We began our series of “integrated advertising in sports” posts in 2017 by looking at how brands, including T-Mobile and Duracell, were capturing the attention of baseball fans during that year’s World Series. We also wrote about the NHL and how the league’s evolved from blank boards to virtual ad overlays.

Today, we’ll keep the ball rolling and dive into integrated advertising in the NBA—and how brands can reach a massive addressable audience.

Breaking Tradition

The MLB is perhaps the best example we’ve seen of a professional sports league leaving tradition in the past – interesting, as baseball is the game that seems to thrive on tradition more than any other.

The ads present in 2017’s World Series showed a true effort and diversion from what viewers were used to seeing.

The most “in-your-face” example came from YouTube, which brought an ad smack-dab in the middle of the action, right behind home plate. 

More recently, FTX sponsored logo patches on the uniforms of baseball’s umpires.

The NHL’s many innovations have been impressive but are more so extensions of things that already existed. The NHL has continued to push the boundaries of integrated advertising, sometimes at the behest of its viewers. Most recently by debuting digitally enhanced dasherboards.

The NBA is following suit and taking its own strides to incorporate ads into its product.

Despite being one of the most consistently fast-paced sports to watch, the NBA still has a lot of traditional downtime via advertising. Commissioner Adam Silver, however, has made notable strides during his tenure to better integrate ads into the viewer experience. 

The first was to restructure the game itself. The league introduced a new timeout structure, leaving teams with fewer timeouts, resulting in fewer commercial breaks for advertisers.

The second stride came as a way for NBA teams to still drive revenue, even with fewer commercial breaks – they added advertisements to team jerseys. The NBA took things further by approving two more ad spots on uniforms for the 2022 season. 

Jersey Patch Ads

The discussion surrounding jersey ads has lingered for a while now, and not just in the NBA.

We’ve seen jersey ads before, most notably in professional soccer leagues worldwide and the WNBA.

Jersey ads recently came to the NHL as well. Two of the most “traditional” franchises—the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadians were quick to jump on the opportunity for additional revenue.

Soon enough, the NBA decided to break away from the pack and endorse the long-discussed jersey advertisement with a three-year test run.

The test run was successful, at least by the NBA’s standards. Since 2016, the available “inventory” has steadily grown, with the NBA recently announcing more inventory was becoming available—this time on shooting shirts and warmup jackets.

When the league first announced jersey patch ads, it was not to much delight from fans.

Upon seeing the ads, however, it became clear that there was much attention paid to integrating the brand logos into the color schemes of each team to make them less noticeable, even native to the surrounding branding.

Here are a few recent examples from the Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers, and Phoneix Suns:

Of course, the 76ers will have to move on from Crypto.com as the company in light of the industry’s collapse and the subsequent hard stop on advertising to promote digital currencies. 

Overall, however, these ads generally work well with team branding. More so, they provide another legitimate source of revenue for NBA teams.

While there are no set prices for this inventory, one of the most lucrative deals for any team has been the Golden State Warriors’ sponsorship agreement with Rakuten, a deal worth $60 million. Recently, the Golden State Warriors and Rakuten agreed to continue their partnership.

All-Stars and All-Sponsors

Typically, jersey ads and things of that nature are test-run in international and exhibition matches, regardless of the sport.

The most notable yearly exhibition in the NBA is its annual All-Star Game. The All-Star Game is a perfect example in looking at the NBA’s high-level inclusion of sponsorships during game broadcasts.

Here’s a list of some of the events that’ll take place during this year’s All-Star Weekend:

• Jordan Rising Stars Practice
• Ruffles NBA All-Star Celebrity Game
• NBA All-Star Practice Presented by AT&T
• Kia Skills Challenge

For Jordan, Ruffles, AT&T, and Kia, All-Star Weekend will be filled with fun and excitement—and their logos front and center.

While All-Stars and All-Sponsors have been done for some time now, it’s important when considering the NBA’s efforts to minimize commercial breaks.

In-Game Sponsorships

The deeper fact here is that sponsorships come in many forms in the NBA. Jersey ads are the most recent, and currently, the most talked about form of sponsorship, but there are a number of other in-game sponsorships.

There are a lot of working parts during any basketball game aside from the players, as well, including the many tools, technologies, and people that maintain the court’s functionality.

One of the most important technologies present during NBA and NCAA Basketball games is the shot clock. Tissot took advantage of this when it debuted a new integrated timing system and shot clock with innovative LED glass technology developed exclusively for the league.

It’s transparent, houses touch-screen controls, and displays a large Tissot logo for all to see. No other sport uses a Shot Clock as the NBA does. Therefore, no one else can utilize this ad space.

Old Spice also found a way to get an advertisement into the working functionality of basketball games. And even though this one has been taking place during college games, it was simply too much fun to leave out.

The War on the Floor

The NBA has put in a great effort to be the most progressive, tech-driven league. As we mentioned earlier, that’s largely due to their youthful audience. 

That effort is most evident in the experience they offer fans, ads or no ads. A good example of this is the NBA’s endorsement of virtual reality.

The NBA experience is free and available on Meta’s Horizon Venues platform, a free software download for the Oculus headset. People appear as digital avatars and watch games from a courtside perspective.

From a business perspective, the deal could give the NBA a new set of media rights, which is important as regional sports networks struggle.

Facebook is also partnering with the NBA to launch NBA-licensed apparel in the Meta Avatar Store where consumers can purchase NBA or WNBA apparel for their avatar.

In terms of ads, however, one of the most innovative things we’ve seen the NBA do is use arena floor space as a video ad landscape.

On February 10, 2018, the Golden State Warriors played the San Antonio Spurs in their home, Oracle Arena. At halftime, the fans were treated to what was called, “The War on the Floor,” where they used the court as a projector for a God of War video ad:

At first, the video plays on the Jumbotron, which is nothing out of the ordinary. Soon after, however, the entire court lights up with a snowy, icy, action-packed narrative.

This is extremely important for the broadcast’s sake. Even though these videos cannot be played during live-game action, they can be used to reach viewers streaming live games.

Streaming service NBA League Pass, for example, allows viewers to stay inside the arena during broadcasts. There are breaks, but simply no commercials. Viewers instead watch halftime shows, timeout breaks, t-shirt tosses, and so on.

Integrated Advertising in the NBA: A Primetime Opportunity for Brands

Overall, the NBA has done a fine job in living up to its tech-driven reputation, and with time, can prove to only become better. As the league looks to tap additional revenue streams, more ad inventory will undoubtedly follow. That said, the NBA will have to be careful not to infringe too much on the viewer experience.

Nevertheless, ad dollars will follow from brands looking to capitalize on the NBA’s niche and ever-expanding audience.

For more insights, sign up for MediaRadar’s blog here.

In 2017, Google announced that Chrome would instill stricter ad-blocking standards. The announcement raised speculation, as publishers and advertisers were left to wonder exactly which ads would be blocked and how Google would handle violators.

In December of that year, Google gave “an update on Better Ads,” officially confirming that “Starting on February 15, in line with the Coalition’s guidelines, Chrome will remove all ads from sites that have a ‘failing’ status in the Ad Experience Report for more than 30 days.”

