• Challenge the industry faces as it grows is the balance between editorial and advertorial content
• Marketers require more education on native advertising and need to clearly define their strategies
King Content and marketing information company Warc have surveyed advertising and marketing professionals across 16 Asia-Pacific countries addressing how marketers are incorporating native into their wider marketing strategies, the types of content that brands are amplifying, challenges they are facing and how they are measuring return.
Leanne Brinkies, global head of native advertising for King Content, has written about the reasons for the research:
The last year has seen extraordinary growth in native advertising, and we’ve seen our clients reap the benefits of amplifying their content to broader audiences.
In setting out to do this study, we really wanted to understand how marketers and agencies were feeling about native advertising across the region, as well as what stumbling blocks they were encountering so we could work to overcome them.
What we’ve found (and no surprise) is marketers require more education on native advertising and need to clearly define their strategies in this area.
The key for me though is in two interlinked areas from the report:
1. One of the biggest challenges the industry faces as it grows is the balance between editorial and advertorial content in native placements. As clients look for immediate returns on their investment in these channels, the tendency will be to shift the focus to lead generation.
2. Measurement is highlighted as an area that needs a key focus for the industry as it continues to take a greater percentage of marketing budgets.
This channel however is best served higher up the purchase funnel, connecting and engaging with potential customers and building relationships. Marketers should use their other channels to convert, and measurement needs to focus on softer metrics to determine success.