Native Advertising: A Misunderstood Medium; Storytelling For Greater Impact

Storytelling and native advertising

Too many marketers have relegated native advertising to its most simplistic form, forgetting its inherent superpower – the ability to adapt to any environment. It’s time to unleash creativity and unlock immersive customer experiences, says Verizon Media’s New Zealand Sales Director, Arnaud Calonne & Head of Native, Sebastian Graham.


For a long time, too many people in our industry misunderstood native ads as just a headline and an image: A simple ad format with limited capacity for a brand’s creativity to live and breathe. Needless to say, in New Zealand the format is largely under utilised to its full potential.

Sebastian Graham.

However this is slowly but surely changing. Advanced creative formats have enabled brands and their partners to deliver a visual, impactful and compelling message with all the efficiency, scale and performance of ‘traditional’ Native.

And it doesn’t stop there. Native can now launch an immersive media experience that transports audiences into stimulating brand interactions – an innovation in-step with post-Covid New Zealand’s desire for digital experiences in a socially distanced world.

A great example of this comes from our friends over the ditch, where in Australia the inclusion of native to advance digital experiences saw Officeworks increase its brand recognition.

While opportunities to have your Santa photo opportunity were few and far between in 2020, Officeworks used Verizon Media’s immersive platform to help create festive moments that might have otherwise been missing.

Arnaud Calonne.

Utilising tech like WebAR and native AR ad formats Santa became virtually available in any living room across the country. A fantastic demonstration of creative problem solving with techinnovation, while delivering on key metrics like brand affinity and footfall due to the scale of Native.

Previously, the ability to deliver these formats were closed to the world of in-app advertising but now, these immersive creative capabilities put powerful experiences in the hands of any brand.

And as a result, native is starting to reclaim its rightful place within campaigns – with striking results for marketers. Verizon Media’s Brand Metrics Indicator – our response tracking tool for campaigns – has since shown:

  • Prompted Awareness +93 percent
  • Campaign Recognition +74 percent
  • New Customer Intent +81 percent

The democratisation of creative excellence is critically important. It enables marketers to deliver unique customer experiences – in the environments that deliver the best results; in the contexts where you want your brand to appear; and to do it at the scale that matters for brand and business objectives.

Native has evolved dramatically over the last three years. It’s a lot more powerful than a headline and image.

Fully harnessed, native advertising provides a platform to implement creativity in entirely new ways, and to deliver at scale, with efficiency, to drive brand and business growth.

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