At the beginning of 2014 there was a lot of buzz about native advertising, some touting this year as the year for sponsored content. To kick of Native Advertising Awareness Month, I want to begin with an interview with Roger Wu, co-founder of Cooperatize.
Tell us how you found your way into native advertising and launching Cooperatize?
I have always been intrigued by how stories get “picked up” by media outlets and become viral over sharing on social media. Al Chen, my co-founder in Cooperatize, and I noticed the inefficiencies of the PR model, whereby individuals, brands, and companies are all pitching their ideas and services through press releases hoping that their story will get picked up and distributed.
We initially built a marketplace for businesses to share each other’s customers via content marketing and settled on the name Cooperatize through our desire to productize cooperation. While the idea was interesting in theory, businesses did not want to share each other’s content for fear of disrupting their own message and content that was shared was low quality content.
We then noticed Vocus’ “Help a Reporter Out” marketplace and immediately saw how they flipped the PR model on its head by having the media outlets themselves indicate their demand for a certain type of story. There was still an element of luck with this model, though:
- What if the media outlet didn’t like your brand image?
- What if they happened to have other stories that they wanted to publish and pushed you back in their editorial calendar?
- What if the story they published was not an accurate reflection of your business?
Cooperatize solves all of these issues by uniting publishers with brands via sponsored posts or native advertising. As a brand, you never have to worry about when your story will go out and the logistics of working with hundreds of different parties. We handle everything from beginning to end by linking you with relevant publishers while getting your story distributed under your timeline.
Why is native advertising important for brands?
In the digital advertising landscape, marketers are facing increased competition and noise in the paid search, display, mobile, and social arenas. Marketers are finding that generating awareness and affinity through digital engagement is difficult when they only have 140 characters in a Tweet, 25 characters in a Google AdWords headline, or 62,500 pixels in a 250×250 display ad to explain the history and mission of the brand. Focusing on the “Why” versus the “What” allows you to go deeper beyond the products and services you are selling. Native advertising allows brands to tell the “Why” story through custom editorial and integrations with the media outlet to highly engaged readers.
How does native advertising help brands achieve their online content goals?
Native advertising is a collaborative effort between the brand and the publisher. Brands provide their story and content while publishers determine the best way to form the narrative. Since the publisher shapes the story, the expected engagement increases both online and offline. By offering a fuller story from various perspectives, brands become humanized and can expect a higher recall rate and brand affinity versus traditional “snapshot” advertising. This collaborative story becomes an “evergreen” piece that is useful for both the brand and the publisher.
Stay tuned for more of my interview with Roger Wu on Tuesday.