guest lecture university of amsterdam native advertising

1. Understanding native advertising
on online news platforms
Simone Krouwer
PhD researcher
University of Antwerp
@SimoneKrouwer

2. QUIZ:
“Is this an advertisement?”

6. Editorial
News Article
Native Advertisement
- An advertisement that mimics the look and
feel of editorial news content -

7. NATIVE ADVERTISING IS EVERYWHERE
“Paid advertising where the ad mimics the form, feel and function
of the content of the media on which it appears. ”
Zie ook:
Sponsored lenses –
Snapchat AR
Sponsored search results
- Google Search Engine
Sponsored LinkedIn post - LinkedIn

8. European spending
on native advertising formats is
expected to reach
€13.2 billion
by 2020
And take a
52% share
of the digital advertising
market.

9. NATIVE ADVERTISING ON NEWS WEBSITES
Advertisements that mimic the look and feel of editorial news content.

10. DUTCH ONLINE NEWS READERS IN 2018…
MARKETING
Refers to a good or service being offered by a
company. Ideally, a product should meet a certain
consumer.
IMPROVE
Refers to a good or service being offered by a
company. Ideally, a product should meet a certain
consumer.
SOLUTIONS
Refers to a good or service being offered by a
company. Ideally, a product should meet a certain
consumer.
Creative
Solutions
PROVIDING THE BEST SOLUTIONS
Refers to a good or service being offered by a
company. Ideally, a product should meet a
certain consumer demand, or it should be so
compelling that consumers believe they need it.
…AVOID TRADITIONAL BANNER ADVERTISEMENTS
… DON’T PAY ANYTHING FOR ONLINE NEWS
26%
use an
AD
blocker
87%
Don’t pay
anything
for online
news

11. Brands
generate attention and influence
Media
generate revenue and content

12. INTENTIONAL EXPOSURE THEORY
Readers are more motivated to pay attention towards
content that can fulfil their media needs
WHY DOES NATIVE ADVERTISING WORK?
Readers consider advertisements as useful and interesting
MEDIA USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY
INFORMATION UTILITY THEORY
Readers are not aware that they are viewing native
advertisements, and therefore process the native ads less critically
PERSUASION KNOWLEDGE MODEL

14. Native Advertising.
(How) can we implement this
in an online news context?
Today we will look at the role of:
1. Advertising recognition and brand presence
2. Media literacy and transparency
3. Message sidedness and advertiser credibility

15. To disguise
or disclose?
The influence of brand prominence
and label recognition
Krouwer, S., Poels, K., & Paulussen, S. (2018). To Disguise or to Disclose? The Influence of Disclosure Recognition and Brand
Presence on Readers' Responses Toward Native Advertisements in Online News Media. Journal of Interactive Advertising,
17(2), 124-137. doi:10.1080/15252019.2017.1381579

16. Disclosure labels…
 Provided by…
 Partner content
 Sponsored content
 Paid post
 Branded Content
 Advertorial
 Brandvoice
 #spon
 Presented by…
 In collaboration with
… At least 11% of the news websites
do not label their native ads…
Widely vary

17. Eye-Tracking research:
 “Presented by” and “brandvoice”
are not effective (2 - 3 %)
 “Advertisement” and “Sponsored by brand X”
are more effective (12 - 13 %)
 BUT: eye-tracker shows:
Readers often do not notice labels at all!
(in a computer context)
 Researchers (Wodynski & Evans, 2015) 
“We need a label on the middle of a page!”

18. Advertisers are afraid of using clear disclosure labels…
If readers know that they are
reading content from an
advertiser, they don’t trust it
anymore…

19. (e.g. Boerman, 2014)
Persuasion Knowledge Model:
Label recognition:
Readers notice a
disclosure label
Conceptual Persuasion Knowledge:
They recognize that they are
viewing an advertisement
Attitudinal Persuasion Knowledge:
This leads to more critical processing
and more negative evaluations.
ONLY SOMETIMES
(e.g. Boerman, 2012; Wojdysnki and Evans 2015; Becker-Olsen 2003; Carr and Hayes 2014; Krouwer and Poels 2016).

