Divergent approaches to corralling native in the wild tests which approach will be right
The regulators of advertising online and in broadcast have revealed their guidelines on native advertising, but Simon Canning wonders what the outcome of two very different approaches to this burgeoning form of marketing will be.
There is something curious happening in the world of native and the regulations – sorry – guidelines and principles, that are defining just how much consumers are allowed to know about who is behind the content they are consuming.
For some, the world has been flipped on its head – the government regulators are going soft, while the industry association self regulators are ramping up the rules.
Two weeks ago the broadcasting regulator ACMA – what many fondly refer to as the watchdog of commercial broadcasting – rubber-stamped a new set of guidelines for commercial television.
Given that TV penetration is 100%, but Internet penetration isn’t, a significant proportion of the audience CAN’T see the disclosure on the website.
Wouldn’t that be a clear breach of the ACMA rules?
‘…they may never be aware what they were watching was a commercial….’
And when they discover the deception, they’ll be pissed.
This kind of crap flies as one-offs and in the short-term, but once it becomes culture, it will kill the host.
But how can a dying media org with a one-year profit plan resist that last shot of sugar?