Download - 2014 state of native survey results

DIGITAL MEDIA BUYERS GET NATIVE

How Agency Executives are Leveraging Native Advertising to

Connect with Customers

2014 State of Native Advertising Survey Conducted by

Table of Contents

2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift 2

Methodology

No Single Definition

Native Is Increasingly Used

Creative Remains Biggest Hurdle

Most Agree Native is Value

Native Seen as a Branding Tool

Native Comes in Many Forms

Native is Visual and Viral

Reaching the Right Audience on Any Screen

Programmatic Promising But Uncertain

Conclusion

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Methodology

In conjunction with hosting the multi-city Visual Marketing Summit, The Industry Index by DMR and TripleLift partnered to gauge the thoughts and opinions of digital media buyers on the topic of native advertising. In May of 2014, DMR and TripleLift surveyed 100 digital media buyers from around the country representing some of the industry’s biggest media buying agencies including Starcom MediaVest, MEC, Carat, Mediacom, UM, Spark, Mindshare, among others.


No Single Definition

Despite being one of the hottest topics in advertising, everyone has a different meaning as to what defines native advertising. Respondents were asked to give their own definition of native. These were some of the most common themes:

Q: How do you define native advertising?


Q: Do you currently employ native advertising?

27% NO

73% of digital media buyers surveyed currently employ a native advertising strategy. 67% plan to increase the use of native in 2014 and beyond, while 26% expect their use to remain the same. Only 7% of respondents look to scale back the use of native in the future.

73% YES

7% NO

67% YES

Q: Do you plan to do more native advertising in 2014 & beyond?

26% SAME


Native is Increasingly Used

Q: What is the primary reason you do not employ native advertising?

NO

YES


For those not using native advertising, the biggest barrier was a lack of creative. Scale and measurement were included, and various other reasons like “focused on TV”, “not enough knowledge on it”, “not seen as a DR tool” were cited as reasons. It is clear the industry needs more education on native and a deeper understanding that it can be executed with existing assets across a number of sites.

Creative

Scale

Measurement

Other

15% Scale

39% Creative

15% Measurement

30% Other

Creative Remains Biggest Challenge

Creative Remains the Biggest Hurdle

Q: Rate how valuable you find native advertising:

YES

SAME

1

4%

26%

61%

7%

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1 2 3 4 5

Overall, the general consensus is that native advertising is effective. 68% of digital media buyers find native advertising to be valuable or extremely valuable forms of advertising.

Least Valuable

Neither Most Valuable


Most Agree Native is Valuable

Q: I use native advertising for: (select all that apply)

YES

SAME

Despite recent studies pointing to the growing use of digital to drive direct response campaigns, native is a predominately a branding tool. Therefore, it’s no surprise that among the main KPI’s marketers use to measure native are strong indicators of brand effectiveness. Only 13% look at the archaic CTR as the main KPI. Notwithstanding, measurement still remains the top challenge associated with native advertising: 40% claim this is difficult. This was followed by scale (31%) and creative (20%).

Branding Direct Response

Other

96%

20%

2%

13%

19%

24% 8%

35%

CTR

Shares

Conversions

Other

Brand Lift

Q: What is the main KPI you use to measure native?


Native is Seen as a Branding Tool

Q: What type of content do you find compelling when employing native? (Select all that apply)

Editorial Content

Images (Visual-based

content)

User-Generated

Content

Sponsored (Branded) Content

Video Whitepapers

70% 64% 62%

47% 45%

11%

It’s no wonder the digital media community has so many different definitions for native; there are several unique strategies that can be employed that fall into the realm of being native. Interestingly, editorial content and user-generated content (which often includes images) leverages brand ambassadors to help tell the story. These forms of native advertising often have more validity with consumers since it is not seen as sales pitch.


Native Comes in Many Forms

Q: Which do you believe has more effect on ad engagement?

80% AN AD’S IMAGE

20% AN AD’S COPY

No matter how you define a native ad, when it comes to engagement, 80% of marketers believe that an ad’s image is more likely to affect a consumer taking an action then an ad’s copy. Perhaps the reason digital media buyers put stock in measuring social shares (page 8) from native content is the shared belief that the channel is viral in nature. 86% of respondents believe native is more likely to be shared compared to other forms of digital advertising.

Q: Do you believe native advertising is more likely to be shared vs. standard display?

86%

14%

YES

NO


Native is Visual and Viral

Q: When evaluating media, what do you prioritize?

AN AD’S IMAGE

Audience

Content

Placement

When it comes to where native campaigns are running, digital media buyers prioritize audience as the most important factor in evaluating media. The context in which the ad lives is the second most important factor, followed by ad placement. Rather than live in a specific media silo, native ads are truly native to a cross-screen era. 73% of digital media buyers have no preference what screen – mobile or display - native advertising runs on.

6%

Q: Do you prefer to run native on mobile devices, as opposed to desktop?

YES NO 27% 73%

24%

70%


Reaching the Right Audience on Any Screen

Q: Do you believe you can successfully buy native programmatically?

6%

24%

70%

40% YES

60% NO

Despite the industry talking native programmatic, 60% of digital media buyers do not believe native can be bought programmatically, with only 22% planning to do so in 2014 and beyond. 67% are unsure if they will buy native programmatically. The uncertainty around whether or not native will successfully integrate into programmatic channels highlights the need for education on the channel, and clarity into the technologies that power these solutions.

Q: Will you be buying native ads programmatically in 2014 and beyond?

22% YES

11% NO

67% NOT SURE


Programmatic Promising But Uncertain

Conclusion

6%

24%

70% NO

In a very short period of time, native advertising has morphed from a relatively new fad to a significant advertising strategy being employed by Fortune 500 brands. Agencies have clearly adopted native as a tactic for delivering branded engagement online despite the muddled definition of what constitutes a native ad. What agencies do agree upon is that it can deliver an integrated user-experience delivered across-screens. The need to establish best practices when measuring native and even curating creative resources for these campaigns is clear. While there is a general consensus that native is a channel driven by visuals versus copy, media buyers need the confidence of knowing these campaigns can be easily executed without long production cycles. Lastly, media buyers clearly are jumping on the programmatic bandwagon with no real idea of how it works or what it means. It is clear that until we, as an industry, establish some clarity around how these technologies work, it will be hard to move to a world where native can truly be bought and sold programmatically.


2014 Perceptions on The State of Native Advertising © TripleLift

DMR's Industry Index allows marketers to quickly, easily and reliably find the best-of-breed technology solutions they need. The Industry Index combines expert curation with objective ratings to provide an industry-wide perspective on truly meaningful innovation, so that marketers can focus on moving business forward (what matters) - rather than just keeping pace with technology. Built with marketers in mind, DMR’s Industry Index is the only searchable database and ratings platform focused on measuring innovation. Digital marketers can rely on the Industry Index to quickly and easily see who stands out across the advertising technology landscape, based on both relevance to specific marketer needs as well as peer ratings.

TripleLift is the native advertising platform built for the visual web. Leveraging pioneering ad and computer vision technology, TripleLift seamlessly integrates a brand’s most engaging images alongside contextually relevant content, across any device, at scale. Founded in 2012, TripleLift is credited with developing the first viable alternative to traditional banner advertising and introduced the industry’s first programmatic exchange for premium native inventory. The use of big, beautiful imagery to tell brand stories has delivered meaningful interaction and engagement for many of the world’s leading brands and publishers. TripleLift was named 212 NYC and The New York Times Ad Tech Startup of the Year, and was a finalist in AdWeek’s Startup of the Year awards. For more information, please visit www.triplelift.com.

Download - 2014 state of native survey results

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