Source: WARC
Native advertising as a great opportunity for PR agencies
As many as 75 percent of respondents believe that PR agencies are the right address for the creation of so-called native advertising content for brands, while almost 90 percent of them are convinced that clients should provide larger budgets for such content. At a time when the media are increasingly losing young readers, native advertising seems a great opportunity both for agencies and brands, as well as for the media. Francis Turner, executive director of native advertising platform Adyoulike for the British market, said that “Brands see the potential of native to get their message out there in an engaging and immersive way that sits in-feed with publishers’ own content and doesn’t disrupt the online experience.“
Agencies and the industry still have a lot of maneuvering space
Although the vast majority of participants in the study highlight the importance and opportunities of native advertising, and the “natural” co-existence of paid and editorial content in the media, this type of service is currently offered to clients by half of the respondents, while a fifth of them plan to implement such content in the future. Turner commented on the results saying, “The PR sector should be doing more with native advertising because it’s all about content – and that’s the industry’s strongest suit. After all, those agencies create eye-catching content every day.”
The majority still bet on social media
The results of the research related to the question of the way agencies usually take care of the presence of their clients in the media are extremely interesting. Unsurprisingly, almost two-thirds (63 percent) bet on paid campaigns on social media platforms (primarily on Facebook and Twitter), while slightly less than half (44 percent) opt for paid content in the form of native advertising.
