Hearst is latest publisher to jump on native ad trend scale
Hearst Magazines is the latest publisher to join the native ad gold rush, with new products that will let advertisers run their messages into editorial real estate and, if desired, incorporate edit-produced content, reports AdWeek.
The five new units, now being rolled out to the market, are designed to let advertisers take advantage of the growth of mobile devices as well as social media and video.
Grant Whitmore, VP of digital, said the company had been watching the success of digital-only publishers that have been made native advertising the cornerstone of their business. “A lot of those companies are doing really, really well right now. So we wanted to understand what we needed to do to keep pace with our newest set of competitors.”
Addressing a common knock that native advertising is unscalable, the units can run across Hearst brands, among them Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and Esquire, and the content can run outside Hearst, if the client wishes.
Robin Steinberg, EVP of MediaVest, said the products are an example of how Hearst isn’t acting like a traditional media company. “I give them a lot of credit for diversifying their offerings. Everyone has to iterate, re-imagine the type of products they create and how they use technology to distribute.”
