Dive summary:
- Content syndication platforms like Outbrain and Taboola say there is a growing trend of brands buying their services to drive traffic to positive press they have already received.
- For example, McDonald's recently bought ads from Outbrain to drive traffic to a Huffington Post article that called their Fish McBites "delightful."
- While the majority of ads that Outbrain and Taboola sell are still to brand-created content, both companies say they are seeing an increase in "amplification" of third-party content.
From the article:
"Major brands have been creating content themselves for years, of course, and pushing it out for free on social networks or paying for links to it on publisher sites using networks like Outbrain’s. But the advantage of driving traffic to a recognized publisher’s site is the credibility that the publisher brings to the content. Users are more likely to be influenced by a New York Times review of a company’s product than by a blog post written by the company itself, the thinking goes."
