Guideline to Advertising and Branding

Ethan Sands

es700016@ohio.edu


The world has turned digital, and every outlet is trying to find their way into the peoples' hands. There isn't just one way to do it so these platforms strategize and determine the best way to sometimes publish the best content, but in most cases, get the most clicks on their content.

The most recent ways we've seen outlets create and post content that is accessible and interesting to the viewer is through advertising and branding. These two have become extremely intertwined in the media as publishers have used various ways to sneak content into their pieces without being penalized.

Advertising and branding have always been a common theme, but the way that it is being done now can be seen as skeptical or anonymous. This can come off as unethical because of the rules that still must be followed as journalist to retain loyalty and fairness to the reader. Forbes has created a scapegoat for themselves. They have begun to use links or prominent statements that can encourage the reader to understand that it is branded content or native ads, but it is not necessarily clear for the reader.

Branding may have been around for athletes and musicians, but this is a whole different necessity. Branding for advertisements has been brought up the because of the need for editorial content. Though like every new tool in the journalism industry, this comes with ethical dilemmas. There needs to still be a process which journalists follow to ensure that PRSA lists. A key rule that is listed is, "Don’t let it become a substitute for earned media. Just because you post branded content doesn’t mean that you should stop working with the PR community to develop stories that deserve publication." This rule can play a huge role in the amount of branded content the media uses because they don't want to be seen as single-minded.

Overall, these new tools will have an immense impact on the media community and the freedom, creativity and access they can have and will receive because of these options.




Advertising can play a role in the connections that the media makes with other campaigns that they advertise but also it can show the focal interest of the organization. This has been done by media outlets like Nike with their Colin Kaepernick campaign. This not only connected Nike to Colin Kaepernick but to the African American that his movement is affiliated with. This was huge not only for the movement but for the rest of the community because for such a long time there was such a disapproval of what Kaepernick was doing. After this advertisement, it seemed as if the people who were in the shadows, but were in agreement, surfaced. The advertisement did numbers for Nike as well. As many people burned their Nike apparel against their support of Kaepernick, the number seemed to be outweighed by the people in support of Nike for their stance. The Guardian gave a closer insight to the numbers of how well Nike really did after the Kaepernick ad, "According to Edison Trends, a digital commerce research company: 'Nike sales grew 31% from Sunday through Tuesday over Labor Day this year, besting 2017’s comparative 17% increase.'"

The digital era has sprung. These advertisements and branding strategies can put organizations and platforms on to the next level. They have the potential to be more interesting and increasingly influential, but only if these tools are handled correctly by the journalist who use them.