Native Advertising for the Travel Marketer - Digital Tourism ...

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Native Advertising for the Travel Marketer

Written by Hollis ThomasesMarch 2015

Native advertising has become the darling of digital publishers, but is it right for traveladvertisers? This Analysis explores the various types of native advertising available to travelmarketers, using examples to highlights some of the advantages and challenges of each.

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Native Advertising for the Travel Marketer March 2015

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Table of Contents

IntroductionImplications of Content as AdvertisingMeasuring NativeBuilding Destination AwarenessThe Future of NativeEndnotes

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Figures and Charts

Fig. 1: Paid, branded contentFig. 2: Photo plus teaser caption as native adFig. 3: “Infographic of the Day” UPS native adFig. 4: Emirates Airline’s native ad on WashingtonPost.com’s “BrandConnect” sectionFig. 5: Native ad on TwitterFig. 6: Integrated branded content, IBM’s native adFig. 7: Native outperforms travel banners in time spent engaging with the ad/contentFig. 8: Travel callstoaction exceed all desktop and mobile advertising viewed

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Introduction

Native advertising, a type of content marketing, continues to gain momentum. In 2015, native advertising in the U.S. is

expected to account for $4.3 billion1 of the projected $86.9 billion2 spent on all digital and mobile advertising for the year,

representing a 34% increase over the previous year.3 Prior to 2014, native advertising was considered experimental; in 2015,it has become mainstream.

Native advertising is difficult to define, partly because it can take so many forms. It can be labeled "advertisement,"

"sponsored," "branded," or "paid." A company might even have a section dedicated to branded content, such as The

Washington Post's BrandConnect. Native ads can appear as almost anything except an obvious ad: an article (see Figure 1),a photo (see Figure 2), an infographic (see Figure 3), an entire content section (see Figure 4), a tweet (see Figure 5) orintegrated content (see Figure 6).

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Figure 4



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Figure 6

Implications of Content as Advertising

Advertising couched as content appeals to marketers for a number of reasons:

1. It generally attracts consumers' attention better than digital display ads.2. Though it has its detractors (see the satirical commentary on native advertising on John Oliver's Last Week

Tonight4 ), consumers tend to welcome wellexecuted and informative or entertaining native advertising, whichencourages longer engagement than other forms of digital advertising. In fact, native advertising can beepisodic in a way that would be challenging for display advertising. Think, for example, of how soap operaswere originally sponsored by advertisers, or how today's reality shows could be either created or sponsoredby an advertiser.

3. Some forms of native advertising allow marketers to expand upon a concept far deeper than can a typicaldisplay ad. A display ad has size constraints; whereas, native ads can be full pages of content such as

DreamPlanGo's Hawaii Honeymoon of a Lifetime Sweepstakes for Starwood Hotels.5



4. Native advertising can be easier to digest and therefore more effective on mobile devices than other forms ofmobile advertising. Clickthroughrate (CTR) on mobile placements is 57% higher than on the desktop, and

engagement time on mobile native ads is 33% longer than for those on the desktop.6

Native advertising isn't without its challenges. Because native advertising and content marketing in general have high costsand production demands (conception, creation, design, writing, editing, etc.), all marketers seeking to take advantage ofnative advertising need to shift more of their budgets to production. Yet, according to a survey by Contently, lack of budget for

content marketing is the top frustration among marketers trying to create effective content.7 In addition, the amount devoted tocontent advertising is all over the place: More than half of respondents said less than 25% of their budgets is dedicated tocontent, while a quarter indicated 75% or more is.

Placements on networks such as Taboola and Outbrain, which provide relatedcontent widgets, get bid on much like GoogleAdWords on a costperclick basis, with the advertiser's content distributed to sites the networks have partnered with

whereas a custom campaign on BuzzFeed can now run in excess of $100,000.8

Because so much of native advertising revolves around writing, another challenge lies in who should do the writing. Should itbe someone inhouse at the advertiser? Should it be the company's PR team or the ad agency? Should it be a freelancer? Ormaybe even someone who is part of the editorial team where the native ad content will be placed? Get it wrong, and the nativead could either bomb or take excessive time to produce due to too many edits or useless iterations.

Measuring Native

Metrics around native advertising efficacy pose another challenge. Since not all native advertising requires a click to proveinterest, metrics that focus on engagement with the content have more merit, but these aren't easily captured. Besides the

click, the relevant9 key performance indicators (KPIs) for measuring native executions are:

Page Views = number of times a native article (advertiser's content) is loaded and servedto a viewer

Viewability = proof that the advertising content was actually viewed by a human user(versus being served on part of a page that no real user views or that the page served wasgenerated by a bot)

Average Time Spent = time spent engaging with native article, which can be more deeplyanalyzed in terms of scroll initiation, scroll depth and scroll speed; a low bounce rate offthe article also positively indicates content interest (see Figure 7)

Call to Action (CTA) = clicks from native article to advertiser's website (see Figure 8)

Conversion/Lead Capture = completed actions such as brochure downloads, email signups, contest or sweepstakes entries, or actual purchases or bookings as a direct result ofa native ad



