On 11 October 1970, the Observer published an article headlined Insurance – With Interest. It was paid for by an insurance company and was clearly labelled “Advertisement Feature”. This is the earliest first piece of paid-for content in the Guardian or Observer we could find.
Advertorials are clearly nothing new, but interest in their offspring – native advertising, branded content and sponsored content – has dramatically increased in popularity over the past few years, as this graph from Google Trends reveals:
This has no doubt been driven by advertisers seeking new ways to engage their target audience in an era when traditional ads are often ignored or even removed from sight – Apple’s latest i0S 9 release will make it even easier for its army of users to block ads. But that is only one side of the story.
A recent survey commissioned by open-journalism forum the News Hub revealed that consumers expect online news to be free, with “96% agreeing there should be no charges to access news websites”.
Part of the Guardian’s response to this has been Guardian Labs, which aims to connect brands with the Guardian’s audience.
To ensure this content is presented as clearly as possible to readers, the Guardian has created two types of labelling: “sponsored” and “brought to you by”. Put simply, anything you see on the Guardian’s site that is labelled “sponsored” is editorially independent. Anything labelled “brought to you by” is paid for and controlled by the advertiser.
What works best for the client and the Guardian depends on what both parties hope to achieve out of the partnership, but over the past few years both approaches have enjoyed successes. Here are two of the best examples:
Happy for Life, sponsored by Beagle Street
Happy for Life was a huge project that aimed to assess and boost the nation’s happiness levels. As a large part of the content was sponsored and editorially independent, it allowed the Guardian to produce the kind of intelligent, thoughtful features that naturally fitted alongside stories from the main editorial sections.
An experienced Guardian editor, Phil Daoust, was able to commission features such as What Makes Me Happy, whereby high-profile figures such as Ann Widdecombe and comedian Arthur Smith expounded upon the things that brought them joy. With Beagle Street comfortable with the broad outline of the project, Daoust was free to create content that the main editorial desk was happy to place on the front page of the Guardian’s website. As a result articles, features and interactive content commissioned for Happy for Life, such as the Happiness Questionnaire, regularly topped the Guardian’s most-read chart.
It was a great example of a brave client being comfortable allowing the Guardian to commission content we knew our readers would respond too. In return, Beagle Street as a sponsor became a well-known brand almost over night.
When a partner wants more control over the content, “brought to you by” is the order of the day. But more control doesn’t necessarily mean less appeal.
Fixology, brought to you by Direct Line
The Guardian and Direct Line are involved in an ongoing project to fix household, travel and motoring problems. As Direct Line wanted content that is more closely aligned to its brand, Guardian Labs created the Fixology site, essentially a repository of “how to” videos, Vines and articles.
Some wonderfully informative, helpful and fun content has been produced as a result of the partnership. By working closely with Direct Line, Guardian Labs created content that neatly aligned to the brand’s needs yet also appealed to as wide an audience as possible. Articles such as Top tips for keeping spiders out of your home continue to attract tens of thousands of views every week, well over a year after launch.
Why were these projects so successful? Because, unlike those advertorials of the past, both Direct Line and Beagle Street wanted to produce something of genuine interest to Guardian readers. In turn, Guardian Labs worked hard to align the needs of the brands to the content.
We don’t always get it right; as with any creative endeavour setbacks can happen. But as these two examples highlight, brands and publishers are learning how to navigate the new digital landscape where readers expect content to be free and traditional ads are no longer welcome.
