Let's admit it; many of us avoid native ads that try too hard to promote something. However, a few native advertising examples deserve recognition because they're amazing when given some thought.
Now, I don't blame anyone who doesn't pay attention to these ads because, in reality, it's a learned behavior called Banner Blindness.
Banner Blindness is when people consciously or unconsciously snub banner-like information while browsing websites, which is very common in digital advertising.
According to a study by Infolinks, 86% of people experience banner blindness.
The study shows that most of us interact with a specific part of a website only when we hope to find important information. The rest of the website, we ignore.
It's scary, but if you choose the right native advertising network and unit, you'll meet your native ads' goal.
So before you launch a campaign, I'd like you to examine this list of native advertising examples to understand why they worked.
Here we go!
List Of Successful Native Advertising Examples
We see native ads everywhere because they work. More and more native ads pop into our screens every year. Some of them stand out as excellent native advertising examples for obvious reasons. Take a look...
1. "No Need To Fly?" By German Rail
This ingenious travel campaign by German Rail was promoted via Facebook paid ads on Facebook. It's a great native advertising example because it got the advertiser a 24% increase in revenue.
The company targeted potential travel customers with personalized ads showing how local tourist destinations in Germany looked similar or even identical to famous locations worldwide.
The German and international locations' images were put side by side. Alongside the travel expense for each, showing in great detail how much more affordable it is to visit the German location by German Rail instead of flying to the international version!
All summed up with the native ad campaign slogan: "No Need to Fly?" The native ad campaign had the following elements which worked:
- Incredible visuals
- A clever premise
- Advanced personalization
- Targeting
2. Hotella Nutella By Ferrero
This makes an excellent native ad example because of one incredible idea - turn the world's favorite chocolate spread into a real-life 3D hotel.
Welcome to Hotella Nutella!
Ferrero opened a pop-up hotel packed with Nutella-inspired construction and interior design, and celebrity chefs cooked Nutella-infused meals for guests. The catch? The hotel opened for one weekend only, and customers had to enter a competition to become guests.
Contestants must make a 60-second original video telling how Nutella made their mornings extra special.
This chocolate-inspired hotel is the fantasy of many Nutella customers, and this native ad campaign worked because of the following reasons:
- It was a great use of user-generated content.
- It generated a lot of earned media to help promote the competition.
- It directed customers to a dedicated landing page, which is excellent for Nutella's site traffic and ranking.
3. Goodbye Gravity By Adidas
A crucial element of native advertising is creating excellent content. It keeps a brand relevant and exciting to its customers.
Adidas partnered with the International Space Station US National Lab to research and test microgravity products.
Adidas sending soccer balls to the space station to test their behavior like spinning in weightless environments is an example of great content. The company also plans to test improvements in footwear materials and design in space.
This multi-year partnership will undoubtedly push incredible research and new knowledge.
So, what's the lesson? For your native ad campaign to work, the content must be compelling enough to engage people.
4. #GameofCookies By Oreo
As an advertiser, you can leverage a worldwide trend by becoming a part of the conversation. This is what Oreo did when a series beloved by many called Game of Thrones came to an end.
Oreo did it last year in style, with the popular Game of Thrones opening credits' reimagination using 2,750 cookies.
This is what native advertising is about – an ad that is less about the product itself but more about delivering relevance and entertainment to the audience.
Your key takeaways from this native ad example are relevance, entertainment, and targeting. All these elements must be present in your ad campaign to pull your target audience in.
5. Hyperloop Competition By SpaceX & Altran Engineering
This is a native ad example that has everything:
- A great human story.
- Futuristic technology.
- Elon Musk and SpaceX.
This ad fused all these elements into a smooth, watchable video.
The ad was produced by Altran Engineering, which supports students competing in the 2018 Hyperloop Pod Competition created by the SpaceX company.
The "Hyperloop: designing the future of transport?" video follows the students' story as they race to design the fastest ever pod that will forever change the future of transportation.
The ad was promoted in the Industrial Tech section of the Financial Times. It's a fun, exciting, and inspiring story of "Can they?" or "Can’t they"?
In a nutshell, your native ad campaign must have a compelling story for it to become successful. You might want to work on your storytelling skills to come up with some excellent native ad copy.
6. Epix On The New Yorker with "Slow Burn" and the Art of Scandal
This is a content piece starting with Epix's new docuseries, investigating the experience of living through Watergate. It helps contextualize our current moment.
Eagle-eyed readers may pick out the New Yorker recommendation unit at the bottom – which only recommends branded content.
I think it's a genius distribution strategy.
7. Uncertain Economic Times Lie Ahead. Are Your Strategic Priorities Clear?
The Atlantic with quick to market content on re-evaluating your strategic priorities with PWC.
This is a great example of contextual and relevant content to grab attention.
And that's my list of outstanding native advertising examples.
Check out the recommended resources section below to learn more about native advertising.
Recommended Native Advertising Examples Resources
How to Do Native Advertising Right: A Brief Guide With Great Examples
Great Native Advertising Examples of 2020
3 Native Advertising Examples and Why They Worked
So what do you think about this list? Did it give you some ideas?
Leave a comment below, and let's chat.
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Header image courtesy of Jumpstory.
