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Sponsored content, sometimes described as “native advertising,” is a controversial topic in the world of content marketing. While we’ve covered the great content quantity vs. content quality debate many times, we also wanted to cover an area where we see a lot of brands getting into some trouble.
The reasons for this controversy are clear: Sponsored content is often advertising masquerading as pure editorial content, which can be easily misconstrued by the audience.
If there is a connection between the author and the brand, sponsored content needs to be clearly labeled. Expectations have been clarified by recent rule changes, and if done correctly, this content can benefit all parties provided it is of high quality and fully disclosed.
Contents
Quick Takeaways
Sponsored content is an increasingly popular way for brands to advertise and publishers to generate income.
It’s important to understand advertising disclosure rules so you stay out of trouble or a PR disaster.
Sponsored content must be presented carefully to avoid losing the trust of your audience.
Publishers and brands should work together on conforming to all required standards.
Labeling that is unambiguous promotes open communication and keeps everyone on the right side of the law.
How Does Sponsored Content Work?
But before we get into exactly what those rules are, let’s define exactly what we’re talking about here.
Promotional content that has been paid for and published on another person’s website, blog, social media account, or other platform is referred to as sponsored content. In some cases, the content may be provided by the sponsor. Other times the sponsor may leave the publisher to create it, with stipulations on the general content topic, included keywords, and links.
Examples of sponsored content might include:
a picture of an influencer sporting clothing purchased and provided by a brand. A blog post comparing different VPN services that is sponsored by a particular VPN provider.
A video on YouTube with a message at the start that a particular advertiser sponsored it.
Ideally, it should be clear to the reader when content is sponsored, and the content should fit in with the rest of the content on the publisher site and provide some kind of value to the audience.
However, this does not always happen. Publishing content that does not align with their audience or concealing a financial relationship with a sponsor can quickly undermine the trust that publishers have established with their audience and even lead to legal issues.
What’s the Difference Between Sponsored Content and Native Advertising?
Native advertising and sponsored content are used interchangeably, but there is a subtle difference. It looks somewhat similar to a traditional ad, and most users will be able to immediately identify it as such.
Some examples of native advertising include:
Sponsored listings at the top of search results
Promoted listings on shopping websites like eBay or Amazon
Ads in social media feeds on platforms like Facebook and Instagram
Recommendation widgets at the end of blog posts
Most native advertising is not a form of content marketing. Just look at my definition of content marketing for more clarification!
You can’t build an audience with native advertising, and the ads rarely provide value in the form of information or entertainment that high-quality content does.
On the other hand, sponsored content as described in the previous examples does not necessarily look like an ad. You must be able to remove the reference to the sponsor without reducing the audience’s value of the content, even though it may and should be disclosed as such.
The Two Rules of Sponsored Content
For both publishers and sponsors to use sponsored content in an ethical way that’s beneficial to all, it’s important to follow these two basic rules:
1. Create great content.
2. Always provide full disclosure.
Why are these rules so important? Well, the No. 1 rule of content marketing is to create great content. This rule shouldn’t change just because the content is sponsored.
Keep in mind that as a content marketer, you owe it to your audience to provide value. Content that doesn’t give anything back to your audience won’t be engaging, won’t convert, and essentially won’t offer anything to the advertiser. In other words, it’s a waste of time and money.
Even worse, if you publish low-quality content on your site just because you’re paid to do so, you’ll be compromising your integrity as a publisher and losing your authenticity. Your audience will only tolerate so much subpar sponsored content before they completely distrust you. Don’t risk losing your audience by publishing bad content, whether you’re getting paid for it or not.
So let’s look at the second rule: Just why is it so important to provide full disclosure?
It’s the Law
Well, for one thing, it’s the law. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has specific guidance for online publishers and is very clear that any connection to a brand must be disclosed when publishing content that can be considered as an endorsement for that brand.
Your Audience Wants Honesty
Secondly, being transparent with your audience that content is sponsored from the start shows that you respect them and that you’re not trying to pull the wool over their eyes for a quick buck.
Brand Journalism and Disclosure
In a video, Jonathan Becher, SAP’s former chief marketing officer (CMO), talks with Jon Reed, one of the most prominent independent IT analysts, about “brand journalism, disclosure, and sponsored content.” Brands Need to Join the Conversation
The open discussion they had around the importance of full disclosure, about the need for brands to get involved in the conversation, to become like publishers and to reach out to new audiences with quality content was very exciting.
Jon and Jonathan spoke about a few very specific SAP examples. Here’s a summary of their points at a more generic or abstract level since they apply to any brand or marketer or content contributor.
The key messages were:
A strong brand will have active and socially engaged employees.
Contributors on any site should fully disclose their employer and any paid arrangements.
Companies are beginning to realize that they need to think like publishers in order to reach a larger audience. Leading companies are creating content destinations that provide high-valuable content to potential customers. Disclosure is an important issue for these sites as well.
The news media is changing. Jon Reed framed the discussion by outlining that there is a big shift in the media. There is brand journalism. Brands often sponsor content, alongside advertisements and this raises issues of disclosure, transparency and authenticity.
Jon mentioned that there is some criticism of brands who produce great content as members of an active community and then also produce sponsored content which “has a whole different vibe.”
According to former SAP CMO Jonathan Becher, everyone is struggling with the question of what is our message vs. what is someone else’s message. “The lines are blurring,” he says. Everyone agrees that brand employees should be part of the conversation and interact with the community.
But should brands censor their own “promotional” messages or certain voices? “We’re all being paid by someone,” Jon Reed stated. And so they both agreed that employees and other evangelists should all be part of the conversation as long as they achieve this full disclosure:
Explain who is paying you and for what?
Third-Party Channels Are Important
However, Jonathan went on to explain that brands are always striving to expand their reach. To achieve that, to participate in new conversations in other communities, brands need to reach out to third-party channels.
The fact that you are an employee of the brand should be made abundantly clear whenever a brand participates on a third-party website. And if the space is paid for, that should also be disclosed. Bottom line is that authors of content should disclose their employer and should disclose if they are getting paid to write an article.
The pair also discussed the need for brands to become like publishers and magazine editors and develop sites that “earn eyeballs” through use of thought leadership, featured content and news. The content on these websites ought to be of the highest possible quality. Additionally, they must present a balanced viewpoint and disclose open relationships with care.
