The purpose of Guardian Labs is to create unstoppable stories that enable brands to connect with the Guardian’s highly influential and progressive audience.
The success of these stories is driven by the trinity that powers Guardian Labs: our wonderful, multi-disciplined content team; our technical capabilities; and last but very much not least, the powerful insights generated by our data, which allow us not only to create these stories in the first place, but to optimise them in real time.
At Guardian Labs, we work hard to craft brilliant stories that deliver tangible results and return on investment for brands. We never promise anything we cannot deliver. And we ensure that all our stories are authentic and true to both the brand and the Guardian.
Maintaining the trust of our readers is of paramount importance as research shows that trust is one of the key values that are transferred from a publisher to its advertisers. And because of this we shy away from using the term ‘native advertising’ which at its worst hoodwinks the reader into thinking commercial content is editorially independent.
To avoid such confusion at the Guardian, we have created two types of paid-for content: sponsored content, which is editorially independent but funded by our partners; and Brought to You By content, where the Guardian Labs team produces content for a brand with the aim of turning its story into something engaging and shareable. It is critical for Guardian Labs and the Guardian to be totally transparent about our labelling, so that we maintain the trust of our readers and the integrity of our editorial output.
Guardian Labs has seen incredible success since its official launch last year. We have won 16 creative awards to date, were named trendsetter of the year by Drum, and the IPA media agency survey has shown us to be the most improved team in terms of creative innovation.
The coverage in the press has also been phenomenal, we’ve really put Guardian Labs on the map in a relatively short space of time, and we’re widely seen as a trailblazer when it comes to branded content.
