That’s the question being asked by Adweek’s Lucia Moses in a recent article about the roadblocks of native advertising.
Stating in no uncertain terms that “clients and agencies need to get out of the way,” Moses paints a picture of borderline chaos in the creative world as “marketers and publishers continue to fall all over themselves to create messaging that doesn’t look like advertising and that doesn’t annoy the reader.”
That’s a tall order. Both the “get out of the way” part and the “don’t be annoying.”
Yes, there are lots of roadblocks in creating this new form of digital media that seeks to engage — not distract — and hopes to find a legitimate berth alongside the “real” editorial content in its published vessel.
As Moses points out, on the one hand you have digital publishers attracted to the larger revenue potential of native advertising compare to the bargain basement approach of programmatic ads. Then you have the marketers and agency types still confused over how to measure the effectiveness of the native content they are placing.
It’s a bit of a mess at this point.
Still, like anything new, the industry will figure this puzzle out too. In the meantime, it is inherent on the publishers to maintain the integrity of their published content, and not be unduly swayed by the lure of native advertising revenue.
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