Native Advertising/ Branded Content: trick or treat?

My time at Piaget in the role of Global Head of Media has ended and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on native advertising since it played a significant part during my journey at Piaget.

What is Native advertising or Branded Content marketing?

In short, native advertising or branded content is a form of paid advertising on media publishers' touchpoints (newspapers, magazines, TV, etc.). They seamlessly blend to match the content so that it doesn't disrupt the reader or viewer's experience.

Here are some examples of how brands have leveraged native advertising:

Video embedded on this post on March 2nd, 2024

As we can observe from these examples, advertisers typically communicate about their products or services through informative, engaging and attention-grabbing content, which is posed intentionally not to be a noticeable and skippable ad.

So, does it feel like brands are tricking you into selling their products/services or are they genuinely sharing stories and values that they believe in through a medium that they couldn't have done otherwise?

Native Advertising is experiencing an explosive growth

Media houses and publishers have optimised their commercial advertising offers for brands and advertisers. While traditional media placements are still popular, native advertising is growing rapidly in every region in the world (as reported on Martechseries by ADYOULIKE)

eMarketer has forecasted that a lot of that growth in native advertising has come despite growth in other digital marketing channels, especially in video advertising. In the coming years, they anticipate that native advertising will represent 60% of the display advertising budget.

Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept campaign

This branded content production journey took me on a path that made me fall in love with watchmaking again and again at every single turn.

I will let you experience the passion that comes from the incredibly talented artisans and watchmakers.

This was a non-paid editorial coverage

Piaget's Extraordinary Women campaign

In contrast to the Altiplano branded content, Piaget's Extraordinary Women campaign was made to feel inspired by spotlighting ten trailblazing women who have pushed boundaries in their respective fields—art, music, design, fashion and photography included—with a sense of strength, confidence and fearlessness.