Now that these standards are officially in place, however, it’s important that publishers and advertisers know exactly what is being blocked, given that Chrome currently holds more than 64% of the global web browser market share.

And, more importantly, what does Google’s advertising future look like?

What is the Coalition for Better Ads^®?

The Coalition for Better Ads is an alliance of companies and associations that have come together in an effort to give internet users the best possible experience with advertising. The Coalition put the Better Ad Standards in place to clarify how content producers can best interact with viewers and serve ads in a way that is not annoying or intrusive.

The Coalition for Better Ads developed the Better Ad Standards based on “comprehensive research involving more than 25,000 consumers” while citing “Extensive consumer input and empirical data” as factors in shaping the new standards.

In a broad sense, the Better Ads Standards were implemented to create a more user-friendly online experience, ridding of the most annoying, least preferred ads on both desktop and mobile.

But what do we, as internet users, prefer the least?

What Exactly Is Google Chrome Blocking?

Google Chrome is blocking 12 types of ads across desktop and mobile (four types of desktop ads and eight types of mobile ads).

Desktop Ads

Pop-up Ads^*

This one should not come as a surprise to many.

Pop-up ads have long existed to the disdain of internet users. When considering ads as “disruptive,” nothing is quite as disruptive as an ad that pops up in front of the content a web user is trying to enjoy.

The Coalition’s website states that pop-ups “are among the most commonly cited annoyances for visitors to a website.”

People are generally not fond of anything that disrupts their experience to this level—82.2% of the sample from G2’s study said they hated email pop-ups.

Auto-playing Video Ads with Sound

We’ve all had it happen… You’re scrolling through a tremendous article when suddenly, noise erupts from somewhere unknown.

Before you realize that there’s an auto-play video ad on the page, you’re jolted from concentration and left searching for the “mute” or “close [X]” buttons.

Video ads that require a click to activate sound did not fall beneath the Better Ads Standard and are, therefore, still allowed.

Auto-play ads are a hot topic outside of Chrome’s walls.

Traditionally advertisers have opted for it due to the ability of auto-play ads to introduce words rather than just text and subtitles. While Facebook and other popular advertising ecosystems allow advertisers to launch auto-play ads, they make it just as easy for users to disable them, which many of them do.

Prestitial Ads with Countdown

Prestitial countdown ads are the ads that appear before a page’s content loads, forcing the reader to wait a few seconds before allowing them to click and continue.

The Coalition states that these ads “can disrupt users in a way that dissuades them from waiting for the countdown to finish and continuing onto their content.”

They also note that for desktop, prestitial ads without a countdown do not fall below the Better Ad Standards’ threshold for acceptability and are thus okay for publishers to use.

This begs the question: What about pre-roll ads on YouTube and popular OTT streaming services? Ads that play before content—and “count down”—are widely popular in these ecosystems and generally excepted by users.

Large Sticky Ads

Large sticky ads attach themselves to the bottom of a page of content, staying there as the user scrolls down the page. To qualify as “large,” a sticky ad must take up more than 30% of a desktop screen’s real estate.

Regardless of the device, consuming content on a full-screen is always much more preferred by viewers, especially on mobile devices that people generally hold vertically. That’s good news for advertisers as it allows them to maximize real estate on mobile devices.

Mobile Ads

Pop-up Ads

For pop-up ads, there’s not much difference between desktop and mobile. According to internet users, they’re annoying no matter where they appear.

For desktop and mobile, pop-ups with and without countdowns fall beneath the threshold for viewer acceptability.

Prestitial Ads

Prestitial mobile ads, like on desktops, appear before the content of a web page loads. The difference on mobile, however, is that all prestitial ads are restricted, not just the ones with a countdown.

On mobile, prestitial ads tend to take up more real estate, which, even without a countdown, can make them more disruptive than on desktop.

Ad Density Higher Than 30%

“Ad density is determined by summing the heights of all ads within the main content portion of a mobile page, then dividing by total height of the main content portion of the page.”

In short, within a piece of content, a publisher may not have more than 30% of the space in which that content sits being filled by advertising.

When considering the “content portion” of the page, that only means the real estate where the content sits, excluding headers, footers, and anything outside the content itself. The 30% also applies to the entire content portion of the page, the page in total, not just what is viewable on a user’s screen.

Sticky ads count toward ad density, with the height being counted toward the page’s ad density percentage. Video ads “that appear before or during video content that is relevant to the content of the page itself are not included in the measurement.”

Flashing Animated Ads

The Better Ad Standards restrict the use of “ads that animate and ‘flash’ with rapidly changing background, text or colors” because they can be “highly aggravating for consumers, and serve to create a severe distraction for them as they attempt to read the content on a given page.”

Not all animated ads are blocked on Chrome – only the ones that rapidly flash.

Auto-playing Video Ads with Sound

As they are on desktop, auto-play video ads on mobile are also restricted.

Users won’t have to worry about finding the “mute” button on Chrome for mobile anytime soon.

Postitial Ads with Countdown

Postitial countdown ads appear after a user has followed a link in a piece of content.

Once they follow a link, the ad appears with a countdown, making the user wait before they can be redirected to the page they were trying to access.

Much like prestitial ads with a countdown, users may be inclined to leave the page once they see a postitial countdown appear, as it makes them wait to enter the following page.

Full-screen Scrollover Ad

Scrollover ads are unlike inline ads, as they do not move with the content on a page but instead sit on top of it.

Scrollover ads, in a certain sense, can almost be looked at as something similar to a pop-up since they lay on top of content, obstructing it from view.

The Coalition for Better Ads refers to these ads as “disorienting” for mobile users, as they may distract users from the content they’re trying to read.

Large Sticky Ads

On mobile web browsers, large sticky ads can appear on more than just the bottom of the page but serve the same static disruption that sticky ads do on desktop browsers.

* All images and quotations used above are from https://www.betterads.org/standards/. Visit the site to see the full breakdown of the Better Ads Standards.

What happens to violators?

Sites that violate Google Chrome’s ad blocker and use at least one of these ad types will first be notified by Google that they are violating the Better Ad Standards and given 30 days to remedy the issue.

If the site owner repeatedly violates the new standards and ignores Google’s notifications for those 30 days, only then will Chrome start blocking all of the ads on that site.

So, while Google is putting in great efforts to make online advertising better for everyone, the metaphorical gavel is not being dropped on violators as quickly as many had initially anticipated.

Still, the risk of a publisher losing all their online advertising is likely not something they want to play around with.

There is no question that these changes are, at the least, the beginning of a much better user experience with advertising on the internet.

This brings us to our next topic: What else is Google doing to tackle the user experience.

Google Sunsets Third-Party Cookies

Stricker ad-blocking standards aren’t the only measure Google is taking to ensure the millions of people who use its browser don’t get tired of ads.

Google is also sunsetting third-party cookies in 2024 (after delaying it for several years). The delay not only gives Google more time to test its Privacy Sandbox but gives advertisers more time to prepare for a world without their beloved third-party cookies.

The impending deprecation is understandably concerning for advertisers, considering more than 80% of senior marketers in the U.S. rely on third-party cookies.

Third-party cookie alternatives

So, what will advertisers use when Google says goodbye to third-party cookies next year?

