This native ad from The New York Times: a great example of the Snowfall effect in sponsored content
The multimedia campaign centers on women in prison, the setting for the original series, Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, . Complete with video, audio, infographics and tons of quotes and data visualization, this compelling message may appeal to a large segment of the reading population, not just familiarized with the series.
It’s one of the first to come from the Times’ newly formed Brand Studio unit, which was built to create native ads for advertisers. The ad is also mobile-friendly, by the way.
Reaction to this native ad? Some call it “probably the best piece of sponsored content you will find”, or ” the model of what all 'sponsored posts' should be”.
Of course, we know that not every newspaper will be able to execute this level of native ads with the available resources, but it is a great example to look at and to contemplate how things may look in native ad land in the future.
It is another vivid example of how a narrative with a solid story can seduce us, even if the small type above it reads “sponsored content”. If only editors would accept that and realize that the readers benefit, then we would begin to see more of this type of treatment of stories in the world of native ads.
For related information:
This “Orange is the New Black” native ad is winning over skeptics
http://digiday.com/publishers/new-york-times-native-ad-thats-winning-skeptics/
This native ad that The New York Times created for Netflix’s Orange is the New Black is getting praise from, of all people, journalists. It’s one of the first to come from the Times’ newly formed Brand Studio unit, which was built to create native ads for advertisers. The Times ad will raise the bar for native advertising, says Steve Rubel, chief content strategist at Edelman. But it may be tough for other advertisers to replicate when they don’t have the content and narrative that companies like Netflix already have.
You can expect more multimedia-rich native advertising from The New York Times ➚
What you don’t find in the piece is explicit promotion for the second season of the Netflix series. Aside from the logos of both Netflix and the show, Orange Is The New Black only gets mentioned once in the piece, in connection to Piper Kerman, the author of the book that inspired the series. Kerman’s experience in prison is wrapped in with the voices of other former inmates.
The Financial Times on Why They Ditched CPMs For a New Ad Currency: Time Spent
This strategic shift is part of the broader vision that the The Financial Times sees for the future of advertising. Sam Petulla talks to Jon Slade, commercial director of digital advertising for The Financial Times, in this Q&A about why do this, why now, and how the metric will work. “We have a hypothesis we want to prove: that the longer you show somebody a piece of brand creative, the more resonance that piece of content has with an audience. That’s normally not how we value advertising; we’re talking about an attention economy,” says Slade.