Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

The nonprofit Online Trust Alliance (OTA) on Wednesday conducted a study that found 71% of native ads on top media sites fail to offer adequate labeling, transparency, and complete consumer disclosure.

This is a blow to the native ad/branded content business and should be a wake-up call for publishers and content studios.

The study, an analysis of native ads on the top 100 news websites, found that 71% earned failing scores for disclosures, delineation, and discoverability. The bottom line: The sites didn’t offer consumers the ability to easily discern pure editorial from ads.

As most readers of this column know, native advertising refers to Web site content that’s funded and produced outside the publisher’s editorial review or influence, yet is designed to appear similar to editorial on that site. As the OTA mentions, “this illustrates the tension -- paid for and controlled separately, but presented in a way to appear as editorial. The potential for audience confusion or misinterpretation is obvious, and the rapid rise in the deployment of native has already prompted concerns from advocates, media and regulators.”...

“While the industry looks at native advertising as the holy grail to drive new revenues, they are failing to address the long-term issue. With 71% of native ads failing to pass the consumer transparency acid test, this report should be a wake-up call to the industry. Inaction is not an option. Conversely, providing these concrete examples and recommendations helps advertisers, networks and publishers in moving forward,” Craig Spiezle, executive director at the Online Trust Alliance, told Native Insider via email.

Don't become a Marketing Horror Story Legend. Here are three content marketing stories you can learn from.

With Halloween just around the corner, cable channels are deep into playlists of horror movies. Tune in, if you dare, and see how everything from a cabin on a quiet lake to a doll can go fatally wrong. But for sales and marketing pros, these movies aren’t half as scary as the idea of executing a failed campaign and missing important sales numbers.

This is equally true for Content Selling and Content Marketing programs. Just alike a scary movie, one wrong move and the guillotine comes down on you – or even your whole team. The good news is that we can learn from the mistakes of others and avoid the pitfalls of failed campaigns. Let’s take a look a few content program horror stories and avoid making the same mistakes ourselves....