What You Need to Know About Native Advertising

Posted on September 22, 2021September 22, 2021 by Mindstream Media Group

Let’s talk about a massive advertising opportunity that has been flying under the radar for a lot of advertisers. It’s not that advertisers have ignored this opportunity, it’s more that they don’t really understand it. The opportunity we’re talking about is native advertising – a misunderstood format with serious potential for brands.

In 2021, U.S. advertisers will spend over $57 billion on native ads, which represents almost two-thirds of all digital display spending. In other words, it’s a pretty big deal. Still, even in the marketing and advertising worlds, not everyone is 100 percent sure what native advertising even means or what types of ads fall under its umbrella.

Some of that uncertainty lies in the nomenclature. When someone says “TV commercial” or “paid search ad” it’s fairly simple to figure out what they mean. But “native advertising” isn’t as intuitive. So, let’s take some time to peel back the layers of this [native advertising] onion and help marketers like you understand how to incorporate native advertising into your Q4 2021 and 2022 media strategy.

What is native advertising?

Let’s start with a softball question: what is native advertising? Here’s a simple definition from our friends at eMarketer:

“Digital display ads that follow the form, feel and function of the content of the media on which they appear, be it a webpage or an app.”

The key to native advertising is its non-disruptive nature. Ads don’t really look like ads; they integrate so smoothly with the page content and design they feel natural or “native.”

What do native ads look like?

Native ads come in several formats and on a variety of channels and platforms. Here’s a look at some of the more popular native ad formats.

In-feed ads

In-feed ads are paid social media posts that display in users’ feeds along with organic posts, usually with the denotation “Promoted” near the top of the post.

In-app reward videos

In-app reward videos appear in mobile apps and reward users for watching (e.g., Pandora videos that offer extended periods of uninterrupted listening after users watch them).

How can I use native ads in my digital media strategy?

For creative advertisers, native ads offer plenty of opportunities to drive results throughout the consumer buying journey. The key is focusing on your target audiences’ needs, demonstrating how you provide value to those audiences and building purposeful campaigns. After you lock in those three components, it’s a lot easier to decide which formats to use.

Focusing on your target audience

Before you start building your campaign, make sure you have a clear idea of the types of consumers you’re trying to reach. Conduct in-depth research into your target audience to figure out their needs and wants, what media channels they frequent and how they prefer to interact with brands.

Demonstrating your value

Once you understand your audiences, identify how your products and services address their needs. Your ad messaging should center on that value proposition in a way that resonates with specific consumers.

Building campaigns with a purpose

Ask yourself “what specific results do I want native advertising campaigns to drive for my brand?” Make sure your team understands what you’re trying to accomplish and the metrics you plan to measure success against.

What does the future have in store for native advertising?

2021 is already a huge year for native advertising. Despite slower growth in 2020 due to the pandemic, native ad spending grew by over two billion dollars in 2020 and has increased by over 22 billion since 2018.

U.S. native digital display ad spending

Mobile channels, programmatic platforms and social networks are the main drivers behind this increase. And, since there’s a lot of overlap between the channels, there are plenty of opportunities to run campaigns that incorporate all three.

Native ad formats like video and sponsored articles are becoming more popular as well, which has taken a chunk out of social media’s share of the ad spend. But social ads will still account for around three-quarters of native ad spend in the foreseeable future.

Percentage of native ad spending

There’s also a lot of growth happening in native advertising. Ad tech companies are building out the infrastructure necessary to handle large-scale programmatic native advertising campaigns that have:

The ability to test multiple creative messages
More sophisticated audience targeting
Better tracking and measuring capabilities

For brands, this means the already warm waters of native advertising should heat up even more with increased engagement and higher conversions. If your brand is interested in diving in, contact Mindstream Media Group to learn how our native advertising solutions can help Fast-Forward Your Business.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2019 and has been updated for freshness and accuracy.