If they want to advertise on Chrome, Google’s Privacy Sandbox will likely be the solution. But other alternatives exist, including The Trade Desk’s Unified ID 2.0, which allows for targeted advertising without revealing the end user’s true identity. Other likely third-party-cookie alternatives are email addresses and phone numbers.

Outside of Google’s walls, retail media will continue to gain steam as consumer brands capitalize on first-party shopper data.

For more insights, sign up for MediaRadar’s blog here.

That’s easier said than done.

While the market has come together to bring these historically siloed ecosystems together via cross-channel technology and universal identifiers, there’s still a lot of fragmentation.

Below, we explore how to speak the cross-platform language to your prospects and how you can leverage your fluency to increase your share of wallet.

The Salt, Fat, Acid and Heat of Cross-Platform Advertising

In Netflix’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, host Samin Nosrat makes it her mission to drive home that every recipe involves these four elements of delicious food in some capacity. It’s just a matter of striking a balance between them. With the right levels of each, amateur cooks and professional chefs alike can create the perfect dish. It’s that simple.

That way of thinking should extend to how advertisers think about cross-platform advertising.

What’s Cross-Platform Advertising?

Cross-platform advertising means you can build a stronger brand by delivering ads across multiple platforms, including search, social, display, OTT, podcasts, and other relevant channels to your target audience. A thoughtful cross-platform advertising strategy ensures a brand appears on all the channels and devices its target audience uses daily.

Nikki Gilliland at Econsultancy said, “As well as creating a single customer view, cross-channel advertising can also help brands to create and deliver a seamless customer experience – i.e., consistent and unified brand messaging across multiple channels and devices.”

Note two words: customer experience.

Today and every day in the future, consumers will put a premium on the experience brands deliver. According to PwC, 73% of consumers say a good experience is key in influencing brand loyalties.

At the same time, 77% of consumers say inefficient customer experiences detract from their quality of life.

So, yeah, the customer experience is a big deal.

Ads are a part of that.

But extending a marketing budget across multiple channels and platforms can prove difficult for brands with a finite number of dollars to spend.

The question then becomes: How can you help prospects build a strong cross-platform campaign on a budget?

Step 1: Narrow Their Channels (Salt)

Advertisers have been bullish on cross-platform advertising for years. In 2018, the IAB reported that 83% of advertisers see cross-platform measurement has improved since 2017. Since then, cross-platform advertising has advanced even more.

For example, The Trade Desk (TTD) recently debuted a tool to help advertisers activate first-party data across channels and devices.

Although brands are waking up to the idea of cross-platform advertising, many are keeping their campaigns in a silo. Some are ignoring channels altogether.

Consider OTT.

Despite OTT’s growth, only 3% of monthly digital ad spend goes to OTT.

Meanwhile, of the advertisers who invested in Meta’s ecosystem in 2022, 72% allocated ad dollars exclusively to Facebook.

This isn’t ideal, but it makes sense. The advertising world is complex—and with only so much to spend, it can be easy for brands to default to one or two channels. Or maybe stick to their tried-and-true channels, like Facebook, and neglect up-and-coming ones, like OTT.

While brands may want to land on as many touchpoints as possible, a cross-platform strategy isn’t “complete” only when they check all the boxes. A handful of relevant platforms absolutely meet the definition of cross-platform advertising.

To determine where a prospect’s limited ad dollars should go, take a step back to truly understand who they’re trying to reach and where they can get the most bang for their buck.

For example, a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand will likely succeed on social media platforms popular with Millennials and Generation Z—think TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram.

This handful of channels can make for the sturdy foundation of a good cross-platform campaign without overwhelming the prospect’s budget or brain.

Step 2: Take Time With Good Content (Fat)

The goal in advertising is to go from first impressions to conversion. But to get there, prospects have to take the ‘middle’ seriously. Good content is in the middle.

Getting many views on a social media ad won’t matter as much if there’s no clear CTA.

Landing a sponsorship on a top podcast won’t be as effective without a concise and engaging message to share.

Getting visitors to a landing page will go nowhere unless there’s interesting content there and around the site.

Good content can be at the center of the tapestry, with all the different media threads pulling to the same point.

This has less to do with staying under budget than using the budget effectively.

Take John Hancock’s #LifeComesNext campaign.

The insurance company began the campaign with a series of TV spots presented as short stories. The screen cut to black at pivotal moments in the dramas, replaced with a CTA, e.g., “Find out what happens next,” and a link to the website.

On the site, viewers could choose one of three potential endings and continue the conversation using the hashtag on social media.

The campaign wasn’t just cross-media. It didn’t just post similar creatives on different platforms. John Hancock placed a good story at the center and used multiple platforms to connect all the dots.

Here’s a more recent example from The Trade Desk.

The campaign, dubbed “What Matters,” delivered a compelling story across channels popular with its target audience: programmatic connected TV (CTV), digital out-of-home (DOOH), online video, and YouTube.

Step 3: Track Everything (Acid)

Advertising is long past the Mad Men age of throwing an ad out there and seeing what sticks. The days of throwing spaghetti at the wall are over. Advertising can be a science, and nothing will help your prospects maintain their limited budget like keeping a close eye on the metrics.

But not just any metrics. The metrics that point to tangible business impact. Impressions and clicks are great, but return on ad spend (ROAS) is even better.

This is not the space to dive into the specifics of advertising metrics (though it is worth noting that media companies dependent on multichannel distribution, like SlingTV and NBCU, are developing unified cross-platform metrics).

We will dive into some high-level steps you and your prospects should take to ensure they get the best return on their ad dollars.

First, start by developing relevant metrics for each platform. What are they trying to accomplish on each channel, and which metrics will help them measure that?

Second, develop a means of comparing successes that otherwise may look like an apples-to-oranges scenario. Remember: Not all metrics are created equal. A video view on YouTube is measured differently than one on Facebook, meaning you can’t simply compare the two platforms to determine where video ad dollars should go.

Finally, look at what works and what doesn’t, and then adjust accordingly. No need to stick to PPC when that banner ad is returning twice the conversion for half the price. A true cross-platform advertising strategy is built on a foundation of constant iteration and optimization.

Looking for some inspiration?

Digital natives like Warby Parker and Casper are experts. While digital channels and PPC may be their lifeblood, direct-to-consumer brands have done their fair share of traditional advertising.

More recently, Airbnb shocked the advertising world when it announced it was focusing on brand marketing and not search—a focus that’s working.

Chief Financial Officer Dave Stephenson said, “Our brand marketing results are delivering excellent results overall with a strong rate of return, and it’s been so successful that we’re actually expanding to more countries.”

And now for the pun-of-all-puns we’ve been waiting for: With the right channels, content, and metrics in place, you can bring the heat. Sometimes advertisers feel like deciding on digital ads vs. traditional ads is an either/or situation. But, with the right elements in place, you can have your Russian Honey Cake and eat it too.

For more insights, sign up for MediaRadar’s blog here.

Its growth is far from surprising, given 85% of Internet users don’t see native advertising as an interruption, and two-thirds are more likely to click on sponsored content than banner ads.

Meanwhile, 68% of consumers trust native ads seen in an editorial context, compared to 55% for social media ads.

