Sponsored content: to blend or not to blend. Part 1

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc. / LMMiami.com

• I was browsing through the pages of a recent issue of Fortune magazine (a paper copy, yes, they still print a few every month) and I counted 13 pages of sponsored content versus 13 pages of good ol’ ads.
• I noticed the difference immediately, of course.
• I have the trained eye of an advertising professional.
• The graphic design in “sponsored content” insertions tends to be slightly more flat-footed, if you will, than that of their editorial surroundings.
• The prose is a bit stilted.
• Mind you,  I seriously doubt that most casual readers can tell the difference, unless they see the tiny fine print on the header disclaiming the fact that what they are consuming is “sponsored content” (or any other of the murky, misleading monikers we’ve coined for this type of stealth advertising).
• Should advertising blend in?
• Or should it stand out?
• For centuries, if not millennia, the conundrum of advertising has been how to calibrate a kosher level of integration with its vehicles and surroundings.
• Let’s not forget that most people hate ads.
• Most folks consider ads an intrusion (ad blockers anyone?).
• Advertising that makes itself way too visible might only alienate its desired audience.
• Or go unnoticed altogether.
• Like junk mail.
• AKA the reason most apartment buildings have a big fat trash can in their mailrooms: a cemetery for coupons.
• After having been exposed to so much advertising throughout our lifetimes our brains are wired to tune it out by default.
• However, there’s the so-called Baader-Meinhof phenomenon or ‘frequency illusion’, a cognitive bias our mind creates when, for instance, you find out that your car lease is about to expire: all of a sudden you start feeling you’re being constantly bombarded by auto ads, they seem to pop up everywhere.
• You thought it was just modern retargeting breaching your privacy, huh?
• Well, in part it is but your brain is greatly responsible too.
• Your gray matter has a mind of its own, you know.
• It is doing your homework for you.
• It is safe to say then that, if you are NOT shopping for a new car, auto ads are an annoying intrusion your mind ignores, whereas if you are indeed looking, auto ads become prominent and even welcomed in your sensory field.
• As the saying goes: del amor al odio hay un solo paso (there’s just one step between love and hate).
• Oddly enough, a good ad, in the broadest definition of the word, has the ability to both blend in AND stand out.
• It just has to be crafted and targeted properly.
• To be continued next week.