Native advertising in online-only and hybrid media

Abstract

The relevance of this research is based upon the fact that native advertising as a type of online advertising is on the rise at the moment and media outlets are heavily relying on it as an income generator. Our research is concerned with how different types of online media outlets are integrating advertising content into editorial formats in order to make it mutually beneficial for the audience and for the clients. The purpose of our study is to identify and compare how two types of online media – hybrid and online-only – are utilizing textual and visual elements in their native advertisements in order to create a coherent relationship to the brand and the product, as well as to meet the audience's needs. In accordance with the research objective, we have set forth the following tasks: • to describe the modern revenue models used in online media; • to explain how native advertising is applied in online media as a revenue source; • to describe the methodology of analyzing sampled native advertisements in the chosen media outlets; • to conduct textual and visual analysis of in-feed native advertisements in the chosen media outlets in order to extract messages, brand relations expressed in the advertisements, and to find out how visual tools are utilized; • to discuss differences and similarities of blending advertising and editorial nature in the native advertisements by the chosen media outlets. The object of the following master thesis is the phenomenon of native advertising in online media. The aspect chosen is utilization of textual and visual elements in native advertisements in the online-only and hybrid media outlets. Three hybrid media outlets – The New York Times (USA), Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), Forbes.ru (Russia) – and three online-only media outlets – Quartz (USA), Mashable UK (UK), Meduza (Russia) – were analyzed. We applied the following methodology to conduct a wholistic analysis of native advertisements in these media: qualitative content analysis of the messages conveyed by the texts and their structures, along with semiotic and functional analysis of the visual tools. Our findings were also used for examining how the signification system of the promoted companies, products and services they are providing is manifested within the advertisements. We applied three sample criteria in order to choose which native advertisements would be analyzed: time scope – the study looked at the most recent examples published within the period of March 2016 – March 2017; brands promoted – in order to diversify the analyzed content, we took into account that often media outlets publish several advertisements in a partnership with one company and we were analyzing not more than one text per brand; type of native advertisement – we focused on in-feed units, or sponsored articles as a specific type of native advertising in order to keep the sample homogeneous. The theoretical base of our research was represented by works examining basic principles of advertising, such as C. Sandage and V. Fryburger, D. Ogilvy and S. N. Berdyshev to name a few. The phenomenon of online advertising as a revenue model was discussed within the works by P. Timmers, M. Al-Debei, S. Bateman. Books and articles by G. Cameron, B. Kim, Y. Pasadeos and A. Barban, along with reports prepared by Interactive Advertising Bureau and The Altimeter Group were examined in order to explore basic definitions, typologies and problematics of native advertising. Works by E. L. Vartanova, S. S. Bodrunova and A. A. Litvinenko, S. Cunningham et al. were an important source of knowledge for articulating clear definitions of online-only, digital-native and hybrid types of media outlets and for avoiding ambiguous understanding of these notions in the present thesis. Among the most significant conclusions made after accomplishing each of the subgoals stated are the following: • to make native advertising an integral part of the revenue generation strategy, publishers have to take into consideration a variety of critical factors, such as transparency of advertising incentives, content portability and ability to scale it, suitable KPIs development, etc.; • visual and textual tools were utilized consistently in each native advertisement in order to develop a relationship to the brand promoted, but the factor of keeping content relevant to the audience was often neglected by two media outlets out of the six examined – Forbes.ru and Süddeutsche Zeitung; • we could distinguish three basic approaches to combining advertising and editorial content within in-feed native advertisements based on our subjective perception of the level of overall intrusiveness of the native advertising content: intrusive (presented by Forbes.ru and Süddeutsche Zeitung), less intrusive (Quartz, Mashable UK and Meduza) and the least intrusive, or more editorial-looking (on the example of The New York Times); • origin of the media outlet, whether it is online-only or hybrid, its basic strategy towards online formats, along with the target audience are important factors that influence the way native advertising is presented and how it is blended with the editorial content.