For publishers and their advertisers, it’s evident there is a perfect middle-ground that needs to be met when producing fair, clear, and engaging ads for consumers. 

That’s where well-done native advertising comes in.

In this guide, we walk through native advertising guidelines, best practices, and specific examples of native ads that work.

Native Advertising in Action: Guidelines & Best Practices

We know that audiences don’t like to be bombarded or interrupted by advertising.

Ad types like pop-ups and autoplay video ads, for example, have never been popular among consumers and are often considered “annoying” and “disruptive.” (Ads on streaming services are considered the most “annoying.”)

With the rise of native advertising, however, we now know that advertising can be too discreet.

Google loves native ads, but audiences don’t want to be duped into believing an ad is anything other than what it is.

To regulate this middle-ground, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released Native Advertising: A Guide for Business.

When considering native advertising, brands and publications should take the time to read through this guide from the Federal Trade Commission to ensure they meet standards.

According to the FTC, their job is to “ensure that long-standing consumer protection principles apply in the digital marketplace, including native advertising.”

In their native advertising guide, the FTC defines what they consider to be deception in advertising:

“Under the FTC Act, an act or practice is deceptive if there is a material misrepresentation or omission of information that is likely to mislead the consumer acting reasonably in the circumstances. A misrepresentation is material if it is likely to affect consumers’ choices or conduct regarding an advertised product or the advertising for the product.”

“A basic truth-in-advertising principle is that it’s deceptive to mislead consumers about the commercial nature of content. Advertisements or promotional messages are deceptive if they convey to consumers expressly or by implication that they’re independent, impartial, or from a source other than the sponsoring advertiser – in other words, that they’re something other than ads.”

Even though “Sponsored,” “Presented,” and “Promoted by” all technically mean the same thing, a big point in the FTC’s guide is for publishers to use consistent language across all of their native ads. The disclosure should be clear, consistent and front-and-center.

In other words, if a publisher uses the phrase “Sponsored by” in one ad spot, they should also use the same disclosure elsewhere.

To battle ad deception, the FTC runs through the language and layout of how publishers should disclose native ads. Within the rundown are ten ways for consumers to identify native advertising.

Below is a list of those six identifiers, with successful native advertising examples for each, so you can have an easier time spotting native ads and formulating your plan for sponsored content.

25 Unique Native Advertising Examples

A. “Ad” or “Advertisement” Tag

There’s no guessing with this one. Many native ads simply contain the word “Advertisement” or “Ad” to let consumers know what they’re looking at.

The FTC states within its Guide that “Disclosures must be understood.” This means that, aside from the ad itself, the label on the ad cannot be ambiguous.

1. The Oscars

The good news with the below native advertising example from The Oscars is that “Advertisement” is as understandable as possible.

As the FTC Guide says it should be, it is written in “plain language that is as straightforward as possible.”

2. Vuori

In Vuori’s native advertising example, “Advertisement” is clearly seen below the creative. It doesn’t interrupt the user experience but is still visible.

3. Holiday Inn

This native ad from Holiday Inn seamlessly blends into Hotels.com’s “look and feel.” But because “Ad” is included in the top-left corner, users know Holiday Inn paid Hotels.com for that placement.

4. Experian

This native ad from Experian on Cars.com points to an article titled, How You Could Find Your Same Auto Insurance Coverage. The ad, which falls between two organic articles, includes “Ad” in the top-right corner.

B. “Paid Advertisement”

If something is disclosed as “Paid,” that’s always a clear signal of it being an advertisement.

5. Chase

This native ad from Chase includes the disclosure “Paid Content From Chase.” This disclosure is specific, pointing directly to one of the innovative trends in native advertising and Chase as the one paying.

6. Siemens

This example of a native ad comes from Siemens. The ad, featured on Forbes, talks about how buildings can drive the energy transition.

Forbes includes “Paid Program” to let users know Siemens paid for the ad. That language is also on the landing page. (See below.)

C. “Sponsored Advertising Content”

While perhaps not as on-the-nose as “Advertising” or “Paid Content,” seeing that something is “Sponsored Content” points to the fact that the brand at hand has nothing to do with the creation of the content in which the ad sits.

7. Life Seasons

Acknowledging that it is a sponsor recognizes that the ad is simply allowed to sit alongside Amazon content without any inference of contributing otherwise.

8. Tourneau

By saying “Sponsored,” the native advertising example here shows that Tourneau paid to feature its content on Facebook.

9. Dick’s Sporting Goods

In this great native advertising example, Dick’s Sporting Goods delivered an ad on Google. The ad fits into the search experience, and by using “Sponsored,” consumers know Dick’s Sporting Goods paid Google for that placement.

10. Great Britain

While readers may feel duped at first because this example feels so much like a normal article from Expedia, the term “Sponsor Content” is all readers need to recognize that this is an ad, according to the FTC.

11. Coursera

This “Sponsored” native advertising example appeared in some users’ Facebook streams. Yes, Coursera wants readers to learn data analysis in part. But, more importantly, it wants them to sign up for the platform.

D. “Presented by”

Another phrase to look out for is “Presented by.”

This is the first of the “by” terms.

At first blush, “presented by” is synonymous with “promoted by” and “sponsored by;” however, it often carries a different connotation. These pieces will often have a focus more tangentially related to the brand, giving them more room for storytelling.

12. Dove

Dove ‘presented’ a story in The Telegraph’s Lifestyle section on professional golfer Lee Westwood’s parenting.

13. Circle

The ad was hosted on Reddit. The “Promoted” ad came from Circle, a company that “helps businesses and developers harness the power of digital currency stablecoins, like USDC, for payments and internet commerce.”

14. Nike

This SB Nation native advertising example is “Presented By” Nike. The video aims to follow six NFL stars returning to their high schools for summer football training.

15. Meta

The content below is “Presented By” Meta because the social giant wishes to attach its name to content published on Fast Company. Fast Company also includes “Paid Content” on the landing page.

E. “Promoted by”

The inclusion of the word “by” is a way for native advertisements to be a bit more specific and separate the advertising brand (like Geico) from the publisher (like Buzzfeed).

The FTC states that disclosing an ad as just “Promoted” or as “Promoted Stories” can imply to consumers that the publisher endorses the content.

Hypothetically, if the example ad here were only to say “Promoted,” one might think that Buzzfeed is endorsing content from Geico.

16. Product Marketing Alliance

This example from Product Marketing Alliance on LinkedIn falls directly into a user’s feed, similar to native content; however, it includes “Promoted” at the top to let them know it’s an ad.

17. Twitter Small Biz

In this case, Twitter Small Biz’s Tweet says “Promoted by,” indicating that Twitter doesn’t necessarily have to endorse the content, even though both Twitter Small Biz and Twitter are divisions of the same company. It’s somewhat confusing, but that’s what “promoted by” means.

18. Google AdWords

Similarly, this native advertising example on Twitter, surrounding the best SEM practices, is “Promoted by” Google AdWords. However, Twitter, the platform where the content is displayed, isn’t obligated to endorse the post.

19. Honda Fit

Another native advertising example featured on Buzzfeed (but not endorsed by the publisher) was “Promoted By” Honda.

The brand enticed readers with a list of cool vintage items but more discreetly advertised the roomy nature of its Honda Fit.