How Agencies Can Grow Through Strategic Partnerships

Posted on February 25, 2021July 1, 2021 by Mindstream Media Group

Agency Solutions

12 Ways We Can Help You Fast-Forward Wins

Scale

Pricing Insight
Research
New Biz Clout
Increase Agency Value

Perspective

Revenue Sharing Options
No Minimums
No Incremental Labor
Protect Accounts

Capabilities

Performance Expertise
Analytics Suite
Extend Service Offering
You Win – Then, We Win

We Are Built To Be An Extension Of Your Team

	We are bold strategic advisors Obvious answers usually aren’t going to Fast-Forward things, so we go deep to find the correlations and opportunities that can help us drive better results.
	We are fueled by data, driven by insight Our business intelligence group mines your data and ours, not simply to plan, but to adjust in real time as market conditions evolve.
	We are capable of planning, buying and optimizing from national to hyper-local We make it simple for brands to drive results regardless of the selling environment and company marketing structure.
	We work in agile communities of specialists We don’t work in a traditional media hierarchy. We’re organized in communities of experts that create a virtuous cycle of improvement and position us to swarm to client opportunities.

Draw on Our Research Tools

We invest over $1 million annually in the media industry’s best research tools, which help to define and drive our media recommendations.

Leverage our Partnerships

Our media expertise has enabled our agency to partner with the best names in the business, like Google, Facebook, Yext, Dataxu, Microsoft, Snapchat and more.

How We Can Partner

3 Pillars


Traditional	Digital	Analytics

2 Engagement Options


	Full-service execution	Consulting

100% Transparent on Spend/Fees

Agency service models

Learn More

The agency landscape has changed dramatically as a result of numerous challenges across the marketplace. Learn more about how we’re filling the gap for agency partners that have found themselves with limited media and research capabilities. In this episode of Fast-Forward the Conversation, VP of Business Development Fabio Ramos and Planning Strategist Misty Castellanos join President Zac Keeney to discuss the value Mindstream can provide not only to agencies but to their clients as well.

Connect With Us

The Agency Landscape is Changing Before Our Eyes. Daily.

Posted on April 29, 2020January 13, 2021 by Mindstream Media Group

Creative Agencies Win by Partnering with Media Firms

We’ve seen it as immediately as the last two weeks. The “once was” is colliding with the “now is” strategy and structure of operating a successful agency. Full-service and creative shops are morphing before our eyes as everyone looks to answer for the future state of their business.

What exactly does the future state look like?

For our team at Mindstream Media Group, we look to the horizon, while remaining anchored in our PURPOSE:

We don’t discriminate in WHO we view as our “clients” in this purpose and in our delivery of services—from national brands and franchise businesses to general and creative agencies.

We work with 20+ agency partners from Southern California to Maryland, and some relationships have existed for as long as 10 years. Other relationships are just starting to blossom as we “win together” with creative agency partners. Agency partnerships are especially interesting now, as agency models are being reinvented.

Why is that?

It’s really a terrific question. The “jack of all trades” creative shop or full-service partner likely had to evaluate resources in the last 30 days. Everyone in our space has. No one is immune to the ripple effect of the virus and the impact on our service teams. Offerings are being pared down and a refined focus on the work is coming back into a clearer perspective. What’s needed more now than ever is a high-quality account and/or strategic lead. Then, lean on the talents and perspective of a trusted partner to bring it to life.

This BEFORE & AFTER image represents the typical, pre-pandemic agency account structure and what challenges will exist going forward.

Agency structures are reinventing at a rapid pace due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But clients aren’t going away. Agency owners, COOs and account teams are looking for trusted partners to help them bring their ideas to life. As the economy rebounds, Mindstream Media Group can insert quickly into the statement of bringing ideas to life. No one will have time to waste when ramping back up.

Now, let’s say you’ve never considered this approach pre-pandemic… What specifically does Mindstream Media Group bring to the table to help retain your business and GAIN new opportunity (clients) in this new economy?

