Sunday, October 27, 2013

Integrating Advertisements: Sponsored Advertisements in the Media


Michelle Robinson
mr200810@ohio.edu


Advertisement Consumption
We consume advertisements constantly throughout the day, and you may or may not even realize it. On average an American will see around 4,000 ads a day. This can range from seeing a sports team plastered on a fans clothing, to someone carrying a Coke can advertising a contest, to everything we see on our smart phones and televisions.

A baby displaying an array of advertisements on his bare skin, bluebee.com 


The most obtrusive ads, however, are the ones plastered all over our computer screen that pop up and distract us from the content we’re trying to enjoy. You can thank Joe McCambley, founder of The Wonderfactory, for the banner ad we see on every webpage.

Viewers may swear that they are constantly ignoring advertisements on the web, but there is no doubt you see them for at least a few seconds. Advertisers are trying to integrate their content into our webpages more effectively now, by creating sponsored ads to pair with popular web pages.


An Example of a sponsored ad from Buzzfeed 


Sponsored Ads
Sponsored ads can be a more creative and integrative way to get your message across, by using content from a sponsor that can be both engaging and interesting to the viewer. But the world of sponsored ads is a slippery slope, and the interest of the news organizations and fellowship of the readers can come into jeopardy.

It is argued that sponsored ads are compromising the integrity that a news organization is trying to stand by.

In fact The Atlantic came into a fair bit of trouble recently when they published a sponsored ad for the Church of Scientology, including allowing supportive comments from readers but blocking the critical ones. 

The key to successful sponsored ads is a balance between active advertisement that is both informative and interesting. The company needs to be honest with the readers and acknowledge what is and what is not a sponsored ad and not try to secretly sell them an advertisement by making it seem like an editorial. 

“Nobody likes to sit through aggressive sales pitches. They’ll stop reading an article that feels like one, and they certainly won’t be sharing it with their friends,” said Jeff Sonderman, of poynter.org.

Readers should also be able to actively comment on sponsored ads and allow criticism. The conversation between news outlets and the public should always be an active one, so audience engagement is critical. 


The Expanse of Sponsorship in the Media  

Even the world of YouTube has entered the world of sponsored ads. Popular channels that are a part of YouTube’s partner program (meaning they earn money for the content they produce) have been pairing with sponsors for years. It’s only recently that the public has begun noticing, and criticizing, poor sponsorship. If they’re not careful, people will accuse popular YouTubers of “selling out” to gain profit from the sponsored companies.


Popular father of youtube family Shay Carl makes a fun video as a promotion for Windex Touch Up Cleaner.

Sponsored videos can be effective because they allow the content creators a fun way to engage their viewership. Still, there are no set guidelines for sponsored ads, so it is up to the organization's discretion whether or not to run them. 

According to Jeff Sonderman, of poynter.org, he most important factor a news company needs to consider when publishing a sponsored ad is:

 “Would I consider running this content if it wasn’t sponsored?”

If the answer is no, a company needs to seriously consider which sponsored ads they are willing to run. Sponsored content needs to agree with the content and values in which the company believes.

No comments:

Post a Comment