20. Volkswagen Canada

Once again, another brand (Volkswagen) uses the social media platform, Twitter, to drive users to its content hub.

F. “Sponsored by”

Content that is “Sponsored by” a brand is another way to identify a native advertisement. And as previously mentioned, this is synonymous with content that is “presented by” and “promoted by.” It’s simply a choice of language.

21. Lexus

In this native advertising example below, an article from Lexus is “Sponsored Content.” With B2B native advertising, these articles are often presented as think pieces.

22. The Craig School

Sponsored content can also be targeted with regional publications. For example, The Craig School bought a native ad on NJ.com to promote an article about the influence of flexible seating on achievement.

23. The Botanist

When a sponsored post is created with a publication’s creative team, the distinction between paid and unpaid content is blurred even further.

The piece on gin and tonics at Eater makes perfect sense for the publication. Without the disclaimer underneath (and clearly branded imagery), it wouldn’t even be classified as a native ad.

24. EcoWorld

Finally, taking this tack with native ads can make for a more elegant means of messaging.

National Geographic, for example, chooses to call this native ad article ‘partner content’ from developer EcoWorld.

The positioning clarifies that the publication and brand have shared values, creating a natural fit for native advertising.

25. Film Supply

Below is an example of a native ad from Film Supply.

The ad, which includes “Publishing Partner,” is delivered in tandem with other native content published on Ad Age.

Native Advertisements: More Than the Tag

The business guidelines from the top of this guide are a good starting point for how to tag native ads.

But successful native advertising isn’t only about following those guidelines. As the examples highlighted here show, native ads are about positioning brands where and when it makes sense with the publication.

At the same time, the lines between paid ads and original content are blurring — Google, for example, announced a change to its result page that will make ads blend in more.

Brands will do well to remember that successful native ads both blend in and add value. The combination is what makes a good fit.

For more insights, sign up for MediaRadar’s blog here.

If you’re nodding your head, you’ve participated in the market’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) segment. 

Warby Parker, the unicorn among unicorns for digitally native brands, ushered in DTC nearly a decade ago. Established brands like Nike have been catching up ever since, putting the customer experience in the spotlight and playing with their online stores to make buying as easy as possible. 

The reverberations of shifting customer expectations continue to be felt among digital natives and major retail brands alike—and the model’s growth across industries and markets is stratospheric.

In 2022, approximately 64% of consumers worldwide made regular purchases directly from brands. The DTC model is here to stay, and ad platforms will need to learn to keep up. 

But how have DTC disruptors changed advertising, and what’s most important for advertising in the DTC model?

This article dives into how DTC advertising differs from traditional advertising and which factors remain the same.

What’s a DTC Brand and What Do They Mean for Traditional Advertising? 

A DTC brand is any company that sells its products to consumers rather than going through a distribution channel or retail store. With that definition, DTC can take on many different forms. 

Digitally native brands like Allbirds, Away, Casper, and Dollar Shave Club are examples of B2B brands in their purest form. 

By definition, Uber is also DTC since consumers can simply press a button and their ride shows up. No intermediaries are involved. 

Sometimes, it’s new efforts put forward by industry giants, like Nike or Asics, trying to keep up with the times. Since 2011, Nike has grown DTC sales from 16% of revenue to 35%.

Other traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are also trying to break into DTC. Under Armour has expressed a desire to grow substantially in the channel, while Adidas outlined plans for DTC sales to make up 50% of its revenue by 2025.

Overall, DTC sales by established brands (like Nike) in the U.S. are expected to exceed $160b by 2024. Meanwhile, sales from digitally native DTC brands (like Allbirds) are expected to be near $62b.

In any case, brands bypass traditional sales models, and many are rethinking otherwise staid marketing strategies.

Much of this shift is due to the customer expectations that DTC brands, in turn, exhibit. 

In the Amazon age, brands expect direct connection, fast communication and clear expectations. At the same time, marketing and sales have become more experiential than transactional. DTC brands want to reach consumers directly rather than through publishers, retailers or advertising agencies. 

The response from major advertising platforms has been telling. Instagram, Facebook, and other major social platforms have become popular among DTC brands for their ease of use and reach. 

That said, times are changing.

Since Apple began asking users whether they’d allow their online activity to be tracked, only a small percentage have agreed, making it difficult for DTC brands historically thrived within social’s walls. 

According to Polly Wong, president of Belardi Wong, an agency whose client base is ~90% DTC brands, return on ad spend (ROAS) for its brands on Meta platforms (Instagram and Facebook) was down by 23% year over year in January 2022.

For DTC brands that rely on advertising, this doesn’t bode well. In its recent IPO, Allbirds said it spent more than $55mm in marketing-related expenses in 2020. 

Meanwhile, the same year, Casper spent more than $156.8mm on advertising. Finally,  Wayfair spent nearly $1.5b. 

Other platforms are evolving as well. For example, NBC Universal has tried to reach DTC advertisers by pulling them into their online channels. 

“NBCU is offering DTC brands complete campaign consultation, from audience connections and content creation to cross-platform measurement and placement optimization,” writes Jeanine Poggi at AdAge. 

Brands will also have access to in-house data and creative teams. The move makes it clear that DTC brands are cut from a different cloth regarding advertising.

What’s Important for DTC Ad Sales?

Just like DTC brands are using new advertising strategies and platforms are evolving to meet them, ad sales to these brands will have to take on a new form. 

Sales are no longer just sales; it’s the customer journey. Support is no longer just support; it’s the customer experience. Or so go the main tenets of the DTC model. Ad sales reps will do well to play into the DTC hand.

According to research from the MediaRadar, you can expect to find some (or all) of the following attributes in DTC brands:

• Mission-driven. Many DTC brands believe in the value they are offering their customers. Their message is not about the product only; it’s often just as focused on connection or experience. For example, Allbirds’ mission is to prove that comfort, good design, and sustainability don’t have to be mutually exclusive. As more consumers prioritize missions in their purchase decision, these companies will come to the forefront. 
• Younger customer segments. Since most DTC brands are digital natives, they focus on Millennials & Gen Z customer segments. For example, a DTC brand is likelier to advertise via Instagram or TikTok than HGTV. Young consumers will continue to drive DTC brands in 2023 and beyond.
• Brand authenticity. Customers tend to be invested in a DTC brand, meaning emotional marketing works better than other models. Spending for a customer support program may not top ad spend for DTC brands, but it could come close. In fact, 90% of Americans use customer service as a factor in deciding whether or not to do business with a company.
• Quality over price. Many DTC brands take the conversation surrounding benefits vs. features marketing seriously – and product price rarely factors into their marketing strategies.
• Product specialization. In contrast to major retailers or apparel brands, DTC brands tend to specialize in a single product – or highly defined set of products. The Casper catalog – which started as a mattress and now includes just a handful of sleepytime accouterment – is a good example of this focus.
• eCommerce sales. Most DTC brands are digital natives, with sales available only online – from platforms like Amazon to their own self-hosted stores. The same goes for most marketing efforts, focusing on digital channels like social and paid search. The rise of OTT, especially among younger generations, will push ad dollars to these new ecosystems. 
• It’s all about the data. DTC brands tend to be highly analytical – they rely on metrics to appeal to their customers, make their sales, and follow up with great messaging. Most of their sales and marketing efforts are aimed at making tweaks to optimize the funnel rather than to make a big splash. That said, the downfall of third-party cookies will put them in a pickle. They’ll need to quickly find advertising alternatives to drive a return. 

