Enhancing brand impact with native advertising

Written by Ville Veikkolainen

Updated September 10, 2024

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In the fast-evolving world of digital advertising, marketers are constantly seeking innovative ways to capture consumer attention and build lasting brand connections. OMD Denmark, in partnership with a leading FMCG chain, set out to explore the comparative effectiveness of native advertising vs. display ads. This case study presents the findings of a well-executed campaign that aimed to validate the impact of native advertising in enhancing brand prominence, engagement, and communication efficiency.

With traditional display ads facing challenges in terms of engagement, the campaign’s goal was to test the hypothesis that native advertising would outperform standard display ads in maintaining customer attention and driving meaningful brand lift.

This analysis delves into the campaign design, execution, and results, shedding light on how native advertising can offer superior brand engagement and outperform display ads in key metrics like ad recall, top-of-mind awareness, and unaided brand recognition.

By comparing native advertising vs. display ads, this case highlights why native advertising has emerged as an effective tool in the digital marketing toolbox.

Hypothesis to execution

Previous native advertising campaigns and tests have established that customer flows, price per customer, and ROI are highly attractive when native advertising is deployed. 

This coupled with the fact that Native Advertising can significantly drive more clicks/traffic than standard display advertising and that the quality of the traffic generated is significantly better than standard display advertising, leads to the hypothesis that Native advertising can also serve as a medium to maintain or even strengthen the client in more typical brand lift metrics.

Campaign design

• Client: A well-known FMCG chain, one of the largest in Denmark.
• Objective: To validate the hypothesis that native advertising can enhance brand consciousness and showcase the promotion effect of native ads in comparionson to standard display ads.
• Control Setup: Managed by Norstat, the study included a minimum of 333 respondents per group across three segments: Display group, native group, and control group.
• Budget: Approximately 500,000 DKK.
• Media channels and formats: Utilized programmatic display and programmatic native across standard display and native ad formats.

Key performance indicators

• Reach/frequency
• Brand lift (including Ad Recall, Top of Mind, Unaided Awareness, and Favourability)

Purpose
The campaign aimed to illuminate the comparative effectiveness of native advertising against standard display advertising, focusing on brand engagement metrics.

Execution
The campaign strategically deployed both native and display ads, measuring their impact through rigorous audience analysis. This approach allowed OMD Denmark to directly compare the performance of each format in real-time, underpinned by data-driven insights.

Results and impact

The results underscored the efficacy of native advertising:

• Ad recall: Native ads outperformed display ads significantly in ad recall, ensuring that the brand remained memorable among consumers, with a 20% better ad recall.
• Top of mind: Native advertising was 30% more effective in keeping the client top of mind.
• Unaided awareness: Achieved a 5% higher score in driving unaided brand awareness compared to display ads.
• Favourability: Both formats showed positive and equal impacts on brand favourability.

Conclusion

This campaign illustrates the effectiveness of native advertising in boosting both brand awareness and engagement. Native ads outperformed display ads in key brand metrics, showing their value for top and middle-funnel marketing. In other words, native advertising is a ‘one-stop shop’ for top and mid-funnel marketing. Using the Readpeak platform made deployment and optimization straightforward, allowing for quick, data-driven adjustments. Native advertising proved to be a strong tool for driving quality traffic and enhancing brand retention.