Native advertising: A misunderstood medium; Storytelling for greater impact
Native advertising: A misunderstood medium; Storytelling for greater Pic: Verizon Media
Too many marketers have relegated native advertising to its most simplistic form, forgetting its inherent superpower - the ability to adapt to any environment. It’s time to unleash creativity and unlock immersive customer experiences, say Verizon Media’s Sebastian Graham and Zoe Cocker.
For a long time, too many people in our industry misunderstood native ads as just a headline and an image: A simple ad format with limited capacity for a brand’s creativity to live and breathe.
This is no longer the case. Advanced creative formats have enabled brands and their partners to deliver a visual, impactful and compelling message with all the efficiency, scale and performance of ‘traditional’ Native.
And it doesn’t stop there. Native can now launch an immersive media experience that transports audiences into stimulating brand interactions - an innovation in-step with post-Covid Australia’s desire for digital experiences in a socially distanced world.
Take Officeworks for example. While opportunities to have your Santa photo opp were few and far between in 2020, the company used Verizon Media’s immersive platform to help create festive moments that might have otherwise been missing.
Utilising tech like WebAR and native AR ad formats Santa became virtually available in any living room in Australia. A fantastic demonstration of creative problem solving with tech innovation, while delivering on key metrics like brand affinity and footfall due to the scale of Native.
Previously, the ability to deliver these formats were closed to the world of in-app advertising but now, these immersive creative capabilities put powerful experiences in the hands of any brand.
And as a result, native is starting to reclaim its rightful place within campaigns – with striking results for marketers.
Verizon Media’s Brand Metrics Indicator – our response tracking tool for campaigns – has since shown:
- Prompted Awareness +93%
- Campaign Recognition +74%
- New Customer Intent +81%
The democratisation of creative excellence is critically important. It enables marketers to deliver unique customer experiences – in the environments that deliver the best results; in the contexts where you want your brand to appear; and to do it at the scale that matters for brand and business objectives.
Native has evolved dramatically over the last three years. It’s a lot more powerful than a headline and image.
Fully harnessed, native provides a platform to implement creativity in entirely new ways, and to deliver at scale, with efficiency, to drive brand and business growth.
