Fairfax launches native advertising offering with CommBank as launch brand
Example of CommBank native advertising on theage.com.au
Fairfax Media has become the latest media owner to launch a native advertising offering.
The format allows brands to place their own articles – clearly labelled as “advertiser content” – on the websites of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
The move comes days after Sound Alliance announced the appointment of what it said was Australia’s first native advertising editor.
The topic of native advertising – in essence an evolution of advertorial – will be discussed at next week’s Festival of Branded Content & Entertainment which is organised by Mumbrella’s parent company Focal Attractions.
The Fairfax Media native advertising – labelled “Brand Discover” – offering allows brands to create, design and promote their content across smh.com.au and theage.com.au. Fairfax commissions the journalists to write the articles.
The launch brand for the offering is Commonwealth Bank, with five articles penned by business and technology journalist Brad Howarth, a former marketing editor of Fairfax’s BRW. Fairfax’s native advertising articles are also available as downloadable ebooks.
Referring to similar US offerings from the likes of The Washington Post and Forbes, Fairfax Media’s group sales director Ed Harrison said the company was the first news publisher in Australia with such a product.
He said in the announcement: “Quality content is Fairfax’s currency – it’s at the core of our business, and we can now use this for the benefit of our advertisers.
“Our new Brand Discover native advertising offering is all about engaging audiences and enhancing their advertising experience. Nobody is better able to do that than Fairfax.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin
topics
Fairfax Media
Except it’s not native advertising, it’s sponsored content.
Native advertising is a form that can only exist on the specific platform it appears.
Google ads, promoted tweets etc are native, this content isn’t.
User ID not verified.
Wow, what innovation!
Native advertising/advertorial pages……how is this any different than a branded page of content clearly marked as an advertorial – change the header and it’s a new product????
Way to beat the market Fairfax but I think what Sound Alliance will offer is much more ‘native’ advertising and not just a new header on a page.
User ID not verified.
That’s desperate. Lucky ‘journalists’ who get to write this shit.
Way to cut your own throat Fairfax.
User ID not verified.
hey dude back off – I am the ex-reader around here.
User ID not verified.
PR puff as an ad. Genius.
User ID not verified.
@Ex-reader Apologies, hadn’t seen another handle. I’ll post under something different.
User ID not verified.
Looks good
User ID not verified.
And they wonder why folks don’t see the value in actually paying for this content.
User ID not verified.
@ what the: what is it that SOund Alliance has actually done by way of native advertising, other than appoint someone with the words “native advertising” in their title?
User ID not verified.
thankyou ex-reader 🙂
User ID not verified.
Hi Minnie,
To offer a blatant plug, Sounds Alliance’s content director Tim Duggan will be covering the topic at our Festival of branded Content & Entertainment next Thursday. I’m sure he’ll answer that question – I hope you can join us…
Cheers,
Tim – MUmbrella
@minnie: Not saying they’ve done anything as yet – just pointing out that what Fairfax has done is re-create the ‘paid content’ / ‘brand page’ / ‘sponsored content’ advertising and i’m looking forward to seeing what Sound Alliance will do…..in the future!
Knowing some of the people there and what they do for brands……i’m sure they’ll be doing more than having someone write an article, place “this is advertiser content” on the masthead and put it online and call it native advertising.
Again, well done Fairfax for being”1st” in this space….you’re an inspiration to us all 🙂
User ID not verified.