Native advertising – the future of PR?

According to new research, native advertising – sponsored or branded content that matches the look and feel of publisher websites – is the next big thing for PRs.

The survey, commissioned by advertising platform Adyoulike, found that 75% of senior PR executives  believe that PR agencies would be the best choice to create and distribute native advertising content for brands while 87% think PRs could do more to win new content marketing budgets from their clients.  

Francis Turner, UK managing director at Adyoulike, said:

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.

The study revealed that 87 percent of senior PR executives think PRs could be doing more to seize new content marketing budget from their clients. 50% already offer native advertising solutions to their clients, with another 19% saying they plan to do so in the future.

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 with almost 63% using paid campaigns on Facebook and Twitter to increase views of their media coverage,

The same number (63%) use paid campaigns on those two platforms to boost views of their media coverage, but less than half 44%  use paid native. Facebook currently receives the most budget as a paid-for method of sharing coverage, accounting for 18% of agency media spend.

Francis 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.