These are the highlights, but they’re not the only elements that make a DTC brand unique for advertising opportunities. 

Check out our follow-up to this piece and our comprehensive guide for more specific tips on selling advertising to a DTC brand.

For more insights, sign up for MediaRadar’s blog here.

Ad sales intelligence tools can pinpoint the right person to contact and craft the perfect pitch.

These digital tools will continue to offer sales reps a straight line to buyers—and that’s a good thing.

A McKinsey survey found that more than 75% of buyers and sellers prefer virtual sales meetings over face-to-face interactions.

That said, sellers shouldn’t discount the power of a good old-fashioned phone call.

Despite most prospects being fond of emails, only 8.5% of all outreach emails get a response.

The response rate of other digital channels isn’t always much better, especially given the volume of outreach the average buyer swims through daily.

In 2023 and beyond, a phone call will be a key cog in any well-oiled sales machine.

The problem: Most calls go unanswered.

The solution: Leave a voicemail that demands a return call.

Here are 6 tips for leaving effective sales voicemails this year.

1. Have a Verbal “Subject Line”

Much like an email subject line, give your prospect a reason to continue listening beyond your introduction.

When leaving a voicemail, it’s important to immediately present the value of your company to the prospect. Construct an opening talking point with the same intentions you would use to write an email subject line.

If you were emailing a prospect, would you include your name and company in the subject line?

Of course not.

It’s helpful to treat voicemails the same way. Make sure you hook the listener first.

Sales emails opener ideas

• Company research, i.e., “I saw your company recently did X.”
• Prospect pain point, i.e., “Are you experiencing X challenge?”
• Competitor insight, i.e., “Your competitor is doing X.”
• Strategic suggestions, “Have you considered X solution to improve your strategy?”

Relate to their needs from the start. Start with them. Wait to introduce yourself.

2. Avoid Information Overload

Information overload is real.

Like, very real. In fact, 80% of global workers experience information overload.

Therefore, avoiding giving your prospect too much information in your voicemail is very important.

If you’ve done the proper research during the prospecting stage, you should have a good idea of your prospect’s needs and how your product can help them.

Focus on a single subject or need, and speak directly about how you can solve it.

This is a way to be very specific, concise, and powerful.

In fact, keep your sales emails to around 30 seconds.

If you can get your point across clearly, and in less time than that, terrific, but try not to creep beyond that threshold. This is enough time to include essential information and make your message clear in the era of the 8-second attention span.

3. Be Personable

It’s important to take advantage of your ability to verbalize your message.

As we stated earlier, voicemails are like emails in the sense that, when constructed, they’re a one-sided affair – meaning, there’s no immediate conversation.

However, leaving a voicemail allows you to use the tone of your voice to be more personable. Take advantage of that.

If you possess a friendly, confident, and excited tone when leaving a voicemail, there’s a better chance that your prospect will remember your message. It’s one thing to relate to them on a business level, but it’s another thing to relate to them on a personal level.

That said, don’t open with, “Did I catch you at a bad time?”. It may seem personable, but it could decrease your success rate for booking a meeting by 40%.

4. Be Natural

This one is easier said than done, but it is extremely effective when done correctly.

You shouldn’t sound like a robot when leaving a voicemail, nor should you sound like you are reading from a script. You shouldn’t be overly pushy either, especially if you’re leaving a voicemail for the first or second time.

If your sales tactics are aggressive or pushy, you could drive 84% of buyers away.

The closer you are to sounding like yourself in your voicemail, the greater the chance your prospect calls you back.

If you sound like a robot, your prospect may assume that your pitch to them is the same pitch you give to everyone. You’ll get the same negative response that templated InMail messages receive on LinkedIn.

5. Have a Voicemail Ready for Every Call

In the current state of ad sales, avoiding “cookie-cutter” selling is essential. Your pitch should be different for every prospect; thus, your voicemails should differ for every call.

It might seem easier to prepare for individual conversations and have just a single voicemail as your fallback. Avoid that.

For every call, do the necessary research to build conversation talking points and a voicemail outline.

Just because there isn’t a person on the other end of the line doesn’t eliminate the need to personalize your message.

In the new age of ad sales, reps must take voicemails as seriously as they take emails, phone calls, or other forms of communication.

Impressing a prospect across multiple communication mediums could make all the difference in turning them into a client.

6. Don’t Give Up

Let’s be real: Most of your voicemails won’t get a response—and that’s ok. But don’t give up just because the prospect is giving you a proverbial “no.” In fact, 60% of customers will say no four times before they agree to a deal.

Keep this in mind if your prospects don’t call you back. They’re busy in their personal and professional lives, so getting to them may take a few tries.

That said, don’t sing the same tune each time. If you have to leave more than one sales email, craft a slightly different message each time—think of each voicemail as an opportunity to continue the story.

Each one should build off the next.

Leaving the Perfect Sales Voicemail

Just as sales reps are extremely busy, so are their contacts. This means that there will be plenty of times when the phone rings… And rings… And rings.

And no one answers.

Instead of looking at this moment as a missed opportunity, however, sales reps need to look at a voicemail simply as another chance to impress their prospect.

Many sales teachers focus heavily on saying the right things during a phone call. In many cases, voicemails are looked at as a more concise version of what the phone conversation would have been.

Preparing for a voicemail is actually a very different process, however, because it is, at the moment, a one-sided affair, like a presentation or an email.

While using the right research tools when planning your next voicemail is essential, it’s most important to use the right techniques to ensure your prospect feels the need to keep in touch.

For more insights, sign up for MediaRadar’s blog here.

It’s become widely popular for a variety of reasons, but one reigns supreme: consumers don’t really mind them.

While other ad formats can be jarring and intrusive, the natural feel of native ads makes them particularly appealing to consumers. In fact, 68% of consumers trust native ads in an editorial context, compared to 55% of ads across major social media platforms.

Native advertising’s surge has extended to offline environments as well. On top of the many formats of native advertising that appear online, we’ve seen native ads on the subway and at sporting events.

The main fact is, native advertising is weaving its way into every form of consumable content, online or offline.

In considering the upward trend of native advertising, let’s look at the unique innovation we’ve seen—and what we can look forward to in 2023 and beyond.

What’s Native Advertising?

Native advertising is paid content that matches the look and feel of the unique environment in which they’re delivered. Said another way, native ads feel natural and not jarring. Nearly every online ecosystem offers native ads, including social media and YouTube, but the ad formats are making their way offline as well as advertisers look to escape the crowded online world.

Key Trends Transforming Native Advertising

There’s an endless stream of innovation reshaping the way publishers and advertisers alike use native advertising. The essential ones to keep in mind, however, revolve around video, branded content studios, mobile, and the ever-increasing push into all things transparency.

1. Video

Video has become the trend within most other trends. As new forms of ad inventory become available and increasingly popular, i.e., TikTok and augmented reality, video often seems to push that new inventory to the forefront. Spending on video advertising will reach more than $210b this year.

