Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Native advertising, when used intelligently, can work incredibly well -- which is exactly why it's so controversial.

This is the first post in a series on native advertising. An introduction, if you will.

One that states from the start that there is controversy.

Why approach a series this way?

Simple: Native advertising is probably one of the least-known scalding-hot topics in the business world.

In fact, few business people can even define native advertising. And those outside of it are clueless it even exists (we’ve got the data to prove this — will share later).Yet media research group BIA/Kelsey predicts that by 2017, brands will spend $4.57 billion on social native ads....

While most of the impact of technology on marketing has been tactical so far, over the next decade or so there will be a major strategic transformation.

Today, however, digital technology has enabled us to retarget consumers when they respond to a message and that has changed marketing forever. In effect, we must make the shift from grabbing attention to holding attention.

That means that brands will have to learn to be more like publishers and develop content skills. It also means that marketers will have to create a genuine value exchange rather than just coming up with catchy ad slogans and price promotions. Like it or not, we’ve entered a post-promotional paradigm....