All the buzz these days is about native advertising -- aka sponsored content. It appears that marketers have finally caught up with the fact that most of the people clicking on their boxes and banners are actually bots who aren't buying anything.
Waitrose, a British supermarket
chain has announced that they are not only shifting their marketing effort away
from paid to free content, they are also seeking to inspire rather than
sell. They believe that advertising in
general is changing to help people make better choices and be inspiring. Therefore they will be investing heavily in
their weekly newspaper and online tv service.
(Vizard, 2014)
It's an interesting approach,
but at the end of the day, they still need to sell stuff to stay in
business. So what do you think? Will this work? Is it the beginning of a trend?
Vizard, S. (2014, March 27) Waitrose ups content investment as it shifts focus to 'accessible and free' marketing. marketingweek.com Retrieved March 28, 2014, from http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/sectors/retail/waitrose-ups-content-investment-as-it-shifts-focus-to-accessible-and-free-marketing/4009898.article
