Great innovators like David Ogilvy and William Bernbach paved the way for the creative movement in advertising during the 60s. It was their iconic campaigns that made agencies rethink their approach to marketing their clients’ products. And of course, there is also the famous line from creative director Joel Machak in the 1980s Oldsmobile ad campaign (referenced in the title of this post) that filled the television airwaves and became one of the most recognizable commercial slogans in recent ad history.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fangirl of these great (m)ad men. But unfortunately, today’s audiences have become immune to catchy jingles, witty slogans and tantalizing copy.
With the introduction of social media, marketing has become more about building relationships rather than building television commercial campaigns that reach mass audiences in one fell swoop. Social media advertising, on the other hand, can allow you to reach people who are already interested in your product, while also building brand awareness.
As opposed to disruptive advertising, which often annoys consumers, native advertising is a method of online advertising that is defined as when an advertiser gains attention by providing content in the context of a user’s experience. The sole purpose of this concept is to make paid advertising less intrusive, and thus, increase the likelihood a user will click on the ad. The idea is that the formatting of the ad is “native” to the content on the page, making it more consistent with the other relative media. These ads match the visual design of the web page and feel like natural content.
What it Looks Like
Native advertising has reached almost every social media platform out there, along with other major publications. Sometimes these ads are not so obvious. On Facebook, for example, you could easily mistake the ad for content in your news feed; hence the name native advertising. Ads for each platform are constantly changing. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all other popular social networks are constantly changing the ads they offer. If you are considering native advertising, it is important to stay on top of these changes. Here are a few examples I found while scrolling through my personal social accounts and on major online-publication sites:
Facebook – News Feed Ads
Facebook – Suggested Post
Twitter – Promoted Tweet
YouTube– In- Stream Ads
YouTube – Ads
LinkedIn – Sponsored Post
Pinterest – Promoted Pin
Instagram– Sponsored Posts
BuzzFeed – Promoted Stories
Keys to a Successful Native Advertising Campaign
Looking to start a new ad campaign? In order to execute a successful native advertising campaign it is necessary to follow these simple steps:
- Build Trust
- Well Developed Content Strategy
- Make it Share-Friendly
- Multi-Device Compatible
- Measure and Analyze