20. Content  Brand Presence
Information Utility & Inferences of Manipulative Intent theories:
▹ Low brand presence  increase in value for reader  
▹ High brand presence  ad mainly benefits the advertiser  
(e.g. Campbell, 1995; Sweetser, 2016)
High brand presence  more negative evaluations of the ad and advertiser?
(e.g. Wentzel, Tomczak, & Herrmann,2010)
Negative advertising experiences may spill-over on the news website.
(Yang and Oliver, 2004; Ha and Litman; 1997)

21. Experiment: Label Position x Brand Presence

22. High Low
Brand Presence

23. The Middle - positioned
disclosure
was sig. more often
recognized
(22.8% VS 11.2%)
X There was no added value
combining a top- and
middle-positioned
disclosure
(26.7% VS 22.8%)
X Attitudinal PK:
(Critical
processing)
X Attitudes
towards the
ad
Conceptual PK
(advertising recognition)
F(1, 285) = 8.81, p < .05)
Disclosure
recognition
X Attitudes
towards the
brand
X Attitudes
towards the
news website
Simone Krouwer – University of Antwerp
+
+
-
-
-
Readers’ recognition of the disclosure labels

24. BRAND PRESENCE
X Conceptual PK
Attitudinal PK
(critical processing)
(F(1, 283) = 139.24, p < .001)High Brand
presence
Attitudes towards the news
website
(B = -.36, SE = .08; 95%
CI = -.543 to -.200).
Attitudes towards the brand
(B = -.23, SE = .08; 95%
CI = -.397 – -.079).
Attitudes towards
the ad
(B = -.69, SE = .12; 95%
CI = -.960 to -.472).
Simone Krouwer – University of Antwerp
• All effects controlled for news website experience and involvement
• News website, Ab and Aad mediated by attitudinal PK
-
-
-
+
+

25. Conclusion
Disclose! But disguise the brand…
Brand presence (the content of an advertisement)
might be more important than disclosure recognition
For news websties: always test your disclosure label!
(Do readers see it? Do they understand it?)

26. Disclose?

27. Does the clarity of the disclosure influence readers’ evaluations?

28. Moving towards
transparency for
native advertisements:
A test of more detailed
disclosure labels
2.

29. Who creates the native advertisements?

30. The text that I just
read is an advertisement
“The text that I just read
has been written by a journalist”
Ad recognition
Understanding
This can damage
readers’ trust!

31. Advertising recognition  Deception
Disclosure- and advertising recognition
can lower readers’ trust in news media and advertisers
But some studies did not find this effect!
Deception
also damages readers’ evaluations of
advertisements, advertisers and media
(e.g. Carr and Hayes 2014)

32. Sponsorship Transparency
“The extent to which a sponsored communication message makes
noticeable to the consumer its paid nature and the identity of the sponsor”
Higher Transparency
=
less negative effect of ad recognition on readers’ evaluations?
(Wojdynski, 2018)

33. Transparency via disclosures?

34. News Contexts  other media contexts
Why am I seeing this
between my news?
Who is the author
of this text?
A journalist?
Key elements of transparency in news contexts
 Name of the advertiser
 Advertising / Editorial divide (independent journalists)
 Internal processes and decision making
(Karlsson, 2010; van der Wurff & Schönbach, 2014)

35. A test of 4 more- and less detailed disclosure labels
1.
Little information
Partnercontent
2.
Paid nature +
name of the
advertiser
Sponsored by Spa Water
3.
Details about
authorship
Sponsored by Spa Water +
This sponsored article has been created for an advertiser.
The journalists of the news website have not been involved in the creation of
the content.
4.
Details about the
business model of
news media
Sponsored by Spa Water +
This sponsored article has been created for an advertiser.
The advertising revenues support the news website, helping us to fund our
journalism and to keep providing you your news.

37. Advertising Recognition
Partner content Sponsored by
Spa
Explanation
authorship
Explanation
business model
news media
Ad recognition 60,2% a 76,3% b 81,0% c 85,8% c
Disclosure recall 4,4% a 28,9% b 46,6% c 41,6% c
*Significant difference between cells with a different letter (p <.05)
Sponsorship Transparency
Partner content Sponsored by
Spa
Explanation
authorship
Explanation
business model
news media
3.34a 4.16b 4.46c 4.64c
Seven-point scale. *Significant difference between cells with a different letter (p <.05)

38. Partner content
(ref. category)
Sponsored by (…)
Detailed disclosure
authorship
Detailed disclosure
business model
news media
Credibility
native advertising
Sponsorship
Transparency
0.82***
1.12***
1.29***
.34***
NS = non-significant, *** = p < .001. Reference category: ‘partner content’.
Credibility
advertisers
Credibility
news websties
.29***
.33***

39. Moving towards transparency:
A more detailed
disclosure label
- Advertising recognition
- Perceived transparency
Credibility of native ads,
advertisers and news websites
in general
Readers should be clearly informed about:
- The advertiser behind the sponsored content
- The importance of advertising revenue for news media
- The separation between advertising & editorial departments