We exist to Fast-Forward Your Business through perspective, capabilities, a CRUSH IT culture and the pricing insight $500 million in scale brings. We’ve distilled our unique perspective, capabilities and scale into 12 ways we can help agency partners moving forward.

In addition to uniquely beneficial partnership models and full-solution media capabilities, one example of value we deliver is seen in No. 2 under SCALE (Research). Re-evaluation of an agency P&L may have left many of these crucial research tools by the wayside. We get it. Let us, or another partner, lift the burden of cost and ensure you’re continuing the stewardship of your client dollars. Our team invests nearly $1,000,000 annually with research and strategic planning tools. The key word is “invests” in the tools. We rely on this wealth of research data to help define and drive our media recommendations.

We have agency partner relationships spanning over a decade. Why? Because together: they win first; then we win by truly being an extension of their team and delivering a full range of media solutions.

Challenge presents opportunity, and as a collective, our fellow agencies are certainly living this challenge. If any of this speaks to where you are today, embrace the opportunity to scale your business, and let’s start a conversation. Reach out to me directly or submit the form below and we’ll get back to you.

Zac Keeney, President of Mindstream Media Group, leads the agency’s sales and marketing teams. His 15-year career in media encompasses working with many Fortune 500 brands to successfully strategize and implement campaigns of all shapes and sizes. Zac’s competitive spirit fuels the drive to keep a constant focus on moving client business forward. The unique challenges that every client presents allows Zac and his team to thrive by consistently providing unique, agile solutions in an ever-changing marketing landscape.

Marketing Insights to Navigate the Coronavirus Pandemic – Weekly Recap of News You Can Use

Posted on April 24, 2020April 23, 2020 by Mindstream Media Group

Week of April 20, 2020

Greetings from the home office.

As the COVID-19 chaos continues to create challenges for businesses across the map, there are beginning to be a few bright spots. Consumer confidence and spending have seen a slight increase thanks to stimulus checks and the anticipation of stay-at-home orders being lifted.

But, a marketer’s work is never done. Brands continue to find new ways to pivot their products and services to remain relevant, reallocate budgets and adjust marketing strategies and media buys. Those that remain steadfast with timely solutions and maintain an empathetic connection with their customers are more likely to be remembered and reap the long-term benefit of increased customer loyalty. To help you stay current and aid in your strategy development, below is this week’s roundup of insightful content.

Content Roundup

How has media consumption changed in face of COVID-19? Here’s a look at what people are doing during this period of isolation at home. Media consumption has vastly increased, and not surprisingly, it differs by generation. People are relying on their devices to “inform and distract,” which is creating an increasing opportunity for marketers to engage this captive audience. Learn more.

Local news is spiking, the top five video streaming services are up and radio and digital audio have maintained their listener base. A Nielsen expert discusses these points plus the effect on revenue for brands cutting their media spend during the pandemic. Learn more.

Pessimism and stories of economic gloom have dominated in recent weeks, but there are now increasingly hopeful signs for marketers including positive consumer sentiment, an uptick in online spending and increased marketing activity designed to propel brands through the rebound. Learn more.

Source: CivicScience

As businesses are gearing up for a post-pandemic world, they must consider five areas that will shape their strategy: position, plan, perspective, projects and preparedness. This article from Harvard Business Review presents many questions to help guide brands’ planning initiatives. Learn more.

We all know content is critical for SEO success, but how can your brand stand out in a sea of “coronacontent”? What type of content should you be creating now and how do you prepare for the post-coronavirus future? There’s no simple answer, but here’s what digital marketing experts had to say in an interview with Greg Sterling. Learn more.

Although it’s a tumultuous period, now is the perfect time for brands to learn from consumers’ new purchasing habits and online behaviors and refine their customer experience strategies accordingly. Learn more.

Brands are trying to determine what changes they need to make now and moving toward the future to stay relevant, stay in business and ultimately grow despite this crisis. Here are four ways companies are pivoting their offerings, budgets and strategies due to COVID-19. Learn more.