The relevance of this research is based upon the fact that native advertising as a type of online advertising is on the rise at the moment and media outlets are heavily relying on it as an income generator. Our research is concerned with how different types of online media outlets are integrating advertising content into editorial formats in order to make it mutually beneficial for the audience and for the clients. The purpose of our study is to identify and compare how two types of online media – hybrid and online-only – are utilizing textual and visual elements in their native advertisements in order to create a coherent relationship to the brand and the product, as well as to meet the audience's needs. In accordance with the research objective, we have set forth the following tasks: • to describe the modern revenue models used in online media; • to explain how native advertising is applied in online media as a revenue source; • to describe the methodology of analyzing sampled native advertisements in the chosen media outlets; • to conduct textual and visual analysis of in-feed native advertisements in the chosen media outlets in order to extract messages, brand relations expressed in the advertisements, and to find out how visual tools are utilized; • to discuss differences and similarities of blending advertising and editorial nature in the native advertisements by the chosen media outlets. The object of the following master thesis is the phenomenon of native advertising in online media. The aspect chosen is utilization of textual and visual elements in native advertisements in the online-only and hybrid media outlets. Three hybrid media outlets – The New York Times (USA), Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), Forbes.ru (Russia) – and three online-only media outlets – Quartz (USA), Mashable UK (UK), Meduza (Russia) – were analyzed. We applied the following methodology to conduct a wholistic analysis of native advertisements in these media: qualitative content analysis of the messages conveyed by the texts and their structures, along with semiotic and functional analysis of the visual tools. Our findings were also used for examining how the signification system of the promoted companies, products and services they are providing is manifested within the advertisements. We applied three sample criteria in order to choose which native advertisements would be analyzed: time scope – the study looked at the most recent examples published within the period of March 2016 – March 2017; brands promoted – in order to diversify the analyzed content, we took into account that often media outlets publish several advertisements in a partnership with one company and we were analyzing not more than one text per brand; type of native advertisement – we focused on in-feed units, or sponsored articles as a specific type of native advertising in order to keep the sample homogeneous. The theoretical base of our research was represented by works examining basic principles of advertising, such as C. Sandage and V. Fryburger, D. Ogilvy and S. N. Berdyshev to name a few. The phenomenon of online advertising as a revenue model was discussed within the works by P. Timmers, M. Al-Debei, S. Bateman. Books and articles by G. Cameron, B. Kim, Y. Pasadeos and A. Barban, along with reports prepared by Interactive Advertising Bureau and The Altimeter Group were examined in order to explore basic definitions, typologies and problematics of native advertising. Works by E. L. Vartanova, S. S. Bodrunova and A. A. Litvinenko, S. Cunningham et al. were an important source of knowledge for articulating clear definitions of online-only, digital-native and hybrid types of media outlets and for avoiding ambiguous understanding of these notions in the present thesis. Among the most significant conclusions made after accomplishing each of the subgoals stated are the following: • to make native advertising an integral part of the revenue generation strategy, publishers have to take into consideration a variety of critical factors, such as transparency of advertising incentives, content portability and ability to scale it, suitable KPIs development, etc.; • visual and textual tools were utilized consistently in each native advertisement in order to develop a relationship to the brand promoted, but the factor of keeping content relevant to the audience was often neglected by two media outlets out of the six examined – Forbes.ru and Süddeutsche Zeitung; • we could distinguish three basic approaches to combining advertising and editorial content within in-feed native advertisements based on our subjective perception of the level of overall intrusiveness of the native advertising content: intrusive (presented by Forbes.ru and Süddeutsche Zeitung), less intrusive (Quartz, Mashable UK and Meduza) and the least intrusive, or more editorial-looking (on the example of The New York Times); • origin of the media outlet, whether it is online-only or hybrid, its basic strategy towards online formats, along with the target audience are important factors that influence the way native advertising is presented and how it is blended with the editorial content.