Native Advertising - En Ulv i Fårakläder

Sammanfattning: Along with the increasing trend of online advertising comes an increasing avoidance behaviour from the observers. The marketing communication now requires a valuable content, which leads to the creation of new online advertising forms; including content marketing, advertorials, online ads and the latest rising star - Native Advertising. The last-mentioned also constitutes the basis and object of study for this paper. The purpose of this study is to shed light into this relatively unexplored topic and concretize the true effects. There are many examples of how Native Advertising is framed and implemented, but little hard facts and real figures. The design of this study is a comparison of Native Advertising with a traditional type of online advertising: banner ads. A quantitative study was made where several effects where tested; both the communication effects towards the observers as well as the effects of the observers perception of the media in which the ads are presented. The results of this study showed that Native Advertising provides some benefits to the brand owner, particularly higher purchase intent. As for the media; the observer perception is affected negatively towards it when it present a Native ad, and the credibility decreases. Native Advertising is finally recommended for the brand owners who is looking to increase their sales rather than building their brand, and in terms of media owners they are given the recommendation to ensure high relevance and congruence between the ad and the website if they should accept Native ads. To blindly rely on the fact that Native Advertising penetrates the advertising clutter and generates favourable communication effects is overhasty. But when this does occur, the advertising format is certainly a valuable tool, which literally provides the brand owner more profit.