We hope you’ve found our compilation insightful. Stay safe and if you haven’t already, subscribe to our blog to get next week’s roundup delivered straight to your inbox.

How Franchisees Can Build An Effective Social Media Strategy

Posted on April 14, 2020May 18, 2020 by Darcy Bickham

As a multi-location business, your franchisees must all be on the same page when it comes to digital presence, especially during times of crisis. All local pages need to be claimed and consistent, and this is increasingly true on social media. Brand consistency is a key component when it comes to keeping your consumers informed. Whether you already have a healthy local social media strategy in place for your franchise, or are beginning to plan one for the inevitable rebound that will come after this pandemic, this blog provides useful insights.

Develop Brand Guidelines

The first thing you should do when developing a social media strategy for your multi-location business is determine brand guidelines.

Brand guidelines allow your multi-location business to:

Differentiate your business from competitors
Develop a personality and identity that prospects can relate to
Create customer loyalty and trust
Position your brand as an industry leader

It’s clear that branding is essential for your business locations, so how can you implement it into a localized marketing strategy?

While you want to give local franchisees some control over their marketing initiatives based on data and feedback from their local area, you also don’t want your locations to be inconsistent across your brand. Inconsistency will confuse customers and harm your brand identity.

The key here is to offer some leeway and have a set of non-negotiable branding elements and a set of negotiable or changeable items that each franchise owner or local marketing manager can work with.

There are a few basic things that should be consistent across all of your local social pages. For instance, each local social page should have some variation of your brand’s logo as its profile picture to help with brand recognition. A consistent naming structure for your pages is essential as well. If you work for Domino’s Pizza, your local pages can be named “Domino’s Pizza – [location name]” or some variation, as long as it’s consistent.

There should also be a conversation about what you expect in terms of engaging with your audiences across platforms. How quickly should your franchisees be responding to comments on social media? How should they respond to negative feedback? These are conversations that should take place between corporate and local marketing managers to ensure your local locations have a consistent social media strategy across franchise locations.

Focus on Formatting and Tone

Regardless of the type of content your franchisees are creating, it’s crucial to pay attention to brand voice and formatting. While the tone of voice can vary slightly for localized content, it should be pretty consistent with the tone in the branding guidelines. When a consumer is looking at your brand across local pages and platforms, they should not notice any big differences across pages.

The same goes for formatting. You should be formatting your images and content to be visually appealing to local target audiences, and not changing drastically from post to post. It’s imperative to keep a consistent look and feel for both corporate and localized content. Additionally, make sure to look at image pixel requirements for each social platform and ensure the images match those requirements. While franchisee marketers certainly don’t need to be graphic designers, there are tools like Canva that can help you create professional-looking images relatively easily.

Hashtags can also help your franchise dominate its social media strategy. As a franchise, you should pick a few key branded hashtags to use consistently across all locations, and encourage franchisees to develop a local list, too. The use of ongoing hashtags can help with brand awareness and consistency.

Once it’s determined how your franchise will keep branding and formatting consistent, you can start developing a content plan.

Create a Content Plan

Planning a content plan for your franchise will help ensure your franchisees have an ideal mix of both corporate and localized content on social channels. It will also ensure that some franchise locations don’t have inactive social channels, while others are posting daily. Corporate can create monthly or quarterly content plans with brand-approved posts, then each franchisee can supplement that strategy with hyper-local posts.

The content corporate develops can be used by local franchisees to ensure a consistent posting strategy.

On the other hand, localized content can include:

Special promotions that are running at a specific location
Upcoming events Group photos from your location
Relevant location-specific news/updates
Highlights of happy local customers

Adjust Your Content to the Times

While a content plan is typically very helpful in keeping your social media strategy organized, it’s important to be ready to adjust your content plan at the drop of a hat. For instance, while we are currently in the midst of a pandemic, your franchise should re-evaluate your content strategy. Right now, there is no business as usual. Your franchisee locations should be acknowledging this time of crisis. Keeping consumers informed is critical, along with updating local business hours and expressing empathy with your consumers.

