FiercePharmaMarketing
| By Beth Snyder Bulik
Did you see
that ad? In many cases of native advertising, the answer is no--because people
can't always tell what's an ad and what isn't. A study in the December Journal
of Advertising found that the majority of consumers can't tell the difference
between native advertising and editorial content. As more pharma marketers
begin to embrace the format, and as the Federal Trade Commission continues to
home in on native advertising for any deceptive practices, the findings are
worth noting.
In two
different experiments, researchers from Grady College in Georgia found
surprisingly low recognition of advertising. In the first, consumers were asked
to read two stories, one that was native advertising and the other editorial.
The native ads were marked with a variety of labels including "sponsored
content," "advertisement," and "presented by" placed
in different areas around the page. Overall, fewer than 8%--17 people out of
242--recognized the native advertising as an ad.
In the
second experiment, the placement of the ad disclosure was tested using
eye-tracking technology to find out where more consumers would notice it. In
the traditional--and FTC-advised--top-of-the-page location, 40% of consumers
noticed the disclosure, but 90% noted it when it was in the middle of the page,
and 60% noticed it at the bottom.
Mediapost
noted in an article about the study, "These findings should come as no
surprise, considering that native advertising is intentionally presented in a
format that resembles surrounding editorial content."
However,
that format has helped it become a hot-topic marketing tool, and while native
advertising in pharma is still nascent, interest is growing. Justin Freid, VP
of search engine marketing & emerging media at CMI/Compas, said publishers
are increasingly offering pharma clients the opportunity to do native or
sponsored content.
"The
HCPs and consumers we're trying to reach are used to display and banner
advertising, so there's a lot of banner blindness out there. We're working to
create a lot of different types of new and engaging formats," he said.
"With sponsored content or native advertising, you have the ability to get
more information in front of a person and reach them at a time when they're
more deeply engaged."
He noted
the FTC's recent guidance that emphasized transparency and "clear and
prominent" disclosures. The agency asked marketers to use direct wording
such as "ad," "advertisement," "paid
advertisement" or "sponsored advertising content" to distinguish
native advertising, and to place the disclosure close to the headline where
readers generally begin.
While Freid
declined to name specific clients, he said the returns on native advertising
that his agency has seen on behalf of pharma clients in general are
"significantly higher than impressions" and have better engagement
numbers and more people taking actions after seeing them.
Freid also
offered a few tips to pharma marketers starting out with native ads. Make sure
the ad is clearly marked--a la the FTC guidelines--and make sure the
information provides value without pushing specific brands or being too
one-sided. He also advised taking a page from CMI/Compas' playbook. The agency
taps its SEO team for search and historical data around a condition or disease
to find out what information people are looking for and then creates native
advertising based on that.
