Trust is paramount to successful and ethical advertising. It is not just a question of ethics and honesty. In order to effectively represent a particular brand’s “DNA”, it is essential that the company who wishes to advertise their product and identity chooses its advertising partner wisely. Ultimately, the style, form and genre of the banner or advertorial host directly influence the audience’s perception of the brand.

How we understand brand essence and DNA

Above all, the most queried ethical problem surrounding native advertising is the concept of transparency; if sponsored content is explicitly labelled it is said to assume transparency and consumer recognition.

It’s true. In the world we are in today, there is a demand for new forms of advertising, just as there has been in the past. We cannot move forward with new technologies without other social forms such as marketing and advertising following suit. In response to complaints around deception, the concept of disclosure, whether in the form of “shaded text, logos or disclaimers”, has been a key constituent in debate over native advertising.

Trust, as a central and underlying idea has prompted many publications to form improved, and consistent policies with regards to the policing and governance of native advertising.

In a survey conducted by David Franklyn, director of the McCarthy Institute for IP and Technology Law at the University Of San Francisco School Of Law, 10, 000 people from several different countries were questioned on their understanding of native advertising. Franklyn found that 50% of those surveyed could not identify what native advertising is, and more than half of these people could not bring to mind any particular examples of sponsored advertising in the last two years. Such evidence, like that of Franklyn’s surveys, has shown that societal minorities such as senior citizens and disabled people are less likely to recognise collaborative content.

References:

Steigrad, A 2013, ‘Native Advertising: The Pros and Cons’, Academic OneFile, December, Edition 7, pp. 1 -3.

Del Rey, J 2012, ‘Native advertising: media savior or just the new custom campaign?’, Advertising Age, October, Volume 83, Issue 39, pp. 1 – 2.

Krumsvik, A 2012, ‘Why old media will be funding journalism in the future’, Journalism Studies, March, pp. 729 – 739.

Sebastian, M 2014, ‘Another one falls’, Advertising Age, Volume 85, Issue 5, March, pp. 1 – 3.