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Figure 8

Building Destination Awareness

Destination awareness presents a huge challenge for travel marketers, particularly at the top of the funnel for new or littleknown destinations. While popular, sites like travel review sites or online travel agencies (OTAs) that attract consumers offerlittle in the way of building new awareness or desire, because the consumers visiting these sites typically already have adestination in mind. Building new awareness doesn't come easily or cheaply, but the ability to do so in a way that also leads tointent and action solves a major pain for marketers. This is the type of solution native advertising can bring to travel, because

the kind of visually rich content travel marketers produce effectively generates that desire.10 On average, 67% of consumerswho viewed a photo slideshow and 48% who watched a travel video said they felt a strong affinity for a destination

afterward.11

Because content marketing and native advertising are so effective at addressing the awareness problem and because by itsvery nature travel generates a neverending stream of both evergreen and seasonal or topical content they make sense fortravel advertisers. Good native content strategies for travel advertisers should:

Contain content best suited for discovery and engagement, like lists, guides, itineraries,



Customized advertising combined with native advertising can also make for interesting bedfellows. Complementary advertiserscan cocreate and cosponsor ads, a notion that should attract the attention of travel advertisers who have an interest inmarketing demand in and to a certain destination. As a category, travel advertisers rank sixth in adoption and use of native

advertising (as ranked by number of brands running native ads).13 Likewise, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) can

turn their own websites into profit centers by selling native content placements to other advertisers to generate ad revenues.14

The Future of Native

Far from waning, native advertising continues to gain traction among both advertisers and publishers. With its growth willcome greater shifts in budgets, more complex offerings, better means of tracking and measuring, and advances in methods ofoptimization. Looking ahead at native advertising's future, here are some predictions travel advertisers should heed:

1. Native advertising's forecasted growth will come from both automated and customdeveloped (and likelydirectly purchased) placements.

2. Visual, especially invideo native ad volume and formats such as ones likely to be placed in the upcomingrelease of Twitter's new video service will also grow.

3. Native ads on mobile will continue to gain momentum, but ideal formats have yet to percolate.4. Native's heavy reliance on editoriallike content will lead advertisers to hire more writers, do longrange topical

planning, develop editorial calendars and think more like publishers.5. As with other digital ad campaigns, native will be a launch pad for retargeting campaigns.6. Native will also provide deeper insights from campaign and website analytics by way of companies like Moat

and Simple Reach, which help expose how consumers interact with native ad content.15

7. Native advertising, however, will continue to face ethical scrutiny, which may lead to more obvious

demarcations between ads and editorial content.16

As travel advertisers continue to test native advertising and migrate their marketing budgets toward it, getting up to speed onbest practices will be as important, if not more so, than being strictly creative and innovative.

and food and drink

Stay contextually versatile; highlight food and drink, outdoor activities, educate and informinformation seekers

Be broad enough to deliver at scale if scale is the objective

Consider what content has the highest likelihood of being discovered and saved by theprospective traveler for later use

Involve optimization by analyzing headline and preview image combinations and adjusting

brand messaging based on realtime insights12



Endnotes

1. "Why Native Advertising is a Boon for Publishers, Marketers, and Users," Socintel360 blog (Sept. 1,2014).

2. "Advertisers Will Spend Nearly $600 Billion Worldwide in 2015," eMarketer (Dec. 10, 2014).

3. "Why Native Advertising is a Boon for Publishers, Marketers, and Users," Socintel360 blog (Sept. 1,2014).

4. "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Native Advertising (HBO)," Last Week Tonight with John Oliver(Aug. 3, 2014).

5. "Hawaii Honeymoon of a Lifetime Sweepstakes," DreamPlanGo.

6. "Polar serves 1billion native ads on mobile; small screen winning in sponsored content," Polar MobileGroup press release (Dec. 4, 2014).

7. Jordan Teicher, "The State of Content Marketing Heading Into 2015," Contently (Dec. 3, 2014).

8. Lukas I. Alpert, "BuzzFeed Nails the ‘Listicle'; What Happens Next?" The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 29,2015).

9. Provided to the author by Nativo, a native advertising distribution platform, and DreamPlanGo, acustom travelcontent marketing site.

10. Scott Severson, "Online Travel Marketing is Broken, Content Marketing is the Solution," DreamPlanGoblog (June 4, 2014).

11. Yahoo proprietary research.

12. Author interview with Chris Rooke, Senior Vice President, Strategy & Operations for Nativo

13. " HYPERLINK "http://www.mediaradar.com/trendreports/mediaradarnativeadvertisingindex/"MediaRadar Native Advertising Index," MediaRadar.

14. Robert Graham, Going Native: How to Create Online Native Advertising Campaigns That Stand Out byBlending In (2015).

15. Author interview with Chris Rooke, Senior Vice President, Strategy & Operations for Nativo

16. "BBB to Enforce Compliance with OBA Practices in Native Ads," Truste blog (Dec. 30, 2014).



http://www.socintel360.com/why-native-advertising-is-a-boon-for-publishers-marketers-and-users/133/

http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Advertisers-Will-Spend-Nearly-600-Billion-Worldwide-2015/1011691

http://www.socintel360.com/why-native-advertising-is-a-boon-for-publishers-marketers-and-users/133/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_F5GxCwizc

http://www.dreamplango.com/HawaiiHoneymoonOfALifetimeContest/Winner

http://polar.me/blog/2014/12/polar-serves-1-billion-native-ads-on-mobile

http://contently.com/strategist/2014/12/03/the-state-of-content-marketing-heading-into-2015/

http://www.wsj.com/articles/buzzfeed-nails-the-listicle-what-happens-next-1422556723

http://blog.dreamplango.com/tag/build-brand-awareness/

http://www.truste.com/blog/2014/12/30/bbb-enforce-oba-practices/

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