dg835214@ohio.edu
Product placement. We all know what it is. We all have seen it before. You know what I'm talking about, like in the middle of an action movie when the semi gets flipped over and out pours thousands and thousands of cans of your favorite beer. That's fairly easy to spot. You know that product placement was designed to grab your attention and make you want to buy that company's product as soon as the movie is over. This happens all the time in movies and TV shows. That is how the producers make a little bit more money. As easy as it may seem to spot product placement in movies and television shows, how easy is it to spot native content?
What is native content, and why should I care?
Native advertising may be a word some people have never heard of before. It is defined as advertisements designed to fit so closely with a publication's content that they appear to be part of the publication itself. So simply put, advertisers are trying to trick you into thinking that the spot they paid for in a publication is actually part of the editorial content. Now you may be thinking to yourself, how could anyone possibly fall into the trap of native content and think it is part of the editorial content? Well, it's actually pretty easy. These advertisers go to great lengths to make you believe this trickery. They do things such as use the same font and font size as the editors do in a publication. Along with that, they also use the same graphics and visual effects that the publications do to trick the reader even more.
The problem with all of this is that in some cases people can't tell the difference between this native content and actual editorial content. The lines between what is actual news and what is an advertisement seem to blend together. Readers start to believe all of this product promotion and placement as actual news, and that can scary.
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| Photo via mindgruve.com |
How is native content being distinguished?
Since advertising has become such a large part of social media, these social media platforms started to help users distinguish native content from other content a little bit easier. These social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat have all started to label this native content any time a user might come across it. Whether its in tiny print at the bottom of the ad or flashing in your face, these organizations have thrown in the words "advertisement" or "sponsored" somewhere in these advertisements.
So now you may be asking yourself, how much of this native content am I actually seeing but never really know that it is an advertisement? The answer is, probably a lot. Native content is a lot like fake news. It is everywhere but we may not even realize it. But just like fake news, we must analyze what we are reading or watching to see if it is true editorial content of native content. Just like the old saying goes, we must question everything, because if we don't we will never know what marketing schemes we may fall victim to.
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