Native advertising may be the future, but at what cost?

Radical moves at BBC Three and The Independent (they've both moved to on-line only platforms) is all the proof we need that UK media is furiously chasing around trying to find the new paradigm. A financially sustainable platform with a healthy, engaged audience is the holy grail of the digital age, and that's particularly true of advertising and PR. So where does it lie? Does it even exist?

"Native is shaping up to be a vital future development for the PR sector."

New research has revealed that native advertising - sponsored or branded content that matches the look and feel of publisher websites - is shaping up to be a vital future development for the PR sector, and could be the way it gets more budget from its clients. Nine out of ten PR agencies in the UK (88%) admit they see 'native' as a real opportunity for the sector, and 75% believe they should be the best choice to create and distribute native advertising content for brands. In fact, the vast majority also think PRs could be doing more to seize new content marketing budgets (within which native advertising sits) from their clients.

The survey was commissioned by native advertising platform Adyoulike. It contacted senior directors and heads of digital at 75 of the UK's leading PR agencies, ranging in size from small businesses with fewer than 10 employees to multinational networks with more than a hundred. It also found that half of PR agencies currently offer native advertising solutions to their clients and 19% plan to do so in the future.

"It could be said there's a concerted effort to hoodwink the reader."

Of course, this does raise something of an ethical issue. When the lines between journalism and advertising copy become overly blurred, it could be said there's a concerted effort to hoodwink the reader - and indeed, diminish the integrity of the publisher. Still, desperate times demand desperate measures, and any means of leveraging more revenue is now welcomed by publishers and agencies alike. Francis Turner, UK managing director at Adyoulike, certainly thinks so: "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.

"Brands see the potential of native to get their message out there."

"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. PR firms should be aiming for a larger slice of the content marketing pie and native is a great way for them to get it." The study also analysed how PR agencies use native to increase the reach and share of the media coverage they get for clients.

Currently, agencies tend to focus on social media platforms to accomplish this, with 94% and 88% using organic reach on Twitter and Facebook, respectively. The same number use paid campaigns on those two platforms to boost views of their media coverage, but less than half currently use paid native. Facebook currently receives the most budget as a paid-for method of sharing coverage, averaging 18 percent of agency media spend. However, as far as ethical practices go, Facebook and Twitter are less of a problem. Paid advertising on these outlets is usually obvious and flagged as such. 'Native' is rather more insidious. Francis Turner continues: "Native allows PRs to get the media coverage they've worked so hard to achieve in front of new and broader audiences. That helps their clients and also allows them to demonstrate even greater success. "And given that so many agencies already share coverage on social platforms and pay for the privilege, moving budget into native and delivering PR in a native content environment as well as a social one makes complete sense."

"There are still challenges."

Nevertheless, there are still challenges. The survey found that only 38% of senior PR people feel 'very confident' that they can clearly explain native advertising to their clients, while two-thirds are concerned by the transparency of the paid element of native campaigns. Turner concludes: "With complete transparency and understanding, PR agencies can use native to strengthen their client relationships, make their hard-earned media coverage stretch even further and even gain access to previously-untapped content budgets. "Those who are doing so already or plan to kick off native campaigns in the near future are undoubtedly getting a leg up on the competition."

But are they contributing to the corruption of news journalism in the process? It's all a matter of how opaque that transparency becomes.