PR AGENCY DIARIES: NATIVE ADVERTISING VS EDITORIAL COVERAGE
As PR professionals we hear it often – paid vs earned? The age old debate has been drawing battle lines across the boardroom table for years. First things first, brands need to understand what native advertising is and how it fits into the pie.
Simply put, native advertising is paid content that closely matches the look, feel and function of the media format in which it appears – commissioned and planted articles, infographics, videos, you name it. Chances are high that you’ve seen it everywhere but sometimes it is pretty hard to spot.
So why bother with PR when you can pay to play? Although native pieces can be a highly impactful tool (when done right) there are many reasons why true editorial coverage is more important for your strategy.
Real talk
We’ve all heard it before – advertising is what you say about yourself, PR is what others say about you – a phrase, as cliché as it is, that’s still very relevant in today’s world.
Consumers are sceptical, they know when a product or message is being endorsed by a brand (even when it’s not that obvious) as opposed to a journalist, influencer or ambassador. And more and more they want a balanced view. If not handled carefully, native advertising can put brands at risk of losing a consumer’s trust and - we think - often beg the question as to why that brand isn’t interesting enough to earn the kudos itself. It’s best to keep it real, so put the trumpet down and stop telling people how great you are - let others do the talking, with the help of your trusty PR team of course!
More bang for your buck
Got a smaller budget but need it to go a long way? PR is your solution. Brands all too often fall down the rabbit hole of big flashy ad campaigns, involving hundreds of thousands of dollars for little or no tangible results. Unless you have a big budget it’s hard to make a native approach sustainable over a long period of time. A well thought out PR campaign or pitch has the power to deliver x1000 better results than one or two “disguised” ads shoehorned into a newspaper or magazine. As Bill Gates famously said “if I was down to my last dollar, I would spend it on public relations”.
Goes the distance
Native advertising requires brands to pay for space and a time period and on some occasions the amount of eye balls seeing that content via impressions, reach, subscribers, circulation – the list goes on. The content also needs to align with a publication or sites editorial style and tone and provide the information their audience wants to see – some outlets might even insist that you give them your most newsworthy titbits, on top of opening your wallet.
Worse still, by paying one outlet you’re potentially blocking others from featuring your brand – even if you’ve got a great story, why should they cover for free when the competitor has been paid for it?
Editorial coverage on the other hand is often the gift that keeps on giving. Messages can be delivered time and time again, seen by different audiences on different mediums, reinforcing an organic brand message legitimised by numerous third-parties.
So, leave it in the hands of a trusty PR, it will be worth it in the long run – they’ve got all the tools to get your brand seen and heard, and it’ll be much more rewarding too.
Ready to step up your editorial game? Get in touch.
