Pick up the user at the right place in time

Many publishers are currently looking at native advertising and corresponding products. The topic is attracting a lot of interest from customers and agencies. "When we look at the revenues, however, the topic is probably still of secondary importance," says Leonardo Kopp, Head of Marketing at Admazing. "However, we like to present native advertising relatively often, because content-related placements close a gap in the online marketing mix. We are therefore convinced that sales will increase significantly in the coming months, and with it the importance. "As an example, he cites a product at "Finanz und Wirtschaft" that fulfills the expectations of high-quality native advertising: "The article is marked as 'paid', but functions just like any other article on the site. The content in each case is an expert contribution - the quality corresponds to the level of FuW and is exciting and profitable for users." This example also shows that well-done native advertising doesn't have to be "grubby PR ballast", but can make a monetary and content-related contribution that shows positive effects for publishers, users and advertisers.Advantages over banner advertisingIrène Messerli, Co-Managing Director of the PR agency Bernet, is also following the topic with great interest: "If you look at the USA, you can see strong growth there. The possibilities are very diverse and the importance will increase the more high-quality and careful forms of native advertising are produced and placed. The sharing function can be an advantage here, compared to banner advertising." The question is to what extent the user accepts such forms and native advertising brings the desired success for companies. He said that similar discussions had already been held years ago in connection with Publireportage. "Ultimately, it's a question of transparency and credibility of content. Users don't like to be led around by the nose. If it's well labeled, it's a form that allows a lot of creativity," says Irène Messerli. As a successful example, she cites the TV youth channel Joiz with branded entertainment and entertaining, multimedia broadcasting features "M-Budget Brain + Buddy" or "Wer's glaubt" by Mobiliar.

"If the user feels duped, it's bad for the reputation of a company or product."

Irène Messerli, Bernet PR"Native advertising must be carefully chosen and qualitatively well implemented," says Irène Messerli. "You have to define what the content and messages are, what the goal is, and who you are targeting. From this, one derives the form - video, text, tweets, posts, photos, broadcast vessel - and channels. Information on the web plays an important role in preparing a purchase. So the trick is to pick up the potential customer in the right place at the right time." The content shown, he says, must bring him added value, encourage sharing and commenting. "But many users don't want advertising disguised as editorial content. If the user feels duped, that's bad for the reputation of a company or product," Messerli warns. Basically, it's about transparency and credibility - about clear labeling.The form is overdueFor Alexander Beyer, Managing Director of SwissAdSolutions, it is clear that the importance of native advertising in the Swiss market is increasing significantly: "It is now a matter of sensitizing publishers, creating new native spaces and triggering an awareness among advertisers for the right content. The issue of banner blindness must be counteracted. In any case, Beyer does not consider native ads to be a short-lived trend: "The form is long overdue and will be a permanent addition to the media mix of media and advertising planners in the future."

"There's no point in placing a native ad campaign on a standard format or billboard."

Alexander Beyer, SwissAdSolutionWhat is important, he says, is a successful interplay between the right environments, the right campaign content and placement on suitable formats. "There's no point in placing a native advertising campaign on a standard format or billboard." The publisher has to create a new placement, in the look and feel of the website, to create space there in this natural environment for campaigns that are not focused on branding, but tell a story - for example, with a blog, customer experiences or experiences.Reader should recognize demarcation"Within our article widgets at the publisher, we create recommendation areas, for example for sponsored stories of the campaigns, which distribute desired content and do not contain a large logo at first glance," explains Beyer. This has already worked well on Axel Springer pages such as those of the Handelszeitung, where campaigns of national and international brands were placed with a suitable story.

"A poorly worded or mistimed post can quickly damage a company's reputation."

Leonardo Kopp, AdmazingWhen asked about the different perspectives, Beyer says: "From an advertiser's point of view, differentiation from classic campaigns is a component in the media mix. Branding campaigns will continue to make up a larger part of the budget in the future. But it's a very exciting admixture that can run all year, even detached from main campaigns and advertising focuses." For the user or reader, it is important to recognize the distinction - what is advertising and what is content of the website, of the publisher? The content and the corresponding areas must be clearly marked with "Advertisement" or "Sponsored" so that there is no misleading or deception. "It's certainly difficult for publishers to create appropriate environments and to create the right demarcation between content and the subtle advertising."Monitoring and accompaniment of the contributions"Posts should be marked as 'paid,'" emphasizes Leonardo Kopp of online advertising broker Admazing. "Often, disguised advertising posts are recognized and this usually leads to annoyance among users. In addition, the content must be of high quality and correspond to the publication or the category. So it takes an appropriate content strategy and a lot of know-how in implementing, monitoring and accompanying the contributions. "Native advertising does not necessarily have to work via articles, however: Any content element of a website or service can be supplemented with paid contributions - for example, in search engines that highlight paid results. There must be a clear benefit and profit for the user. Kopp says: "This is also a fundamental difference in mindset: With conventional advertising, a certain 'disruptive factor' is accepted. Native advertising, on the other hand, should largely accommodate user interest."Proximity to editorial content dangerousHowever, Leonardo Kopp warns at the same time: "The proximity to editorial content holds a certain explosive potential. A poorly worded or mistimed contribution can quickly damage a company's reputation. In addition, there is fundamental resentment among a certain segment of the population toward paid contributions in the editorial environment. But there's also a fundamental resentment toward advertising." Furthermore, the complexity of native advertising is relatively high, since the content must be precisely adapted and professionally developed. Tailor-made concepts are needed. In addition, the presentation and functional scope of the vessels differ on each platform. "The results are not directly comparable, and monitoring is time-consuming."______________________________What is Native Advertising?Native advertising (in German "Werbung im bekannten Umfeld") is a form of Internet advertising that attempts to capture the attention of Internet users by offering content. The content is very similar to the offer that is already known to Internet users. The intention of the advertisers is to design the paid advertising in such a way that it appears less intrusive but still attracts the attention of the users. Native advertising differs from traditional online advertising in that the content can be commented on, shared and recommended by users. In contrast to conventional display advertising, native ads also appear in search engine results lists and, because they are seamlessly integrated into the editorial content, they are not recognized by ad blockers and are therefore not suppressed.Author: Gregor Waser