Why Media Agencies Are In The Perfect Position To Ride The Native Advertising Avalanche
We Are Augustus Opinion piece for February 2017 — written by Richard Fitzgerald and Aneesa Masood
In marketing, you have to move with the times. If you’re not keeping up, you’ll very quickly become yesterday’s news. The pressure is on, BUT it’s not insurmountable. What media agencies need to be is fast, clever and dedicated all whilst being adaptable.
Brands Have To Up Their Game
Long gone are the days of huge advertising budgets buying time on TV, radio and billboards. Social media ushered in a new era where brands could take control of their marketing, and for free. Of course, as it evolved, so too did the paid strategy behind it.
With paid media, brands can grow their following but the wider process of cultivating engagement and reach requires creativity and strategy. Using a whole host of social platforms, brands have become publishers, not in the traditional sense, but because they are completely in charge of content output.
Storytelling and content are therefore, more important than ever. Brands really need to go all out in terms of creativity, more so than simply splashing the cash.
What Media Agencies Are Beginning To Understand
In the past, marketing departments were great tools for securing advertising on traditional channels. Now, it’s important for these departments to understand the importance of native content.
Rather than a pretty campaign taking up slots on TV and radio, advertising that you pay for whether people see it or not, and irrespective of conversions generated, good marketing is now measured by impact. Is it smart? Do your audience relate? Does it have the potential to go viral? These are the factors that will play a part in content success, not the basic “how many followers do we have now?”
So How Do We Define Native Content?
There are three main components:
* Native display — The smart placement of ads, ensuring your content is somewhere potential clients will see it, enabling the process of conversions to begin. This requires strategic thinking and imagination.
* Sponsored social — Creating the right native content, that isn’t just heavy branding. The tricky part here is how to get a clear message across without being in-your-face. That’s where the need to be creative comes in.
* Social media advertising — This is where you target the right audience, and ensure your content is accessible, far-reaching and relevant. The main thing on social is to be timely. Grab the attention of your audience with trends and hot topics.
Working on these is a recipe for success. You’ll find your content will be present in timelines and newsfeeds and if you’ve got that extra “je ne sais quoi” your content may even go viral. #SaltBae
It’s A Fine Balance
We know this is easier said than done. The point is to challenge yourself and your creative team to come up with something clever and unique. Your brand shouldn’t be the whole point of the content — it should be an undertone. Look at the most creative ads ever made. Often, the brand name is sprinkled in, not the main theme. Its subtly linked to the content and this lack of brash advertising will encourage consumers to share.
Enlisting the help of current influencers also helps. We’re not talking just paying them to turn up, post and leave, but rather getting them involved at a granular level. Helping them to own the content, rather than just sharing it. An example of this is having someone on hand to take amazing footage of them, something a little different to what they usually do, something that makes you and your brand stand out.
A media agency that understands how to implement this process essentially brings together social media, PR and creative agencies. It’s an all-in-one approach.
A media agency that understands how to implement this process essentially brings together social media, PR and creative agencies. It’s an all-in-one approach.
That’s us.
We’re a ‘New Media’ company and we get native. We understand how to maximize the impact native content can have. We know how to create it, where to put it and most importantly, how to place your brand at the heart of it. We work with media agencies to create native advertising. We get that the numbers of followers isn’t the be all and end all in successful campaigns, but rather, the levels of engagement and we know how to cultivate this, all the while, retaining brand voice and personality.