While native ads made a name for themselves across the social media world (more on that below), the trend to look out for moving forward is how they’re weaved into other platforms, including YouTube and other video-sharing platforms.

Take augmented reality ads, for example. More and more advertisers are using these future-facing formats to naturally bring their brands to the forefront of these futuristic experiences.

Native video ads are also appearing on platforms like Twitch as advertisers look to capitalize on the explosive growth of gaming in recent years. Twitch could tout an 82% YoY growth rate at the height of the pandemic.

Of course, native video ad inventory on legacy platforms like YouTube and across publisher sites is still in play. But as advertisers look for new ways to delight consumers, they’ll be increasingly pushed to up-and-coming ecosystems.

2. Branded Content Studios

Publishers have long relied on content—think catchy taglines and downloadable whitepapers.

That said, content has been spreading its wings through branded content studios.

Why? Two reasons:

1. Declining ad revenue: Publications are struggling with declining ad revenue as Google, Apple, and others alter their approach to data.
2. The demise of third-party cookies: Advertisers are trying to figure out how to deliver impactful campaigns without third-party cookies.

These forcing functions are pushing branded content to prominence and making them an increasingly appealing native advertising option for brands.

For publishers, it gives them an extra revenue stream. For brands, it gives them a seamless way to insert their brand in tandem with relevant content on some of the world’s biggest publications.

For example, Fast Company published a video and article showing how Pzifer uses data, AI and ML technology to increase innovation. 

Example of branded content studios:

• The Trust  
• FastCo. Works 
• The Business Journals Content Studio 
• Bloomberg Media Group 
• Forbes Content & Design Studio 

As long as consumers are fond of native ads—75% of consumers trust content and recommendations seen in an editorial environment—branded content studios will thrive.

3. Mobile & In-app

In Q4 2022, mobile devices accounted for nearly 60% of global website traffic, but that’s not surprising, given that 6.8b people own a smartphone worldwide.

There’s been a heightened focus on mobile in recent years for advertisers, and native advertising is no different. Both mobile and native continue to grow and continue to better engage viewers.

Vertical video, a major mobile advertising trend, has become an important native advertising format, as well. The continued rise of vertical video comes as advertisers look to maximize the real estate on mobile devices and deliver ads in a natural way (most people hold their phones vertically).

Native ads have also made their way to mobile apps. That’s far from a surprise, either. The global mobile app market was worth $206.85b in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.8% between now and 2030.

App or no app, most publishers offering mobile content have added native to their inventory.

In-app native ads come in many forms. From the simple style of Facebook’s social media feed, to fun Snapchat filters, to Spotify display ads, the native advertising present within apps versus other media is perhaps the most innovative.

4. Ad Transparency

Native advertising has played an interesting part in the discussion surrounding transparency.

While native advertising tends to better engage the audience, anyone that feels duped by an advertisement will certainly not have a good affiliation with that brand. That “duped” feeling has been a core driver behind the GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy-focused initiatives to protect consumers from rogue ads.

That’s why the FTC has specific laws in place, requiring native advertisers to let viewers know that they are, in fact, looking at an advertisement. While that is obviously fair and necessary, more than anything, native advertising keeps the conversation of transparency moving in the right direction.

With such innovative ways of living within content, native advertising can never be too native, which is the general point.

This is a major point of innovation. Native advertising allows brands to live within content without disrupting the consumer’s experience.

At the same time, each consumer is fully aware that what they’re looking at is an ad. That is an impressive level of integration paired with a high level of transparency that will continue to make native ads a roaring success.

No, We Didn’t Forget Social Media

Native ads are synonymous with social media—as they should be. Facebook, Snap, Instagram, and Twitter have all made a concerted effort over the years to deliver ad experiences that “match” their unique environments. TikTok has done the same since bursting on the scene during the pandemic.

Native ads will always have a place inside social’s walls, especially on platforms popular with younger generations, like TikTok and Instagram. That said, their reign as the top dog appears to be over.

A study found that 21% of consumers plan to spend less time on social media, pointing to a growing preference for editorial-based and native experiences.

Advertisers are also waking up to the idea that native ads are simply more impactful elsewhere. In fact, native ads are 62% easier to understand than display and 31% easier to understand than ads on social.

Still, as long as social media users become attached and engaged with their feeds, these digital giants will remain at the heart of the native advertising evolution.

For more insights, sign up for MediaRadar’s blog here.

Between some of the major entertainment mergers and media distributors launching their own streaming platforms, the shape of streaming TV is set up for some big changes in the near future. Who owns what will affect where people can watch what they want — and how advertisers can best reach them.

Disney+ Undercuts Netflix With an Impressive Catalog of Content

Disney+ was announced more than six months ago, but the buzz surrounding the new streaming platform hasn’t really died down. Adding to the anticipation is the announcement that Disney+ will be just $6.99 per month, undercutting Netflix (which is now $12.99 for the standard plan). The platform will launch in November; consumers and advertisers are both counting down the days.

Disney’s acquisition of most of Fox laid the foundation for this streaming service. “We can see what Disney’s ambition is with this $71 billion move: they want more of a buffet-style lineup that appeals to multiple demographics and holds name brand power,” writes Brandon Katz at The Observer. It’s a buffet-style lineup that will work perfectly with a streaming platform.

Business Insider outlines all of the major franchises and content that Disney owns after the Fox deal. From Pixar movies and Disney’s live-action remakes, to less family friendly favorites like Die Hard and Deadpool – it’s an impressive array.

To maintain its image while continuing to produce more mature feature films, Disney will most likely feature its branded content on Disney+ while pushing Fox content to Hulu. The diverse content will also mean Disney can rake in the advertising dollars on multiple platforms.

Netflix is Facing More Competition Than Ever Before

Netflix isn’t going anywhere. But with the streaming wars well underway, some of the most popular content on Netflix is under threat of being removed from the platform as the content owners become Netflix competitors.

Netflix faced fan backlash after announcing that the hit show Friends would be removed from the platform — AT&T was the new owner after purchasing Time Warner, and had its own streaming plans. After the social media response, Netflix negotiated a $100 million deal with AT&T to keep the show up through 2019.

What happens at the end of this year remains to be seen. Even if they do successfully keep Friends through 2020, Netflix will have another problem in 2021 when its licensing of The Office expires. The Office is Netflix’s #1 show by the number of hours streamed. But since it’s an NBC show, Comcast owns The Office and will be launching its own streaming platform shortly, setting up another headache for Netflix.

And for a future conversation: Netflix will have to face the challenge of competing with major platforms that have the distinct advantage of bringing in ad revenue.

Media Landscape in 2019: Larger Players With More to Offer

In their article for Vox, Rani Molla and Peter Kafka write on the increasingly blurred lines between distribution, content and streaming services. “The media landscape used to be straightforward: Content companies made stuff — TV shows and movies — and sold it to pay TV distributors, who sold it to consumers.” Now, everything’s up for grabs.

Netflix buys content and produces its own. Comcast, a distributor, will soon offer streaming, as will Disney, a content creator. The Vox article lays out the current state of the media landscape. “We’ve created a diagram that organizes distributors, content companies and internet video companies by market cap — the value investors assign to the companies — and their main lines of business,” the authors write.  