40. EDUCATION

41. 3.
The influence of
message sidedness
and credibility of the advertiser

42. Message sidedness???
One-sided Two-sided
“Six advantages of artificial sweeteners” “What are the advantages and disadvantages of
artifical sweeteners? ”
Attribution theory  A two-sided message increases
the credibility of the advertiser
Inoculation Theory  A two-sided message reduces
counterarguing
One-sided communication  more resistance

43. Expectation: two-sided native advertising:
Increases the credibility of the
advertiser and readers’ attitudes
towards the advertiser
Increases credibility of
the ad and attitudes
towards the ad
Two-sided
native advertising Decreases critical
processing

44. One-sided
Two-sided

45. Influence of source (credibility)
Low credibility
Profit
High credibility
non-profit
5.59b3.66a
Source credibility: 1 - 7.
Different letter = significant difference in source credibility (p < .05)
High credibility
Profit organization
5.01b
 The extent to which readers’ native advertising recognition leads to more critical
processing, might depend on the type of source (profit / non-profit) and its credibility.
News article
=
benchmark

46. Message sidedness X Type adverteerder
Strongest positive effect of
two-sided message
Smaller positive effect of
two-sided message
Weakest effect of two-sided
message
Low-credibility advertiser
High-credibility advertiser
Profit (Study 1) and non-profit (study 2)
Journalist (news article)

47. The negative information should not be too important…
Pre-test:
“If you need to pick a sweetener as an alternative to sugar, how important would each of these attributes be to you?”
(Scale: 1 = not important, 7 = very important)
0
7
• The sweetener is approved by the EU as a safe ingredient (M = 5.79)
• The sweetener contains little to no calories (M = 5.59)
• The sweetener is tooth friendly (M = 5.49)
• The sweetener does not affect blood sugar levels (M = 5.38)
• The sweetener tastes differently than sugar(M = 4.18)
• There is a maximum acceptable daily intake of the sweetener, you cannot take unlimited amounts of it. (M = 3.97)
Very important
Not important

48. 3 (source: journalist, credible advertiser, not credible advertiser) x 2 (message sidedness: one-
sided versus two-sided advertisement) between-subjects experimental design
 2 experiments! 

49. • Significantly more critically processed than news article
• Significantly less trustworthy than the advertisement from Diabetes Liga
and news article
• Not more critically processed than a news article!
• Just as credible as a news article
• Significantly less critically processed than a news article (and other ad)
• Just as credible as a news article
• Only significant difference with native ad from Coca-Cola!
• Not more credible than a native advertisement from Weight Watchers or
Diabetes Liga
Results: source

50. Credibility of the
advertiser
Attitudes towards the
advertiser
Credibility of the
advertisement
A two-sided
native
advertisement Less critical
processing
A two-sided message with advantages AND disadvantages:
= Less critically processed and more positively evaluated
No difference in strength of effect among different types of advertisers!

51. Conclusion
Both message sidedness and
source credibility influence the extent to which readers’
advertising recognition leads to more negative evaluations.
Native advertising is great for high-credibility organizations
(non-profits etc.)
Make native ads two-sided (think like a journalist!)

52. Lets put our knowledge into practice…
Message sidedness:
• What are the pros and cons of electric driving?
• Things to consider before buying an electric car
• When should(n’t) you buy an electric car?
Source:
• Quote research reports from institutions
• Quote a well-known expert

53. Ethical native advertising?
“Knowledge centre sugar and nutrition” “Professor in food and health”

54. Marketers:
Think like a
journalist!
Provide relevant, useful (two-sided) information
Don’t talk too much about your own brand / products
Use explicit language for the labels and make them prominent
Use credible sources
Maintain the line between journalism and advertising

55. The Golden Formula?
RESEARCH
(of course ;-))

56. Research for creating native ads
 Data / experiments:
o Most-read articles on news websites
o A / B testing of copy, headlines
 Qualitative data
o Focus groups, interviews and surveys:
 What are readers’ interests? Informationeel needs?
o Usability testing
 how do readers respond to the advertisement?

57. Measure (and improve) your native advertising campagin!
• Reach
• Audience demographics  right target audience?
• Time on page
• CTR
• Brand awareness / reputations
• Leads
Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted.
The trouble is: I don’t know which half!
—John Wanamaker

59. x NATIVE ADVERTISING?
x QUESTIONS?
x CONTACT?
SIMONE.KROUWER@UANTWERPEN.BE
@SimoneKrouwer
Just Google me 
Thank
you!