Are you handling sponsored content effectively? That question has been near impossible for publishers, marketers and agencies to answer with any degree of certainty, which led the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to research the topic in-depth with Edelman Berland.
After conducting focus groups on the East Coast and surveying online consumers, the research pointed to familiarity, credibility and trust as driving the success of this form of native advertising. The results of the IAB-Edelman Berland consumer in-feed sponsored content study, sponsored by TripleLift, were presented for the first time during a lively workshop on native advertising July 22 at Edelman’s Tribeca offices in New York City. Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of IAB, delivered the event’s opening remarks before the research was explored.
What consumers want
Ari Lewine, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of TripleLift, explained that his company became excited about the project when he learned IAB and Edelman would explore what consumers like about sponsored content. “If you make the consumer happy, the entire ecosystem will be happy,” Lewine said, which led TripleLift to sponsoring the project.
Also on hand to present the findings of the study were Yoni Gedan, SVP of Edelman Berland; Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President of Research, Analytics and Measurement for IAB; and Steve Rubel, Chief Content Strategist at Edelman. Findings from focus groups in Washington, D.C. and New York City were supplemented by surveys of 5,000 users of business, entertainment and general news sites. The study focused exclusively on the In-Feed Native format as identified in the IAB Native Advertising Playbook, excluding in-feed ads on social media sites.
The IAB-Edelman Berland research shows that 90 percent of interest in sponsored content was sparked by the relevancy of that content to the PC users surveyed. News readers gravitated toward sponsored content based on the authoritativeness of the site marketed (82 percent cited this reason) while trusted and familiar brands captured the interest of 81 percent of the study’s participants.
When a link to a site known as a credible source of information was involved, it drew an extra 33 percent of news consumer interest in the IAB-Edelman Berland research, while 60 percent of those surveyed said they were attracted to storytelling above ads that were clearly selling. These findings suggested to the research teams the clear directions that each player in the ad ecosystem should take.
“We’ve now uncovered how consumers feel about [sponsored] content,” said Edelman’s Steve Rubel. “And we are able to provide insights into what it will take for brands and publishers to succeed when it comes to this form of native advertising.”
Sherrill Mane of IAB said she believes “the new study could be a win for brands and publishers both” when consumers were considered during the process of content creation.
Improving upon in-feed native advertising
Though the IAB-Edelman Berland research focused strictly on desktop PC users independent of social media, what is working on mobile was touched upon by Polar CEO Kunal Gupta in the second part of the July 22 workshop at Edelman. Speaking with Lindsay Nelson, Vice President of Integrated Programs at Slate and Kristina Tipton, Vice President of Marketing at CafeMom, Gupta showed what is happening on the mobile scene with respect to sponsored content.
Gupta’s data showed that 79 percent of publishers in Polar’s survey were investing in native ads on mobile, which his research showed had click-through rates that were 50 percent higher when matched against desktop devices. People are also spending more time with sponsored content on tablets (twice as long as PCs) and mobile devices (2.5 times more than on PCs).
The third and final segment of the native advertising workshop was a talk moderated by Jeffrey Jarvis, Director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Representatives from publishers, agencies and analytics companies joined him. On the panel were Erica Plotkin, Partner and Senior Director of Digital Investment at MEC; Matt Kaplan, Vice President of Sales at MailOnline; Adam Weinroth, CMO of OneSpot; Ari Lewine, Co-founder and CSO of TripleLift; and Robin Riddle, Global Publisher at WSJ Custom Studios.
Jarvis and the panel explored what best practices are around the corner for sponsored content. Overwhelmingly, the talk highlighted the need for transparency when brands, agencies and publishers implement sponsored content. Partnering with trusted, authoritative brands is a crucial step, but the native advertising must deliver on the promise with excellent content.
Participants in the workshop stressed that short-term gains are not worth the overall damage a brand can take when the formula in sponsored content strategy is wrong. It’s one of the few times when walking away from a guaranteed payday (an ad deal) is a smart move for your brand. Do the research and take the time to get it right.
