The banner ad is dead.
Welcome to the wonderful world of native internet advertising, or simply, native ads.
These are ads that are frequently win-win advertisements. Native advertising adds value to the user experience. It entertains, informs and engages. It fits beautifully and seamlessly into the user experience. It hits the right demographic at exactly the right time. It contains awesome content and it gets people talking. It drives users down the sales funnel more than any other form of advertising in digital.
This is not putting banners up in a web page or a mobile app, its the exact opposite of that.
It's the future of advertising and its not only measurable, it actually works. It's also just starting to boom.
Examples of Native Monetization Systems:
'Promoted' search results on Google
Promoted accounts on Twitter
Specials in Foursquare
Sponsored stories on Facebook
Suggested Posts on Buzzfeed
Stories you might like via Outbrain
Native advertising is more than just an ad. Its actually content that either engages users right there and then in a chronological feed, or it links to a great piece of content, either within the same platform (a Facebook brand page) or elsewhere (on another website or portal).
In the 1990s, there was banner ads. Then came Google and their search engine marketing products, specifically Google Adwords. Now paid search represents a massive amount of online revenue.
Then social media came along. Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, all settling on providing brands with ways to connect with audiences outside the banner advertisement, with paid content options to engage, inspire and intrigue.
Buzzfeed, the hub of everything buzzing on the web, pushes native along in a massive way. Allowing brands and publishers to post awesome content and outbound links to articles and videos across their system.
Now publishers from Forbes to The Atlantic are allowing brands to produce interesting, informative content into their publication zones. The next wave of native will be audio and with the advent of Google Glass, who knows what might be next.
The point is, now more than ever, the ad world has become fragmented, complicated and multi-channeled. As audiences scatter and multi screen, using 2, 3 or even 4 devices in a very short period of time (TV, PC, smartphone, tablet) users spill into new areas as apps rise in popularity and social media networks pop into existence.
Who knows whats next, the last 5 years has been an absolute revolution in media. Brand marketers, advertisers, buyers and agencies have to come to grips with this rapid change fast.
The days of simply buying audience time with lazy ad messages and advertorials are on the way out. Attention is not easy to grab, so grab it back, with awesome content and smart native distribution solutions across the right channels.