Mindshare Australia has forecast spending in native advertising and branded content will more than double over the next four years, rising from its current base of $69 million to $157 million in 2017 as consumers start to accept native content as a fact of life.
It told an audience of brands in Sydney today that most people were aware of native advertising, and were open to it.
It found hat 32% of people thought native advertising was harmful for brands, while the rest of its 1,681 sample group thought native advertising was beneficial to brands, but it had to be done well to avoid being seen as simply regurgitated advertorial.
Meanwhile, it found that recall from native advertising was 35%.
It also forecast spending in native advertising and branded content in Australia to reach $157 million in 2017 from its current base of $69 million
But not all native content is created equal, with specific platforms better for creating defined opportunities for brands.
For example, for a brand which wishes to build involvement and engagement, platforms which offer visual-based native opportunities such as Instagram work best. However, for brands which want consumers to discover the brand, longer-form content works best.
"To find out more information about a brand, you'll be better off using things like a blog on a company website, a feature or an interest article...longer form kind of content," Mindshare Australia's partner of business planning Liz Harley said.
Put more simply by GroupM's global chief digital officer Rob Norman: "Short form equals buzz, long form equals engagement and outcomes."
However, for any native advertising to work well it can't be obtrusive and invasive.
Mindshare gave the example of Facebook's recent push into native. While many observers have noted Facebook has done its native integration well, when it strays from this it is in danger of becoming intrusive.
"When a consumer hasn't liked a brand and all of a sudden it's on the newsfeed, it's considered really annoying," Harley said.
"Facebook should not be thought of as an open door, you still need to be invited in."
The consumer being in control of their digital experience was a constant throughout the presentation, with Mindshare telling its audience that the key to great native content was making sure the consumer felt they were discovering rather than being marketed to.
"The internet has become a responsive tool," Harley said. "It puts the consumer in control of what they watch, what they receive, and what they don't."
"Control equals click-to-view in contrast to pop-up ads, which is forced upon them without the need to click. That therefore undermines the power and choice the consumer feels they have."
GroupM's global chief digital office Rob Norman, added that native needed to clear higher hurdles than native's predecessor advertorial in the search for authenticity.
"I think the area of creepiness is one we normally associate with the world of privacy rather than the world of native, and when we think about the world of native we have to think about the level of disclosure to the reader," he said.
"There's a very fine line between deception and seduction, and it's great when a piece of native content seduces people into an interaction between between the brand and consumer.
"I think it's good to have high hurdles in this area because the discipline that creates both for the host publisher and for the agency, and the brand is a really, really good one."
You can read more insights from Rob Norman and Mindshare in Friday's print and iPad edition of AdNews, including more thoughts on native advertising and never being able to escape the watchful eye of Sir Martin Sorrell.
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