up.”

The post Native Advertising Tech Firm ADYOULIKE Debuts New Logo, Brand Identity appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.