It is a large link herd update this week as there hasn’t been one for a while. The headline is, again, the constant rise of native advertising and publishers adapting to cope. Today’s wordcloud is based off the herd’s bullet points.
Big beast Time Inc have created an 8 person strong team that will specialise in native ads. The team will work side-by-side with editorial staff.
Oh dear. A French judge has fined a blogger after her negative review ranked too well on Google. There’s some comment on the ruling, though, to suggest this won’t create legal precedence.
It turns out that Upworthy’s sponsored content might be better than their regular posts. Is this good or bad, though?
Does Michael Acton Smith stepping aside as CEO at Mind Candy mark the end of the company behind Moshi Monsters?
A games centric write up of Michael Acton Smith stepping down from the role of CEO as Mind Candy. This is an interesting development as Mind Candy is one of those neo-publishers many brands strive to become. The challenge they face, though, is that their audience has changed. Kids grow up quickly. The next generation of kids are doing something different. Mind Candy has become a big company so is it agile enough to meet the needs and demands of kids today and tomorrow?
Peretti argues that the phrase “Native Advertising” is used in different ways by people who want it to mean different things.
Wouldn’t be scary if Google tried its hand at being a publisher? Trick question. We’re all publishers now. In this piece Aarti Shahani gets access to Google’s experimental newsroom and discovers the giant is mining trends and using influencers in order to produce viral content.
Forbes’ write up of MLB Advanced Media. This is a company streamed 18,000 hours of live video – in 2009! The company does tickets and content; often a magic mix and that might be why they have $1bn 2016 target.
Ryanair is on the hunt for digital acquisitions to build an in-house hub. This is in addition to looking for a digital agency for a long term partnership. In another sign that brands are all publishers Ryanair Labs will be looking at content as well as an understanding of the audience and the platforms (starting with mobile) they use.
Facebook’s bought an ad optimisation system for video. It’s a good bit of technology and must, again, hint at Facebook moving towards video. Could Facebook be far off from launching a content rich AdSense rival?
Rebecca Lieb, an analyst at Altimeter Group, talks about native ads to an audience of search marketers. The video is a 101 but contains some helpful insights and likely some points you won’t agree with – which is the hallmark for a good discussion.
I think there’s a lot to be said for the 0-1-100 model. That’s free to use, easy to spend £1 and possible to spend £100. A lot of “free to play” games use something similar. EA’s Dungeon Keeper tried but upset fans. Was the game really a playable experience without spending money? The ASA thought not.
The famous Richard Edelman declares the marketing is all wrong – lots of money spent for very little results. Why the change? Brands are becoming publishers.
About DigitasLBi (disclaimer: work) hooking up with BuzzFeed while 360i teams up with Mashable’s viral trend spotter. In the article Ricardo Bilton argues that publishers know what agencies don’t.
A PR point of view on the trends in the news business. Ever noticed how a story is “breaking” even though a news channel as been reporting on it for the last two hours?
Shane O’Leary is a planner at Target McConnells and has blogged some wisdom on the state of native advertising. He begins by tackling the differences between advertorial and native, although you may disagree with his conclusion, and then goes on to look at Netflix’s most recent native OITNB deal with the New York Times.
Here’s a twist in the “we’re all publishers” story I wasn’t expecting; a threeway team up with Conde Naste, Google and Publicis. The three will creating “La Maison”, helmed by Charles Georges-Picot, current CEO of Publicis 133, to produce content for marketers in the luxury space.
Games blog Polygon has let their video director, motion graphics designer and features editor go. Why? After 2 years of making videos and special features they’ve found it hard to draw the audiences required to support the effort. While sites like Twitch are likely a factor here – since gamers can just tune in real time to watch a game rather than wait for a polished Polygon video – the job losses show the challenge even big blogs have at scaling content at the right cost.
Michael Brito gives an interview to Komfo on how brands can transform into media companies. He talks about content and distribution, storytelling and agility.
Scribd the platform that turns PDFs into easier-to-read and web embeddable documents has teamed up with Connu. The partnership is designed to help surface new author talent to readers.
The flip-side to agencies and publishers sharing a common evolutionary path is that publishers are getting better at making money from things enabled by, but not, their content. Step forward Wattpad the site that lets authors share their stories. They’ve confirmed that WattPad will be free forever as the platform will raise its revenue from native ads.
LiveFyre offers a free comment platform to bloggers that competes with the likes of Disqus. Whereas the latter looks to earn revenue from integrating ad services into the comment ecology LiveFyre offers techno-agency deals with brands. Time Out’s become the latest to appoint the company and will look to use LiveFyre’s real-time tooks to increase user-generated content and native ad opportunities.
The main thrust of the debate here is that the word “content” is a rubbish way to describe what marketers and brands need to produce. Why does Zebra Eclipse care? In the post the author spells out that brands must think more like publishers if they want to succeed.
We’re all publishers. I don’t just mean brands and agencies but every one of us. As people become better and more able to produce fantastic media then the bar pushes ever higher for brands. Keep that in mind and check out this video pitch for a drone called AirDog.
At the time of writing the AirDog has $70,000+ worth of pledges and needs $200,000 to successfully fund. The campaign closes on Saturday 26th of July. You can contribute to the campaign here.
I’m no sports fan but even I can see the attraction to having a drone like this. Furthermore, you don’t need to ask a friend to help. I speculate this will mean some of the crazy stunts that normally happen when no one is around to see – or stop them – will be recorded.
It is easy to imagine YouTube channels springing up with content fuelled entirely from AirDog. It’s also easy to imagine professional broadcasters having a challenge on their hands. You no longer need a copter to take shots like this. Equally, if a professional sportsman or woman was to wear and AirLeash – who’s AirLeash would they wear?