Categories: Articles

Content As Advertising

So, are you sick of the term Native Advertising?

Back in February 2013, I penned an article for Harvard Business Review titled, We Need a Better Definition of "Native Advertising". In short, it felt like native advertising is just simply sponsored content. That’s it. Whether the editorial team on the specific website wrote the piece or not, the pretense is that it’s native advertising because the content looks like their regular content, only it’s not… it has been paid for… like an ad. Confused? Imagine how the general public must feel. Well, John Oliver took a tremendously powerful stab at the idea of native advertising on his show, Last Week Tonight, a few days ago. I realize that many of you may have already seen this (apologies if you have.. and if that’s the case, why not hop over here and check out Charlie Rose interviewing LinkedIn‘s co-founder, Reid Hoffman), but for every laugh in this segment, there are some hard truths that marketers, media agencies and publishers will have to face in the coming months and years. Dropping the barrier that existed between the editorial content and the paid advertising has long been an issue of credibility for media. Pretending that it’s no longer even an important value to have could be extremely dangerous. So, yes, while native advertising may – in the short term – be good for brands and business, it may – in the long run – be a very slippery and dangerous slope.

In the meantime…

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.