Native Advertising: Yes or No?
Native advertising surrounds local newspapers, websites and multi-million dollar companies across the globe. In fact, it’s something that I’ve gotten very used to as a consumer that I often times rarely recognize its significance.
What is Native Advertising?
Native advertising is non-intrusive advertising method that is meant to blend in with the publication it’s featured on.
The issue that any journalists have brought to the public’s attention is that if the ad blends into the content too well, readers will have difficulty identifying which part is the ad and which is the actual content.
Pros v.s. Cons
As a journalist, I understand that this is an issue because integrity and trustworthiness are our number one values. Therefore, sticking in an ad that is promotional, and non-informational defeats the purpose of journalism. The general public turns toward the news as a source of trustworthy information into what is going on, allowing them to then formulate their own opinions based on the information. News organizations are supposed to be a non-biased and clear-cut source of information for any person to receive. However, with the addition of a native advertisement, the news organization’s message can become completely contradicted.
According to the article, 6 Ways to Make Your Native Advertising More Ethical by Hal Conick, a good example of when a native ad contradicted the values of a news organization was in 2013 with the Atlantic. The Atlantic posted an ad about the Church of Scientology on their website and when readers clicked on it, they were expecting to read an informative piece on scientology, but instead were met with promotional material. Conick said that this angered many people, causing the magazine to remove the ad and apologize.
Additionally, Conick wrote that according to a Reuters’ study, “86% of readers can tell the difference between editorial and branded content, 14% can’t—a non-negligible number in journalism, an industry that relies on reader confidence”. This is a concerning statistic because this means that 14% of viewers are misunderstanding the content you’re sharing. Misinterpretations can negatively affect a news organization because users can easily turn somewhere else to get their fulfillment of news. Given that its such a competitive field, I believe news organizations need to be doing everything they can to ensure their organization is providing the clearest and easiest to use content.
Furthermore, as a journalist, I have some experience working with native ads. When I worked for a fashion magazine, I remember that at least the first 25 pages of the magazine were reserved for promotional material within each new issue. These ads were native ads because they looked exactly like the publication, so much so, that it confused me, an employee. However, I don’t think this was a big deal because the values of a fashion magazine are different than those of a news organization.
Where do I stand on this?
That being said, while I believe that these native ads can be detrimental if done poorly for certain companies like news organizations, I also agree that they are necessary, when done correctly. Therefore, while it depends on the way a company uses native advertising, I believe it is ethical and necessary.
There are plenty of examples of successful native advertisements that are not confusing nor misleading for viewers. This include Spotify’s recent partnership with Stranger Things. For a time, when users opened Spotify, they had the option to enter into “Stranger Things mode”. This meant that based on their listening habits they got a Spotify playlist based on a character from the show. This is an example of native advertising because the ad blended right into the content and platform of Spotify, but it is also not misleading in any way.
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Native ads can also be very important for organizations to survive during this time. According to Conick, a 2017 study from WAN-IFRA and the Native Advertising Institute showed that “native ads brought in 20% of overall advertising revenue for news media organizations. By 2021, this figure is expected to rise to 36%.” This statistic delineates that while native ads can be controversial, they are becoming more necessary to keep some companies above water.
I also believe that as a consumer, I am becoming more accustomed to seeing native ads on different websites that I browse, that I have no trouble recognizing when its an ad and when it’s not. I believe consumers as a whole are becoming used to it and having less problems with it than they might’ve when it was first introduced. Lastly, as a consumer, I enjoy that the native ads don’t disrupt what I’m reading or the content I’m viewing. Pop-up ads are annoying, frustrating and steer me away from the website that I’m on, while native ads don’t have the same effect on me.