But more telling than the shape of the media landscape in this graphic is what Molla and Kafka write at the very beginning of their article: “It probably won’t look like this for long.”

For starters, when Disney bought most of Fox they also took over a majority control of Hulu. With rumors that Comcast may sell their 30 percent share to Disney and Hulu hanging onto its 10 percent stake it bought from AT&T, ownership of one of the biggest streaming platforms looks much different today than it did even a year ago.

With Hulu stakes changing hands left and right, Verizon building its own offerings and CBS making a foray into streaming video, many of these circles will grow or shrink. At the same time, Comca st and Disney will soon add a shade to their own pies as they add their streaming offerings.

It’s clear many of these brands are already disruptors, but the proof is in the pudding. This week, MediaRadar identified the top five DTC brands by ad spend over the past 15 months:

• SmileDirectClub
• Peloton
• Leesa Sleep
• 23andMe
• Stitch Fix

Collectively, these DTC brands spent $650 million from January 2018 to March 2019.

Equal parts surprising and unsurprising is that all but one of these top five DTC advertisers put the majority of their budget to TV (Stitch Fix’s largest portion went to digital efforts).

The disproportionate growth in TV spend is surprising given our past research on DTC brands as natives of the digital world. But it’s unsurprising given that, as a segment, DTC is starting to include TV in its marketing mix. These major spenders reflect that shift.

In fact, TV advertising for DTC brands has doubled in the past three years. DTC brands are increasingly turning to TV and other more traditional advertising methods as their reach hits a wall for digital programmatic advertising. “It’s a natural move for the growing brands which, in their quest for larger audiences, are finding it too expensive to rely solely on the social channels they used to build their businesses,” writes Caroline Cakebread at eMarketer.

SmileDirectClub: Over $100 million

SmileDirectClub offers a DTC alternative to transparent aligners (or Invisalign, for the generic version). From interviewing young adults about the horrors of childhood braces to addressing the confidence you feel from a great smile, the brand has its bases covered when it comes to appeal.

The increased spending over the past year is certainly warranted. Diana Pearl at AdWeek reports that SmileDirectClub hit a milestone of 500,000 customers and has over 200 retail locations (where customers can get their teeth scanned for the product). “They’ve found a nice way through logos, names and colors to make their product very relevant and appealing to the masses, removing any of the scaries that are associated with the traditional orthodontist,” says  Ryan Goff, CMO of marketing agency MGH, in the AdWeek article.

Peloton: Over $100 million

Exercise-oriented DTC brand Peloton has built its customer base by offering both a stationary bike and access to training videos to go with it for a monthly, APR-free fee. “Game-changing cardio comes home,” reads the catchphrase.

Peloton spent 5 percent of the total TV ad spend in the DTC group in 2018. A big portion of that was a 6 month TV campaign aimed at expanding to new markets. Our challenge was, how can we demonstrate what Peloton is in a way that feels authentic and gets across the message about Peloton and how it works, while maintaining the energy we think the product delivers and the brand has,” says Kevin Cornils, managing director for international at Peloton.

Leesa Sleep: Under $100 million

Casper’s largest competitor spent most of its advertising dollars, unsurprisingly, on TV spots. Leesa Sleep faced a relatively crowded market for DTC, shippable mattresses and tried to stand out from the crowd by sheer volume.

They have 26 nationally aired TV campaigns, and their ads have aired over a thousand times in the past thirty days. The ‘A Better Place to Sleep’ campaign takes the tone of a traditional TV ad, positioning both the brand’s product and service, directing viewers to the Leesa website.

Most of the brand’s messaging has actually avoided building up the brand itself, according to CEO David Wolfe. Instead, Leesa Sleep has focused on the consumer need. “You may not get as many leads, you may not get as many likes on Facebook. You may not get as many, as many visitors to your website,” Wolfe told ReEngager in a podcast. “But you’re going to get an incredible conversion rate if you get it right, and it’s going to cost you a lot less.”

23andMe: Under $100 million

The gene testing company launched its first national TV campaign nearly six years ago, but their ad spending has not slowed.

With its ‘Meet Your Genes’ campaign, 23andMe built on top of its brand awareness as heritage test to offer new value to consumers. The campaign highlights some of the individual ‘personalities’ of our genetic makeup, for a lighthearted take on the ability to test for predisposition to celiac disease, sleep disorders and more.

Stitch Fix: Over $50 million

The only exception to the TV ad spend rule in this cohort, Stitch Fix allocated the majority of its $50 million budget to digital advertising.

But even with most of the ad spend going to digital, the brand didn’t completely buck the trend. More recently, Stitch Fix debuted a 60-second ad ahead of the 2019 Oscars on ABC. The TV spot struck a different note; past ads have primarily been “an explanation of what the brand does,” according to Adrianne Pasquarelli at AdAge. “In contrast, the new campaign is more emotional and designed to build brand love and affinity.”

As consumers become increasingly accustomed to the DTC model, this may become the more popular touch.

This week, luxury group LVMH sets its sights on luxury real estate with the acquisition of Belmond Group, PepsiCo expands its sports nutrition offerings with the purchase of CytoSport, and AT&T’s WarnerMedia sells its stake of Hulu to allow the parent company to focus on building its own streaming platform.

#1: LVMH Expands Real Estate With Belmond Group

Luxury group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton completed its acquisition of Belmond Ltd. The deal will add to LVMH’s existing hotel portfolio, which already includes the Cheval Blanc hotels and the Bulgari Hotel and Resorts chain. The Belmond purchase adds over 40 luxury hotels, restaurants, trains and cruise properties to the portfolio and is worth an estimated $3.2 billion.

#2: PepsiCo Complements Sports Nutrition With CytoSport Buyout

PepsiCo has officially acquired CytoSport, the manufacturer of protein-enhanced powers, shakes and bars. CytoSport is a sports nutrition company best known for its Muscle Milk and Evolve brands. The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions taking place under PepsiCo’s corporate “Performance with Purpose” campaign encouraging health and wellness. In this era of decreasing soft drink sales, CytoSport will serve to strengthen Pepsi’s nutrition portfolio.

#3: AT&T Goes All-in On Its Own Streaming Platform

AT&T’s WarnerMedia sold its 9.5% stake in video streaming service provider Hulu LLC for $1.43 billion. At the beginning of the year, Hulu was owned by four major media companies — Disney, 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal and AT&T. Now, the $15 billion platform is owned by Disney and NBCUniversal after this deal and Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox last month. How Hulu will allocate the 9.5% stake will be determined in the coming weeks.

Although AT&T sold this stake to its competitors, the move also positions AT&T to focus on the launch of its own streaming platform later this year.

In Other News

Smith & Nephew bought biomedical company Osiris Therapeutics to support its burgeoning wound management franchise, Variant Equity bought Coach USA (and its Canadian affiliate), and Vimeo announced its planned acquisition of video creation service provider Magisto.

In one of the biggest deals in the energy sector, Chevron Corporation announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Anadarko Petroleum Corporation for $33 billion.

Meanwhile, antitrust officials at the Department of Justice have expressed concerns about the proposed Sprint and T-Mobile merger.