If your business is experiencing some down time during this pandemic, it is a great opportunity to start building out your content plan and social media strategy for when this crisis subsides. It’s always important to be thinking ahead, so now is the time to start thinking about how you can speak to your consumers when all of this has passed. For instance, you may want to create content around finally being able to leave your house, or spend quality time with friends and family that people couldn’t interact with during the quarantine.

While the current pandemic situation is very specific, in other instances you may have to adjust your content to a lesser extent. For example, if there was a big news story that was trending nationwide, your franchises would adjust their content to speak to what was going on in relevant news.

Use an Approval Workflow

Now that you are aware of how to create a strong social media strategy for your franchise, how can you ensure that the correct content is getting shared? That’s where an approval workflow comes in. Your franchise should have some process in place to review the social content that local franchisees are sharing.

For instance, there are platforms that allow franchisees to post their scheduled content, allowing corporate to approve the content if necessary. There are also social media tools that allow you to schedule your content ahead of time and monitor your engagement on social media. Looking at performance metrics will help you understand how your content is performing, and allow you to make optimizations.

Once you have your approval workflow set up, your franchise should be ready to go. With brand guidelines, a well thought out content strategy, and approval workflow, your franchise will be in a position to crush the social game and stand out from competitors.

This blog was written by Darcy Bickham, Content Marketing Specialist from SOCi, the leading centralized platform built specifically for “next-level” multi-location marketers.

A Marketer’s Mindset in Guiding Clients Through the Current Pandemic

Posted on March 23, 2020March 24, 2020 by Mindstream Media Group

As marketers, we are tasked with guiding clients, brands, franchisees and even other marketers on media strategy, tactics and most recently, how to best navigate through an unprecedented crisis that changes by the minute.

It’s easy and somewhat comforting to follow the same news sources’ guidance and recommendations, but especially now with so many affected by this pandemic all over the globe, there are SO MANY sources of information – whether about the virus itself, how it’s affecting sales, tips for working from home, how to practice better self-care in stressful times…the list goes on.

Being a marketer is grounded knowledge gained from education and work experience, but another component is curiosity. It’s about gathering from multiple sources, researching messaging from different brands on the same topic, how to find that coveted solution to reach your target audience, standing out in a sea of sameness.

With this article, we’ve channeled our curiosity into finding the most helpful, practical content to better help you stay informed and provide guidance for your brand.

Should the News Disrupt Your Content Calendar? We (as an agency) have adapted our own content plan, as well as those of our clients, in the last few weeks. Business-as-usual content efforts can be seen as tone-deaf and possibly insensitive. But how does one decide to what extent to change an already-perfected content calendar? Learn more.

Is your business closed, on a limited schedule, offering different services due to the virus (restaurant takeout/delivery) or been affected somehow by the pandemic? Make sure your Google My Business listing has the most up-to-date information to help consumers. Learn more. Google is adding a feature to GMB listings that allows business owners to easily mark whether they are ‘temporarily closed’ – and will show this information in Search and Maps. Learn more.

Source: Google

It’s better for businesses to be proactive rather than reactive in the age of social distancing. Learn more.

Agility and thoughtfulness in marketing strategy, at its best: How brands are acting quickly and taking extra precautions to avoid coronavirus insensitivities. Learn more.

To help ease the burden on small businesses, Facebook has created a $100 million grant program to assist 30,000 SMBs in 30 nations. In addition to grants, Facebook is developing a range of other options to provide further assistance. Learn more.

Source: Facebook

We hope you’ve found our compilation insightful. Stay safe and if you haven’t already, subscribe to our blog to get next week’s roundup delivered straight to your inbox.

Category: Content Marketing

How Agencies Can Grow Through Strategic Partnerships

Agency Solutions