Dive Brief:
- CNN has become the latest publisher to open an in-house studio to build ad content.
- Dubbed "Courageous," the studio team will create editorial-like ad content for advertisers that will span across all of CNN's properties including TV, Web and even new media like Snapchat.
- Dan Riess, executive vice president of integrated marketing and branded content at CNN parent company Turner, told the Wall Street Journal that CNN's trustworthiness would make it attractive to advertisers: “This is CNN. We’re not here to blur the lines.”
Dive Insight:
CNN joins a long list of media companies and publishers that have taken native ad content into their own hands to both boost revenue and deliver a high quality ad product for marketers. Other major publishers to offer in-house ad content services include CBS, Huffington Post and New York Times.
The goal at CNN is to work more closely with companies and highlight items that carry news value. “This is about telling advertisers’ stories -- telling similar stories but clearly labeling that and differentiating that," Riess said.
As native ad continues to grow in significance -- Yahoo reported a mobile native ads were performing three times better than the standard -- more publishers will likely join the ranks.
