Native Advertising, Does the return on investment shift the numbers?

Native advertising, also called sponsored content, partner content,and branded journalism is a type of paid advertising that matches, or at least blends in, with the form and function of the platform upon which it appears. In many cases it functions like a newspaper or magazine advertisement giving information about a product in the style of an editorial or objective journalistic article, and manifests as a video, article or editorial. According to Wikipedia the word “native” refers to this coherence of the content with the other media that appear on the platform.

These ads reduce a consumers’ adverts recognition by blending the advert into the native content of the platform, even if it is labeled as “sponsored” or “branded” content, Readers may have difficulty immediately identifying them as advertisements due to their ambiguous nature, especially when deceptive labels such as “Star Times Uganda Premier League”, “Airtel Kabaka birthday run”, among others are used. In recent years, consumers have responded more positively to advertising appealing to emotion with some advertisers seeking to have their ads integrated into entertainment that is being presented. These types of integrated advertisements allow businesses to be associated with content that is already being consumed. 

For Native advertising to be successful, there are conditions to be fulfilled and they include the following;

Choose the right channel. This could be a local event, sporting activity, a sports team, entertainment show, among others that has a strong emotional attachment with your target audience for example Uganda breweries sponsoring “Nyege Nyege event” targeting the audience that attend “Nyege Nyege” for their product “Uganda Waragi”.

Tell a story. A story creates emotions and a lasting impression on the target audience leaving them with something to remember about your Brand for example the “running for babies’ story” by MTN used for the MTN marathon 2023.

Create a call to action. Well after choosing the right channel and telling a story while sending your message to your target audience, then you need to decide what next after passing the message to the target audience(after achieving your native advertisement goal), you could prepare to reply to multiple inquiries about your product, prepare for new customers, among others. 

Be consistent with your Branding and Brand visibility. It is very vital to be consistent with your Brand as well as your Brand’s visibility because altering your branding confuses both current and potential customers about your brand as well as altering the message you pass on to your audience.

On the other hand consistency in promoting your Brand’s visibility reminds your customers about your presence as well as effectively communicating your message to potential and current customers consistently.

In the next post, we shall be talking about cost implications and budget details related with native advertisement. Let us know if you find this insightful in the comments below.