Undercover selling: Blurred editorial lines weaken trust

By Staff Reporters on Dec 10, 2012
filed under Magazine Highlights, Asia-Pacific

MEDIA DEBATE: Promotional editorial content and ‘native advertising’ initiatives are increasingly prevalent. Yet in striving to refine paid media, do brands ultimately risk devaluing earned media?

L-R: Sandhu, Hoffman, Pena

MEDIA DIRECTOR
Dinesh Sandhu
Regional director, media, Southeast Asia
Hakuhodo

Harnessing the power of earned media and using it to a brand’s advantage takes some guile. The product and the category have a huge part to play in how successfully the brand can exploit this space. 

In print media, the fact that luxury and automotive brands are aspirational is reason enough for the brand to be the cover story without any ad dollar investment. For other categories of products that are not as interesting, a reasonable amount of ad dollar investment is expected in return for editorial support. 

The contention that readers will be sceptical of all brand-related content they read is not without basis, but we must also remember that readers buy publications to be informed and entertained. And while commercial viability is essential to a publication, I would think it is safe to assume that journalistic integrity is very much alive today in the publishing world. 

PR LEADER
Lou Hoffman
CEO
The Hoffman Agency

As long as content is useful to the person seeking it, I don’t think people really care. But they do care when media companies try to trick them. Sometimes the lines between editorial and paid content blur too much. Take Yahoo’s news portal: you might have a block of legitimate editorial content and then a piece of content with the same format and typeface that is paid. 

I shouldn’t pick on Yahoo because other major media properties do similar things; the point is, it’s a slippery slope. If you encroach on trust, you risk losing it and might never get it back.

When it comes to online media, the rules of the game are being invented as we go along. Look at how content gets syndicated: I would not be surprised if we start seeing companies syndicating their own stories to publications or companies filling their owned media with syndicated storied from publications. Many companies have already cut out the middle man by hiring ex journalists. One of the things on my to-do-list is to understand the nature of content Buzzfeed is doing: what amounts to journalism on behalf of clients that is then placed as sponsored content in different media properties.

DIGITAL HEAD
Paul John Pena
Chief digital officer
Leo Burnett Manila

The line between paid and earned media is growing increasingly blurred as bloggers, politicians, journalists and even student-leaders are tapped to become brand advocates. When bloggers are paid to post in favour of a brand or product, the tweets and posts are often crafted to sound really natural. 

Moral issues arise when others do not know that these are paid ads. While the general public is getting more sophisticated in seeing through insincere recommendations, brands risk undermining their followers if they’re known to have a bunch of paid sycophants. 

The best way for brands to approach this space is by engaging with customers who already really love the brand and incentivise them to share more — as long as the conversations are authentic and the product is good. Incentives don’t have to be in the form of cash; they could be invitations to private events or meetings. When brands consult with these advocates, the advocates feel part of the brand and they also gain bragging rights.